Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 77: U20 World Cup — USA v France review with Franco Panizo

Episode Date: June 4, 2019

No spoilers! Joining me to break down the Round of 16 match is Franco Panizo, a New York-based reporter who covers the USMNT, MLS and all things American soccer for SBIsoccer.com and other outlets. Franco's Twitter: https://twitter.com/FrancoPanizo Thank you to Away Days Football for being our first sponsor! Check out awaydaysfootball.com and their very cool Mystery Kit product. You pay $25, you pick your jersey size, and a few days later you receive an official club jersey in your size from somewhere in the world. You don’t know where, or what club, until you open the package. It’s a mystery! And they have lots of other cool stuff too. Use the promo code "Scuffed" for 15 percent off your entire purchase. Scuffed is on Patreon and we're ramping up the Patron-only content. GIFs are ok there! And it only costs $2 per month to support the podcast at the base level: https://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. Hello, everyone. The Americans faced a very good French U20 side on Tuesday in Poland at the U20 World Cup, and they came out with an historic, at least by youth national team standards, victory. Three-two. Joining me to break it down this afternoon is Franco Paniso, a New York-based reporter who covers the U.S. MNT, MLS, and all things American soccer for SPS. B-I Soccer.com and other outlets. He's been writing about the U-20 World Cup from a U.S. perspective. Franco, thanks for joining me. Hey, man. Thanks for having me on.

Absolutely. You caught my attention last fall. I went to the post-game press conference with Dave Saracan after the Brazil-friendly, where we lost 2-0. And I swear you were the only reporter there who asked a tactical question of Sarekin. I can't remember what it was. I actually, yeah, I do.

I actually do remember that. I remember the question. I don't remember what he said in response. I remember it was more about, I think it was something he said earlier in the press conference that stuck out to me and I was like, okay, well, you know, given your formation, what was the game plan to actually do some damage on Brazil and attack Brazil?

Like, what was your game plan to break them down? That's right. I think it was given their three men midfield, I think it was when I asked, because they had, I think, three holding midfielbers. playing in that match. So I just thought it was something that was pertinent to the game and I think

I think his answer was okay. I think he, if I remember correctly, part of his response was that there was no real striker after Josie in the pipeline or in the pool at that moment. So maybe not pipeline, but in the pool. So I think that was part of his response.

But yeah, yeah. I do remember that. Time flies though. It's almost closing in on the area. Yeah, it feels like longer ago than that. Part of his answer was, I don't want to be too detailed and about tactics. Oh, yeah. And I was like, come on. And I was, hanging my head, I was like, please, yeah. Yeah.

Well, anyway, I was just like, come up. I mean, that's the whole point. Yeah, keep fighting the good fight. Appreciate that about you, that you would ask a question about tactics there. So before we talk about Tabs lineup, let's briefly discuss what you were expecting coming into this match. What did we learn from the first three games of the U-20 World Cup? And what did that dictate, in your opinion, for today's match?

I thought the team showed a mixed bag in the group stage. I thought they played well against Ukraine and moved the ball well. They didn't create a bunch of chances, but I thought they showed well in terms of keeping the ball and moving the ball. And then obviously they had a couple defensive issues there and that cost them that game. and then in the second game against Nigeria they again looked well scored a couple goals but didn't create a whole lot

from the run of play and then against Qatar I thought that was their worst game up until today I thought Qatar was just not a good performance at all but they did find the goal thanks to Timway as brilliance on the ball and his nutmeg cut back which was superb

so it was just a mixed bag for me in terms of the group stage team clearly is more capable than maybe recent iterations of U20 teams as far as U.S. is concerned in terms of being able to keep the ball, move the ball, play quick combination passes, and just feel comfortable and smooth on the ball. But defensively, there were question marks. I think in the first half of today's game, which I guess we can get into it a little bit. I think we saw a little bit more of some question marks back there defensively.

but I thought coming in today that they were going to have to have better performance overall to get a result than they did against Qatar. I think the performance was not great today, but they got the result in the end thanks to, you know, the good substitutes that Ty Ramos made good thanks to their mentality and never say die attitude. They didn't seem shocked or, you know, they didn't seem like they were out of it when it was two to one in favor of friends. so they kind of stuck with it. Now, again, the performance for me needs a lot to be desired, but the result obviously is great, and they move on. Yeah, right. I mean, to a certain extent, we were always going to be overmatched, right?

It's a team that's on a level of experience and depth of talent, a nation that's on a depth of talent that we can't match. But let's talk about, so, I mean, those, those, that mixed bag of the group stage, was there anything you were hoping to see from the lineup today that, but before we talk about the actual lineup, like what were you hoping to see? Who were you hoping to see in which spots? I think what we saw was what you could expect. I think that's what I'm more or less expected from the time, just given personnel and given

what he's shown in the group stage. I think this was more or less the best team you could get out there based off what he had available. So I wasn't surprised by anything. that he did today. I mean, the only question mark that maybe I, where I was kind of like, all right, maybe that's a change I would make if I were head coach is, Brady Scott instead of a Choa.

