Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 150: December Camp

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

Berhalter called in a young group of domestic players for a December national team camp, but no, it's not an Olympic camp, says Greg. This is just the new normal. The USMNT is young.Thank you to our supporters on Patreon. Exclusive video and some other minor perks are available, if you want them, at patreon.com/scuffedpod 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. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and welcome to the holiday season. We got another national team camp. Actually happening right now. What's up, Greg? What's Adam Bell? Nice little stocking stuffer. Yeah. A collection of domestic players has convened in Fort Lauderdale and it skews young. They play El Salvador on Wednesday, December 9th. which is a week from today. Should be fun. Let's try to work out what the point of this camp is

and then maybe name a couple of starting 11s. We haven't even decided if we're going to do that yet or not. We might do it early next week. We'll see. All right. I might smuggle some starting 11 teasers into the roster discussion right away. Stocking stuffers galore.

I've barely finished watching the Panama game for the fifth or sixth time, and we're already into El Salvador. we should mention that Raina, McKenny, Pulisic, and Dest are all starting in Champions League right now. And by half time, we'll be at about 1,200 minutes as a nation in UEFA Champions League, which is just about 250 minutes short of the all-time record set in 2012-13. And the group stage isn't even done yet. And all those four guys are going to go through.

No room left in these stocking spells. This is too many. Too many stocking stuffers. All these four are going to go into the knockout round, regardless of what happens on match day six next week. Chris Richards will, who is as well, and he is surprisingly making a contribution to these minutes counts. And then... Zach Stefan's in, and I believe by Champions League tiebreaker math, I think Man City have already won the group, even though they're only three points up on Porto. So it wouldn't surprise me to all if Stefan gets the last match, knowing that they can't

can't fall the second place in the group. I see. Yeah. I mean, this similar situation with Richards because they play locomotive Moscow. And I know I'm not pronouncing that right. I'm sure I'm not pronouncing that right. But they play them next week and Byron's like eight points clear in their group. So maybe Richards gets a start on the last match day of the group stage.

And it's possible, you know, depending on what happens with Manchester City. I mean, Manchester United and PSG, it's possible that Tyler Adeline. we'll make it into the knockout round too. So lots to be excited about what a weird, how weird it is to have all this going on at the same time. El Salvador, the headline of all this is El Salvador. The headlines El Salvador. El Salvador and this domestic roster. Should we run through it real quick?

Yeah, let's do the, let's do position groups this time around. Goalkeepers, Bill Hamid, C.J. Dos Santos and David Ochoa. Defenders are Aaron Long, Walker Zimmerman, Mark McKenzie, Vines. I forget Vines his first name. What a horrible. I think it's Samuel. Sam Wise.

Sam Wise. Sam Wines. Sam Vines. Julian Arahu. Kyle Duncan, Maricio Pineda, and Marco Farfan. So can I just start to smuggling my 11 in now? Because I don't have a set. I don't have like a set lineup that we definitely need to see.

but I feel like if we're talking about this group of defenders, I doubt we see Long and Zimmerman start together the way they did in January. I feel like it's going to be one of those two and then one of the new guys, whether that's McKinsey or Panetta, because I think the idea is McKinsey and Panetta are different kinds of centerbacks, more in the distributor mode than either Longer Zimmerman. So I'm guessing that we see one of the elder statesmen and then one of these new kids, and my money would be on McKenzie,

and one of Long and Zimmerman, don't care who. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Zimmerman's kind of a would-be distributor, but he doesn't, he's not quite able to pull it off a lot. Yeah, that makes sense. So in the midfield, Sebastian Leggett, Brendan Aronson, Cawatt, Kellyn Acosta. And then Andres Perea, Frankie Amaya, was going to be in the camp, but he got pulled out because of COVID. and then we break it down this way, although Greg Burlhalter does not.

Whoa, whoa, well, you can't just skip my smuggled starting 11 in here. Okay, smuggle again. I also wanted to talk about Kellan Acosta because, I mean, obviously we are deep in the weeds of the player pool here. If you think about who's not available because of playing in Europe and who's not available because they're still alive in the playoffs and who's not available for a host of other reasons that we'll get into in a second. but it's still interesting that Kelan Acosta is here over some other players who Burrhalter has called up in the past and I wonder if it goes back to this change in sort of style

especially defensively where we need more ground covering center mids and we talked about this after the February friendly way back when that if this is what he's going to change to that could really alter the depth chart in these areas and so we might be seeing a little bit of that now with the with the Kalan Acosta and even with the Frankie a Maya picks because those guys might fit a little bit better with this new defensive pressing style. Yeah, that makes sense, and I hadn't thought of it. So Acosta doesn't fit the old way of Burrhalter, but he may fit this new way.

In this new dawn, do you have a midfield trio that you're expecting? Oh, did you say Jackson Ewells joining the camp? I didn't. Is that official? Burrhalter said it in the press conference, said, you, was on his way, was going through some special San Jose COVID protocols, I believe. But I think he's arrived today, probably as we've been talking. Yeah, Burhalter held a press conference at 7 p.m. Eastern, 6 p.m. Central time last night,

which is the absolute worst time for both of us to do anything because we have small children. Let's go to the wings. Aureola, Paul Aureola is back from injury. Georgi Mahaolovich, Chris Mueller. and Ephraine Alvarez. And then the forwards are Darryl Dike and Ayokinola. A lot of dual nationals in this camp. I think maybe you had something to say about that later.

