Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 84: Gold Cup — USA v Panama review with Henry Bushnell

Episode Date: June 27, 2019

Henry Bushnell, a sportswriter for Yahoo Sports who covers soccer regularly, joins to break down the USMNT's final group stage match at the Gold Cup. Rotation, rotation, rotation. But did we learn anything? Check out Henry on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HenryBushnell Check out his takeaways on the Panama game: https://sports.yahoo.com/usmnt-panama-gold-cup-score-jozy-altidore-goal-025753805.html And check out his piece on the win over Trinidad: https://sports.yahoo.com/usa-trinidad-and-tobago-gold-cup-score-usmnt-015823852.html Scuffed is on Patreon. It 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. Hey, everyone. The U.S. defeated Panama 1-0 on Wednesday in Kansas City to win their group at the Gold Cup. Joining me to try to glean something from this game is Henry Bushnell, a sports writer for Yahoo Sports, who covers soccer regularly and has been covering the Gold Cup.

Henry, thanks for joining me. Thanks for having me, Adam. I've been looking forward to this, and Greg Berthelter did this. some squad rotation, so it makes sense that you did some, and I'm glad to be here. Yeah, yeah, Greg is in, Greg's actually in Paris right now. He's going to go to the big quarterfinal tomorrow in the Women's World Cup, so I got the short end of the stick. So did you, I guess. Yep. All right, so this was kind of a weird game. It turned out to be a less and first choice contest for both sides. As you mentioned, Panama made nine changes from their

lineup that beat Guyana 4-2 on Saturday, and Greg Burrhalter trotted out an entire. knew starting 11. What did you make of that? Yeah, I thought it made sense. I didn't have too many hot takes on it. Like, we kind of know who, I think we know who TANF's 11 first-choice starters are at this point, and there weren't really any,

there weren't really any lingering questions after the Guyana and Trinidad games that could be answered in this game, I didn't think. Like, I think there are certainly questions still about this team, but there wasn't really anything that Panama and like a Panama, A minus B plus team was going to throw at us that was going to throw at the U.S. that, you know, that Trinidad didn't, and that other teams haven't in the past.

Right. So I was completely fine with it. And, you know, I guess my only qualm you could have is that maybe we would want to see Josie with some first team players around him, and we would want to see, like, that relationship, on-field relationship with Tyler Boyd and Weston McKinney, like, those start to develop more. But other than that, like, that's a pretty small gripe. and obviously it worked out in the end so yeah i noticed it yeah as you know as we said at the top

one zero win that's nine points and three games in the group and i think we what do we score 11 goals conceded zero yep so big picture it's hard to be too mad about it right um i'm not mad about it no yeah and it's let's be honest like it wasn't the greatest game um but i think that's completely okay. And, like, the, again, they only needed a draw. So, and they had, as we saw, you know, Polisic came off the bench, you know, if, if they needed a late goal in the last 30 minutes, they could have brought on some of the big guns and tried to go for it. And I, and I do think it mattered. Like, I do think you want to play Carousou instead of Jamaica. Like, I think that's a somewhat significant difference in the quarter. So you wanted to win the group. And that reserve team still

gave you a pretty good chance to win the group. So I liked it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. And we got to give the first choice guys a rest. Exactly. The yellow card accumulation issue is a thing for McKinney, particularly, I think. And I guess I was curious to see if any of the starters in this game could make a good impression and carve out a meaningful spot for himself in this national team. So let's go to the lineup. It was Sean Johnson and goal, Reggie Cannon, Matt Miasga, Omar Gonzalez, and Daniel Lovitz across the back line.