I like the Choa's aggressiveness off his line and his ability to just read the game a little bit better. I thought I saw a lot of good qualities in that against Qatar. Obviously, he has the one huge save that, you know, keeps Qatar from going out in front. I think I've seen Brady Scott. He's obviously done well in terms of keeping his. balls out of the back of the net over the last two games oh sorry over the first the second game and he shows you know he's got he can he can make he can stop shots he's a shot stopper but i don't

know if his reading of the game is is that all that great or and if he's that sure of the decisions he makes when he does make them based off what i've seen so far in these three games i think a choa showed a little more uh sureness and certainty and the decisions he took which is One thing maybe I would change if I were going forward, I think that's just personal preference. But overall, I thought this lineup was about what you could expect. Yeah, I agree with you on Achilla versus Scott. I mean, with the caveat that it's a very small sample size for both goalkeepers and, you know, I don't get to watch a lot of Kohl and two games.

I thought Achoa was outstanding against Qatar and Scott was a little shakier. But anyway, let's read the – let's read off the lineup. Scott started in goal. Sergenio Dest at right back. Chris Richards and Abuukar Keta at centerback. Chris Gloucester at left back. Brandon Servania at the 6. Richie Ledesma and Paxson Pomacall

at the sort of attacking mid positions ahead of him. And then we had our sort of standard front three of Conrad Delafuente on the right wing, Sebastian Soto at Stryker and Timi Wea on the left wing. I'll say, I do think I was, happy with the lineup primarily because Ledesma was in it and I thought he looks really good in the

toward the end of the Qatar match and anybody who listens this podcast knows I'm a huge Richie Ledesma stand but I would have liked to see Ulyanas come get maybe a start today. I didn't think Delafonte was sharp

and obviously Uli was but maybe that's maybe that's just the genius of Tab he knew he needed to make high-impact sub in the middle of the second half, and that's how it worked out. I don't know. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I think for Ecuador, that's a change that needs to be made. I think that that, I've liked what I've seen from Delafonte in moments in this tournament. I think he's really good on the ball, cracked young dribble, but obviously his decision-making the final third isn't great. He hasn't really supplied much, many dangerous crosses or dangerous balls to, to the, to, the striker, Soto, or other teammates kind of just kind of gets stuck and hesitates a little too much. So I think that's a change that maybe we can see for the Ecuador game. I think if you look at the body of work at this point, four games, though Fuentes hasn't really overly impressed

even though he's shown little flashes of quality. So I think that's something we could see in Ecuador in Ecuador game. Obviously, you want to have a guy that can come off the bench. make an impact as well. But if, you know, if you're seeing these types of performances off the bench, you know, it might be time to give that player a start. However, you know, there's stuff that, you know, we haven't seen or heard, you know, is he on his 90 minutes fit? Yeah.

Can he go the distance? You know, stuff that goes on, you know, the coaches obviously dictate and see behind the scenes with the numbers, you know, with the medical staff and everything. So, the physical trainers. So those are things that happen behind the scenes necessarily we're not privy to. And I don't know if there's a whole lot of media out there covering this. So I don't know who are going to get those answers to, you know, if he's 90 minutes fit, if he's not, but I think if he's if he is or he's close to it, I think, you know,

maybe he gets to start against Ecuador, just given what he's shown in these last two substitute appearances. Yeah, and that's a good point about Ledesma too. I mean, a lot of us, including me, of course, were lobbying. for Ledesma to be in the lineup today. And he was, and he played, I thought he played very well when he got on the ball for the first 30 minutes or so, but he

definitely fell off. He was clearly not fit to go 90 minutes. Probably not fit to go 60 minutes if we're being honest. So, so that's a real concern, yeah. Yeah, yeah, no, that's, I mean, that's, that's,

like obviously on the outside looking in, you know, there's always things that we say and think about and would like to see differently. But obviously on the inside, there's the other stuff taken into consideration that we don't necessarily get to know firsthand. Obviously, in a big tournament, usually in most cases, there's media to ask questions at the games. So you can get a little bit of information with regards to, you know, why isn't this guy playing, why is this guy playing? Or why is this guy starting? And that kind of fills the holes.

But obviously with the U-20 World Cup, there's not a whole lot of U.S. media, if any. out there covering the team. So we kind of just have to make do with what we see. Obviously take things into consideration, but at the end of day, you have to go off of what you see and what you know. Yeah, yeah. I'll say a couple more things about the lineup.

I was a little surprised to see Keta over McKenzie. Given McKenzie did get to go 90 minutes against Qatar. But, again, that may just be something happening on the training ground or like with the physios that we don't know about. And that could, that's, that's more than likely the explanation for that. And then I was a little bit worried about Sergino Dest against, you know, some high caliber wing attackers. Like we figured we'd be facing against France because he struggled somewhat against Ukraine.

I'll go ahead and take an L on that. I thought Des had an incredible game. And even though I would like to see Julian Araujo at some point in this tournament, and I think he's an excellent defender. I don't think there's any complaining about the way Desk defended today. He was, I mean, I guess he could complain about his reaction on the second goal, but in the run of play, he was solid. This was probably his best game of the tournament.

Obviously, yeah, I don't think he instilled much confidence in his previous appearances. I think today he gave you a little bit more. And on top of that, obviously, he hits that shot from distance that Francis goalkeeper spills and it gets knocked in by Renix for the winner. So, you know, if he can build off of this performance and replicate this as close as possible on Saturday against Ecuador, and then I think the U.S. stands a better chance of winning.

