Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 159: A check-up on the first-choice up-and-comers

Episode Date: February 19, 2021

They're not nailed-on starters for the USMNT, but it sure would be nice if they'd ascend to that level here soon. Chris Richards, Mark McKenzie, Daryl Dike, Josh Sargent and Brenden Aaronson. We dive into the footage on each of them, and also discuss Dest's and Weah's week. 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 Georgia. With me is Greg Velasquez in Iowa. We talk about U.S. men's soccer. Thank you for downloading this episode of Scuffed. Thanks especially to our patrons who have stuck with us through thick and thin. And we're trying to make this thing a little more thick right now with a dive into a small group of players that we are paying. An inordinate amount of attention to. Greg, what's up, man? Bells, was that your attempt at a Georgia dialect? Have you adopted a Georgia dialect? Did you see how I typed the word thick the second time? I did notice that. No, things are good.

The competitions are coming thick. And at times, I feel like the quality can be a little thin. We're kind of getting this brand new experience of what it's like when the club side of things isn't just one big celebration. Now that some of the boys have officially made it. Yeah. Well, it's a tough world up there at the top. It's a dog-eat-dog world. As Serginio Dest found out earlier this week,

Killeenboppe had a hat trick down his side of the field. You know, 4-1 win for PSG over Barcelona. Barcelona is a train wreck. And Dest, I think, was largely credited for the loss, you know, in the Spanish and French press, at least. You know? Yeah, something where I'm sure he's not credited with the loss. he's a focal point of the performance.

I would say very much a focal point. He was given the lowest rating. I mean, you know, people have been pointing this out to me from all over the world over the last few days. He was given the lowest rating by just about every news organization that covered the game. And I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's fair at all, honestly.

And I hope I have established my bona fides as not being a homer. But, you know, I put a video on Twitter, Dest was more or less okay against Mbapé. I don't know. I think he's the best attacker in the world right now. And

he got, Desk got skinned right before he got subbed off in the second half. He also got beat for pace and behind very early in the game. And Mbapé had kind of a rough touch. Otherwise, it would have been too badly beaten moments. But otherwise,

he stood him up. And I I'm saying like if you, some people are saying, well, if you pass Mbapai off to somebody else, you're causing more problems for your team. Well, I'd say if you stand Mbapap and force them to pass it backwards, you've kind of done your job against Killing Mbapay. Yeah, it's a situation where it's almost like a, it could be considered like a tactical stalemate there. If PSG know they can advance the ball up the field at will, they had like, we don't have to get super deep into the tactics of this game. I think we should a little bit. In a lot of those death clips that you were sharing, like Mbapé was stationed on the weak side, on death's side,

like hugging the touchline, and PSG would just hit this big switch to him. It's not like you're going to man mark him out there. PSG would hit this big switch to him, and they might have been building through the midfield, but he was just always available up there that they could hit this long ball up to him. And then Desk would come over and not meet the ball there or anything

or try to take it from him. He would just essentially, like you're saying, go stand him up. But it basically just gave PSG this free pass to always put the ball up in the attacking, you know, left side of the field and then bring all their pieces up with it. So I think PSG were happy to do that, even though it wasn't always going to end in like Mbapay trying to take Dest on and go to goal immediately. But it was just this sort of like free entry into the attacking third with clear possession. Yeah, I guess that's fair. I guess the point I'm trying to make is Dest did not get quote unquote exposed by Mbapé.

I don't think. I think he did more or less okay. In that respect, he did keep somebody on side. Florensi before that second Mbapé goal. He kind of lost Mbapapé in that moment. Anyway, we don't need to belabor the point. I'm happy to belabor the point. I'm happy to belabor that one if you want me to.

Go ahead. Belabor it. So what I want to belabor on that, you know, desk keeps the guy on side and then eventually on that sequence they score a goal is we have to start maybe trying to like talk about the actual magnitude of the error, especially with defenders, somewhat independently of whether the outcome ends in a goal or not. And I've said this before, like whenever a goal is scored, people will do the foals of pruder on the entire 30 seconds leads up to it.

And I'm happy to do that. I love breaking things down in that sort of academic, minute way. But what you have to stay away from is saying, okay, well, because we've identified that yes, Sergenio Dest was like eight inches behind the line. He wasn't like three steps back off the line, you know, just sort of being lazy. He was probably like not even half a body length behind the rest of the line.

It's that tight, right? So you still have to talk about, how frequently does this error actually occur at high level soccer? And I think in the case of desk holding the guy on side, that's not an egregious sort of mistake, even though the end outcome of the play is a goal, any mistake can end in a goal. You know what I mean?

Like goals can come from the tiniest of mistakes, but that doesn't mean that all defensive mistakes should be sort of considered the same way. Does that make sense? It does, yeah. I'll kind of give another example, and it's when Chris Richards made his debut for Hoffenheim, and Hoffenheim conceded a goal on a set piece, and I think we sort of saw, if you're plugged into sort of U.S. soccer Twitter, you probably saw like the frame-by-frame breakdowns.

