Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 75: U20 World Cup — USA v Nigeria review with Daryl Grove

Episode Date: May 27, 2019

The U.S. faced Nigeria in a game that was, if not must-win, at least a must-draw. The Total Soccer Show's Daryl Grove, a great friend of Scuffed since the beginning, took time to join Belz to break down the match. No spoilers here. Check out the Total Soccer Show if you aren't already a listener: https://www.totalsoccershow.com/ They're on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/TotalSoccerShow?lang=en And Scuffed does have a Patreon. We are always excited to add more pledges and are working toward a goal of 200 patrons, at which point we will do a run of rad Scuffed t-shirts: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed 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. Hey everyone, 2-0. The U.S. wins. The U-20s needed a result today, and they got it over Nigeria and a game full of encouragement, for me at least. Joining me to break it down is a very special guest, Darrell Grove. He's the godfather of scuffed because he promoted it before anyone else knew it existed. he's the most likable man in the American soccer media landscape. I say that without irony and a sneakily engaged and perceptive follower of the U.S. youth national teams. I don't think there are very many people who know as much about the young player pool as he does. Daryl, thanks for joining me.

Thank you. That was quite an intro. I would only say I know so much about the player pool because I listened to scuff. That's not true. You knew about it before scuffed existed. Well, I'm also on Twitter. So there's that as well. I'll also say if I'm the godfather of scuff,

then someday, Adam, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me. But until that day, accept this podcast appearance as a gift on our under 20 teams winning day. Gift accepted. 100%. All right. Before we talk about tabs lineup, let's just briefly discuss. I know you and Taylor did a Ukraine review, but let's briefly discuss what happened last Friday, or not even what happened last Friday, but what adjustments you thought maybe needed to be made.

before this game. So yeah, weirdly, I kind of feel like the team that Tab sent out against Ukraine probably would have been in this Nigeria team. I think I'm pretty confident in that. So my reservations after the Ukraine game were mostly about the lineup and the sort of style that was selected to go against Ukraine, if that makes sense. Because I really felt like the essentially, I think 5-4-1 is a fair description of what Ukraine did, right?

They bunkered. And they were ready to sort of counterattack through long balls to the number. number nine. And then suddenly the US is this possession team that has to break a team down. And it almost felt like we'd been accelerated too far into the future. You know what I'm saying? Like we were suddenly with this possession team and we're up against this Eastern European bunker team. Have you seen it? Did you watch Star Trek the next generation? No, I didn't. Oh, well, there's an episode where this guy called Q propels the enterprise like many years to face this enemy that they've never faced before and his way too advanced as the Borg. The Borg is what

they're called. It's too advanced for them to face. And I kind of felt like that was the Ukraine challenge against a US team trying to play possession football. Whereas Nigeria, more open, so it's easier. Right. It's like we weren't used to that. We weren't used to being the protagonist that way. Right. We're the bunker team, right? What's going on here? Right. So on one hand, it was really encouraging for us to be the one taking the game to the, you know, very respectable European opponent. Yeah. But on the other hand, it was kind of, I don't know, was it a naive performance. I don't even know. It was two, two defensive errors and Timmy Wea playing the nine when he had. That's the problem, right? Timmy Waye playing the night, I think was the problem because

I think when you're up against a bunker team, you need a striker that you can just like lay it into and he lays it off as opposed to a striker that wants to turn and go at people. So I think that was the mistake. And then I talked to Taylor earlier about this. I felt like Paxton Pamakell's versatility was almost abused by Tabramas in that game by having him play multiple positions. So I guess the obvious answers are I would prefer to see Soto at the 9, way out wide and Pomacol play Central, which is exactly what we got against Nigeria. Yep, exactly what we're.

That was the only change in the lineup, as it turned out. Yes. Okay. So, I mean, I think I said on Twitter beforehand, and I think other people have said it, they wanted to see those changes made, and those were the changes that were made. I guess there were other changes that you could argue should have been made,

but none of them was, at least for me, none of them was a deal breaker. Was there anything else you would have liked to see? No, I was happy with the changes that were made, but I'm intrigued by what the other changes could have been, the other changes you're referring to? Well, I would have liked to see Yanez on the wing, and I know that I'm kind of in the minority on that,

but I still don't see Wea beating anybody, you know, or creating goals for other people. I mean, obviously, he had the assist against Ukraine. But I would have liked to see Yanez. I think he brings something that way it doesn't. And my idea was if Yanaz isn't getting it done, if we can't break them down for the first hour, bring way on to run at tired legs.

Right. Can I guess that you would have liked to see Richel dezma as well? Of course, I always want to see Richel dezma. But I understand why, you know, if Mendezza and Pomacall are the guys, then men isn't pomacal are the guys. I'm not going to tilt at windmills on that one. You know what I mean?

The other possibility. It's a good problem to have, to have too many creative midfielders. Yeah, I mean, hopefully we'll get to see Richie and Uli on, what is it, Thursday. Yes, Thursday. It's because I hadn't thought about that. Yeah, we might get to see some of these sort of non-first choice guys get a runout. That might be exciting. Yeah, I think it would be exciting.

Who knows? Ramos has played the same 14 guys for all the minutes, I think. It's right, yeah. And then the other possibility was Julian O'Raho. But right back, I thought that, I thought, I knew it wasn't going to happen. I knew Dest was going to start again. But I thought Dest got picked on a little bit by Ukraine. He did.

He was wrong side for that first goal, right? And then the attempt to get across was not impressive. No. I think he tried to be physical and get across and couldn't quite make it. That's right. And I would say, again, he struggled a little bit with the physicality of Nigeria today. Yeah. particularly in possession.

I don't think he got, not that I noticed, did he get beat badly ever? So the only things I saw, no one went past him that I'm aware of, and I thought he was actually good just building play out of the back and maybe just finding Delafonte

or finding passes into central midfield. But the thing I noticed, which goes along with the Ukraine goal, is he was really susceptible to just long diagonal balls. He would often lose that header or he would sort of get there, but it would be a really,

really weak header. I even, I actually think the, the Chris Richards injury is slightly a result of a weird Stegino Desd header. He, he gets, like, just manages to get there, but nods it down. And then he creates this weird 50-50 ball between, who's number 20? Tijani and Chris Richards. And Richard has to slide in to get that foot in, and that's where Richard gets injured. So I, I think that is a weakness of desks, but it's kind of a weakness of all short fallbacks, right? Is that you're going to get beaten the air a lot? Right. Yeah. And there's no question that Dest We can build out of the back through desks in ways in ways that few American fullbacks of any time have been able to do. True.

Yeah. I just think like Araho's not going to get beat, I don't think. He's just a really good defender. He's not going to get beat and he's not going to lose those headers. He's going to thump it exactly where he wants to play it. Anyway, those were the other two possibilities I could think of. All right. So we came out.

I thought we looked pretty good, right? Did you? Yeah. What were your early observations? Yeah. So Ukraine, obviously, except for that five minutes, about at the start the second off, Ukraine sat back and said, try and break us down and we'll hit you on the counter. Whereas Nigeria, they came out at us.