If he reverts back to what we saw in the group stage, which wasn't great, then I think the U.S. might struggle in that regard because defensively this group, wasn't great against Ukraine. He was directly at fault for one of the goals, and then today he was also involved in one of them. So definitely, you definitely want to see more of what you saw out of him today, even though he did have a mistake at the back,

more so than you saw against the Ukraine and in the group stage. Yep, yeah. Encouraging, for the most part, performance from him. And like you said, that hit from distance was, that ball was still rising when LaFalle. font tried to corral it. We can talk more about that later. Okay, sure.

Before we get into the action, we have a sponsor today. You don't have to say anything about this, Franco, so just let me go here. Today's sponsor is a waydays football.com. They're the first ever scuffed sponsor, an independent soccer clothing brand based in Boston. High quality products, cool company. They do several different things if you click around the website, but the hook is their mystery kits, which work like this. You go to awaydaysfootball.com, spelled just like it sounds.

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when you buy something with that code you are supporting the podcast check out away days football dot com there's plenty of other interesting stuff there in addition to the mystery kits now to the action of the game um why don't you why don't you start us off franko like what what did you see to open the match i mean i'll just go off what i you know i put public on twitter as well in the aftermath of the game i thought the result was superb um if not surprising and i but i thought the performance with subpar. I didn't think the U.S. played very well. I think the substitutes made a difference, and that was what, 20, 25 minutes into the second half, but 20, 25 minutes of one half does not outweigh 65 to 70 minutes of overall subpar play for me. Now, that's, you know, obviously they got the

result. That's what matters the most. Obviously in the tournament, so they move on. They live to fight another day, but I think the performance needs to be better against Ecuador. obviously Ecuador is not the same team as France. You should have the ball a little bit more and be able to try to have more of the flow and the tempo and be able to try to open up the opponent a little bit more than they could today, which they pretty much relied on counter attacks for much of the match. So I thought the performance left a lot to be desired,

but obviously at the end they get the result. They showed a lot of fight, a lot of grit, a lot of, you know, they never gave up. that American mentality, that toughness, that never say die attitude was very prevalent. Obviously, they go down two to one, and, you know, they don't, they didn't get rattled. They kept going, they kept pushing. And then with the two subs, you know, they kind of took over the game there at the end, and they got the two goals that they needed to flip the script and turn the game around.

So a lot of fight, a lot of heart, some quality in the final third. very good efficiency in terms of just the chances that they created and how many of those they took well. Sooto, again, was really good in that regard up top as the number nine, which is what you want from your number nine. But again, just defensively, there was mistakes. They didn't get on the ball at much. The first half was, for me, it was really bad. You know, obviously they got the goal that took the lead, but, you know, then defensive mistakes happen again. I thought the decision from Tab, I mean, I don't know what you thought, but the decision from Tab to have them press high when it was 1-0 on a goal kick, and then that leads to the direct

attack that gave, you know, that allowed friends to get their equalizer was bizarre, but I mean, I was here for the roundtable interview he had in New York before the World Cup's already said, look, if we're going to go out of the tournament, we're going to go out going for it. So we're going to go out teams and go that way. I get that, but when you're up one zero on France, the team that is favored and probably more talented than you are, then I don't know if trying to press them high up the field is all that smart. Obviously, it came back to bite them on that play.

They gave up a goal. But they found in the end, you know, they found a way. And overall, it's an enjoyable result for the program and for fans. but I think the performance needs to be better. Yeah, in a lot of ways I agree with you. And I think the performance could be better. That's the thing that, I guess that's the thing that's encouraging to me is I think they, particularly in the first 30 minutes,

Ledezma, I thought Ledezma was sharp. You know, when he could get on the ball, he was able to find people's feet. He was able to, like, break down a defender. There were a couple times where he moved the ball. he could progress the ball forward with some sort of technique and class. But I didn't think anybody else was sharp in the first 30 minutes. Like, Pomacall wasn't sharp. Soto wasn't sharp.

Way and Conrad were, I mean, there have been vast stretches of this tournament where neither of those two has been sharp. And I would say the opening half hour of this game was right along, right in that vein. and we got the so we got the goal maybe we'll just go ahead and go to the goal it came on a it came on a counterattack as you alluded to savania wins a ball off a French attacker in our defensive third and it it sort of bounces to Ledesma and then Ledesma just dribbles straight down the

field which you know it looks pretty easy but I don't know that we have another midfielder who can do that and then be sort of relied upon to play a perfectly timed, perfectly weighted through ball at the end of that run the way he did that. I think that's, I think, you know, Mendez, Mendez does a lot of things well. He doesn't do that. Pomacal can drive the ball forward, but I don't know if he has that sort of class for the final ball that Ledesma showed in that, in that moment. And then, you know, for Soto, who timed his run perfectly, it was a pretty easy chance once he got on the end of it, right? I mean, He had two or three seconds to two or three beats to settle himself.

I mean, he's thought to open up his hips and place it well, which I thought he did a really good job at. Yeah, I don't want to take anything away from him. And shoot it wide. So I do agree with you on the through ball. Obviously, it's a quality through ball. I feel like that's something that the U.S. has lacked in the group states, like that ability to break a defense down that way.