Let me just let me say something else that you have already said, which is, and I don't know if you still stand by this, but you said this at one point privately, that this camp is really about Daryl Dike and Mark McKenzie. Maybe Pineda is right there with McKenzie. I don't know. I kind of doubt it. So those two guys have a chance to really help the senior national team, I think, in positions of need very soon.

I know Brendan Aronson sort of has a shout there, too. I don't see him unseating our midfielders right now. Right. That's really what it comes down to is forward and that right center back spot seem to be the most up in the air. And you could maybe say left back as well, but we have a lot of different solutions for left back, I feel like. So I agree. This one was very much for the D.K. and McKenzie experiment. So I'm glad both guys are there.

I'm hoping to see both of them in the 11. And I'm hoping that, I'm hoping that McKenzie just shreds the lines with his passing. And I'm hoping that D.K. Absolutely, like, makes El Salvador his play things. Yeah. I wonder what you were going to say when you said makes El Salvador his. Play things was nice.

Because this is something I've been tracking as well. well and Bob Morocco pointed out on Twitter a couple of days ago is that D-K is massively outperforming his expected goals through this MLS season and there's got to be like some real concern or real like no one has really tried to explain it I don't think or why he would be able to do that and it wouldn't be an issue going forward so I just kind of want to throw that out there I'd been noticing how low they were when I was tracking the numbers in my efforts to defend Josie Altador's honor because Altador's expected values are pretty high compared to his actual output this season, which has been abysmal.

So, you know, it definitely stands out that D-K is at like 0.4 expected goals plus expected assist per 90, whereas his actual output is like 0.7.8. So he's basically like doubling what you'd expect him to do and trying to figure out if there's a reason for that. And this camp for me is going to be like, okay, is he, are the expected numbers somehow misrepresenting what he can do as a player or are his actual outputs misrepresentative? So that's, I'm just really curious.

Yeah. I mean, maybe he's just a really good shooter. Maybe. But those tend not to exist in, outside of like the top eight players in the world. Yeah. I mean, he does, he does hit the ball very well. I mean, that's for sure. I don't know.

I don't know what, I don't know what that, what's going on with that. Yeah, let's go through. I mean, we kind of did just go through the lineup, but a couple of things I think worth mentioning. Hamid, you know, he gave up a lot of goal. He had that sort of adventure in Denmark that didn't go so well, came back to D.C. United. He was the starting goalkeeper for them this year.

He gave up a lot of goals, but I don't know that we can blame him for that. Where does Hamid fit into the national team picture for you? He might not. He's basically, I think, here because most of the other options are indisposed one way or the other. So I don't know. I mean, he's a guy who will fill in in camps where we have no one else. He could easily get minutes this summer when we have so many competitions going on at once.

But even then, I imagine he's going to end up filling into a backup role in a camp. I wouldn't be surprised if he me does not rack up 90 minutes over the next calendar year. I know that's kind of harsh, but he hasn't been sharp. shot stopping, which was, you know, his strength in the past. And this hasn't been a great season for him shot stopping wise. So, you know, I think he's probably been passed by several players. Okay. Dos Santos has been riding the bench in the Portuguese second division.

It's long been a part of the youth setup. And then a Choa. So I don't know, there's some rumors that Dos Santos is going to come back to the, to less maybe i don't know uh-huh uh-huh was out in the cold for much of the the season at rsl maybe he had an injury i don't know that that was ever made public but he didn't play a lot until the very end of the season he got his only start in sort of a snow classical against sporting kc was somewhat at fault for both goals and a two-zero loss but it was very snowy so it's kind of hard to blame him too much like he came out he came out for a through ball that sort

have died in the snow before he got to him and then he got and then he got rounded by hertado for the second goal. It's kind of, I feel like you can sort of just throw that away as an example of anything. So why did I even mention it? I don't know. You just want to show off your encyclopedic knowledge of Ochoa's reps. He's a big favorite of mine because he's good with the ball at his feet. So we'll see what, what happens. Like you said earlier, Long and Zimmerman are just kind of baseline centerbacks for the national team. And the question is, can McKenzie be better than, well, I don't know if that's even the question.

It's a question sort of big picture is can McKenzie be better than those guys? I'm not sure. I'm not sure he can right now? For me, can he be different? Can he be so different that his strength in that one particular area covers up if any weaknesses he might have in a relative sense? And I don't know that he has those, but we are going to control possession against a lot of teams in World Cup qualifying, can we get a player who maximizes that possession? And is McKenzie one of those guys?

He is sort of, I mean, in very loose terms, he's a like-for-like replacement with Brooks, right? I mean, he's not as good as Brooks, but he's a little bit more of a distributor and a little bit less reliable defensively than, say, in Aaron Long, right? I honestly don't know. I'm not sure if McKenzie is somehow more of a deal. defensive liability, but I do think he's ahead of Long or Zimmerman in his distribution. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. And then we can say this. We can say the same for Paneda when we get to him. So let's just say that we just got to him. Okay. There we go. Paneda taken care of. Used to be, Panetta has played some defensive midfield.