Bob Morocco did like this frame-by-frame breakdown of that sequence, and, you know, it's like Chris and another defender are essentially covering three guys for, it was a mess of defending set piece defending from Hoffenheim. But it's definitely the case that the guy who scores the goal is somewhat Chris Richard's responsibility to be marking. So you can establish that. And I think what Bob Morocco is really good at is being very measured with his conclusions because after all of this like detailed breakdown, like I think his takeover was like,

so they'll probably go over that in the film room and see if they can get a little cleaner. You know what I mean? But it kind of snowballs and takes on this added effect. because it ended in a goal, and it'll, like, people will jump to conclusions like, well, he did make the mistake that led to the goal, so maybe he's not, maybe we're a little hasty to say he's ready for this level or for the national team or things like that. But you have to, like, consider the magnitude of the actual mistake, not just the outcome. I think that same weekend, Matt Miazga had a absolute, like, shocker of a mistake for Anderlecht,

and, you know, like, it doesn't really get mentioned at all. Did it result in a goal? It did actually result in a goal. Yeah. Well, nobody's watching Matt Miyazka these days. That's what it is. That really is what it is. Richards obviously has this magnifying glass on him, which is fine.

I mean, that's part of being the, you know, the anointed next centerback. But it's funny because people are saying after that Richard's set piece business, he might not be ready. Like, that's probably why, you know, like guys like Matt Miyazka are ahead of him or he still has to learn how to do these things. when the veteran ahead of him had a much, much worse mistake that just gets glossed over. Yeah. Yeah. And you shared a couple of two or three Miyazka mistakes in recent weeks. Yeah, privately.

I don't want to turn everyone on Miyazga. They're not great. I mean, those moments were not great. So, you know, if you're, if you're, just to sort of sum that up, if you're thinking, oh, you know, Richards has had a couple of rough moments or McKenzie had a, had a tough game in the middle of the week, which he did. Mark McKenzie did. You just remember Miyazga's also having his struggles. And who else? Who else is in that, you know, Zimmerman and Long are not playing soccer.

Right. And neither is Tim Ream. So that's pretty much the pool. Coach's decision in that case. Well, thanks for letting me go down that side rail. Do you well, to just, just to put a bow on desk, though, you think he was exposed by Mbapé? like to be, I don't know, not up to the level or something? Yes, I mean, I do think that he is not up to Mbapé's level.

I think that he will, I think the next time he plays Mbapé, he would get beat several times again. I think there were tactical elements of Barcelona's setup that sort of, again, created that situation where they could just play up to Mbapé and just let him stand up there with the ball at his feet knowing that Desk can't come take it from him. But again, I don't know that any defenders really are. just going to go take a ball from Killian Abape whenever they want.

So I think part of it is just PSG finding those weaknesses of Barcelona's setup and just comfortably sitting in them. I mean, they were better across the field at every position. It seemed like it felt like PSG was than Barcelona. But mostly, I just don't care that Sergenio Desk got skinned by Killian Abapé. Once. I'd expect that to happen and to continue happening and doesn't really change my opinion of Dest as a player. Yeah.

I guess maybe I'll quit grinding this axe. The other other player we want to mention right off the top is Timi Wea. Why don't you take it away on him? So Wea got a start in the Europa League against Iax. Iax. And was doing a lot of Wea thing. So I think he started out as like a right midfielder Because they play sort of a what kind of resembles a 4-4-2

But it's really fluid And even before I think Leal made their substitution And took one of their strikers off And moved way up more obviously central into a striker role I think he'd already shifted into that space But it was it was another sort of very similar to performance From what we've seen of him starting at a forward

which is he's not super involved in the possession and the buildup. Like he doesn't get the ball to his feet a lot. So if you're thinking of sort of that Jesus Ferreira type play that the U.S. has, that's not what Tim Wea's job is when he's playing for Lille. It's almost like decoy runs or space-creating runs or just runs to keep the defenders honest by threatening in behind. He's constantly looking to get in behind. Very clever. So clever.

So clever. So you don't see a ton of like that smooth combination play that I think he's very capable of. It's a lot of off ball work. He ends up scoring a goal with some terrific offball work on the defensive side because he's a very clever defender. He's racked up several goals like this in his career where he, I guess I'd almost like say he pops up unexpectedly in pressure situations. Guys who aren't expecting it aren't used to being put in that position. He intercepts an errant backpass from IAX's left back and just slots home past the onrushing keeper. The B-spectacled Taglia Fico.

The Sergenio Death's backup at IAX. Okay, so Wayan and Dest are taken care of. We're going to talk today about the players in the second tier, or in one case the third tier from last week's top 40 episode, who are, you know, feel like they're the most likely to move into that tier one, the up-and-comers. Tier two up-and-comers is what I'm calling them. And, you know, the rationale here is it doesn't really matter what happens with Christian Pulisic. He can have calf injuries or not be in Thomas Tuchel's plans or get a job at Herod's, whatever. He's still the starting left wing for the national team.