Obviously against Ukraine, when they were with numbers behind the ball, you need that option. You need to have that option in your repertoire, that weapon in your repertoire to break down in defense. And obviously today, you know, you play a through ball and behind. You have some space. You wait it well. And you give your striker a chance of putting it away and scoring a goal, which is what they did. So I think the U.S. needs more of that as well to just have that as another weapon.

Because obviously this team can knock the ball around. We've seen that in three four games, not in every game, but we've seen that they can knock the ball around. move it well. But it's, it's their end product that's kind of been a little lacking. Obviously, it scored three goals today. So, you know, people might be like, wait, what? But obviously, like he said, like a lot of these, one goal came off of goalkeeper mistake, which we found out after the match.

The goalkeeper has an injured wrist. Their coach said that after the match, he was playing with an injured wrist. Oh, no. I didn't know that. And I just saw it on Twitter. So that could explain the howlurk Because obviously it was a pretty bad mistake on his end And then the first goal comes off of counterattack Again with a great through ball in behind

But again, I think that would be a good weapon To have in the repertoire is just to have someone that can play that through ball Because obviously Mendez has shown he can shoot from distance Free kicks from the run and play He can fire accurately and potently from distance But we haven't seen enough of those those balls played in behind on a regular basis. I think there was one that Mendez hit to Timwaya that was saved against Nigeria, maybe.

Yeah. I mean, I'd say Mendez plays a gorgeous through ball. It's just like he can't, he's not going to carry the ball 30 yards and then play a gorgeous through ball. You know, he's never going to do that. He's not the kind of player he is. And Pomacal is going to carry the ball 30 yards, but he's yet to carry the ball 30 yards and then have something result from it. in this tournament. Right, right.

I mean, I've definitely, I definitely would like to see more from Pomacall in this tournament. I haven't seen enough for him. I know people like, like, like his dribbling and like his ability on the ball. But in terms of creating and setting up teammates, I haven't seen enough of that from him in the three games he's played. Yeah, I tend to agree. I thought, you know, he's, Palmikov is getting a lot of praise after this game. And I thought, if there's something to praise him for, it's his work, his work rate, especially down the stretch, like down the last 30 minutes or so.

But in the first 60 minutes or 70 minutes of the game, he was not efficient at all. And yeah, that prevented us from getting any sort of grip on the game, as you've sort of alluded to. Yeah, I mean, again, France is obviously a talented team. they were going to have their share of the possession. But I thought the U.S. would have had a little bit more than they did, especially in the first half. Obviously, things changed a bit in the second half, especially after the subs were made by tab.

But the first half was just not good. They just didn't get on the ball enough that when they did get on the ball, it didn't keep the ball. I'm trying to remember which play it was. it might have been Ledesma actually or yeah I think it was the Desma there was a play in midway through the first half where he just got on the ball and he was

kind of in that defensive mid six spot picking up the ball and then he tried to hit a pass to the left wing, the left flank and he just went out of bounds and France just got the ball back and had another long stretch of possession so yeah the U.S. just didn't do enough

didn't do enough but obviously they're up against a tough opponent so you have to give France obviously their merit their credit in that regard, but you still have to feel like the U.S. could do more, it could do better, given what they've shown, and given what they were trying to do. It wasn't like they were trying to park the bus and play with numbers behind the ball. They were trying to stay organized, obviously, but they weren't trying to just throw numbers back. They wanted to have some of the ball, and they just weren't very good at keeping the ball in that first half.

Yeah, I'd agree. And France was coming for that equalizer, basically from opening kickoff. They had two crosses, physic cross to face of goal. Before we scored, one of them was just missed. The other was kind of headed inexplicably over the cross bar.

That was because the cross. Was hit too hard. Was hit too hard and a little bit behind him. So he couldn't redirect his head and his neck to put that on frame because it was behind him. Okay, it was explicable. It was explicable. I mean, it was, obviously it was a chance

that France probably wished. as they could have done better on, but I would put that more on the cross and the service than the striker for, I mean, he tried to get his neck around it and whip his head around it, but obviously it's just behind them and a little too hard. Yeah, yeah, totally fair, totally fair.

And then, and then, um, cuisants, cuisants, however you say it, he hit the post on a bit of clever work in the box off a looping cross. That was, that was very close to being a goal. And then the goal did come. And as you mentioned earlier, it was because we were playing pretty high,

We were pressing high at that point, up 1-0. And I think there was some naivete from several parties on this goal. Gloucester, first of all, who has had an excellent tournament, plays a volleyed pass toward the middle of the field when we're pressing high, and it gets cut out, picked up by Musa Diabhi, and he drives toward goal in a 3v2, partly because Brandon Servania, who's playing the 6, is sucked up too high,

which if I have one criticism of him on the defensive side of the ball is that he did have a tendency to get a little bit ahead of himself, get too far up, and then I wanted him to more stay home, and this was an example of that. 3V2 Diabi draws Keda inside a little bit, slips it outside to who was it, Guri, and Guri slots it past Scott pretty easily. I feel like a Cho would have done better there,

but maybe I'm just being me. to Brady Scott. Yeah, I think, I think, I mean, you could nitpick. I think it's fair to say, you know, maybe Scott could have come off his line a little bit earlier to try to close that down. I think that's fair. But I, you know, the overall play you just described to me,

and I think I mentioned earlier, I think that falls on tab a little bit more. Because when I saw the play initiate, when you see, you know, the goalkeeper getting set up for the goal kick and you see the U.S. with numbers in advance position so they're trying to press the ball and not let them build out of the back. I was like, you guys are leading. You don't need to be pressing that far high against a team that's shown to take and build

through the back. I thought that was dangerous as soon as he put the ball down and you saw the numerical positioning. You saw where the players were. And then obviously it comes, it ends up coming right down the US's throat and ends up in a France goal. I think that falls more on tab in that moment than the players. I don't, I do, like I said, I think Tab turned it around in the second half and pushed all the right buttons in the second half.