I think there was something of a press, right? You often saw three or four guys challenging U.S. defenders when they had the ball. And so they were a lot more spread out. And we just had lots of space to pass and move. And you've still got to pass and move and make it happen. but what I really liked were the US sort of positional rotations and everybody moving around. And it seemed like there was always an open man, which is partly Nigeria's fault, but it's more what the US is doing with the midfielder and the fallbacks and the winger's

and always making sure somebody's available. So that's the thing I was most excited about the performance, especially in the first half. Yeah, we have the horses to play that kind of game if somebody wants to come at us, right? I mean, Dirk and Mendez and Pomacall are all very comfortable on the ball, very comfortable passing to each other and others. So you go ahead, go ahead. I was going to say, I found it aesthetically appealing that Durkin, Mendez, and Polmacow were wearing six, eight, and ten, and sort of did the traditional Durkin at the

six, proper number six, holding midfielder, Mendez, back and forth is the eight, and Pomacal more like slightly ahead of Mendez and a bit more of a free role. It just felt like if you wanted to demonstrate what a six and eight and a ten is, this would be a perfect game to show this U.S. midfield and say, hey, this is what it looks like. Yep, including the shirt numbers for sure. Yes, brilliant. So your sense was Nigeria was pressing us to start at least. Yeah.

Not, I mean, not particularly successfully, but they were at least sending numbers forward to challenges higher up the field. And then did they more or less stick with that throughout the game as far as you can tell? Yes, they never really, they never really collapsed backwards. The only thing they did, I saw their coach moving his hands close together, which is the sort of international gesture for be a bit more narrow. So I think he didn't want them spread so far wide. but they were always like challenge at least putting some pressure on uh richards um and and kater and i think

uh chris durkin as well although i actually think i know if you want to get into this yet or not but i've got this big theory that the number eight deli boucher who's one of their most famous players right it's place from manchester city um he was famous somewhat famously subbed out in the 31st minute i think because he wasn't doing his job of marking chris durkin and number 10 o'con came on and did mark chris durkin so i really think there was a plan to mark chris durkin and Deli Bashiro just didn't do it to begin with. I went back and rewatched. Some of his teammates were marking him,

and they were gesturing to Deli Bishiro. You should be doing this, come and do this. That is a great spot, Daryl. I wonder if, I wonder if Deli Bichiro just texted PEP and was like, should I do this or should I not? Well, so I'd never seen him play before. Did you watch, you saw some of Nigeria against Qatar, right? Yeah, he was their best player by far, I thought.

So my guess is that he's more of an attacking midfielder type guy and wasn't all that interested maybe in Mark and Chris Durkin and was more interested in being available to receive the ball and go at the US. Yeah, I guess I saw him as more of like a slightly more advanced Tyler Adams type. Like he was buzzing around, winning the ball against Qatar and finding people's feet. Maybe a little more of an attacking midfielder. And then he scored, I think he scored their third goal against Qatar. It was very well taken outside of the boot finish, not unloading. like Sebastian Soto's today. Oh, and actually that's a good point because what I did see with Deli Bichiro,

it's not that he was lazy and just wasn't marking Durkin, was just standing away and waiting for the ball. What he was doing was going and pressuring other people who weren't Chris Durkin. So he would chase down Richards or he would chase down Dest. And then someone else would, you'd see them shuffle over and Mark Durkin. And then gesture to him, hey, come back and do your job. Which speaks to the importance of Chris Durkin, which maybe we don't necessarily think about as US fans.

But it seems that other teams have identified him as, Hey, he's the pivot. It all goes through him. Maybe we should mark him. Yeah. Interesting. I mean, one thing I really liked about the way the U.S. played today is that Mendez and Pomacal both on occasion would drop deep to receive the ball. And even though Durkin is a good passer, obviously, I like it when Mendez is on the ball deep because he just, you know, he can find anybody and he hits a perfect pass almost.

I mean, in the first half, he played almost flawlessly on the ball. Yeah, Durkin's more like a long-range bomber, whereas Mendez, when he comes in, comes deep and gets the ball, it's a bit more like some sort of surgeon, right? You know, something maybe small and fast is going to happen in terms of passes, but it's going to, something more dangerous, I think, or less obvious is going to happen when Mendez comes and receives the ball. It's a good way to put it, less obvious and more dangerous, yeah. Okay, so I've noted a couple of things here that I thought were interesting. like the Mendez to Wea connection really seemed like it was on early in the game, first 20 minutes or so. There was a delightful ball from Mendez to Wea. Weir kind of dribbled into a mess.

Another time where he, Pomacall hit Conrad in behind in the ninth minute, who slid it across to Soto at the near post, but Soto couldn't quite finish the chance. Yeah, I love both those connections, yeah. Yeah, there was, and there was, I mean, later in the game, there was a Mendez ball to Wea that Wea brought down. and like clipped it over the guy next to him and had it on the half volley. He hit it well over, but that was a good, solid chance. My favorite of all of those was the 21st minute one

where it's Mendez receives the ball in midfield. I don't know what he does, but he goes on like a little surprise slalom run to open up a bit of space. You know the one I'm talking about? And then he does what I always think of as the Biscuits move where his hips are saying, I'm playing this ball wide.

Yep. But he actually ends up playing like a quite like direct ball instead of spraying it wide, it slices between either two centerbacks or a center back and a fullback. And it essentially puts Tim Weyer in on goal, right? Because Weyer takes that interior touch and accelerates towards goal. I think forces a save in a corner, right? That's right.

Yeah. That was, I mean, that was the most beautiful of them all. Kind of vintage Mendez, really, in my opinion. Should Weev slip that one across to Soto once he was in, you think? You know, I rewatched with that question in mind. And I think Soto never quite catches up. to be available. He's marked by number six, whose name is hard to pronounce, but I'm going to try. It's Ozone Wafour, number six, the centreback for Nigeria. Yeah, I think you got it right too. And Soto has

started a little deeper because he's come and he's shown for the ball. So he's like, you know, 10 yards or more behind Tim Weyer. And when Tim Weir takes off, it's hard to catch him, right, whether you're a defender or a teammate. So by the time Soto has sort of got into the box, he's still marked by number six. And I don't think he ever becomes available for Weyer to ease find him. Plus, we do know Tim Weyer is always going to goal, right? So I don't know if I'm Sebastian Soto, I wouldn't have been expecting that ball to come to me. No, yeah, it would have been, at a minimum, it would have been incredible vision from Waya to spot Soto through that crowd of bodies. But the shot was deflected. I mean, the keeper made

a pretty nice save on it and it just deflected just wide. I would say way it earned the right to take that shot because he really did the sharp work of just getting in on goal really fast. Like he made what essentially was a ball that put him down the wing into a ball that put him one-on-one with the keeper. So I think maybe he earns the right to take the shot there. Sure. Yeah. And to me it showed that how much better way is making runs from a wide position into the, in towards the center of the goal. Yeah.