from right to left. Will Trapp in the sixth spot and then Roldana Mahalovich in those all important attacking midfield positions. And then Jordan Morris on the right wing, Jonathan Lewis on the left wing and Josie Altador up top. Panama's lineup, I won't read the whole thing,

but like I said, nine changes. I think the two, Harold Cummings has been a centerback for them in all three games, including this one. Otherwise, the backline was completely second choice. and then Gabby Torres and Jose Fajardo were up top as a strikers. This was their second runout as the strike partnership up top. Did you – I mean, I guess I sort of already asked you this,

but once you saw the lineup, were you looking for anything in particular? To be completely honest, not really. I think there are a couple of things like – think about it in retrospect that are interesting, especially when you think about like the skill sets and the styles of this back four is significantly different than the starting back four, I'd say. Especially like when you think about the mobility of the centerbacks and obviously love it to the much different player than Ream on the left. So I think it was interesting how the U.S. adjusted based on that, not just at the back, but further out the field as well. But as he said, like I don't think there was maybe there were one or two players that could have made a case for starting spots. but I'm not really sure,

other than Josie, I guess, I'm not really sure anybody did. Yeah, I may disagree with you on that later, but not vigorously, just a little bit. Was there anybody you really thought could win a starting spot here? Well, before the game started, I hadn't really identified it,

but I did think Matt Miazga made a case. He's not as fast as Zimmerman. I think that's the issue. It's not as physically impressive in general, yeah. Right. Just not as quick, not as – but I thought he was – I thought he was plenty polished on the ball, dominant in the air, like did a good job of pressuring attackers when they had their back to him and, you know, poking the ball away.

I thought it was a basically perfect performance from him, even though he does have that half-step slowness disadvantage. Yeah, that's fair. And because I do think that's interesting because that was – with, you know, him versus Zimmerman was one of those questions that we went into the tournament with. Like, we didn't really know who was going to have that starting spot. We were pretty sure Aaron Long was going to be one of the two starters, but we weren't really sure there. But that said, like, Zimmerman hasn't really done anything wrong over the first two games. Not that he was tested too much.

And I do think the way they wanted to play and the way they've, they definitely pressed more against Trinidad than they have in the past. So against these weaker teams, when you're pressing like that, I think the athleticism is, the number one quality you need in the centerback for that type of game plan. And I think that's why Zimmerman is probably the guy there until further notice. Yeah, you may be right. And it may be just that simple fact that he's more mobile than Miyazka. But I get the sense when Zimmerman has the ball at his feet that something really good could happen and something really bad could happen too.

And you didn't get that sense with Miyazza last night. Again, it's like caveat all over the place, right? Right. Because in all three games, the centerbacks were not put under a great deal of duress. Okay. So I think we should run through the sort of big plays. Are you looking at the dock? Do you want to take some of these, or should I just?

I think you should go, and I will chime in where that's there. Okay. Sounds good. Sounds good. Okay. So 16th minute was the first, I thought, real chance from the U.S. It came to Altador. A loose pass from Mahalovich spills back in his direction, and then he wins it.

He, like, wins a tackle to the feet of Jordan Morris, who kind of is brought to his knees by a defender on his back. But, like, rises to his feet and then slips a pass wide to Altador, who pulls the shot wide. Kind of a broken play, but, you know, a real clear-cut chance for Altador, and he probably should have done better there. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think the main thing to talk about here is probably Josie. Like, I thought, I liked this movement. Like, there's, like, good recognition, recognition of space and another way,

he just opened up wide at the center back. And, yeah, generally, like, I thought the rhythm of it was good. It was really just, the finish was several yards wide. A good four or five yards, yeah. Yeah, in full flight, you'd hope you would like to see Josie finishing that. But you're not going to finish. You're not going to, I guess specifically you'd like to see it, at least on target. But, oh, wow.

So let's just stop right there and talk about, because Outdoor is going to come up a few more times on the scoring summary, obviously. Well, what did you assess his performance for us? I thought it was okay. It was, it's interesting. I think when you do lack match fitness, I think if you watch a player closely, you will see that sometimes the, you know, the first touch and the movement just like isn't, it's not that it's noticeably bad. but it just like isn't quite what it is when a player is you know in in rhythm and playing regularly and I thought you saw that in some cases but in general he still contributes more to the buildup than Zardis does for example and his passing is

sharper and there were there was one moment I forget it probably won't come up in this in the summary there's one there's one moment where I think they played it into Altador's feet and Morris ran beyond him and Altador kind of played like a first time ball around the center back, inside the fullback. And Morris didn't, I think it ended up running through the keeper. And Morris couldn't quite get the angle onto it. But that type of stuff, like that was a pass that I immediately thought like Zardis doesn't play that fast.