But I think that goal was more on him than it was on the players. Obviously, they didn't execute and didn't do the job they needed to do. But I think that that's more on management. Just if you have numbers back and maybe more towards midfield, they're not going to beat you with just the straight ball through and behind. So I thought that that one was on tab more so than the players. Yeah, that's totally fair too. So we go into the half, 1-1, I think probably glad to be equal with France at the moment. And France comes out of the second half.

I thought I saw them coming out with less of a press than they had in the first half. Well, they adjusted. Yeah, they definitely adjusted. There was one play, I think, a few minutes in where they lost the ball, and they quickly got back into shape. I think their striker was even starting to pointing to a center midfielder behind them to take up the space and stay compact and organized because they knew how deadly the U.S. was on the counterattack. The U.S. didn't play great in the first half, but the chances they did get and the looks they got, I think there was three notable ones. they all came from either quick, quick counterattacks or, you know, a turnover by a French player that ended up in a shot or an opportunity. I think Ledesma had a shot.

Timway had an opportunity to chip the keeper. I think he mishit it or the keeper got a piece of it. So I think France realized that at halftime. They made that adjustment. They said, you know what? Like, if we lose the ball, we don't need to press high and try to win it back right away because this team can hurt us with a quick, with a quick ball in behind or some balls outside or direct balls over the top. So I think they kind of were like, all right, let's just make it difficult on them as well.

And I think that's what you saw in the second half from them and why they made that adjustment. It was a cage year, a cagey or France we faced in the second half. It's almost like they were trying to bait us into playing the ball into the middle and then pressure the person with the ball, maybe closer to the center circle and try to win win the transition battle there. But they did continue to dominate the game, and as the way I read it, Chris Gloucester was overlapping up the left side pretty regularly, trying to get something going in the attack.

And there was a stretch there where every time he overlapped, they would get the ball back and hit us on that flank. And two times in a row, Abubakar Kits, was isolated with Musa Diabi, and he was not up to the task, which is not necessarily a... Not necessarily criticism of Keita. I mean, he's a centerback facing a very, very good attacking player from PSG, but he got roasted in the 55th minute,

and Diabi slipped a shot under Scott at the near post, dinked off the post, and then it kind of bounces back towards the penalty marker. Dest was the closest American to it, but he didn't deal with it. with it immediately and then it kind of got away from him and he lost a 50-50 ball with Nabil Alioui and Ali Ui's challenge went right into the goal. I guess he called it a shot. It was kind of just like a tackle that went right into the goal.

2-1 France and to me at that point it looked like a lost cause. I mean, you know, like you said, Keito one-on-one doesn't seem like he can put out fires all that well. all or all that consistently when he's in one-on-one situations and had a lot of space to cover against an attacker. And that was what we saw there. But again, if your player is not capable of doing that, then, you know, he needs some help. And, you know, giving Diabi that much space against him. And Diabi's so shifting and so quick, that's not a recipe for success. So that part of that falls on Gloucester as well for, you know, getting forward and leaving so much space in behind.

Obviously, the U.S. wants to go for it, or they're trying to get numbers forward, but you also have to be aware of your assignment, and obviously know, be aware of what your teammate can and can't do. So obviously, that play is not a great play defensively from start to finish. Gloss is too high, leaves too much space, and Kata gets burned on the dribble, and then obviously there's a lot of ball watching going on, as the ball hits off the post and comes back out, you know, if you're a little more alert, a little more aware, you can attack that ball and get it out before before it gets to another

France player for another shot on goal and just kind of fell asleep, just waiting to see what was going to happen as opposed to get to the ball. And that's why you saw France score a second one. You know, it seemed like it was Francis from the taking, you know, he just hadn't shown much up to that point to be like, all right, you know, they're going to get back in this but again, I guess we'll get to that in a second, but then Tad, you know, made the changes he made, and that tilted the game in the U.S.'s favor.

Yeah, let's get to that right now. So that's basically the next big thing that happens. Double substitution, who came on for who? I'm trying to remember. Okay, I got it. I got it. Yeah, Renix for Ledesma and Ullianas for Conrad de la Fuente in the 63rd minute.

And, yeah, I agree with you, totally changed the game. Uli's been, Uli was dangerous against Qatar. He was again dangerous against France. I think one of his first involvements, he got on a loose ball, took like four very aggressive touches, and then, you know, ripped a shot that went over the crossbar. And Renix, you know, Renix wasn't as bright for me on the ball, but he did a lot of harassment of the French back line, which I do think had an impact on the game. Did you see it that way?