He's not, he's now pretty much a center back for the Chicago fire. Vines, Samwise Vines is a solid player. Does he have a shot at B? beating out Anthony Robinson and becoming a national team regular, you know, check back in. We'll have to see. He was very comfortable, I think, in the friendly that he played in back in February against Costa Rica. He wasn't really asked to do much heavy lifting in any sense. So it was sort of a good game to sort of put him in and just be like, hey, just don't make any big mistakes.

Give the ball to the players around you and you're fine. and that's basically what he did. That's not a terrible thing. If we can get another performance like that out of him, that would go a decent way towards securing him minutes this summer. He's a good athlete. He's tough. And he's, you know, he's like good in a,

he's a pretty good defender. He's just, I guess his limitations come when he gets into the attacking 30s is not super dangerous. Is that fair? Yeah, and he's not going to be super dangerous. I mean, in the way, when you think about Anthony, Robinson and what he offers when he does go forward vines is not going to be that kind of a threat i don't i don't think i think that's safe to say so uh it really is just a matter of can he do a passable job

without screwing up and then if if he can where does that put him in our depth chart because that can be enough in some positions yeah okay next up is julia narahou big potential at right back and we definitely want him in the fold because he's still very young I would say he has struggled with discipline a little bit for the Galaxy. He racks up the yellow cards and I think got sent off recently, like towards the end of the season. And he also just plays for a really, what has been a really bad team this season, the Galaxy. Yeah, this is another one where it's just like, the theme of this camp, I feel like, is just a nice little meet and greet for a lot of these young players. another like what 11 uncapped guys uh almost every 15 Olympic eligible so it's just another

chance to bring Arahu in he's not doing anything else and yeah we don't know how what his ceiling will be so that's that's really just it's a manufactured camp and that it's exactly it exists solely for players like Arajo to uh just get comfortable with the national team set up yeah and it you know it's fun to watch him play like I love that there's going to be a game I think we all do. Duncan, Kyle Duncan is, you know, right back for the Red Bulls. Seems like he'll be on the fringes of the national team for a long time. He's just kind of like, like you said, meet and greet for a lot of these young guys.

He's Olympic eligible too, right? Yep. And then Marco Farfon, I do not rate this player at all. But, you know, maybe he's improved. Maybe he's quietly been improving at Portland. and he does play left back nominally. Yeah, I think Farfan is honestly like the guy who is like the sole Olympic and Olympic at best sort of qualifying call-up. Like maybe we'll need him for Olympic qualifying.

And I'm not trying to like hate Marco Farfan. But it's, you know, Gaspers still playing for Minnesota. I think he'd be here. I feel like Daniel Lovitz would be here except you don't want to bring him in if your intention is to give him. Sam Vine's more in it so you don't just bring him to this camp to be like you're not going to play. So you bring in Farfon to be the extra left back because you got to have a couple of them in camp and he just sort of fits the bill. Yeah. We needed some bodies at the end of the at the end of the group. Yeah, that's that checks out in my brain. Uh, legit. Sebastian legit. Our feelings on him

are well documented. We like this player a lot. Uh, and he's kind of, he's kind of, I guess he's kind of there as a leader and I imagine he'll start against El Salvador in one of the eight positions. That's my guess too, but he could honestly start anywhere, right? He could start in one of the attacking winger slash inverted winger slash attacking midspots. He could start. He won't start as the nine in this game because I'm sure we're going to use these minutes for D.K. and I oh, but yeah, I hope he starts. I really like watching him play and I think he will help the players around that around him look better, which is a huge thing to get out of a one-off camp. That would be an expert troll job by Grega to put him at Stryker and sit, D.K. and

Akinola. Brendan Aronson, Salisberg bound. What do you have on it? What do you think about Aronson? So what I think is, I think he's looked a lot more dangerous through the MLS season than I thought he was going to look. I still don't know what exactly. exactly to make of him or what position he's going to be best at, even on the national team.

So he played in one of those eight roles in the February Friendly against Costa Rica. I don't know if he will be used in that role. It would indicate so by being included with the midfielder's. But then in that Wales camp, Ledezmo was listed as a midfielder, but he played one of those inverted winger roles. So there is a little bit of like fluidity there. I'm expecting him to sort of reprise that role. I think he'll probably start next to Lejet in one of those eight spots.

and I'm just hoping to see like an improved, more polished game from him than we got against Costa Rica 10 months ago. Yeah. That's my big Christmas wish. Is it? That's your big one? No, I want to see McKenzie shredlines with his passing. Yeah, I mean, I remain a little bit skeptical about Aaron. I remain a little skeptical about Aronson, but, but, you know, I do see, I do see the potential there.

Obviously, so does R.B. Salzberg, a Champions League club. Cole Bassett, Colorado Rapids midfielder, is just a box arrival specialist. You know, he scored a lot of goals by arriving in the box this year. You got any other thoughts on him? So he's actually the one, I think, fits more the Lodesmerol, where I feel like he doesn't necessarily go in the three-man midfield that Burhalter likes to run and would be a better fit as one of those, like a rain. essentially where he's called the winger,

but he is almost exclusively floating through the half space or even like the dead center of the field, in the more advanced line, rather than sitting back and trying to be the engine. So that's one I'm really curious, whether he starts or gets in late, what sort of space he occupies in that formation Burhalter's been favoring of late. Okay.