And the same calculus applies to Tyler Adams and Dest and, John Brooks and Weston McKinney and, you know, Greg, you have way in that category. I'm not sure everybody does yet, but it's pretty close. So with these guys, the ones I just mentioned, we can glory in their successes and worry about them and hope they stay healthy, but for the purposes of the national team, their place is established and there is no need for a big upward move from any of them. So today we want to focus on the players where there is a need for an upward move. It would sure do us a lot of good if they made that move.

And this is kind of where the action is in the player pool. It's where we can see the kind of gains, where we could see the kind of gains that will make us a better team. So the names I'm thinking of are Chris Richards, Mark McKenzie, D.Ral D.K., Josh Sargent, and Brendan Aronson. And we'll mention a few other names later. But those are the big five, right? Yeah, I think so.

And I'm sure, you know, depending on what happens over the next couple weeks, like a Brian Reynolds could easily become, a part of that list, but it's also possible. Brian Reynolds sits on Roma's reserve squad for the next three months. Yeah, totally possible. And then there's, you know, there's some MLS guys like Pomacall and Ferreira and who else. I guess Julian, you could throw a lot of names in there, but MLS isn't happening right now. Yeah, so in the immediate term, these are definitely the guys who it's like, I agree,

this is like must watch TV. and in a lot of cases when the games aren't on, like, the next day, I'm immediately refreshing a Y Scout to check out everything they did the prior day. Yeah. Yeah, these are the ones that I'm most interested in, for sure. You know, Anthony Robinson's also kind of in this category, so we'll talk about him briefly and maybe Reggie Cannon, but Richards, McKenzie, D.K., Sergeant, and Aronson. Let's start with Chris Richards.

All right. Got his second start for Hoffenheim in a 3-3 draw with Molda yesterday in Europa League. I'd say he looked, once again, quite competent on the left side of a three-man back line. You said if he put together two more performances, like the first one, he's the starting right centerback. Are we halfway there? No, I'm going to say, I'm going to say not quite because this was Molda. This was, you know, it's their Norwegian, are they in the Norwegian League? I actually can't remember.

I can't remember. Maybe. I feel like this is an old mixed, discerud team. But it could be it could have been someone else. Maybe it was maybe it was Ali Badoia. Somebody played for mold. And I'm embarrassed to not remember who it was. But, but no, I don't think that this is going to be the right gauge because, because I think it's not, even though it's a Europa competition, I want to see him again in the Bundes League.

And I'm anticipating he'll play again this weekend in the Bundesliga because he was one of their better defenders, I think. Yeah. Just, just consult the Google. match ratings. You can find it all out. No. Yeah, he looked good. He's a, you know, at risk of repeating a lot of stuff I've said before about him,

he's an excellent 1v1 defender, smart and decisive with his interventions. And, you know, consistently, at least since his move to Hoffenheim, consistently looking to puncture the opponent's defensive shape with his passing. I wouldn't say he's an elegant distributor from the back, but he looks, I think it's safe to say he looks like an improvement in that respect from sort of like the long Zimmerman category looks that way right now right i think that's fair to say yes his left foot is a lot better than it was a couple years ago yeah that that adds a real uh nice element uh to things he had a pass before the pass on a on the third goal for hoffenheim uh and there was like a pattern of play there

where he played it into a deep dropping attacker who just sort of wall past it in behind for a guy running off him. Same pattern from 40 seconds into the game. He did that within the first minute. Like exact same pattern. It didn't come off then, but, you know, it's clearly like a rehearsed situation. And not unlike what we've seen the U.S. do in recent games. Yeah, totally. And he's hitting that pass with his left foot from, you know, from about 30 yards away on the ground,

sharply. I like that. I like it a lot. He's not as smooth with the ball at his feet as McKenzie. And we'll get to McKenzie later, but I don't think anybody, any of the centerbacks for the U.S. are. And he's not as good in the air as Long or Zimmerman. I'm going to kind of be a dog with a bone with this aerial stuff. He was in the vicinity on Muldis first goal. And I don't want you know, it wasn't like, you can't blame the goal on him, but it's kind of like where he didn't quite get off the ground to challenge it. And I'm not sure it would have made a difference. But in general, I think his aerial challenges lack authority and any headed clearance.

The reason that matters is any headed clearance that doesn't connect with a teammate or clear the middle of the field is a potentially dangerous situation. And that's going to happen in Conca Calfe, you know, in World Cup qualifying. It's going to have to come through and Tomahawk the ball. out of contention. It doesn't do that very well. I'll just chime in on the corner kick that Molda got their first goal on. Because I went and looked at a bunch of different times.

So it looks like he might have been in position to play the ball and get up and actually try to challenge for the ball. But it looks like the decision he made was to stay tight to his man and essentially disrupt his man from not making a play on the ball. And then it was another attacker for Molda. and that and Richard's teammate went up together for the ball and it was so it was the other guy's man who headed it like into Richards

and it moved over towards the guy who eventually scored. Okay. So unlucky. Yeah, so a little bit of like, yeah, real gray, real gray. I'm just saying Virgil Van Dyke jumps up and just like and just nods that out of the danger. Do you have to go to Virgil Van Dyke or do you think there's guys in the U.S. pool that go up and head that ball out of danger? I think Zimmerman, there's a chance Zimmerman gets to that.