I had the exact same thought when I saw that, yeah. Yeah. So it was that type of stuff that was encouraging to see. And obviously, you know, playing with Morris and Jonathan Lewis on the wings is different than it's going to be like playing with Boyd and Ariola. or and obviously different, you know, tens are different as well. But just to see that Josie has that range of passing and just that range of things you can do

to contribute outside of the final third was positive. In the box, it was a mixed bag, I'd say. Yeah, is that what your takeaway was? I would agree, yeah. I mean, he missed that chance. I'll talk about the second chance that he missed right now in the 21st minute. Reggie Cannon, who was bright all evening,

I thought, right up until the, edge of the box and then he was less bright generally. But anyway, Cannon cuts in from the wing and then releases Roldon in behind. A clever little pass. Roldon lets it run past him and then he goes down to the N-line and cuts it back to Altador with a firm pass. Altador takes a great first touch. I was really impressed with that to kind of open himself a window with his left foot

to shoot. But then he scuffs it, right? I mean, it looked like he kicked the ground before he hit the ball and it went right at the, kind of dribbled right at the keeper from about eight yards. So another example of, like, you would hope that, like you said, use the term full flight. When Out the Doors in full flight, he's, you know, he's pounding that in the far netting or even near post. Exactly. Yeah.

And I thought, like, it was, that one was interesting because he did do everything right. Like, as you said, he opened up his body perfectly, let it run across him and the defender, took it with his left foot. But then whether the – and I thought the first touch was fine, too, but it was like he just didn't get his feet right enough. I thought he's kind of lunging at it a bit. They kind of leaning over or leaning backwards. Leaning back, yeah, and kind of lunging at the ball with his left foot, which is why he didn't get great contact on it. And I think if he's playing games regularly,

maybe he just, you know, he shifts his body slightly differently and isn't leaning back like that and can just banging out on the back of the net. Yeah. So that's, so I thought that those were two, like, examples of him not being as sharp as he should be in the box. And then there was another example where he was kind of flat-footed, on a, I don't know if I noted it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in the second half. I'll just jump ahead to it where we, in a 59th minute, Christian Roldon played a ball to the back post for Reggie Cannon. It was almost identical to the second goal against Trinidad, except Roldon's playing the ball instead of Bradley, and Cannon is getting on the end of it instead of Lima. Cannon heads it back across.

And if you, you know, rewind, rewind, rewind, and watch it over and over again, you see that Altador's just kind of standing there watching the ball fly over him. as it goes to Cannon. And then all of a sudden it's like, it's like two yards from Cannon. He's like, oh, damn, I should be, you know, making a run at the goal. And he makes the run too late. And the ball is in exactly the same spot as it was when Sardis scored against Trinidad. But Altador's not in that spot.

And there's another example. Yeah. Yeah, there were a couple times like that it felt like where crosses came into the box from either side and different types of crosses where there just, like, wasn't enough movement. And this isn't just an outdoor thing either. I think it's a whole team thing. It's a matter of late runners coming in the box as well. There just wasn't that anticipatory movement to try to get on the end of something.

And when you have anticipatory movement, it doesn't mean that you're always going to get on the end of crosses, obviously. But there just wasn't enough of that at times. But I think we're probably nitpicking a bit here. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Let's quit with the nitpicking. Another chance in the 30th minute for Jonathan Lewis. This is the one we talked about earlier where,

Um, Mahalovich, actually we didn't talk about it, but anyway, Mahalovich drives at the top of the box, slips it just wide to Lewis, but the pass is slightly behind Lewis, and it takes him a, takes him a beat to get his feet under him, and his shot is too slow, and it gets blocked. I will say one, one thing that was interesting about this, besides the poor pass from Mahalovich, is that it started with pressure from Jordan Morris, who was very active and, um, you know, he did a lot of good work pressuring the back line for, Panama kind of throughout the game. Yeah, it was also like a Sunday league, a couple of touches from that Panamanian defender, though.

Yeah, I don't know. I thought, like, that first was fine. I wasn't like super. What I did, what I did like, though, is the way that Morris, so yeah, he like forces the turnover. And then they're kind of in like an odd shape. So I think it's him, Mihailovich and Lewis, I guess. They're kind of the front three at that point. And it's basically a three on two.