It may be just a problem that was unique to a bunkered opponent like Ukraine, you know, his inability to really get anything going. But I'm inclined to think, like just in general, waya is better. running from the wing towards the goal than he is, you know, trying to run from the center of the field towards the corner flag or whatever you do as a true number nine. I'm 100% with you on that as well. Do you have any idea why Sebastian Soto didn't start the Ukraine game? Like, was there any injury reason or anything like that? Or do we think way it was just preferred? Probably way I was preferred, but maybe Tav's just reading all the Twitter comments about how way as a nine, you know? That must be it. You did a Twitter pop and that's how

That's how he chose it. He ran a, he ran a, like, a computer program that, like, figured out how many times people said way as a nine, how many times people said way as a winger. We have our answer, folks. A word cloud. He got a word cloud. But there are a lot of people out there who think way as long-term future is as a center striker.

And just for the record, I disagree. I deagriss. It may be, right? Because he's a kid. And maybe in the future, he's a guy that develops into more of a nine. but I think right now if you're putting out a U-20 team to try and win games, I think you're better off having Tim Ware on the left wing. Right.

And it worked out today. I mean, even though Way it didn't score, he was dangerous on several occasions. But we're kind of skipping around chronologically. Let's talk about the goal, the first goal. It was in the 17th minute that something fell. I forget what built up to it. Maybe you can fill me in, but a ball fell to Mendez at the top of the box. Oh, I remember.

It was actually, so it started with a switch. Gloucester switched it to Dest. Dest plays in Delafonte. I think Delafonte does one of those moves where he puts the ball one side and runs around the other side of the defender. And he hits a cross that is overhit by a factor of like 70%.

So it's 170% of a cross. Goes way, way too deep. And I think there's a sort of not quite good enough clearance from an Nigerian player that lands with Mendez at the top of the box. Maybe skipping a step there, something else may have happened in between. but that's how Mendez gets that shot away.

That's good enough, I think. That's more than I would have bargained for. So, yeah, so, and that's what we want. We want Mendez with the ball at the top of the box. That's basically the sweet spot. Yeah, on his left foot. Let's do it, right? And he took a shot that didn't look all that dangerous,

but it was headed by a Nigerian defender up and... It was double deflected. It hit first one player and then it hit someone's head. Oh, did it? Yeah. I didn't notice the first deflection. Well, off the head, it went. it would have had the keeper basically rooted to the spot and went off the crossbar.

Yeah. And out of bounds. Corner kick. The first corner kick gets headed out of bounds by a Nigerian defender. I don't remember which one. And the second corner kick. It was my old friend. I was on before.

Okay. Yeah, he's like six foot five or something. All right. So maybe you could describe the goal. It's also on a corner kick. What happens? Yeah. So actually, I think it's really interesting that the, I think the first corner kick.

kick that Azur 1 4 heads away, we're trying the same thing that we then, but we fail because the Mendez cross isn't quite deep enough. And we succeed on the second corner kick. So I went back, you know, I'm kind of a set piece nerd. So I like to look at this stuff. What the US is doing, they've got Mendez taking it, left footed. So it's somewhat, it would be in swinging, but he kind of hits it kind of direct. So it just drives it to the far post. And we have four guys at the, I would say like the, it's not the far post, because it's not the far post, because they're outside of the six yard bucks. They're like almost in the corner of the penalty area.

And they're ready to just crash that far post or the far corner of the six yard box as Mendez drives it in. And then you have Paxton Pamukal just on the front post, like ready for like an alternative one that I saw a couple times where maybe he would flick it on or something, right? So the first corner kick that gets headed away, we try that. Everybody crashes the back post. Mendez is going for the back post. But a zone one four just gets there first and heads it out.

The second time round, something goes wrong with Nigeria's man, marking because they're doing their four defenders marking four US players at their backpost. And somehow Sebastian Soto, I think he bumps into his market and gets free. And if you notice, he ends up completely loose at the backpost for that header. He almost falls in the scramble. He almost falls down too. Yeah. Notice like he loses his balance and regains it.

And all of a sudden, there he is with nobody within three yards of him. And I wonder if part of that collision is what, I can't remember. I think it was as or one for his marking him, at least on the first corner. maybe that's how maybe that's how soto gets free is by essentially taking a hit and in the confusion he just sort of like gets up and stumbles on yeah and ends up and ends up on the end of the cross and from close range makes no mistake as sebastian sodo is want to do yeah uh it looked like it was just inside the the near post or the back post i guess is the terminology yeah um the keeper had no chance one zero USA yeah the encouraging thing for me is that it looked like we had a set piece plan and at the second attempt we absolutely pulled it off and that that set piece kind of relies on Alex Mendes's left foot which is I think is a good thing to be relying on because what he does with that like driven ball to the back post like it's not really a floater or a bender right it's just like a driven ball to the back post

that gets there pretty fast I think that's a tough skill to execute and if we can take advantage of that by having four of our big guys crash the back post we might end up with more goals like Sebastian Soto's. It was a nasty ball. It was like, had some back spin on it. It did, right? Yeah. Yeah.

What did you make of, so before we move on from here, what did you make of Soto's performance? Because obviously he scored the brace and this was one of the goals. Overall, what did you think of his game? So obviously he's finished him as impressive with the two goals. I'm sure we'll talk about the second goal later on. Yeah. I was interested in his sort of, the thing that I was saying that way I wasn't good at in the first game, his back to goal stuff.

And the thing that stands out in my mind is a couple of like attempted back hills after he receives it to try and play people in that didn't come off. Right. I'm not sure that he connects play as well as I would like him to. I also haven't seen him play all that many times, right? So I don't feel as familiar with his game as a lot of the other U-20 players. So, yeah, I feel a little bit like maybe we can be excited about his finishing, but not so much about his connecting play. But I don't want to, I don't want to lean on that too hard in case I'm wrong.

it's just that I haven't seen enough of him. Yeah. I mean, weirdly, I'm in the same spot as you because I watched a fair amount of Soto in the Development Academy before he went to Germany. But all I get from his Hanover-U-19 games is the highlights. Right. And he didn't play particularly well in November and Concaf qualifying in his, I think, two appearances. And then...

Oh, yeah, Renix was better, weirdly, right, in qualifying, which was kind of a surprise. Yes. It was. And then he didn't, you know, he didn't look awfully sharp in his, what was it, 30 minutes against Ukraine. So I more or less agree with you. I do appreciate his work rate. You know, he's, he's not lollygagging out there.

Yeah. I think Alexei Lassan, the commentary noted that as well, right? That when you're a defender, it just, it sort of warms your heart to see your center forward coming back and making tackles. Oh, yeah. He made that one really impressive track back and tackle. I don't know. I'm hopeful that I noticed the same thing as you.

I didn't think his play connecting the attack was as good as I would have liked. I think it was better than Wea. At least he's more comfortable in the role than Wea is. Yeah, that makes sense. But I'd like to see that improve his next appearance, which is hopefully, which is likely going to be against France in the round of 60. Do you know much about his injury? You know he had that.

You heard, do you him yelling about his hamstring? Yeah. after the collision. And I can't remember if he came back on eventually or if he was just held out for the rest of the game. And also, we've recorded so soon after the game that I haven't been able to see like a Tabramas quote sheet or any updates from US soccer. I'm basically wondering, do we even see Sebastian Soto again? I'm slightly concerned that maybe he's injured. Well, it was encouraging to me that he came back on the field and he did come back on.