Am I wrong? Well, I think that he just brought some fresh legs. And I think something else that came into effect that played a part was that Diabi looked at taking a knock, if not two. Because after those two plays where he kind of went down for a bit, he was not the same again. And you didn't see him to get on the ball,

all that much anymore. You didn't see him have the same impact that he had in, you know, the 60 minutes prior to that. I forget who clipped him on one play near the right flank where he went down and had to get looked at. And then I think there was another play where a few minutes later where France was attacking and he kind of fell over the ad board. I think it was right before the subject were made, actually. He falls over the ad board behind the goal and he doesn't get up.

You don't like the shot, the camera was still on the goal, was still on the play. at that end, but you never see him get back up despite it being a few seconds. And France was playing with 10 men at that time. I remember tweeting out at the moment. I was like, oh, this is a chance for the U.S. to take advantage of their numerical advantage that they have. The obvi's out. And then I think he checked against the game two or three minutes later.

The cameras didn't show if he got checked out by the medical staff or what. But he wasn't the same after that. So I think that is part as well of why the U.S. come in and make such an impact because France lost its biggest threat, its biggest playmaker, and it's his ability to pull the strings and go out defenders. So I also think that, you know, France in general just thought that the game was wrapped up. In the U.S., on the other hand, and this is where, you know, I give the team a lot of credit. They stuck with it.

They didn't think it was over. They didn't put their heads down, and they just fought through. And it kept going until they got not only the equalizer off a great, great sublime pass a bit of magic again from from timwaya but also a great finish from Soto there to set to set it up and then obviously the third goal yeah the 74th minute one was a I would say a very nice team goal up the left flank it should be said it started with a pass from Keita to Gloucester kind of broke the lines a little bit there and then lost her to Ullianez, and then Ullianez steps around a guy and then zips a pass to Wea,

who's right in Zone 14, right at the top of the box. And like you said, a delightful outside of the boot pass, but kind of made it look like he was going to do something else. I'm not sure what the French defenders thought he was going to do otherwise, but he played that pass, and Soto was in behind, and he finished it with a plume, as they say. But that's that that's that ability to unlock a defense with just one pass that we haven't seen enough of that throughout this tournament. That was obviously a moment of quality from Tim Weir and it leads to a goal, you know, because it puts the attacker, it surprises the defense, catching the defense off guard.

They're not expecting that, you know, that type of pass, that's a ball. And then it puts your striker in a prime position to put a chance away, which is what we saw and which is why the game was at two to two. and then from there there was just full belief for the U.S. that, hey, we can do this. Whereas France is kind of like, oh, crap, we just got smacked in the mouth. And their response to that wasn't great. Yeah, and I would argue, not to nitpick here, but I would argue that goal, I mean, we did unlock the defense with one pass,

but anytime a defense has, like, somebody with the ball, facing the goal, 23 yards from goal, that's a situation you don't want to be in as a defense. So I would say the whole, you know, the whole move unlock the defense, you know, starting with, starting with Keta in the back. I mean, it was a, to me, that was a great team goal. It was obviously the way a pass was the key to it. But you don't get way in that spot that many times in a game against France. I can't think of another instance where he was in that exact spot.

So I want to give credit to everybody on that. I mean, it's fair. It's fair. I do think the ball played too well was nice. But again, that way as pass makes the goal, where doesn't hit that ball. If he just collects it and holds it for a second

or looks to play to his left or his right, then that goal probably doesn't happen because France will get their numbers back. He unlocked the centerback. If you watch the replay, the centerback flips around, he just rotates like a dradle because he just spins like a top because he just didn't expect that pass.

And he loses his mark and he just threw him off completely. To me, the way of pass is the key. Obviously, there's stuff that happens before that helps out and obviously leads to it. But if Ware doesn't aggressively play that forward, if Ware doesn't aggressively think, you know what, let me play this with the outside part of my right cleat, then that goal probably doesn't happen. And the U.S. is probably still behind.

So I give a lot of kudos to Tim Ware for that. That genius moment there, that moment of brilliance. And he's had a couple of those now in back-to-back games, which is encouraging if you're going into this next game because maybe he's finding a little bit more of a rhythm with this team, which he hasn't played with before. Because like you said earlier, I think, he's been invisible for large stretches. He's been quiet for large stretches. But if he can make plays like did today and if he can make plays like he did against Qatar, then that bodes well for the U.S. because he is the most experienced player on the score. Yeah.

Yeah, no doubt. It was, I mean, another choice he could have made that he didn't make was to shoot from there. You know, a lot of players would try to create their own shot from that spot. And thank goodness he didn't do that and instead played a very, very good pass. Like you said, after that, the U.S. seemed full of belief. Let's talk about the third goal, the game winner. I know that there was a waya shot that was deflected out to desk

but I forget what led up to that how did Waya get on the ball there do you remember? On the third goal? Yeah. I don't remember at that point I was already trying to type up the craziness from the second goal

for the gamer on SBI so I was just trying to obviously it was in between the game and typing so. Yeah, no problem, no problem. I don't remember. I don't remember exactly. I just remember Desk ripping it, and I saw a goalkeeper spill it, and then Renick's obviously literally following up and pushing it home.