But they're kind of in a weird shape when the ball turns over. And immediately Morris makes this run. basically right to left kind of across the formation so that you have like a traditional three on two attacking structure where mahalovitch has the ball with morris to his left and louis to his right like two seconds after the ball turned over they were in that position and that's what kind of allowed them like he forces one panamaian defender to commit to mahalovic um but as you said like the the ball to louis probably just like one touch too slow a bit behind him and i think maybe louis could have done a bit better with it bit a bit quicker but that's kind of how it broke down. I mean, he definitely could have done better, but he would have done better had Mahalovich put the ball in stride for him. And now some Panamanian chances. 32nd minute, Omar Brown breaks our press on our left wing, on the right flank, kind of pirouettes around Daniel Lovitz, and plays a ball in behind Miyazga for Jose Farado, who had a couple of these chances. because this is where Miazga's lack of pace shows up a little bit,

and Fahardo's forced to shoot from a tough angle, and it's right at Sean Johnson. But it was definitely a moment of danger that perhaps Walker Zimim and would have dealt with. I'm not sure that's true either, but... Yeah, I thought Miaska did fine there, but I also, like, I would have liked to see what he did if Faharto, like, Farharto kind of settled for that bad angle shot, rather than, like, going at Miaska and, like, a mini one-on-one.

situation, I would have liked to see how Miyazga dealt with a bit more pressure and maybe a better forward in that situation. Yeah. That's a good point. And then at this point, the first half was really pretty not that fun to watch, I would say. Yeah. It wasn't a lot going on.

But five minutes after that chance for Faro, he got another one, a very similar ball in behind, kind of on like a scramble in transition. And he does beat Gonzalez for speed and strength. I mean, Omar, I would say that Matt Miasga may be a half step slower than Zimmerman. Omar Gonzalez is like a step and a half slower than Zimmerman. And you could see it on this play. He was a, he was beaten. And again, Fajardo's shot goes wide.

But this was a shot from a better angle. It just didn't do very well on the finish. Right. Yeah, I was going to say, like, if you were to rank these four centerbacks for just like mobility, yeah, I think it would probably, like, long in Zimmerman are probably above average, like probably somewhat even, you know, at the top of that list. And then Miyazka is an average, I'd say, you know, a bit below them. And then there's a big gap.

And then there's a far at the bottom of that list. Yeah. It does sort of seem weird that he's in this camp and that he's on this roster to me. But we've all talked about it a lot. There's something to be said for relationships with coaches and stuff like that. Yeah. There is something to be said for them for sure. Half time comes.

No changes. We already talked about the Reggie Cannon header across the six that Altador didn't get to in the 59th minute. And then in 66 minute, the goal comes a little surging run from Jordan Morris, who, again, I'll just shout him out. I didn't think he was amazing, but he looked like probably a solid depth option on the wing for this team, which cannot be said for a lot of players on the field. And he plays another little slip pass out to Cannon. Cannon wins a corner kick by just banging it off the first defender, which was kind of a theme of the night for him.

And then Mihailovich took the corner, drove it at the back post. Miasga, who is excellent on set pieces, rose and nodded it firmly back into the corridor of uncertainty where Panamanian defenders Kevin Galvan and Fidel Escobar kind of collide and neither deals with it well as the Panamanian keeper Jose Calderon drifts out. of the goal.

Ball gets deflected over to Altador, who bikes it in from three yards out, pretty much. Good instinctive finish from him, and it's 1-0 USA. Yeah, it was, to go back to the thing you said about Morris, I do thought, I did think it was interesting that, you know, when I think of him as, like, a pretty traditional, like, wide forward, and somebody's going to stretch a back line,

and, like, when he was playing in previous games under Burralter, he was, like, for example, when they were playing with that inverted right back, he was basically just, like, sticking to the, touchline and he was that really like true wide winger on the right um here he was coming inside a lot and that's what like led to the goal he found like tucked inside found a bit of like a little pocket of space and right and like took a good basically like skated by a defender in midfield which you don't don't i don't think we like that's what we think of jordan morris being yeah i was surprised i was surprised yeah but it was impressive just to see him be able to do that and