That's good. And ran around without any apparent discomfort. But because it was scary when he was on the ground screaming, especially in that nearly empty stadium where you can hear every scream and moan. Yeah. But I think he must be okay because he came back on. He looked fine. He was running around just like before.

Let's hope so because I kind of feel like we don't have another proper number nine. Well, I think Renix can do that job. Okay. And even though, you know, I want to see Ledesma and Yanaz. and it's a little mystifying to me that Renix has been the sub off the bench in the attack in both games. Yeah. I do think he's been bright in limited minutes, you know, a lot of energy, a couple of well-connected passes. I don't think he's been all bad, and I think he could do the job at the nine.

Is it just because I've seen him on the wing a couple of times? I've started to think of him as a wide player when maybe that's unfair to him. Like maybe he can actually play that number nine. Yeah, well, he played that. nine a lot in qualifying. And I don't think he's, to me, he doesn't look that comfortable on the wing, really. Right. But it'll be, you know, be a step, I think it would be a step.

It's fair to say it would be a step down from Soto. I think. All right. How's that for certainty? There we go. All right. Later in the first half, you know, some more nice stuff between Wea and Menez. And generally, I thought the, I thought the, I thought the.

the interplay across the field was something nice to look at from the US. Yeah, there's lots of nice movement, lots of sort of one guy comes inside, so another guy goes outside. And like, I think rotation maybe is the best word for it, positional rotation, that I found quite encouraging. And especially Paxton Pomacol, I felt like kept popping up in places, but in a less predictable way than against Ukraine. And I think that made it really hard.

And made it really hard for Nigeria, but made it easy for the US to keep connecting passes all over the field. Did you notice a difference in the success the US had connecting passes after Deli Boucheru came off? I thought it was a little tougher coming out of the back because O'Conn really was marking Chris Durkin. Sorry, Chris Diskin's a guy I used to play with Chris Durkin to just make it a little harder for him to start the play. So you remember they had around the 31st minute is when they make that sub. It's actually after the US has scored, but it's rule. back, isn't it disallowed for offside maybe? Yeah, Weyer was offside on the cross, right? And it

would have been another Soto goal. That's when they make the Bishiro for Ocon's substitution. And I felt up from the 31st to about the 45th is when Nigeria do have some pressure on the US. And there was a good 10 minutes where we were just clearing it and they were getting it back and clearing it and getting it back. And things were a little nervy just towards the end of the first half. That's true. Yeah, that's true. Thanks for the reminder on that goal that was called back, because that's a little bit of a strike against Wayette, too, that he was off-sides on that. There was no reason to be off-sides there. True.

Okay, so we went into the half, having weathered a little bit of a storm, you come right out of the gate with a nice bit of combination from, well, do you want to describe the goal? You're better at that than I am. Oh, I'd love to, yeah. So the first thing that we noticed here in the studio, because I watched it with Taylor, is Nigeria don't touch the ball because the U.S. kicks off. and they never get a touch until they're picking it out of the back of the net. Oh, yeah, because it starts on the right side with desk and moves away. Yeah. So that's like just a, that's a weird achievement for a team.

I feel like to not let the other team touch the ball and end up scoring. I think the key part of this goal is I think it's Chris Gloucester pulls wide from left back. Bubukar K-T is left center back at this point, has the ball. And I think it's Tim Ware comes and drops deep to show. And the thing that I find really encouraging about the beginning of this, move is Gloucester points to Tim Weyer, which suggests to me that this whole thing is like a planned movement or a planned rotation. You know what I mean? For Weir to come in deep, Gloucester to pull wide, that space is opened up. So then K to can play it into Weyer. And then as he plays it

into Weyer, Gloucester takes off down the wing, loses his mark. Weyer takes, I think, one touch to turn and one touch to pass it to the advancing Gloucester. And then Gloucester's so far ahead of his mark that he's got room to take that first touch to the interior, right? So instead of being stuck on the wing, he can take a touch inside. And then ahead of that, there's never a camera angle that shows the full thing. But Paxton Pamukal has then pulled wide left. So in the absence of Tim Weyer being wide left, because he's come central and deep to receive that first ball, Paxton Pamukal has stretched the right back out to the left.

So Gloucester can keep going to the interior towards goal. And then, if you don't mind me going all the way with the goal, my favorite thing about this is Sebastian Soto is being marked by, once again, number six, Osama 4. and Soto waits until Gloucester has made such an advance that Azonwofor has to step out to Gloucester. That's the moment Sebastian Soto chooses to run in behind Azonwifor. And that's why it's so easy for Gloucester to just poke that ball into Soto in behind. So it's this, it was almost like clockwork, right?

It's like this perfectly timed, perfectly orchestrated machine that just happened in the space of, what, 46 seconds? I did not notice that Pommackaw swung wide. So that's, I'm glad you mentioned that because that, this is just a great example of like, if you move off the ball, good things happen. Yeah. And it's not just random movement, right? It's like in relation to Weyer coming a bit more central, Pamichael goes and takes his spot.

So it's like a constant rotation that I think makes it hard to keep up with everybody. Yeah. Well, two other things I noticed about the play, the weight of the past from Gloucester was perfect. I think he poked it. Yes. He poked it with his toe, actually. Yeah, it was delicate, right? Yeah, just perfect for, and the timing of that run and the weight of the pass were perfect.

And then I look to me like Soto made as if he was going to try to hit it with his left foot at the far post. Yeah, there was a stutter. There was a fake, right? Yeah. And that, I love to see that from an American. It's sort of a rare thing to see from a striker in that kind of moment. Made like he was going to hit it far post with his left foot, brought the goalkeeper to the ground, and then just, you know, dinked it over him with the outside of his right foot.

foot to the near post. Lovely goal all the way around. It speaks for a lot of confidence, right, to do that stutter, that fake shot. I think you really see goal scorers in top form doing that. So that makes me encourage for Soto, now that I know that he got back on the field and hopefully he's fit, that makes me really encouraged for him going forward. Yeah. I always thought he needed a goal, you know, just to get sort of his confidence up and get

going. And it seems that that sort of happened with that first half header. Do you have any other major comments about the second half? It seemed to me like the game fell apart a little bit from a U.S. perspective. Not that we were getting shelled or anything, but the midfield got less sharp as the half went on. Yeah, especially Alex Mendez, I noticed. He's normally so secure or so precise in his passing. It suddenly got really sloppy for the last 30 minutes or so.

To the point where I was kind of worried about him, I really thought that Ledesma should have come on as a like-for-like kind of guy. I know they're very different players, but he's at least similar in terms of he's a creative midfielder, right? So I would have liked to see Ledesma come on earlier for Mendez than I think who comes on? Savania comes on, right, for him eventually, which I guess is Tabramos just saying, all right, we're going to go a little more defensive. Because Savania, I guess, is more of an eight than maybe Ledma is. So I think I'd get it.

So maybe Ledesma is the sub for Pommercal in Ramos's head. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. I would have liked to see La Desma too. Do you, you know, Mendez took that knock to the back of his head. I hope that did.

Oh, yes. That coincides with sloppy passing is him getting a whack to the head, right? So I also noticed the ref didn't stop the game when that happened, which was slightly concerning. Because I feel like any head injury, you really should just stop it immediately to get treatment as fast as possible. Yeah.