Jackson. Do you see Bassett in like a specific place? No, I mean, I don't have any like knowledge to disagree with what you said there. I mean, I don't see him as like a 1v1, a guy who's going to take people on 1v1 and create a lot. So, you know, he doesn't fit the classic definition of a winger. Raina obviously what you were just talking about with Raina is not a classic winger, but Raina can do the classic winger stuff. Yeah, that's true.

Well, maybe some more avid Colorado watchers can chime in and be like, No, no, no, Bassett for sure will be a box-to-box musa type or a McKinney type. But for me, it seems like he'd be more in the attacking line than in the engine room. Yeah, okay. Yeah, I mean, he's a hard, I have the sense that he's like a hard worker. He's a lunch pail guy, but he also does, you know, he has scored a few goals. Acosta, his teammate in Colorado, is kind of back from the dead here. I think your theory is the best one I've heard about like maybe

maybe he fits in now because we're we have two we need two active number eights who cover a lot of ground two active number eights and an actor number six and the eights might occasionally have to cover for the six so uh it cost to me slots right into one of the probably one of the two eights more naturally uh so that's that's what I'm expecting from him and I'm excited to see it I'm hoping he gets a chance but if he doesn't that for me like okay fair enough like we have we have a lot of guys who also fit that role and if cost is not going to be one of them long term that will also be okay i'm glad he's i'm glad he's here though yeah i i still remember he played really well in that one-one draw at the azteca other than not

pulling down chichorito in the center circle before he played it to carlos vella for that equalizer he had a very i thought a very good game and you know we were all thinking like he was a the kind of the future part of the future of the U.S. men's national team midfield. Oh yeah, all the way through 2018, even the dead year we thought that. And I literally thought it when he got called up in 2019 to the January camp until he was unceremoniously sent home

a week before the game. Yeah. He struggled with the system, the system that is no longer in use. And then Andres Perea, Colombian American from the Medellín Club, Athletico Nacional, one of the big clubs in Columbia. He's been playing for, I mean, he's not playing for that club.

He's playing for Orlando City, but he's on loan from Medellin. I don't know. Have you watched much of him? I haven't. And when I've been watched Orlando, I've basically been solely focused on D.K. and Mueller, so I don't know much about Brea. I'll have to hop on his account and take quite a long look at what he's been doing. But he can't play in this game either, so we're not going to see him.

Oh, that's right. Okay. He'd have to file a switch, so he's in the same boat as Efra. So he's replacing Amaya, and he can't play. So we're pretty likely certain to see Jackson Ewell in my mind start then in that holding me. I think Perea would have been, would be an option in that Tyler Adams role, essentially, that I think Amaya would have started in.

But with them both now unavailable, I think Ewell gets that start. Yeah, it's going to be Ewell. And we know his game, you know. sort of fits that quarterback role nicely has some real limitations in like defending and covering ground but I still want to see where those limitations actually hit like where it actually becomes the liability and where again against an al-savador who very likely will be in the in the Ocho who will have to play against to get to the World Cup like are they capable of exploiting jackson you or is he fine You know, he could just be like totally fine and not be outclassed at all defensively.

And that's what I'm going to see. So if he does start, I'll be excited to see that. And I'll want to see if he can just carve teams up with passing. Yeah. Let's move to the attacking positions. Paul Areola, back from this injury, I would say much like Long and Zimmerman at centerback, he's a baseline national team winger. You kind of have to be better than him to get into the,

you know get into a first choice 23 maybe we already you know maybe we already have a first choice 23 without him i'm not sure i haven't done the math lately he's gonna have a hard time man like uh i don't know how what what his sort of minutes fitness is for for this game he played in the final regular season game for dc united uh he came in on as a sub and got like 25 minutes so uh it's it's not necessarily the case that he can even start and go 60 but for ariola i feel like for him to play, it's going to have to be, for him to get into our full strength, full strength 23. It's got to be something where he's just an excellent, excellent locker room guy, plus like you need a spot in your roster for a defensive winger.

Like, because that's, I feel that's, that's what he's always going to get his attention for. It's his work rate on defense. Yeah. So you might, again, not always want like for like subs where you have a bunch of attacking wingers to throw in. And you might be like, okay, now we need a defensive winger. And that's where Paul Ariel is going to exist on the depth chart. Yep, totally agree.

Georgie Mihailovich. I don't know. What's he doing here? He's been doing good. Again, I'm always checking the underlying metrics for these players in my never-ending quest to say Josie Altadour is still a decent soccer player. And Georgie is super high on that list. Like he's, I think he's ahead of Zardez, and I think he's, like, he's racking up chances created and goals. So, on the expected chart.

So he also plays in a way that very closely mirrors what Burhalter's doing and that he's a left wing for Chicago, but he drifts centrally to play. And it's like, okay, perfect fit. So that's where Georgie jumps in here. I would have been surprised if Georgie wasn't on this roster. Okay. So if you're, if you, if you wouldn't mind smuggling. in another bit of your starting 11. Do you have Georgie as your starting left wing? I sure do.

Okay. And I'd have ariola, but I don't know if he's going to be able to play. So right wing is a bit of a mystery. Well, we'll get to that in a second. And then Mueller is, you know, he's just gotten a lot of production at Orlando City. I don't know if his X, if his G matches his XG or his A matches his XA. But, you know, he had a good season. just like DK.