show show that bit of versatility um and also like shout for like i think the the the ball that the corner that mihailovich plays in like it seems like a pretty simple ball but i feel like it's harder to get right than it actually looks um that like it in ball yeah yeah like it had the right amount of loft that allows meazga to kind of find it and just like beat his guy one on one on one in the air um but it's also driven enough that miaz can can get enough on it to head it back into a dangerous area yeah that's a good point good point um i noticed that you know to talk more about more Tucking in. It's kind of what Tyler Boyd was doing against Trinidad, too, a lot of, because McKenny was dropping further in the field, and Lima was going forward, like, really

stretching up wide on the right wing. Cannon was doing the same thing. I mean, Cannon was basically a right-winger most of this game. Didn't look much like a fullback. And then Roldon, who was kind of meek. on the ball. You know, he's not going to be like, he's not going to be like probing that, that zone 14 area. Roldon was back as well.

So it's sort of, it's sort of like, rather than having an inverted right back, the system has sort of turned into like an inverted right wing, you know? Right. Exactly. Yeah,

and it kind of happened like, so in the Venezuela game, they did a bit of both. And, you know, after they had done a lot of the inverted right back stuff in previous games. And I think in that game, game, Burrhal probably just realized that Lima was, that it just worked better with Lima

bombing up and down the right side. And it certainly, if Cannon's playing there, it certainly works better that way. And then there's kind of been a ripple effect after that of just, yeah, that means, you know, rather than the right back coming inside and the winger staying wide, if the right back is just going to play like a traditional right back, that right winger needs to come inside more and, you know, become almost another attacking midfielder. So it's just kind of that those rotations that as Burrother always talks about, you know, disorganizing the defense like that, those types of movements, that, that bit of unpredictability, I guess, is one of the things that can do that.

I liked it. I like to see that, you know, there's like this clearly discernible adjustments going on. Pulisic had come on for Lewis right before the corner kick was taken, and then Tyler Boyd came on for Morris three minutes after the goal. 76 minute, Altador had a free kick that went over. boy, we don't have anybody who can take a free kick on this team. We really don't, right? Yeah.

He was like, Pulisic's free kick against Trinidad just like went right into the wall. Altador's, this one was a little closer, but still a good four or five yards over the crossbar. And Josie has hit some, like, I think Josie's the team's best free kick taker, to be completely honest. I agree, I agree. He's hit some good free kicks throughout his career. But as you said, like, Polisic's really just not a good free kick taker at this point. And, I mean, I'd be interested to see Tyler Boyd on some of them. him maybe, but I can't tell you that I've watched Tyler Boyd hit a ton of free kicks throughout

his young career. So I have no idea what he would look like. And yeah, there's really nobody else at this point. Yeah, I feel like I agree with you. Altador's the guy, but maybe he needs to get back into form on that front a little bit. So that's it. I mean, I don't know how much else just to say about the action on the field. It was, it kind of, the game kind of petered out from there. didn't seem like Panama really cared that much that we won. And that was it. 1-0. So, Burhalter spoke to, I want to set up the last section of the podcast with this quote from Burr-Haltar,

because he spoke to Paul Tenorio from The Athletic, and the interview was published earlier this week. I want to read one of the quotes when Burr-Halter defended the losses to Jamaica and Venezuela. Here's what he said. In the grand scheme of things, I don't like to lose games, but a lost. to Jamaica and a friendly, how is that going to affect us long term? It's not. It actually has a chance to positively affect us because we're learning from it and we're gaining information and the guys are learning and we got to see young players in that game. I have a hard time taking negatives from games like that. I really do. There's going to be a time when we need all this stuff,

all the information that we're gathering. There's going to be a time when we need it. To have it will be important. So if we're looking for new information from this game and I'm going to take Mr. Burrhalter at his word that he's doing that, then we'll What did we learn? You know, I'm actually going to, I actually think we learned, I'm going to flip this around about. I think we learn a bit about Burrhalter and like what he's doing here because one of the, so at least one of the criticisms that I've seen of him is that he's too much of a system coach to be a national team coach.

And that he's like, because you obviously can't, you know, you can't go out and buy players that fit your system, you're kind of working with what you have. And there was this thought, there was, I think there was an idea. and maybe to some extent it was reasonable that he was bringing in not necessarily the best players, just the players that fit his system and this system that he was kind of, you know, 100% committed to, right? And but I think we've seen him like now with, you know, obviously at the start, his idea was to play Tyler Adams in this inverted right back role.