I mean, I didn't have, I didn't look at like 30 different angles on it. I just saw the one angle. But, you know, that play aside, I think the aerial criticism of Richard's stands, even in the middle of the field when he wins a headed, headed ball, it often lands at the feet of an opponent. And then there's an attack coming on. Go ahead. Yeah, no, and we'll get into it with McKenzie, but it's the same thing there.

It is that sort of unconvincing header. And this isn't like a body language criticism. It's actually like an outcome criticism where those headers are like weak or angled downwards. And super dangerous because that's exactly what the attack wants to do. This will actually come up again when we talk about DK. But the attacker wants to then, you know, scramble for those balls and try to use that moment of disorganization and chaos. from the first ball to then break him behind. And it's a big deal, and it's actually kind of a contrast.

When I do watch all the Miyazka clips, a guy like Miyazga is pretty dominant in the air. And he's not just, like, dominant. Like, when he wins that first ball with his head, he's putting it like 15 or 20 yards up field. And it's just something you start to take for granted with most centerbacks so you don't think about it until you see it not happening. You're like, oh, why are there so many scrambles around Richards and McKenzie? Yeah. And it's the same problem for both of them.

I'd say, I'd say Richards is slightly better than McKenzie in the air, but it's not that different. So that's one thing to watch. It's not everything. I mean, winning the long punts and goal kicks isn't obviously everything to the centerback. But it definitely is something that, like, you pick out. Yeah. So that's Richards. You think he needs two good Bundesliga performances before we pencil him in.

Yeah, give me, or one more Bundesliga appearance and then just a dominant performance against Danish, Norwegian, Scandinavian champions Molda. Finish. Is that what it is? No, I'm just kidding. Can I'm not. Fact check this yet. Let's move to McKenzie, Mark McKenzie, at Gank. Big money move from Philadelphia over the winter break.

He looks really sharp to me in tackles such a strong player, like physically strong. times his challenge as well. He has the best technique on the ball of any centerback not named John Brooks in the American player pool. He can really ping the ball. He's smooth and clever on the dribble. He's not perfect on the dribble, but he's smoother than your average American centerback. Two things to watch for me.

Quickness isn't above average, so he can get spun by a pacey attacker. This is not true of Richards. It is true of McKenzie. And it's happening with some regularity in Belgium. happened a few times in the middle of the week, wouldn't you say? Yeah, his midweek game was actually a pretty rough outing. Yeah, I mean, he got rinsed. He got rinsed at the end of the game.

He got done in the first half that led to the penalty that got his centerback partner removed by substitution because it was the second penalty. He'd conceded. I think it was more of like get him off before he gets a second yellow card rather than punitive from the manager. But yeah, McKenzie was definitely just straight beaten. Like, attacker with the ball just gets behind him straight down the center of the field. Certainly more frequently than should happen.

Yeah, I mean, two really, really obvious ones. And then there were some other. There was one on the coming down the left wing. And it was always the same guy. I don't know his name for Ustend, but he's a big, fast attacker. So I don't know. I don't know. I don't know what to think about McKenzie.

Because that game isn't representative necessarily of all of his performances for Gank. He's been really good. I think good to the point where he's sort of displaced another guy in the pecking order there. Those are the reports out of Belgium. Yeah. And I'm really curious about that too because the other guy, Lukome, I think they're all the other centerbacks on Gancar, the Colombian players.

In all of the McKenzie highlights that I was watching her clips, there weren't necessarily highlights in this case. Lekome looked much better. He came off looking like the grown-up in the situation, and McKenzie looked like the trialist. So I don't know. I'm a little skeptical of those reports, but maybe this was just a one-off performance.

I mean, he's only had a few performances, So you can't really chalk anything up as just a one-off at this point. Like everything is weighing pretty heavily on his, on his assessment, I'm sure. Yeah. His reputation is on the line every moment. It kind of is, right? Yeah. And for a big money move, like, you know, he's one of their biggest transfer purchases, I feel like in club history.

They're not expecting him to play like a trialist. No. Yeah, he needs to play better than he did in the middle of the week. but, you know, I think he's also had some good moments and he does, he is a pleasing to the eye centerback, in my opinion. Like we talked about earlier, not commanding in the air, I think we covered that subject thoroughly. He missed the frame on a free header in a game that ended zero zero against meshelin a couple weeks ago. Gink rarely ends up with possession after he goes up for an aerial challenge. Yeah, that's the biggest part is that he, uh,

I mean, it's just like he doesn't make clean contact with the ball with his head when he goes up for those challenges. It's like a noticeable issue at this point. And he's a little too easy to dribble around. So those are two big red flags. Not that he's any worse, you know, like in the aggregate, is he a worse player than Aaron Long right now? I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like if we're hoping for somebody to come up and really claim that job and say like this is mine. I'm the second best centerback of with an American passport.