Oh, yeah, no, wait, I got it now. It was like a 50-50 ball that Pomacall went in 100% on, won the challenge. It went straight to Wea. Wea took a shot from about the same spot we were just talking about earlier. It was blocked, and it spun out to Desk. coming up the right flank. Des, like you said, had one from distance.

It was well hit, but perhaps aided by an injured wrist for the French goalkeeper Lafant. Lafant spilled it. Renex was heady on the play. He comes in and cleans up the rebound. We're up three, two, and it's the 83rd minute. And from there, it's just a matter of seeing out the game, basically, right? Yeah, I mean, at that point, I think Tabaret was about the same thing.

He put it through in McKenzie there as his final sub and took off Soto. Just try to close that one out and finish it off. So I think the U.S. did a good job of closing it down. I don't remember a France, a dangerous France opportunity. Not either. After the U.S. went up three to two. So I think they did a good job defensively of closing it down. But again, for me, the overall plan,

performance, you know, we've talked a lot about the goals and what happened during those final 20-25 minutes substitutes, but I think the overall performance was concerning in terms of just not enough, not what you want to see from this US team. I think, you know, the result kind of is masking it a little bit because the US won and obviously shocked France. But I think the performance within the result I think that left like I said before something to be desired something that needs to be improved upon I'm sure

when they train this week I think obviously is a different opponent but I think Tab is going to have the guys look at some film and go to on the field and be like look do we need to work on this we need to do better with this because we can't keep giving up the ball cheaply

we can't keep having these defensive mistakes because it's going to be tough to keep coming back for them yeah yeah it needs to be It needs to be cleaner and giving the ball away cheaply, especially early in the game, really puts you on the back foot. And that's what happened to us for sure. We ended up being outpossessed 62% to 38%.

And, yeah, you know, all the stats were in France's favor except for the one that really matters. I guess I saw some stats that our XG was higher than theirs, which speaks to, like, you know, what you said earlier about us, about us having better, you know, taking advantage better of our chances. I'm not a big, I'm not a big XG person in general. It's just like not into that, that stat. But I think, you know, obviously, like I said, efficiency, somebody asked me on Twitter, because I said it wasn't a great performance.

Like I've said here on the podcast. You've made that clear. You've made that clear, Franco. So someone asked me, what do I think is a great performance? And I think a great performance is, you know, one in which you dictate the tempo and create clear cut chances, several clear-cut chances, you finish the majority of those, and you defend well.

I think that's what leads to great performance. Now, what did the U.S. do well today in terms of hitting those check marks? Did they defend well in spots and spurts? Did they take their chances well? Yes, did they create a lot of chances? Not really. Did they dictate in tempo? Not really.

They took their chance as well, and they showed hell of heart, hell of a fight in those final 20, 25 minutes, not giving up, not saying this is over. And that's something, you know, to Tav's credit, when we had that roundtable discussion, he said, you know, I forget who asked them, might have been Ivis, you know, what's the difference about, what's the difference with this US U20 team

that maybe the other ones don't have? And he said, you know, there's times where he's, you know, worried or nervous about certain things or games or moments and in games. And this team always has, had that kind of like, you know, don't worry, coach, calm down, we got this, we'll take care of this.

They've always had this swagger and confidence about themselves. So that is what I think we saw in those 20, 25 minutes. They were down against France. They had given up the lead, and yet they still have found a way to stay in the game and create chances that led to goals for them. So hell of a fight from them. Great mentality, which is something we haven't seen much of. from the senior U.S. team in recent years.

So I think that that's encouraging. I think that's promising. I think that's something that U.S. fans should be excited about. But again, in terms of the overall performance, I think that has to be better. I think it needs to be better against Ecuador on Saturday. Yeah, it's going to be a tough game. I would agree.

I guess I would be very specific about what I thought wasn't good enough. Like you, I think the cleanliness on the ball, to just give ourselves a chance to keep the ball for a little while. Could have been so much better, could have been so much better, and should have been so much better, particularly in the first half, first 10, 20 minutes of the second half. I thought if Servania and Gloucester are a little more aware of the situation and a little more aware defensively,

then we probably don't give up two goals. I think, I thought we defended fairly resolutely particularly Desd in Richards. Richards has been excellent all tournament. Gloucester's been excellent most of the tournament

but he was getting caught up field and isolating Keda back. So if, you know, if one of Gloucester, Savania had been a little bit more responsible for saying like, look, we got to

make sure we get numbers behind the ball. That, I think that changes a lot for us, you know, in this game. And that, those would be my main complaints.

I also would have liked to see David Ocho and goal. But at this point, water on the bridge we just beat France in the U-20 World Cup so I can't complain too much about the line of choices you know

right right right again I thought you know Choa for me that that was the one maybe switch he could have made after the guitar game but I mean that's that's over the crux of the game that that probably doesn't influence as much as maybe another change with us

so I think that I think we'll we might see some changes in other spots for Ecuador, but we'll see what Tab does in five days. Who would you start? So the big question going into the Ecuador game is for the U.S. is who's going to be the starting midfield, who are going to be the three guys playing in the midfield to start the game? Who would you start? Yeah, that's an interesting question. Actually, I haven't given much thought to it, so we put him in the spot here.