I hope he's okay. I hope he didn't have like a minor concussion or something. He did, but, you know, to be fair, he was a little sloppy even before that. There was a giveaway in the 51st, minute, I think, not too long after our goal, where he was sort of coming back towards his own

goal and got kicked away from him. I think that happened before the whack to the head. Yes. Another one you're talking about, yeah, I think it did. Another injury that we should talk about is Chris Richards that you mentioned, you mentioned that it sort of started with a desk header. Yeah. But I, and also, there's something to say about this play because it, for me, at least, because it shows the thing I like about Richard's is he sees things happen before everybody else. You know, like he's... Yes. There's like, I don't know, five people closer to the ball than he is when that ball comes down.

And he is for sure the first one to get there and gets there just before Tihani, Tjani, and Tjani wax him really hard. Yeah, it's like Tijani's going... He's almost like he's shooting, right? And he ends up shooting, instead of striking the ball, he strikes Richard's calf or someone on his ankle. Yeah. Somewhere on his shin or his calf.

Yeah. Lower ankle. Yeah. I think we're in trouble if Richards is out because he's been super impressive to me. I've only seen, I don't see bits of him playing before, but what I've been really impressed with in the Ukraine game and the Nigeria game is, I mean, he can't, I'm not sure how tall. I can't decide if he's tall or not. He's listed as 6-2, and I'm not sure I'm convinced. I know if that's like a potential 6-2 or if he's actually a big guy.

Maybe it's that he's tall but not wide. It may be that just he's a bit thinner than like, like, like, like, like, he's. Like someone like McKenzie looks a bit more, a bit wider, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But the thing I really notice about Richards is speed of recognition and then literally just regular speed to get there. So he sees things before everybody and he also gets there before everybody, which is the absolute double whammy for a defender covering ground, right? Yep, exactly. And in this case, it got him hurt because he got there just a, he managed to get there just a split second before to Johnny.

But yeah, I love his, I guess, I sort of equate. speed of recognition with intelligence. So I like to talk about Richards as a really intelligent player. But yeah, we'll miss him a lot if he's hurt. And it's a timing and decision-making thing as well, right? Because you can see something happening and you can be fast enough to get there. But he still then has this weird ability to like time a slide tackle that I feel like a lot of other defenders making would be dangerous.

But Richard's always gets there first and his tackle is clean, even at risk to his own body. Yeah. Yeah, totally agree. I love the way he plays. I guess you're a centerback too, so you know all about that stuff. Yeah, I'm in awe of Richard doing that stuff, especially as I get slower. He seems to get faster. It's not fair.

So McKenzie came on for him. We should probably talk about that and almost immediately got called for a penalty for a clumsy challenge. So that's sort of a warning shot for all of our emotional psyches heading into the next game. I think it's tough to be a center. back and come into a game because the back four relationship has already been established. So you always feel, because I've done this a couple of times, and you always feel a little bit weirdly out of place and hard to get up to, it's hard to get up to speed with things. So I'd give McKenzie a bit of a pass on that.

And just the idea that he's, I think he's coming back from some sort of injury, right? Isn't that the reason he didn't start the first game? Because I'm assuming the preferred partnership is McKenzie and Richards. And unfortunately for Rubikarkega, that would leave him out of the team. this penalty, I actually think McKenzie is trying to cover for Sajino Dest. This is another one where it's a long ball. Again, it's a penalty that is eventually overturned because there's a Nigerian player offside, right?

So VAR overturns it. But there's a ball that goes in. And I think McKenzie either recognizes or decides that Dest isn't going to win the header and kind of takes it over for him. And I think that's how they end up with the problem, is that you end up with McKenzie and Dest both trying to challenge. the same player. I think it was number 14, Michael. Yeah, Kingsley Michael.

That's why it gets kind of clumsy and tangled up is because I think there's two US players there. And I think it's because McKenzie was trying to do Desk's job for him. I didn't notice that Dest was, you know, sort of culpable for that. Interesting. I mean, he's not, so I think it's like, Dest doesn't do anything, but I think maybe having watched Desk play throughout the game, McKenzie might have been thinking, oh, he might not win that. I better go help him. You know what I'm saying? Well, and he didn't win it. I mean, the ball was bouncing away with the Nigerian attacker closest to it.

Yes, exactly. So it's not a good decision by McKenzie, I don't think. He might have been better just letting Desch challenge for the header and see what happens. And then, yeah, I think Alexei Alice noted that Michael does a good job of sort of, instead of just chasing after the ball at a sort of like a regular straight angle to the ball, in which case McKenzie would have got there first, Michael does a good job of just turning himself into McKenzie to almost absorb the tackle and make it look more like a foul. So I think he just did a good job of that.

Are you even sure it was a foul? Because McKenzie did get the ball. Not 100%. Yeah. Yeah, not 100%. I think that's one of those ones that really could have gone either way. And I've watched it, like, I rewain my own DVR and watched a few times and I watched the VAR go over it multiple times. And I'm still not sure.

I wish I could come on your podcast and have a strong take about it because I know that's a better way to go. but I really just don't. I'm very confused. It's understandable why the whistle was blown in a penalty call, I guess, is how I get it. Yeah. And few, it was called off because Michael was offside to begin with. We got lucky, right? Because that was 60-somethingth minute.

The game could have really turned at that point. Yes, yeah, very lucky. But as it turned out, I don't think Nigeria really threatened seriously after that. I mean, maybe once or twice. A few long shots here and there, but I think, Brady Scott was just equal to them, so no worries. Yeah, okay. That's basically the game.

I mean, there was like a 10 minutes, 10 minutes of stoppage time. How much do you think, so some sort of big picture questions, how much do you think our success today was a result of better tactics slash personnel and how much was the result of Nigeria just not being as good as Ukraine? I think it's a little from column A, a little from column B. I think our personal tactics were more suited to take on this Nigeria team than our personal tactics selected for the Ukraine game were suited to the Ukraine game. But I'd almost say that the team selected to play Nigeria also would have done better against

the Ukraine. So I guess maybe personnel and tactics is the key here. Yeah. Because you earlier said, and I agreed with you that the team that was selected to play Ukraine probably would have beaten Nigeria. Yes. I think that. I still think that.

But also the team that was selected to play Nigeria would have done better against Ukraine than the team that was selected to play against Ukraine. Hope everybody's tracking. Which all of which it all tracks, but it's just a weird tangle, right? Yeah. And I also think Nigeria did, I think I said this at the top. Nigeria played into the US's hands a little bit by coming out and trying to pressure us, which opens up space that can then be exploited.

So, like, if I was the Nigerian coach and I could redo this game, I think I would play 5-4-1 and see if I could bunker and counter on the US. Yeah. Maybe their coach whose name escapes me at the moment is just like Tab Ramos. And he says, we're going to go out and we're going to play our game. And if we lose, we lose. And maybe that's an okay approach for under 20s. You know what I mean?