McKenzie's not making that claim right now. Not yet. One thing I'll say too about his, is what we're calling his weakness in the air. What kind of helps him is that isn't necessarily going to be make a break for him to make the 23 because, you know, I think a lot of us are saying that McKenzie's initial competition

is to be John Brooks' backup. Yes, of course he could compete in winning. his way into the starting lineup next to Brooks, but that Tim Ream spot of sort of the default distributing backup to John Brooks is certainly up for grabs, and Tim Ream is also pretty poor in the air, relatively. So I think, you know, the upside for McKenzie here is he's not trying to replace a dominant aerial presence. He can be, if he's just, if he just matches Ream but is better in a lot of other areas, then he can still slide into that John Brooks back. up spot pretty, pretty easily, I think.

Yeah. So you have to say at this point, from my perspective, Richards is ahead of McKenzie. And I guess most people would agree with that. Like you said, Miazga, Miazga is pretty dominant in the air, but he's been left for dead a few times in recent weeks, too. So it's, you know, equal opportunity criticism.

It really is. Let's move on to D.K., if you're okay with that. Yes. we're going to continue the trend of winning balls in the air. This is like super stereotypical 1990s American soccer. Yep, yeah. Just kick it long. Darrell Dike is playing as a straight-up target forward for Barnsley,

and I would say proving himself pretty valuable, which is weird. Great fit for the league and the team that he's playing for. Yeah. He's gotten about 100 minutes, just to give the stats, 100 minutes and two championship appearances. He also played in the cup match loss to Chelsea. But both of those championship appearances were wins for Barnsley, and he's just battling out there,

trying to knock the ball down, combine however he can. No goals, no assists, not even any shots in the championship yet as a striker. And yet, oh yeah, and he's only completed nine passes in those two games. But somehow he still looks good. Can you explain this? So the guy I think of when I watch him play is actually undriended. and Avakovich playing in Serre B in Italy because it's the same concept. Like his job is not to combine.

His job is to just scrap for those long balls. Like most of his clips are him challenging for 50-50 balls. But what happens is I think with D.K. He changes the location that those 50-50 balls are being played. Because, you know, when we were watching the U.S. forwards over the last five games, We're seeing them come back to the ball a lot to try to be options in the midfield. Like that is absolutely not what D.K. He's doing the opposite where he is actually like getting his body touch tight on the centerback

and then literally physically pushing the guy outfield as the ball is in transit. So he takes the centerbacks off of the spot they want to play. So when we're talking about like how you can take for granted that Matt Mioska is going to go up and win a header on any long ball that comes up because he plants himself where he should. they're really good at reading trajectories of aerial balls and then winning it without even having to jump because he's got the position so he can put his full force into it head at 40 yards back up field

like what Dike is doing is very easily putting those centerbacks off of their spot so they're either going to not make good contact with the ball or not make contact with the ball at all and then Barnsley are just right in position to scrap for those super weak headers and they got two really good chances off that exact sequence

within the last 10 minutes of their last win, they scored a goal off one of them. And that's really like the entire strategy. Like it's not any more complicated than that. And it's not elegant, but it is super effective. There just aren't many players who can push centerbacks around.

Right. DK's the guy doing it. And I would say, you know, when he does get the ball at his feet, he looks okay to me. You know, he's able to find somebody's feet. That's why I think the Novakovich comparison, like, still holds up because when it gets to their feet,

like they still are fairly, like dainty with it surprisingly like good footwork around the ball and can hit a decent finesse or touch pass. They're not necessarily with the ball at their feet. They don't become like bowls and china shops like pretty pretty tidy, pretty technical.

Yeah. And we saw that in MLS too. I didn't know how it translate to Barnsley. Also more impressive that he's doing it on the horrendous field that Barnsley play on, which I assume they play on by design because of their high pressing style. Like they want the field to be terrible so teams have a hard time playing around them.

Just to increase the chaos. Yeah. So it's weird to feel excited about a striker who hasn't even taken a shot yet in league play and has only connected nine passes. But here we are. And I think there's a decent rationale for it. So here's the question about D.K. for me is how does a player like this going to fit into Greg Burrhalter's plans? Is there like a plan B?

where he is the guy or is he going to have to is he going to have to imitate Jesus Ferreira every time he comes to a national team camp you know my initial thought is that there probably is not a spot for him unless he becomes you know good at all the other things too and he might he might be that I don't know you know again it could just be with Barnsley there this is clearly the best way to use him but I don't know that you would carry a striker on your roster for a very specific style of play that you don't really plan on employing.

All right. So you're going to put D.K. in and be like, okay, everything that we've been doing for now, scrap it, and we're going to launch the ball up to Daryl, and we're going to go after the second ball. Like, I just don't know that that's, you know, we haven't seen, I don't know if this is related or not, but we haven't seen Novakovich get a call up, even though he's been in decent form off and on in Italy.

we had the European camp where he could have easily, you know, play. So to answer you, I don't know. I don't expect D.K. to be an immediate part of the plans, to be honest. Kind of harsh on him, but, again, I won't be surprised if he's on the call-up list for a European friendly in March. But I just don't know how if it would be worth it to change everything that we're doing with everyone else to put D.K. on the field and play that way.