And that was a pretty significant part of what he wanted to do, like structure-wise. He's scrapped that basically for at least 10. with Adam's not there once his personnel changed. And then I also think, like, I thought, like, the way that they got into their attacking shape here was different. You know, the main difference, as I touched on earlier, I think, was that, you know, now you had, you have two fullbacks that one that could get up and down in Lovitz and Lovett's and Cannon instead of just one with a normal starting lineup because Riem is not going to be, you know, in that, in that winger position, high at the left. Right. So it was different. So the adjustment was rather than the way that they get into this like three, two, two, three,

whatever you want to three, two, four one or three one, whatever, like with that three man back line in possession, is they usually just have reams, reams slides right a bit, and both of the centerback slide right a bit. And then you get into that three, three man structure with, you know, Bradley and sometimes McKinney right in front of them. Here, instead of that, you know, Will Trapp, you know, after the 20th minute base, basically in possession was dropping in between the centerbacks a lot, which is something that we haven't seen from the U.S. a lot under Burrhalter so far. And both of the fullbacks were getting pretty high up the field. And they still ended up in this structure that Burrhalter wants them to be in when they have the ball. But it was just like a different way of getting to it. And it was

pretty clearly based on the personnel. So I think it's interesting to see him and it's good to see him adapting the structure of his team based on the personnel that he has on the field. Yeah. No, that makes a lot of sense. And it is good to see. I guess my – I'm going to take my own question at face value and talk about some players. I thought Miasga, Cannon, Morris, and Altador seem like they belong in this roster. And I think Miazga, like I said earlier, you could make a case that he's right there with Zimmerman or even above him.

I think he's better than Zimmerman personally. I get the half-step slower thing. And then I'm not, I'm deliberately not talking about goalkeepers because Johnson didn't have too much to do. And I don't know that anything changes there. But Miaska was dominant, dominant, dominant in the air. And his set piece prowess really came in handy on that. on that the game's only goal. I think that's a real factor.

I think he scored four goals off corner kicks for Vitesse a couple years ago in the Eridivizzi. And he's just good at that. And that's something that matters. And I thought he's just polished. And his line-breaking passes were at least as good as Zimmerman's. And I didn't get that. Like I said earlier,

I didn't get that sense, like, that the ball could kind of go anywhere like I do when Zimmerman is striding forward with the ball. Zimmerman just seems a little wild. and I didn't get that with Miazga. Yeah, you know, now that you're talking about him, I actually, I do think that he was probably, yeah, he was one of the more impressive players on the field because not only, we talked about his involvement in the goal,

like not only did he win the header, he was the one who played the pass to Morris that, like in between the lines a bit. Oh, was he? That eventually led to the corner and the goal, I think. So, yeah, you know, we kind of touched him Miazga earlier, but yeah, it probably is just, you know, neck and neck between him and him and Zimmerman.

There's definitely not much distance between them. Yeah. So there's that. And then, you know, it's good to see Altador score first goals since October 2017. And he did not score for the record in the Trinidad and Tobago fiasco. He scored against Panama, I believe. Yep. He was awesome against Panama, by the way.

He was very awesome in that game. I thought he looked pretty good. You know, he wasn't like we sort of discussed him at length. He wasn't great in the box. maybe a little flat-footed at times, but certainly tidier receiving the ball when he dropped in than his colleague, Jazi's Artis is. And like you said, he has ideas.

You know, he'll play that one-touch pass in behind that you could never imagine Jawsi's artist playing. And, you know, if Morris takes a different angle on the one that you described earlier or, you know, anticipates it a little better, he's in. And, um... So how would you handle the, how would you handle the strike? Like, who in your mind would start?

the would start the quarter final. I'd start Zardis again and give Altaur the last 30 minutes. I agree. And then Altaur semi. Yeah. And then Altaur from then on out. Yeah, I totally agree with that. Because I think, again, I think, I think Zardis is completely fine and maybe even, maybe not better, but almost just as good against the teams that the U.S. can dominate pretty handily. And I think we'd expect that's what Curis how is going to be. But yeah, I really think you need Josie.

as that outlet, the more complete player against a team. Like, I mean, Jamaica's not great. The U.S. should be, is better than them. But they're better. Jamaica would be the best team that they played in this tournament so far, I'd say. So, yeah, I would hope that we would see Altador, you know, semifinal and on. I mean, it was our B team. It was definitely a B team that Jamaica beat in the friendly a few weeks ago.