Like maybe part of the thing is just to have a team that plays a style and you will learn it the best you can and then you go out and play. Like I never know how seriously to take a U-20 World Cup in terms of should the coach be chopping and changing and, you know, like trying to win every. every game, even if it's like asking players to do the things that they haven't been working on for a few years? Or should they just stick to the plan? Because even, I didn't watch the game, but did Ukraine go out in a 5-4-1 against Qatar? They did. I mean, they weren't quite as compact as they were against us, but they, they were pretty cautious, you know. They didn't change up their whole thing just because they knew they'd be the better team. They still went and bunkered and, or at least like had that same shape. Yeah, they did. And

Qatar did have plenty of possession, you know, up to like up to like maybe the middle, the attacking third line. And then once it got beyond that, the Ukraine started snuff and stuff out. Right. Well, so if we, so if we can beat Qatar on Thursday and Nigeria beats Ukraine, if we can beat Qatar by two goals and Nigeria beats Ukraine by one goal, then we win the group. Do you think, having watched both these teams play, do you think Nigeria can beat Ukraine? No.

I think Nigeria will possibly play into Ukraine's hands and Ukraine will hit them on the counter. Yeah, that's my feeling too. That would be if I had to bet money on it, that's what I do. I don't think it's impossible, right? Nigeria is not so far behind Ukraine that they can't make something happen. But if I was a betting man, which I'm not, I wouldn't be putting money on Nigeria to beat Ukraine. Yeah. So the most likely outcome, I agree with you.

I don't see Nigeria beating Ukraine. I mean, like you said, it could happen. But so the most likely outcome is Ukraine beats Nigeria or gets a draw. In either case, in either case, Ukraine wins the group. Right. And we end up saying it. If we beat Qatar and Nigeria draw with Ukraine, we could take second place, right? And if Ukraine beats Nigeria and we beat Qatar, then we can take second place.

So it's in our hands mostly. Yeah. The thing about second place, though, is it means we likely will play France in the round of 16. Bring them on, I say. Let's do it. Okay. Let's do it. All right.

Now that that math has worked out, let's talk about some of the players. What do you're, you're in Chris Durkin's neighborhood over there in Virginia. Yeah. What did you make of his performance today and, you know, in relation also to the Ukraine performance? I think he moved the ball a lot faster, but there was more space to move the ball into. So that was encouraging, at least. I think it looked more like things went through him and that was the plan and it worked for the team, which makes him kind of central and important.

I also think he hit a lot of diagonals that found their target that didn't find their target against Ukraine. Yeah. I guess the targets were probably bigger in this game too. Yeah, yeah, there was just more to aim at, right? because there's not five defenders and four midfielder stacked in front of them. So, but then there's also, I did see a couple of times where just he wasn't quick enough to catch up to a couple of Nigerian attackers, which has always been the thing that people have talked about in his game, right?

That maybe as a defensive midfielder, he doesn't cover ground as quickly as, say, Tyler Adams does. Yeah, not by a long shot. Which can be a bit of a worry. And then I also saw a couple of what I'd call like duff clearances, like headed clearances that went to the top of the box. I think resulted in a shot for Nigeria. Like I'm slightly concerned that some of the clearances weren't as definitive and authoritative and like this attack is over as I like clearances to be.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I feel like he played pretty well today. But, you know, he's been, he was criticized a lot after the Ukraine game, including some by me just for being sort of slow with his decisions. We didn't, we didn't see much of that. Yeah. Today. But that, that defensive slowness, there's just no better way to say it, I don't think.

is it's a problem. It's a problem for him and Mendez both, really. Yeah. But Mendez's defending, I don't think was great today. I saw him essentially lose a lot of 50-50s where he threw. You could tell he went into it 100% and essentially just got knocked out the way. Yeah. He's not, he's just never going to be that guy who wins a bunch of 50-50s and tracks on the ball.

I weirdly like that he's willing to try. I just wish he was more successful more often. Yeah. But the thing with Durkin is that it's like a core part of his job as the six. And you could argue it's not quite as much a core part of Mendez's job. I mean, I guess it's part of everybody's job in the modern game. Yeah, but I get what you're saying. It's like a prerequisite for a number six, right?

Yeah. So I would have, I didn't mention this at the top, but I would have liked to see Serio in the Ukraine match because we didn't, you know, point, somebody from the six distributing wasn't crucial to us moving the ball into the attack you know what I'm saying like we had we had so much room against Ukraine to build up we didn't need we didn't need to have like a Michael Bradley will trap yeah I mean we could just that Chris Richards do it even more right he was successful when he did it so that that would have been fine yeah so then we would have just had

serio who is I think most people would agree more of a little quicker a little tougher in the tackle just there to put out fires and then you know let the office run through the centerbacks and Surio to some extent and yeah and Mendez and Pomacall but I wonder if part of the the pro with Durkin is his height because we don't have that many big guys right so part of the pro with Durkin I think against Ukraine was if they were going to go long to the number nine whose name of forgotten supriaha so at least you have you have Richards and Kata and then you also have Chris Durkin who can win those aerial balls as well so I think it's worth if we're going to just talk about a physical attribute so yeah he's not so

fast, but he is a, he is a big dude who's going to win a lot of stuff, maybe eventually in a pneumonia-mattichy kind of way. Yeah, that's true. That's true. Okay, I feel like, I feel like we've covered Durkin. How about, how about Dest? What did you, we talked about him a little bit earlier, but. Yeah, so I think we've really found a floor with his aerial ability and literally strength in the air. And I think that's something that can be exploited. If I was playing against him, if I was a coach, I think I'd be thinking, oh, we could put a, like, a taller left winger and just aim some balls at him to challenge Sajunodest. But that's fine, right?

Everybody has flaws in their games, especially when they're teenagers. I think with the ball, he was absolutely fine. And I liked a lot of the movement and rotation with him and Carre de la Fuente. Similar to, we talked about the second goal of the US court at the start the second half where Gloucester and Weyer had that moment. I feel like Dest and Delafonte had a lot of those moments as well, none that ended up as successfully. But they definitely were a combo down the right side. Yeah, that's true. Even Dest even was sort of coming inside, reminiscent of the Burhalter inverted fullback

situation sometimes. And he's certainly a guy I trust to be on the ball in the middle, right? He's definitely got the skills to hold onto the ball and make some space and make something happen. Yeah. He does, the aerial deficiency does remind me a little bit of DeAndre Yedlin. Matt Hartman said this on the on our podcast yeah i can see that yeah and i think it it sort of showed up today again but you know yedlin's not nearly as good on the ball as destis so that's where the comparison ends how about how about mendes what do you make of his performance i think it had some incredible moments right like the the the pastor wayer that we talked about where his body shape fooled everybody and then the actual ball was perfect the corner kick for the soto goal i think

is maybe underrated, not by us, but I don't think it will get talked about, but I actually think it's an incredible delivery. And lots of clever little moves and passes. But then there's always just these moments where he doesn't quite take over a game in the way that you would like him to, right? I would love for him to be always receiving the ball and always making those quick little passes happen. And then suddenly we're this like unstoppable team. But the way, the best version of him is like, I think like an Iniesta type player. Yeah. I mean, who's just buzzing around everywhere connecting everything and i feel like he's not quite connecting everything in the way that i would i would hope that he develops into the player that does that kind of thing yeah i know he i know

from speaking with him in the past he really admires in yesta so oh there we go so maybe he so maybe he's he's aiming for that but yeah he needs to be more active or more i don't know what it is more more demanding of the ball, more moving more off the ball. Because I don't think those defensive deficiencies we talked about, I just don't know if that's ever going to change. You know, I mean, he can be, he can maybe be a little more committed and, you know, get a little stronger, get a little quicker by hitting the weight room, whatever. Right.