Yeah, I'm not sure how to articulate this, but I'm not, are we really doing that much with everyone else, you know? I mean, is it really that intricate and complicated that we have to, we can't just say like, hey, I mean, I think of the, I think of the, the Gold Cup final against Mexico, you know, 30, that was like 30 years ago. But, but it was like, you know, our best chance of the game came, came from just lumping it up. best chances of the game came both in the first 10 minutes from lumping the ball up to Josie Altador. And, you know, I imagine when we play Mexico, you know, best laid plans and all, but we're going to, we're going to end up trying to get goals however we can, you know? So, so that's the real question, right? So would you, because if you're going to, if you're going to do it, then are you going to start

the game against Mexico with Darrell Dike as your striker and be like, guys, we're just going to, the ball's going up and we're going to play off of him and go for it. go for it off of, you know, an old school target man that we run off of. I'm not saying we're not going to, but that would be the, that would be the rationale for putting them if you're not going to do that, like, I don't think you put them on your roster. But if you're, if you're going to, like, commit to playing that way for a game or for 30 minutes at the end of a game, then, yes, he makes complete sense. Yeah, maybe 30 minutes at the end of a game is when it makes the most sense, you know,

especially if you're, I don't know, if you're, like, absorbing a lot of pressure or, um, Or maybe even chasing a goal. So, I'm not trying to derail like the DK hype train. Because I know there are a lot of people who are super excited about him. And I think he's going to keep having a lot of success, Barnsley. I'm just really not sure that it will turn into a good fit for what we're trying to do with the national team. Yeah, it makes sense. Well, you're saying it makes sense.

I do wonder if it's like, you know, it's going to meet up with pragmatic reality and it's just going to be like, okay. We'll throw him out there and see what happens. Christian Pulisix knows how to run off a target striker. He does. He sure does. He sure does. Let's move on to his D.K. Center Forward colleague at Verda Bremen. Joshua Sargent continues to more or less struggle, I think, it's fair to say.

You got any high-level thoughts on him at the moment? No, I feel like it's the same story. He's been in the process of turning the corner. for the last two and a half years. Like a hamster in a wheel. He got an assist in the Pocall a couple weeks ago and missed some big chances in that match. He just doesn't look great.

In a zero-zero-zero draw with Freiburg last weekend, he gave the ball away repeatedly and his movement was characteristically kind of dull. I noticed one time where there was a ball, the ball went down into the corner, and it was kind of floated into the box, and somebody was running at the near post, to meet it and and sergeant was just standing like on the left side of the box watching.

I'm like there's a huge pocket of space right in front of the goal that you should be running into in case the ball falls there and you're just standing there watching it. I'm just spells, I'm just laughing because it's like it's at this point you're like the dad who's just watching his teenage son make make poor decisions and you're like, come on, you got to you just got to want this a little bit. I can't do it for you Joshua. I know. Yeah, I mean, I probably sound a little mean, but I don't know. I don't know. He has some good tools as a soccer player, decent technique, passing vision, and the ability to strike the ball hard on frame. But we're just going to have to stay patient with him. It's totally a waiting game. And for me, the waiting game isn't, again, I'm not really waiting for him to like turn this corner. One, I don't know that he's like, he's clearly not like an elite, elite striker right now, which is fine. But two, his team isn't going to turn a corner and start just playing soon. fluid attacking soccer that results in, you know, him getting five shots a game.

Like we're feeding on scraps here and we're going to keep feeding on scraps. And so for me, the waiting game is just to see what he looks like in a U.S. jersey. So it's to see if whatever his skill set is thrown into the U.S. system with U.S. players who at this point are of a higher caliber than his teammates at Verde Bremann, in my opinion, to see what he looks like there. and me just sort of remaining optimistic that he will feast a little bit on better morsels

than the scraps he's getting currently in the Bundesliga. Yeah, I mean, he fits the profile of what Burhalter wants more clearly than D.K. does, but... Did I see some rumors that Florian Coffelt was in the hunt for the Muncheng Gladbach job? There are definitely a lot of

rumors. What kind of ass backward? That would blow. That would be the biggest mind blower of all moves for me. And here I thought Germany was a meritocracy. Yeah, looks like trench warfare for sergeant out there. And we'll see what happens. Brendan Aronson.

Been saucy. Been saucy at Salzburg. I think he makes a lot of quick decisions in the attack, which I like. Looks very confident. Even in the loss on earlier this week against Villarreal, that was yesterday, I guess. He was involved in creating a few chances. He did come off in the 62nd minute of a two-zero loss. But I thought most important to me, he looked comfortable and effective against a La Liga opponent, which is, you know, it's good because it's a little tricky to gauge him next to.