Wing it. If I had to tell you right now, I would, start jerkin, man. I wouldn't. I know. I know some people after a day, like, oh, you got to get them back in there. But I think, I think I'd keep Serbania. I think, I think, I think, I'd like Mendez. I like what I see from Mendez. I keep Mendez in there. And then, and then, yeah, and stick with, with, with, with Paxton as well. Just keep that midfield, well, not keep that midfield three because

Dirkin would come out. But I think I would go with that three. That's what I'm feeling right now, too. I would do the same exact thing. And I think Ledesma would be a good option off the bench for Mendez after an hour or so, because Mendez hasn't looked like he's 90 minutes fit either in this tournament, if we're being honest. Yeah, I think that, again, I was trying to make sure I wasn't missing anybody

or blanking on anybody. But I think that that would be my midfield three at this point if I'm Tab going. It's thinking about Saturday. A lot of people would like to see Edwin Serrio or would have liked to see him today. He's the FC Dallas midfielder.

At this point, I think it's tough to see Tab. If he hasn't played somebody by now, I think it's tough for Tab to start somebody in a quarter final game who hasn't because he had to see him in this competition. I mean, he could surprise us. but I have a hard time to see that happen. He's good to have in case of emergency,

but my understanding is he had a very bad pre-tournament-friendly against Uruguay, and that I think that really hurt his chances of playing time with Tab, which is too bad because he's a good young player, but you can't blame a coach too much for that kind of thing. Yeah, how about you think Uli should be starting on the way, wing on Saturday? Yeah. I think that's, again, assuming, let's say, assume we're all assuming here that everybody,

that he's not even his fit or close to a 90 minute fit, I think he gets to start. Now, if there's stuff going on behind the scenes in terms of his fitness, he's not there, then, I mean, they're going to have to go De LaFonte again. But if, again, we're going to assume that they're on somewhat level playing field in terms of their fitness, then, yeah, I would start. I would start him over De LaFonte, just because Delafonte, just because Delafonte, that hasn't shown that much. And I've liked what I've seen.

I like what I saw from earlier on in the tournament in terms of his creativity on the dribble and his ability to shift move past offenders and his marker. But yeah, at this point, the point hasn't shown enough in the final third, enough end product to still warrant inclusion for me. Okay.

Okay, anything else we should be mentioned in here? We pretty much covered it, right? Yeah, I mean, look, This team is a huge result. Again, the U.S. program and the fans should enjoy this one. It's a big, big, big result. And obviously now there's just a chance. Ecuador is a beatable team.

So there is a chance in getting to the semifinals. I had this U.S. team going quarterfinals just based off their depth and their talent. I thought semifinals is a little bit much. I thought that was a bit extreme of a prediction. I didn't think that there was, I thought there was too much hype behind, behind this team making it to the semifinals, but we'll see they're a game away now. And it's against an opponent that is beatable. So we'll see, we'll see, we'll see how they do on Saturday. I'll be, I'll own it if, you know, if they make it through and then they get to the semifinals, because obviously it'd be quite an accomplishment to get to the semifinals and beat France on the way there.

That'd be an impressive tournament. I mean, you didn't expect them to beat France, right? No, no, no, no, no. Quarterfinals was before the tournament started. Yeah. Just because of, obviously, the last two teams have gone to quarterfinals, and this team is deeper than that team. I thought seven-finals, final four was just,

I thought that's a step too far. Well, we'll see. I mean, I guess my opinion can still be correct. But, you know, today's result, obviously, I didn't see that coming. I did not expect them to be friends. I mean, I don't know how many people did. No, I don't think anybody did. Yeah.

I mean, hey, listen, you know, I'm fans of other teams and other sports. So I know that, you know, when you're excited about your team and your chances, you know, that can lead to, for fans to be, you know, we're confident we're going to get this one. But on the media side, I don't, I mean, I don't know how you could pretty much thought the U.S. was going to beat France. And then given the way the game transpired, you know, it didn't seem like it was going to happen. But, you know, it's soccer. That's why it's a beautiful game.

You don't need to be the better team from the run of play to pull out a result. And this is why it needs so much debate, dialogue, and conversation all around the world just because there's so many little things that make up a game and it make up a result. Yeah. I will say, man, Ecuador is no joke. They won the Commonwealth U-20 championship. They apparently went toe-to-to-to-with Italy, even down a man in the group. and, you know, and still got out of the group.

So I don't expect, I don't expect this one to be easy at all. I'm sure you don't either. But, I don't think it'll be easy, but I think the U.S. will have more of the ball, obviously, the today. I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case. I think Ecuador will be able to play, obviously, attack-minded. And I think that'll leave some space in behind for the U.S. to try to attack.

I think the key to that one will be the defending in terms of, you know, can you, can you, can you shut down Ecuador and their attack? So we'll see. We'll see. It's been, like I said, it's been a mixed bag. It's been a bit in terms of performance. It's been a mixed bag over the course of the tournament. Yeah. We'll need to come out sharp on Saturday.

Needless to say, all right, Franco, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. Yeah, no problem, man. Thanks for having me on and for having me talk some soccer with you. Yeah, check the show notes for links to his article page and Twitter bio, which is pretty easy to find. Most of you probably already follow him. Thanks again.

Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you.