Yeah, it's that, it's like he has the technical ability to dominate a game. And he was, there were stretches. The vision and the vision and the technique to make to implement that vision, which I think is not a combo that many American players have. It's not a combo that many players period have, right? Also, I thought, I don't if we talked about this already, stop me if we've already talked about it, but the thing of having Durkin, Mendez and Pomacal meant that Mendez essentially wasn't the farthest forward attacking midfielder, which he kind of was against Ukraine, right?

And he almost got lost in that crowd of Ukrainian midfielder. So that idea of him, because Pamika was ahead of him, Mendez can come back and receive the ball a little bit. At least he saw more of the ball in this game than in the Ukraine game. Yeah. Yeah, I'd almost like to see, I totally agree. I almost like to see him next to like a Serio type because then you have, you know, defensive cover, somebody supposedly winning the ball. Maybe Durkin can do it as well as Serio. I don't know.

But let's just try Serio because he seems like a little bit more of a ball winner. And then Mendez can sort of come back and orchestrate the play. without having to worry about his defensive deficiency. Yeah. And also one last thing on Mendez, I'm slightly worried that we're going to go through this whole tournament with him hitting like 10 to 15 beautiful left-footed shots from distance but not actually getting a goal from it.

Yeah. I said, and I still think after that Ukraine game, those 30, it's hard to beat a good keeper from 30 yards. Yeah. He's a Real Madrid keeper, right? That Ukrainian keeper, I think he's in around Madrid's youth system. Yeah. And I think, you know, they were highlights and they drew Ouse and Oz from me and from the audience in the stadium. But I don't think Loonen struggled that much with them, you know?

I mean, they weren't easy saves, but they weren't like, it wasn't like he barely got a finger to any of them. Like the one that Mendez, I don't know if you saw the clip, Mendez started to celebrate one of them before. Yes, I do. Yeah. Before it was saved. That one, I mean, Loonen got it with like the middle of his forearm. I mean, he made no, he made no mistake. he was getting to that ball.

And I do think, like, from 30 yards or further away, it's, it's going to be really hard for Mendez to beat a good keeper, even if he can, you know, hit a beautiful shot from that distance. Yeah. How about Pomacall? He's, he's a hard player for me to characterize. Yeah, it's weird, right? There's no major Pomacal moment where it's everybody, where you could say, oh, Pammercal did this in the highlight reel.

but I think he might be one of my favorite players in terms of who's the most ready to play at a high level because I see him really good about finding space, really good about rotating, like the thing we talked about with the second goal where he took up way, a spot wide left. Even though he didn't touch the ball at all in that goal, I don't think he at least pulls that right back out and, you know, makes that happen. So I think he does a lot of little smart things that maybe we don't see.

I also, I like him on the dribble. I think he makes good decisions about when to go out people and when to release the ball. More so than most teenagers. So, yeah, I feel pretty good about Pakistan Parmaca. Yeah, me too. I mean, there's no, I feel like he's not, he doesn't have the magic that Mendez has. But he works really hard on defense and he's formidable as a like midfield sort of destroyer. And I mean, he intercepted like four or five passes in the second half.

Yeah. So is it fair to say he's the most rounded player maybe? Yeah, maybe that's the way to say it. Yeah. And I think that that's why I think of him as the most ready to play at a high level professionally because you can't say, oh, he's got this one big floor and that's going to get exploited. Yeah. Right.

So, I mean, I'm sure he's, I'm sure he's impressing the scouts over there. We've already sung, we've already sung the praises of Richards. How about Keta? He's playing in Richmond right now. I know you've probably seen him play a few times. Yeah, it's tough for me, and for Taylor, because we've seen him play a couple times and because he's a kickers player on loan from Columbus,

I'm almost biased and just wanting him to do really well for the national team. And I can't tell if I'm being biased or not, but I kind of think he didn't perform as well as Richards because Richard just looks a lot smoother, essentially. But I think if you took Richards away and just analyzed Kata on his own, own. His passing actually is really good. He breaks the lines occasionally, but not as maybe

flashily as Richards. It's more like he'll break one line where Richards will maybe break two sometimes. But again, that second goal, the Soto goal that start the second half starts with Kater finding that pass to Tim Ware, right? He breaks the line of Nigeria's forward press to get the ball to Tim Weyer to begin with. I think he's good in the air and I think he had a lot of good sort of just straight up like aerial wins and a few like real simple but good tackle. So, Nothing really flashed, but I've come to think of him as pretty dependable. Yeah, I think pretty dependable is right. I think I put up a jiff of like somebody doing the sign of the cross and kissing his fingers

when I saw that Keita was in the starting lineup. And I, you know, I feel like my prayers have been answered. He's doing fine. He's not a liability out there. And it seems to be growing in confidence, too, for the reasons. I think he's doing. Yeah. And he's doing well enough that I think it'll be, he'll be hard done by it if he's dropped when McKenzie and Richards are both ready to start together.

And there's almost no argument that McKenzie and Richards are better players. You can't argue against the fact that they're better players. But Kato sort of basically hasn't done anything wrong to get dropped. And yet he probably will get dropped. Yeah. But, you know, these roster and lineup selections are anything but fair. And I do wonder if Richards is going to be healthy. I sure hope he is, but that looked like it hurt a lot.

I would give him a rest against Cutter at least. Yeah. Okay, well, last name I want to mention, unless you've got others to mention, is Tim Weir, how do you assess his performance through the first two games of the World Cup? So obviously, he got the assist in the first game, but was largely sort of stranded at center forward and couldn't get the ball. This game, I think we saw a thing that I noticed when we watched Way with the U.S. 17s two years ago, which is essentially he can get kind of focused on goal and kind of selfish.

And I don't even know if that's a good or bad thing because sometimes it's good to have that player on your team, right? He's just willing to just take it all on himself. But there are definitely a couple of moments in the, I can't remember which half it was now, where he could, like you asked about the Soto one, whether he should have squared it after that Mendes-Bore. And my answer was no, because Soto wasn't available. There was one later on where Comrade de la Fuente was at the sort he was inside the 18 yard box just outside the six yard box and wide open like the fullback had drifted inside. Weyer was down on the wing and Delafonte has his arms in the air and he's just waving for the ball and Weyer tries to shoot instead and I think it's either blocked or wide

and I think there were just one too many moments like that from me for Tim Weyer to be fully happy but at the same time every time I see him on the ball I feel like something dangerous is going to happen. Yeah. I don't know if I feel that way but I feel like something dangerous could happen for sure. Yeah. Okay, yeah, that's maybe a better way to say it. But I've heard you talk before about his tendency to, you know, put it, cut in on his right foot and look for that banger from, yeah, 20 yards.