Yeah, yeah. This is a game. Yeah, these are the games we're waiting to really like, I mean, we're probably going to over. emphasize the magnifying glass on these games. But I thought it was a little bit mixed, but that's fine. Again, it's going to be mixed in these games. Even if he's doing well, it will still be mixed because it's a good team he's playing against. I thought he wasn't super effective when they were actually building.

So when they were possessing against a set defense, I didn't think he was super effective. He didn't stand out as necessarily like poor or bad. just he didn't do it a ton which is again which is fine i'm not i'm not saying he needs to be able to unlock vr el whenever he wants to uh but but the the the money he's making is on that press and his immediate decision on like winning a ball or in transition and and he did have that great uh ball where that sequence where he pounced on a loose touch from vrale in there in salzberg's attacking third and instantly um had the map of the field and the technique to put a guy in on goal and it didn't come in it didn't turn into anything but that's what it is all that hard

work he's doing and all the chasing that Salzberg do is you know a lot of times for nothing but then the one time that there is that loose touch he was there he pounced on it made the right decision and that was probably one of Salisberg's best chances so that's what we're hoping to see especially in these games where they might be more the underdog and then I'm hoping to see more of the you know, the good stuff in the actual, like, more full-blown possession, probably in the league play. Yeah. The really nice goals from a tight angle on the left. Yeah, there was almost a dog so shout on that, on that ball he put in, a guy, a time he put his teammate in on goal.

Coolkeeper came out and claimed it, but it was close to being a goal for sure. Yeah, I mean, that's, I guess that's all there is to say on. Arendson, is he moved up from tier three to tier two for you? Would you feel comfortable for him with him starting in a tough World Cup qualifier? Yeah, I probably would. And it's as much for the, it's exactly for that. It's for the press. Like, I still don't think that he's necessarily going to be the right guy driving our possession forward.

But I think he'd be fine at it in those spots. But in the press, he offers a lot. And I think that's going to be, you know, that will create a lot of chances of its own. So it's like that tradeoff. Well, we'll get a lot in the press. It might be a little bit of a downgrade. It's not going to be, he's not going to be terrible in possession. He's not going to be a huge liability or anything.

But I think he might be a little bit of a let down from some of the other guys we have there on that side. So one question that naturally arises here is why are we talking about Brennan Aronson, but not Eric Palmer Brown. They're both in Austria. they're both promising, I guess you could say, young players. And I would say, I think the answer to that is simply, Aronson has a more favorable situation because he plays for a club that has sold 10 players to big five clubs since 2019.

R.B. Salisburg's transfer business has been remarkable. And, you know, you can think of a certain very tall, blonde Norwegian player who came from there. And then a guy at Liverpool, and, you know, there's a lot of examples. So that's the big difference. And I do watch also that Erinson is playing in Europa League, maybe not for much longer, but he's playing there.

And I do watch some Palmer Brown. I think you have watched some too. And he just looks kind of average to me. He's doing fine, but he's not breaking lines with his passing. And he doesn't look 100% comfortable in possession. He is better in the air than McKenzie or Richards. There we go. But it's just hard to evaluate him where he is right now.

It's really hard. And it's going to be hard for him to distinguish himself aside from just starting to really be like this, essentially from turning into the John Brooks of the Austrian Bundesliga where he's putting passes on a dime wherever he wants, whenever he wants. Otherwise, it will just be really hard for him to break through in that crowded centerback pool. Yeah. Okay. others. There's a few others before we get out of here. Do want to talk about Reganon for a second.

I don't think he's, I don't think I don't view him as somebody who's like on the cusp of becoming a tier one player. I may have thought that a year ago, but I don't anymore. And, you know, he's had his struggles at Boa Vista Club that is, that is now 17th in the table so that it's progress. They were bottom table a week ago. He was, he went the distance in a two-two draw. against Porto, who, as you may know, beat Juventus earlier this week. This happened last weekend.

And he did play two good crosses in the first half hour, but I'm not sure I see anything in the performance that changes the overall evaluation of him. He looks like a professional right back. And nothing really special about the way he's playing right now. So I thought that was a really good game. I don't know if it changes the overall evaluation because I think we still have him fairly highly rated. It's not like I don't think our evaluation or assessments of him have dropped significantly. Mine is maybe a little bit. But you've always been more of a skeptic than me on Canon.

Exactly. So I feel like the narrative maybe is roller coastered around where I'm kind of sitting like, yeah, no, Reggie Cannon's, he's all right. He's in that. We have him in the tier where if he had to start a World Cup qualifier because death isn't available, totally fine with that. Not like Reggie Cannon's going to win this game for us, but I'm totally comfortable with him playing. So, yeah, I think maybe you're underselling his game against Porto. I thought he did very well.

But it's not another question that he would have a game like that. So I get it. I don't think we really differ that much on where we stand on Reggie. Yeah, yeah. I was just kind of moving my head back and forth in a sort of. committal, non-committal way. It's positive that he contributed to, like, what's a pretty big result for his club, I think, getting a draw against Porto.