Even better, I think, scored more goals, like numbers-wise. Do you have anything to say about him? So he's one where I don't necessarily know that he's going to fit. He's more of like a forward, like, Sarah, moonlighting as a winger. So I honestly am not sure if he's going to fit that sort of tucked in, play more as a be the right wing, but play more as a 10 style that we want,

or that we seem to be moving towards. So I don't know, man. Like, that's going to be a tough one. Mueller, by the way, is massively overperforming his expected values as well. Okay. He's averaging like a goal or assists per game, but his underlying metrics are like half a goal or assist per game. Okay.

So if people care about that stuff, that's the case. Some people do. Some people do. I care a little bit about that stuff. I care. about it. I'm not a, I'm not an anti-vaxxer or anything like that. Let's see. And then Efra Alvarez. So I, I, we've talked about him plenty on the show, like a really exciting young attacking player who has a lot of growing to do off the ball, both in possession and out

of it. But I thought it was interesting in Doug McIntyre's piece about it. He quoted Burhunter as saying he's not eligible to play today. This was yesterday. It's not necessarily that he can't play next Wednesday. Hmm. I mean, that's wild. If Ephra makes a one-time switch this week and clearly Burrhalter meant to leave the door open for that possibility, then he can play against El Salvador next weekend and he's going to be a U.S. player for the rest of his life, which is a huge decision to make.

But wouldn't mind if he did. I mean, it doesn't seem subtle from Burrhalter, right? So it's either they're leaning heavily on it and, like, trying to work through that process. It's definitely not like, okay, he's not going to you this week. We've talked to him, and he's one for the future. Like, that certainly feels like we're in distinct possibility territory. Yeah, maybe there's a Manila envelope somewhere on its way to Switzerland. But Efra, Efra is another one who I think would fit our system really well.

And I think we talked about it from when he first started getting regular minutes for Galaxy this season. Because he is that left-footed player that plays on the right and cuts in. and is very comfortable receiving in that half space with pressure around him. Clever to create room and create angles to find players who are running past him, which as we know was kind of an issue in the Wales friendly. So he's a guy who's looking for those runners. I guess the whales issue was more about not having the runners to begin with. But EFRA is, I think, very effective at creating little passing windows to hit those guys.

So I hope it would be awesome if he can play. just because it means he's sort of chosen the U.S., but I think he could look really good in this kind of a setup. Yeah, I agree. It would be really, I mean, I'm not like, wouldn't be like lobbying him to make such a momentous decision, you know, quickly, too quickly. Right. Right.

No pressure. No pressure. I mean, it would be awesome if he did, but I don't, I wouldn't want him to, like, ruin his life or something. However, yeah, like you said, he would look really, I think he could look really good in that spot and and I don't know that we have anybody who does you know theoretically at least look have the profile to look as good in that spot you know um like left footed it's Kenny Seff left footed besides Kenny Seff thank you left footed like really good at the things you just

described he's also just like a he's just a goal machine when he gets in the attacking 30 he has that ability to like where the game slows down for him in the box it looks like it's like it's down and things just get simpler and he sees the angles he does not you know if you talk to galaxy fans they're like dude he doesn't work hard on defense there's a lot of a lot of stuff that I think they might criticize him for and I'm sure that's all real they've been watching more closely than I have but I'm just saying like like you said in the profile for that position he fits pretty well let's get to the strikers all right here we go darrell d'K so what we're expecting is for him to wallop the absolute hell out of the ball when he gets anywhere within goal. And again, that's my,

that's my working optimistic theory for why he outperforms his expected goal values. He basically needs his own coefficient because he just, he just hits it so hard every time. And that was, we knew that when he got drafted from his, his highlights from college, that that was the case. And he's definitely carried that over into the professional game. Yeah, he's a full-grown man. And, you know, technical, fast. I think he has a chance to overtake the striker position, although Jazi is looking very good these days.

One goal, one assist to send Columbus through over Nashville. And sergeant's looking good too. Jiazzi also strongly outperforming. I'm just going to be the expected goals police here, also strongly outperforming his underlying numbers. And very cleverly, I might add, added a couple of non-penity goals by having two penalties is the season saved and then scoring the rebounds. Like that's, we talk about him scoring with his face,

but that is actually the most heads-up play in 2020 you can make as a striker. That's a really good way to game the numbers, huh? Because because you don't. It's elite stuff. Because you don't, because he doesn't count against your non-penalty XG if you miss the penalty, right? That's correct. And then Iowa Canola, who's been dangerous all season for Toronto, had a little bit of an

injury issue, I think, late. But yeah, we've also talked about him quite a bit on the podcast. He's been good. He's been good for Toronto. He's just so physical, so, so difficult for centerbacks to handle. Yeah. And he's, since I'm the police here, he's right on his number. So he's not, he's not like doing, doing unexpectedly well for sort of his performance. Like he's right where he should be for the number of goals and assists he's creating. which is zero assists, by the way, but nine goals. So it gets on the end of things. Makes good runs.

Makes good runs. And that one highlight where he just sent a centerback. I forget which centerback it was. Just sent him into the galaxy with his shoulder. He's done it like three times the season. I feel like he did it twice in a game in the tournament. And then during the regular season, I think, did the same stuff. And then just tucked it in off the outside of his boot.

So, you know, who knows? Maybe he plays on the wing. Maybe we get to see him at Stryker. We'd rather see D.K. But no shade on Akanola there. Let's see. You got some stuff. Can we run through?