And it seemed like he did that a handful of times today. And, and there's, I'm just sort of agreeing with what you said, but there's like a tunnel vision component to it where he's, once he decides that he like doesn't see anything else going on on in the field. I think that's true. Yeah, there's a decision made to go for it. And then there's no chance of him decide. oh this probably actually I shouldn't have done this let's let's cut back and do something else

instead it's almost like once the decision's made he's a hundred percent going through with that decision even if it becomes very clear that it's incorrect isn't though there's one chance where he does exactly that right he cuts inside to shoot and I think he's lost control of the ball but he still ends up taking a swing at it so yeah I think maybe maybe that's the thing I'd like to see is where have like a decision tree where you make the decision but then maybe you're willing to make a secondary decision if it looks like it's not going to work out. Like an abort mode. You just need an abort mode.

Well, I feel like he does, he does have an abort mode. And that's just like he keeps dribbling and then sort of passes it along the top of the box to Sergenio Dest coming in on the, you know, down the right flank, which is not a bad decision, but it's, it's like it looks to me like it's either I'm going to shoot or I'm going to give up and just recycle possession essentially. Yeah. Start again. so maybe I can get another chance.

Yeah, and then run back to the left wing. Yeah, I don't want to be too hard on him. I mean, he was dangerous. Yeah, I feel like I'm complaining about a guy who is very, very talented and very dangerous and is possibly the best player on the U-20 team. Oh, man, yeah, I don't think he is that. I think we think he's that because he's played with the senior team. He's famous.

He plays for a famous club. He's gotten first team minutes. But, and I think that's the trap we fall into, and maybe to some extent the trap that tab fell into playing him as a nine. Right. That makes sense. But yeah, he's obviously, he definitely fits in the team. I mean, let me say that again.

He definitely doesn't look out of place. Yeah, fair, fair. The only of the guy I wanted to talk about was Conradalefonte. Yes. Because now I've watched two four games of him, I feel like I have a feel for Conradalefuelte that I didn't just from highlights before. Tell me. He is determined to take a guy on, right?

And contrary to like way I always went to shoot, I think I like Delafonte always wanting to take the guy on. Well, because he's always looking to pull it back from the end line, right? I mean, that's his, that's like his raison d'etra, excuse the French pronunciation. It's kind of my favorite move. I, semi-famously on our amateur team here, I preach like, don't always cross the ball, especially in amateur soccer, try and cut it back because it's the more dangerous option. And I feel that's true in professional soccer as well.

if you can get to the end line and cut it back like Manciti do multiple times, I think that's one of the most dangerous balls in soccer. Yeah. And Conrad played a ball like that in the first game in the game against Ukraine that nobody got on the end of, partly because of the way our setup was. At that point, we had Pomacall as a false nine, where playing on the left wing and where it was, I don't know, 50 yards from goal when. Yeah, so I remember that.

Conrad beat his man. And there's also a moment in this game where it wasn't a cutback, but it was Delafonte got to the end on and put. a low ball in, it could have been the first goal to Soto. I think didn't Soto come and meet it sort of at the near post, but essentially just it ricocheted off of him and off target. Yeah. He tried to, he tried to, I don't know what the term for it is, but he tried to like

flick it through his legs into the goal. Oh, he shouldn't do that move. I know the move you mean. Yeah. So yeah, but it just didn't quite come off, right? But yeah, I love the idea of Delafonte getting to the end line and doing that multiple times. And I just, I like his confidence of just every time he sees a left back. He's like, you're mine.

I'm going past you. And it's, yeah, and it's good to have Soto in the box when he's doing that because, you know, even though maybe Soto's not a world-class striker yet or maybe never will be, he's, he loves to be in the box and get on the end of those. You know, he's going to be, he's going to be in the neighborhood when Conrad cuts it back. Is Dellafonte in the way of Yanez? Could Yanez play on the right wing as well as the left? No, Yannes is like almost exclusively a left winger. Okay. He's good with both feet, but he's, I don't think I've ever seen him. play on the right side.

So that is just Delafonte is locked down on that right wing there. Yeah, which is fine. I mean, I feel like Waya could play on the right wing. He's done it for the men's national team and for Celtic a little bit, if I'm not mistaken. Maybe also if it came to it, if like maybe Delafonte was suspended or if this is maybe the game against Qatar and arresting people, you could maybe try Sejuno D'Neus at right wing and get Araro in at right back. That's one little rotation we could try.

Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a ton of rotate. Well, there's not that much rotation left to do because there's only what, four more players on the roster about some minutes. There's a 21-man squad as well. It's not 23, yeah. 21 and three of them are goalkeepers.

It's Ledesma, Serio, and who else? Aroho haven't seen the field yet. Okay. And the keepers, obviously. Right, and the two keepers. My understanding is we'll see a choa in goal against Qatar. But we'll see. Let me ask, let's close with one big picture question.

I mean, we were all excited about this U-20 squad going into the World Cup. I assume you were excited too, right? Yeah, absolutely, yeah, very much so. So are you more excited, less excited, the same amount excited? I think the same amount excited, but mostly relieved after two games that it hasn't been a big bust. because there was so much excitement it could have all gone it really could have all fallen flat

I didn't think it would but there's always a chance that things go wrong for various reasons right and even though we lost to Ukraine there were still moments in that game of like oh we're a possession team look at us

and then against Nigeria we're a possession team look at us and we're carving this team open a couple times and it looks really good it genuinely feels like a progression from that U17 team

that in 2017 that still played a Tabramas style right, still played a win the ball and counterattack really fast kind of style. And this feels like, I don't know if you've ever got into this on scuffed or not, Taylor and I haven't got into this on Total Sokosk show. I feel like

since the Ernie Stewart, Berhalter takeover for the US men's national team, I do think a message has trickled down and Tabramas has been asked to play a more possession style instead of a transition quickly style. I don't know if that's just as also coincided with having the correct players to do that

in say Parmacal and Mendez, but I'm really excited to see an under 20 team successfully play possession soccer, even if only semi-successfully against Ukraine. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we were successful in possessing the ball against Ukraine. We were a dominating possession, right?

Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I genuinely feel good about it. And especially when I see moments like Mendez doing the buskets, I just suddenly think, oh, wow, the future could be very exciting. Yeah, that was, I mean, that was the most beautiful play of the game, right? He beats like three defenders in the middle of the field. I think he might have megged one of them.

And then just a wicked ball for where, I don't know, should he have scored? Who knows? It was a good shot. I'm sure you would have liked to. Yeah, right. Yeah, so, yeah, I'm the same amount excited. And relieved is a good word because I'm really happy it's not a total bust. It could still bust on Thursday against guitar.

That's true. Yeah, I don't be too confident. Who held Ukraine to one goal on a set piece from Dennis Popov. Just the same guy who scored the second goal for Ukraine against the U.S. Anyway, we're up against Qatar in the city called Chichi, I believe. That pronouncing is probably wrong. I've never been. Me neither.

Anything else we should talk about, Daryl? No, I felt you've covered pretty much everything there. Okay. Hey, thanks so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. Oh, it's my pleasure. It was an honor. It was my first time on scuffed as well, right?

I feel like we've spoken a lot of times, but I've only just realized if this was the first time for scuffed. So, yeah, it was great. Thank you. Yeah, I've been on TSS a couple of times, two, three times. Yeah, and top drawer as well, right? Yeah. Well, thanks again.

Really appreciate it. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see you.