Those two crosses, by the way, took outrageous saves from goalkeepers to not be two assists. It also, they also took two very good technical finishing attempts from his teammate. I think it was the same guy both times. Yeah, it was both, like, scissor kicks at, like, the belly button level. I mean, scissor kicks probably not the right way to describe it, but volleys. at waist high balls, which is pretty difficult. All right, but yeah, let's move on. Let's move on.

Speaking of being difficult, I wanted to say earlier when we were talking about aerial prowess, you know, I've played a lot of soccer in my life. I'm terrible in the air. Terrible, terrible. I got yelled at so hard by one of my teammates for like just a trash aerial challenge in a regional tournament. Not a regional tournament. I love that this has stuck with you, Bells,

because we're not young men anymore. No, but it was pretty bad. It was like a windy day, and I went up for it, and it just like, I hit the back of my head and then it became a perfect through ball down the line for the other team. Ty, my good buddy, was like, Bills! I'm telling you, we literally do just take for granted

that when the ball's up in the air like that, the centerback, It's planted and just heads it right back up field. No problem. It's not easy, yeah. And then Anthony Robinson. He's been dropped from the 11 for Fulham. What's going on?

So I think they might have shifted into like a back four from their normal three-man back line. And so maybe they think there's just a better fit. He came into the game for 10 minutes over the weekend, or over the midweek, I should say. And wasn't great in those 10 minutes. So if there are any body language, interpreters out there his in that game won't change your mind about what you thought about him before

just kind of like frenetic so nothing really up or down for him in that in that game but I'm not sure I'm not sure what's going on there if he's if he's sort of been bypassed or if it's just a short term thing we'll just have to keep watching yeah okay I mean you know

crazy how two months ago he was the best player in the Premier League and now he's I know. It's the same thing. I don't think my opinion of them has really changed, but man, the roller coasters. We'll check in on the Swansea boys real quick.

Morris and Ariola are both now seem to be contributors for Swansea. In league games, they kind of get off the bench. Still waiting on either of them to really have like a big, big moment. But they look, it kind of reminds me a D.K.,

they look like good fits for where they are, like just really in for the scrap. Mm-hmm. So. It is, it is, I mean, it is interesting that Morris hasn't really hasn't made more of an impact yet. It's tough pill to swallow for Don Garber. I think he's played like 150 minutes in most of them were against Man City. Yeah, in a cup match that there's like no chance of them winning.

But okay. And then the other ones to watch Ferreira, Pommacall, Reynolds, not playing right now, so nothing really to watch. I do want to mention you. I was listening to Palm Calls interview with one goal earlier today. And it reminded me of this. This is a funny story that you will appreciate, I think. I was at, so some friends of ours, a friend of ours started this thing called 999, a hot dog and beer consumption contest where you have to consume nine of each hot dog and a beer

in a nine-inning baseball game. And I, you know, I got roped into it in my late. late 20s. This is Sabres, you know. Yeah. And, and, um, they do more things in Kansas City. Right. Well, this started in Cedar Falls, University of Northern Iowa, but it migrated to Kansas

city. And it was, it was in West Des Moines one time. And I, I was like, I was there. I was, I digress, but I was winning the competition. And, um, and I was talking to somebody who worked with Palmacall's dad. This was like. I don't know, six months before, like the summer before the 2019 World Cup. So it's probably 2018.

And the guy was like, what do you think of Paxon, Pomecault? And I was like, ah, man, I don't think he's going to be that good. You know, he's a lot of hype about him, but he's like, I don't really see it. And I, and the guy was like, what hot dog were you on? What hot dog and beer were you on at this point? I think I was done just like, just like doing a victory lap. Okay, you were in the clubhouse. Just nine hot dogs deep.

Yeah, man, I may be small in stature, but I have the stomach of a carnivorous hippopotamus. A much larger man. Yeah. And funny enough, you know, I remembered that. I remembered how, like, I sort of poo-pooed Pomacall to a friend of his dad. You know, it's like, what are my manners? And I was just trying to show how much I knew about stuff. And then, of course, Pomacall ended up being really good in the U-20 World Cup and good for Dallas.

And I like right before we left Minneapolis the summer last summer so 2020 We're like my wife and I are going down the street on like those little birds you know those scooters And this car pulls up to us with like a bunch of the guys from that weekend including the guy who worked with pomacall's dad and I was like we were like they were both like leaving it the light turned green and we're just like yeah what's up and I said I was wrong about pomacall I shouted it into the into the window of the car And I think he was like, oh, man, I remember that. And then they were gone. But I felt like I closed the loop. That would have hung over you.

You never would have been like your rosebud. Oh, man, my scarlet letter. So, you know, just a little personal story from bells there. Greg's so. Greg's so embarrassed right now. It was no battleship. It was no bells on the battleship. It was still pretty amazing.

It's all true. It's all true, too. So, Mr. Pommackal, if you're out there listening. Yeah, he works for like some reinsurance company or something. You know, Des Moines has a lot of that kind of thing going on. All right. Anything else? You got any stories to tell? I think I'm good. Well, I'll do story time next hour. All right. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.