Yeah, can we run through the players who aren't on this roster for various reasons? Yeah. Yep, yep, yep. All right. So we'll do this quick, I promise. The sort of external considerations list begins with players. Well, it begins, I guess, with everyone in Europe because it's not a FIFA window. There's COVID issues, short camp.

No one from Europe other than Benfica. B's goalkeeper C.J. Dos Santos on the roster, of course. Then you have players who are still alive in the playoffs, which as of now no longer includes SC Dallas. We wonder if we might see a couple of those guys added. Reynolds, Tessman-Ferra, maybe like a Ricardo Pepe, but nothing at time of recording. So we're still waiting on that. But Jordan Morris, Christian Raldon, still alive. Chase Gasper for Minnesota. Boosio, who I would have been interested in. Amelia, who would just just be a nice fun one and a happy story.

And again, based on the goalkeepers who are in camp, he wouldn't be out of place at all, even if he doesn't have a real strong chance at having a future impact with the national team. And then I put Jalen Lindsay on here as well for Sporting Kansas City as just another Olympic eligible right back. We're just lousy with him now. Yeah.

So that's sort of the western side of the bracket. On the east side, we've got Matt Turner, who it would have been awesome to see for New Ney, England along with centerback Kessler, who's kind of under the radar, would you say? Definitely under the radar. So under the radar, I haven't even watched him play yet. But he's having a strong season as an Olympic eligible centerback. And then with Columbus, you've got Zardez, of course, and then you've got Kata at centerback,

and then a couple of U-20 center mids in Burrhalter and Morris. And then I threw a couple of the Western Hemisphere, but not an MLSC, guys on here and that's Sebastian Salcedo who's playing for UNAM, who's still alive in the playoffs. They just beat Pacuca in a two-legged tie, so now they're playing this week and then they'll play again on Sunday. So I think I saw that he was invited, but essentially had to decline the invite because of his club, his club situation. And then I threw on Alain Signora because I've just been watching him for some reason, and he looks really good. He's playing in Argentina in their first division playing regularly at this point.

and he just looks a really tidy player. So add him to your list, he's Olympic eligible. I don't know. I can't for the life of me figure out how Argentina's season is structured. Like I can't find information on it in this post-COVID like nonsense. But if it's possible that he's available for January camp, I really hope he's considered for that. Cool.

Cool. False fullback has a comp on that, on Senora out there. So search that out. that. So those are playoff omissions. And I don't know if any of those, if all those guys would have been in, but, you know, guys with decent, decent cases. Then we also have Conca Calf Champions League omissions because New York and Atlanta both have CCL games, I think, in December, right? Coming up in the next week or so. Yeah. Yeah. Second legs of ties that started a long, long time ago. Right. So you have Sean Johnson, Keaton Parks, James Sands for New York. And I think San,

is back and healthy. Now, with Parks and Sands, we've never had them called up for Burrhalter before. Maybe Parks was in like one of those mini camps over the summer in 2019, but no reason to think that they're for sure in Burrhalter's depth chart, but I hope they are. And then for Atlanta, we've got Guzon and Bello and Robinson. Yeah, and there was some rumblings that Bella was going to be in this camp, but just got left off because of this. It would have been nice to see him.

He had a solid season for a bad team, but still a solid season. And being a left back, he is a precious commodity. Yes, right? Like, he'd make a lot more sense than Far Fond. Because Bello's still U-20 eligible, right? Yeah, yeah. Is that correct? That's right.

He's a 2002. So. So, yeah, so we have that. And then we have a couple guys injured. We have, you know, Burholter specifically was asked, I think, about Eric Williamson. in Abobese, and he said they're both just not quite 100%, so not consider for this camp, but in his plans for the future at some level, whether it's Olympics or the full team.

Yeah, this is like a 75-deep. I think it is. I think that's like 25 guys domestically, more or less, that sort of aren't even available, and we still have this fun 20-man roster to play with. Yeah. Yeah, and then there's the, there's, you've got some more names here, like overage snubs and. Oh, sure. So, well, because what I was singing is like, out of all those guys we just talked about,

that are left off for other considerations, like the only uncapped player that we just named, uh, who's not Olympic eligible is Chase Gasper, uh, which is also crazy because that means all these guys we're talking about are all, you know, children. So, you know, you're here, you're, you mean the only capped. player, right? Gasper's the only one who's capped. No, Casper's not capped in Burrhalter's era, or ever, as far as I know. He got called into a camp early but didn't play.

Oh, really? Okay. Yeah, so the capped guys are like Jordan and Jordan Morris and Christian Raldon. Okay. All of the uncapped guys on there are all Olympic eligible. Yeah, okay. It's nuts. So you have people saying, well, Burhalter's decided to go with like another Olympic camp, basically. And I just don't think that's the case.

I just think this is what our camps. look like now. Like all of our camps are going to look like Olympic camps. And the reason I say that is because if you think about who the overage snubs were who didn't have any other conflicts going on for reasons they wouldn't, they had to be left off. Like who are you left with? Yeah, it's kind of a, it's a sad little group.