But didn't they out shoot us, like, 13 to 3 or something like that? Yeah, they were the better team. It was dominant. It was dominant. Yeah. Yeah, and I think, you know, on the negative side, if there was any doubt, there is no longer any doubt,

at least in my mind, that Mahalovichan rolled on just, I'm going to go even further than I have it in the notes here. I just don't think they're good enough to be on the national team. I agree. And I, and I, so it would have been great to have Dwayne Holmes in this game. It's too bad he went out with a quad injury

because he would have been, it would have been great to get more information on him. And it's not that Mahalovich and Rodon don't do anything good. I think they did nice things at different points in this game, but it's just not like consistently good enough. It's a little, it's like what I'm talking about with Zimmerman except worse. Like anything could happen when the ball comes to Mahalovich.

Like he could give it away and fall down. He could make a really nice touch and get past a guy. It's like, who knows? It's a roll of the dice every time. And Rodon's a little bit that way too, even though he did some nice things, including that pullback to Altador. he's not he's not uh he's not consistent enough and i think with rhodan specifically in this system

you need somebody who's a little bolder on the ball he's just too meek he won't he won't he won't make a turn into space he plays it back to the centerbacks things just start to get a little claustrophobic and super boring and then people are like why did i pay 75 dollars for a ticket to this game so yeah i think it is worth just like noting that mihailovich is still growing like maybe rolled on a bit less so, but Mahalovich still has room to grow, but I totally agree. Like, right now he's just, you know, it's interesting. You can see the technical ability sometimes. Yeah, yeah.

But there are some players at international level who can kind of ride with the physicality and the speed of it and their technical ability still rises above that. And there are other players whose technical ability kind of gets hindered and a bit disheveled by that. And Mahalovich is definitely in the latter category right now. And there are times. There are times that he's just not quick enough or strong enough on the ball to play central midfield at this level. Yeah.

Yeah. And then you see Pulisic come on the field next to him. And it really stands out, you know, pool six quality. This is not a podcast. I'm not a guy who's just like constantly talking about how Pulisic is the only player who matters in the American pool. I'm not like that. But you can see when he comes on the field, it's like different level, totally different level, like every little touch. So, okay.

Hopefully some new names will emerge and some people will get healthy so that by the time October comes, either Mahalovich or rolled on don't have to be on the roster or they will have, you know, made steps forward in their game in the next few months. Two more takeaways, which you can sort of bat down if you want. I thought Morris solidified his spot off the bench and Lewis didn't look great. I think he's probably in the Roldon Mahalovich camp where he shouldn't probably be on the next roster. Interesting. I thought Lewis was – I had a more positive takeaway from – I agree that he's nowhere near the starting lineup right now.

But I kind of liked what I saw from him, and I thought he brought a bit different dimension. Like, sometimes to me, he looks cleaner on the ball than like Paul Aariola does, for example. I'm not – by no means saying he should start over Paul Aureola. But I don't know. I liked his energy. I like his pace, and I thought he brought something to the game at least. But yeah, there's no big qualms of that statement. The other thing that I thought was interesting was, like, Tim Riem has not looked great, I'd say.

No. Recently, and he's definitely not the left back of the near future, I'd say. And so I was hoping to see something from Lovitz, and I don't think we really saw that. I think he's another player who fits into this, you know, category that we're talking about with Rildon and mileage and maybe Lewis. Like, I just don't think he's a national team player at this point. Yeah, probably not. The thing that he has going for him, though, is he's a pretty good defender. Like, he doesn't, I don't, I didn't notice him getting beat the way Ream is.