And it doesn't have to be like Josie, Josie again, I'm the Josie defender, I feel like. So, but, you know, it's not like he's, he didn't play. very much. So even if he was playing well when he was playing, he's always been hurt. You kind of wonder if he'd want to add more miles to his legs outside of the season or if he's ready to sort of recover again from his last recovery. And then like after that, my next highest snub would be like Dan Lovitz, who had a pretty good season for Nashville as a left back. And since we don't have a lot of left backs, a camp like this is exactly where you'd expect Lovitz to kind of fill in as a camp guy. Yeah, I mean, and I didn't even realize,

this. I wasn't even think about this until you started saying it. But yeah, this is really encouraging that Lovitz was left off sort of like dealer's choice, you know? And so was Michael Bradley. So was Will Trapp. I mean, I still got people in my DMs talking about how much of a travesty it was that trap got any minutes at all in the last two years. And so they should be happy that like he's left off.

There's just no other consideration, right? I don't think so. And again, like, there just aren't any overage guys left that would really even have a big case to get into this camp. Like, you're talking Christian Ramirez or, like, Memo Rodriguez, maybe, Marquis Delgado. Like, that's where you're at if you're trying to say, you know, if you're trying to say that this is just an Olympic priority camp mainly, then you'd be saying that one of those guys should be in here. And I just don't know that any of those guys outside of Lovitz has a really good case. to be in this group.

We were joking during Nashville, half joking. I actually don't think anyone was joking. If you had to have one of Michael Bradley or Dax McCarty in your 11, like I think most people at this point would be like, I'll take Dax McCarty in that 11. Yeah. And I mean, Dax McCarty's been a very good player for Nashville. So it's not a, it's not supposed to be a huge jab.

It's just to say that outside of what Bradley has did for the U.S. five years ago, like there's nothing in 2020 that would suggest Michael. Bradley being left out of U.S. camp is some kind of an indication that we're just going for underage players. Like, he just doesn't really belong in an international camp at this point. Yeah, right. He's falling off so much in the last 12, 18, maybe even a longer time period than that. He's falling off. We've talked about it. He just changes how you have to play, and we just clearly are not trying to play that way anymore. It seems like, again, maybe he's going to get a call up all the way in

March and we'll look like idiots because he's he's our starting number six but that's it just seems so so more like remote than it did 10 months ago yeah and you know ramirez memo ramo rodriguez marquis delgado they're all like good players but they're not it doesn't feel like a snub to me that any of them is left off right and and again even if even if they were we just named 20 guys who aren't on this roster because they're doing something else for domestically. We've got 25 guys who are just on the November roster. So any of these little snubs that you might think are happening here, they're still 60 places, 60 players ahead of them. So we're really, really in the fringes here. So long story short, this is not an Olympic camp.

And anyone who says it is is a Michael Bradley propagandist and a baby boomer. Yeah, this is just our camp. Like there will, will always have at this point 10 or 15 player Olympic eligible players in every camp from now on if it's full strength it's going to be all these champions league guys we're talking about if it's if it's sort of the fringes it's going to be these young up-and-coming MLS guys because not because of their potential but because right now like you you take brennan arson over michael bradley you take you look at tanner testman ahead of will trap what about experience what about leadership I just I think we're going to be fine.

I think the I think the leadership that Richie Ledesma showed in that 6-1, 6-2 drubbing of Panama is going to pull us through. Speaking of Ledezma, we haven't acknowledged, we haven't acknowledged on this podcast that he did make his first start for PSV Einhoven over the weekend. I said that in my little Patreon video, but, you know, for the general public that consumes this podcast. That's good. Everyone should get to experience you saying that, Bella. because I feel like you were instrumental in it happening. He played okay. He played okay.

Should we talk about, he played fine. I thought he looked apart. I thought PSV were generally sloppy, and he looked no more or less sloppy than anyone else. He fit right in. We haven't talked about the young players you got left off of this, though, because there are more young players who were sort of coached decisions. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, who do you got? As far as we know, there's always, you know, stuff going on behind the scenes. Who do you have? have. Lewis and Clark are the first two, right? So Clark has a ton of buzz over his, over his four games so far for New York Red Bulls. I think he's at like 350 minutes. Not to be, Lewis and Clark, not to be confused with those who explored the Louisiana purchase. No, of course not. Yeah, we're not talking about the people who went from St. Louis to, I don't know, I don't have my middle school social studies curriculum down yet. Yeah, Kate and Clark got it. There was some buzz on on Twitter, people

upset that he was left off of the roster. I can't find it to myself to be upset about that. He's, you know, he looks good. If he continues to look good, he's going to get his chance. Yeah, yeah. And there are, again, there are more young players that we need to see than there are roster spots for this one-week camp. So, you know, maybe he'll be in, maybe he'll, maybe we'll look at some guys here.

The week ones won't get an invite in January, and maybe that's where Caden Clark shows up. along with Jonathan Lewis, who we've seen a few times before, kind of know what he offers. At the moment, you know, that could change between now and the summer. But that's sort of the other one who I think was kind of one of the headlining misses. I mean, he was on the Gold Cup roster a year and a half ago. So for him to be completely left off of this deep of a, you know, and we're this deep into the brush, says that Bradwell and Shambles.

Matt Doyle is in Shambles. he's he's another one i think who could be a victim of the of the style change where since we're not just leaving a left winger out there on the wing yeah he might not be good enough to you know you wouldn't you might change the system for jordan morris a little bit i don't think you're changing things up for jonathan lewis at the moment no yeah you wouldn't change up the whole system for him he and he to you know to be really like cold-eyed about it he didn't look great uh his last couple appearances for the national team i didn't think um Next is Fontana.

Next is, no, I'm not, well, we can say, yeah, Fontana started to get a little bit of love at the end of the Philadelphia season, score some bangers. He seems to score a lot of them. But really the guy who I was hoping for and wouldn't have been super surprised to see was Jose Gallegos. Yeah, that would have been cool. Yeah, I've been a big proponent of his as well. I didn't think he didn't have the breakout season in USL that I was kind of. kind of hoping for and you got to you know you got to like there's all these caveats because it's COVID and everything but you know I was I was thinking maybe he gets some goal like some goals and

assists and he really didn't you know he didn't really and I don't know if anybody's tracking underlying numbers in USL but I can't I don't have access to them he he did you know he's his sauce his underlying sauce is great yeah it's great but you know you'd like to see if you think a player is going to be a contributor for the national team. You'd like to see him at age 18, 19, you know, seize control of a USL game in some ways. And he didn't really do that as much, at least as much as I hoped. Okay.

I was going to push back a little. Like, I feel like there were plenty of times where he did sort of show that he was, he's a class above some of the, some of the competition there. It just, it was just one of those where it was like, would Burralter go this? Because at this point, Berhalter's throwing some darts, you know, like these, he's doing things that. He's gunslinging, man. Yeah.

So it wouldn't have been crazy for me if we had seen that. I would have been disappointed in you not breaking that particular story, but it would have been pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't get that tip. And thank goodness I didn't because I would have passed it right along. I had to retract it. Otherwise, no, I'm excited for this group.

Like there's very few 11s. I feel like I want you to name yours. And I can guarantee you that what would ever 11 you name, I'd be like, yes, I would very much like to see that. Yeah, let's just go ahead and do it and then get out of here. I'll say David Ochoa in goal. I think he's like really good with his feet. I'd like to see him.

Araujah at right back, Aaron Long, Mark McKenzie, and Sam Vines to round out the back line, Jackson Ewell, since Perea is not likely to be available. And then Brendan Aronson and Sebastian Legette. And then I want to see that one-time switch, Efra at right wing, Dike up top and Paul Areola at left wing. Yes. Give me that 11. Let's see it.

If Efra decides to, you know, bide his time and be more careful about the decision, I'll take Areola at right wing and Mihailovich at left wing. Okay. All right. That's kind of what I'm expecting, again, with the Ariola question mark about his fitness for starting. I guess my final thought then I'm not going to give my 11 I think I think throughout the show I gave it I gave some breadcrumbs there so I think you can put it together My favorite thing is that we even have this sort of again manufactured window And this is going to sound strange but I really like that Greg burhalter is essentially devaluing the national team call up

I feel like it's a it's an argument that people have been having with with me at least for a long time about how if you call up these unproven players, like you're ruining what it means to be called up for the national team. And I've just always thought that's sort of the most ridiculous thing because this isn't a ceremonial position. This isn't like the baseball Hall of Fame. Like it's a competitive team with competitive objectives. And adding in those sort of sacred barriers to get in

can actually hurt your ability to compete in a way. It restricts you from identifying sort of your best players early. And so by doing these kinds of things and being like, okay, right now, what's important is for Marco Farfan to come in and help be a player to help us identify whether the top half of the roster is going to be good enough to help the bottom half of our men's team, our full strength roster. Like that is good use of our time and that's good use of a call up, even if it means that getting called up is somehow less special. Like I don't care about the specialness of anything. I care about how well we can compete and how efficiently we can find our best 23 players and get them to play well together. Yeah. No, I agree.

I love that, too. It's a he's, he's, Beralta has really done well, I think, in a lot of ways, you know, with the dual nationals, with like trying, you know, calling up a lot of, like you said, a lot of different players. That European camp, I mean, maybe he was, his hand was forced by COVID, you know, and all the travel restrictions. but even so, it's great to see so many people get brought into the fold. Well, again, I mean, he didn't have to have this camp at all. Like, this wasn't a normal thing that anyone was expecting, and so he chose to do it. The January camp before COVID,

like he'd already started to call up like a ton of young, unproven first-team players. And the rumors around the canceled March camp was that it was going to be along the same lines, or at least it would be dotted with players who had very little or no first-team. experience. So it feels like just sort of a shift in what he wants to do. He's mentioned like offhandedly that the first year was about giving the old guys a chance, seeing what he

kind of had with them. And now he's moving into really just this huge expansive net of auditions. And I am very here for it. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. And we are still going to have a January camp, right? Yes. Yep. He said that in the press, or at least I mean, as much as you can plan on anything in this in this sort of era but yes a january camp with one game towards the end of january is how burrhalter described it you're going to get a are you going to get a vaccine in it for a christmas stuffer for a stocking stuffer i don't i don't think i'm particularly high on that priority list i think i will just continue to reside in my in my in my club my recording closet here uh and hopefully maybe maybe bells maybe we'll be maybe we'll be going to another gold cup game

Yeah. It's not impossible to think about. No, I know. That's awesome. And a lot of good stuff news on the antibodies front, too, the manufactured antibodies. Anyway, this is not an epidemiological podcast, is it? All right. Every podcast is in 2020.

I guess so. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll definitely record a recap of the game the day after. And, you know, we'll try to decide if we feel like we have anything to say early. next week. Guessing not, but we'll see. Deep dive into El Salvador is 11.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.