He got beat, like, in a, I think you might have mentioned it, like, the U.S. is kind of pressing a bit. It kind of led to a half chance of Panama, and he kind of tried to make a challenge from behind. Not like a dirty challenge from behind, but just like tried to stay tight to a player and got beat in the attacking half. Yeah, I don't know. I think I would say maybe not an open space, but like in terms of sound fundamentals, I still think Reams a better defender than him. So the other thing I thought that was interesting there is I think it was Jeff Carlyle, ESPN, who, I said he tweeted that he asked Burrhalter after the game if he considered playing. Nick Lima at left back and Reggie Cannon at right back. Yeah.

Which is an interesting thought because Lima plays there at club level. He's played left back before. And I think Burrhalter said he hadn't even thought about it. Yeah, I saw that. I saw that. Which was interesting. Because based on, I'd say, like I would say that I think Lima and Cannon have both been more impressive than either of the left back at this point.

So it seems like at some point it would have been something worth trying. But again, not a big deal. I'm perfectly fine with, I'm not going to be up. in arms of Tim Riem just starts every game the rest of this tournament at left back. Yeah, he may lose us the game against Mexico by just getting roasted, because I'm not sure I agree with you that he's a better defender than Lovitz. He's certainly more comfortable on the ball, and I guess I just say it's debatable who's a better defender.

But it doesn't seem like there's a better option. Unless, you know, unless Greg, unless Jeff just gave Greg a new idea, and Greg decides, yeah, let's try Lima left back and cannon at right back. I would say about Lewis, I do appreciate that he can beat people. He can take it to the end line and at least get his foot on a cross. Nothing, none of the balls he played beat a first defender that I can remember. And you've got to imagine, I mean, is he ahead of Tim Wea in the depth chart? No, I don't think so.

I hope not to be completely honest. Yeah, I hope not too. And I know people laugh at me for being like such a proponent of the youth, but I would have loved to see a player like Ullianez in this game. I mean, there's no way it's ever going to happen. He's a youth player for Wolfsburg, right? But just like as a thought experiment, imagine Ullian as running up against a second-string Panamanian defender after he, you know, took care of a bunch of like first-team French U-20s,

not first-team France, but first team with their clubs in Europe. you 20s. I think he'd be just as good, probably better. So hopefully, you know, come quickly, Uli. All right. Any anything else? Any other learnings, as they say, in the TED Talk world? No, to be completely honest, not really. Like, I think we've probably touched on all the important individual performances. I'm trying to think right now, but no, there was nothing else.

I mean, I do, like, I think we touched on it earlier. but Omar Gonzalez should not be playing in any meaningful games anymore, but that's not exactly breaking news. And I do think that the U.S. pressed significantly less because he was on the field. And when you don't have that mobility back there, it's tough to intentionally make the game more stretched and more disorganized and stuff. But again, I don't think saying Omar Gonzalez shouldn't be a national team starter in 2019 is a hot take.

It's not a hot take anymore, but he got to play in the Gold Cup at the age of 31 or whatever it is. So the U.S. will face Kurosau in the quarterfinals on Sunday, a team that beat Honduras 1-0 and got a 1-1 draw with Jamaica on Tuesday thanks to a stoppage time screamer from Juryangari. Got any quick thoughts ahead of that match in Philadelphia? I have not studied Kyrs out at all. I will be more knowledgeable by the time we kick off on Sunday. But no, no, to be honest, no quick thoughts.

Yeah, I don't have any either. I guess I read somewhere that they're undergoing a project where they're trying to play, they're trying to play real soccer. And they did that at the last Gold Cup and they went out in the group. And this year they tried, they just stuck to their guns and they, you know, they played pretty decent soccer. So I think it may not be as much of a pushover as everybody thinks, but...

Right, they're not Gianna. They're definitely better than that. Yeah, they were kind of like a sexy underdog pick coming into the tournament. So, yeah, it could be an interesting game. All right. Hey, thanks Henry for joining me. I appreciate it. If you haven't already, you should read Henry's piece on Berhalter's tactical evolution.

I forget the headline. What was the headline? Can you tell me? No, I don't remember either. I'll put the link in the show notes. Okay, sounds great. And how do people find you on Twitter and other places? Yeah, mostly just Twitter at Henry Bushnell.

Pretty self-explanatory. I'm sure you'll see the name and the title of this episode or whatever. And yeah, that's where you can find most of my stuff. All right, man. Thanks a lot. Thanks everyone for listening. We'll see you.