Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 88: Club status run-down for the European USMNT pool

Episode Date: July 17, 2019

First, Greg gives his 5 biggest needs for the USMNT roster, and Belz lists his preferred changes ahead of the fall international calendar. Then we hustle through the European player pool, talk about each guy's club status, and look briefly toward the season ahead. 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. It's that time of year again, preseason friendlies, international tours, late summer transfers. It's pretty hard to keep track of it all, so we're going to try to help you stay on top of where

U.S. men's national team players are playing, what their chances of playing are, and what you should expect from them in the fall as European soccer ramps up. How are you, Greg? Doing great, bells. We're in kind of a soccer dead period after the rush of national team tournaments for men, women, and youth. And so now all we can do is speculate on the futures of our youngsters in Europe.

That's right. We didn't put out 46 podcasts in May, June, and July, like the Total Soccer Show did. But we did a lot of podcasts by our standards. So, yeah, it's a nice time to take a breath. You know, I think the first thing we should mention here is just some calendar stuff. The hex, the six-team round-robin tournament that qualifies teams to the World Cup from Conca Calf begins in September of 2020. First two games are in the first week of that month.

That is 13 and a half months away. Quickly going to be just a year away. So time is short. I mean, we discussed this a little bit last week, or yeah, it was last week, before we knew that it was going to start in September of next year. Even then we were saying Burhalter doesn't have a lot of time to sort of figure out the player pool.

So that urgency, I think, is even amplified by Concaf's announcement. Basically, there are 12 potential international games between now and that first World Cup qualifier. And that's the most, I think, that's possible, given the windows. That's six windows, right? Yeah, well, five windows plus January camp. Okay, five windows in January camp.

And three of those windows, you know, assuming we take care of business in Concaffe Nation's League, three of those windows will be Concaf Nation's League windows, so they won't be a chance for, you know, just random friendlies. Sure. Hey, take us through the calendar, then. Just go chronologically. That's a good way to discuss this calendar. Okay, I don't have it in front of me, but,

It's, we've got two, we've got a window this coming September. We know we're going to play Mexico at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. On September 6th, I believe, I don't know if there's another one scheduled for that window. And then in October and November, we have two Concaffe Nation's League fixtures each, Cuban, Canada. We're in a group of three with them. The winner of that group goes to the semifinals of the Concafiance League, which are in March. and then if you win the semifinals,

then you go to the final, which is also in the same window. And then before that, of course, comes January camp, and then there's a June window with two friendlies possible in June 2020. And then everybody gets the summer.

September, Quote Hex, right? That's right. Okay, just for some like detective work, Wikipedia lists the United States playing Mexico, September 6, 2019, and Uruguay. September 10th, 2019. And that was up on Wikipedia before U.S. soccer actually announced the Mexico-friendly.

So there's some thought that Wikipedia just has the inside info on everything. They just have like the API to the USS scheduling software. So yeah. But the point remains, is there any chance of us being invited to the Copa in 2020 or any kind of Copa competition in 2020? We'll have to get back to everybody on that. I don't even know, yeah, I'm not sure what the Copa America 2020 situation is. Yeah. So that's a possibility.

That would be a really good way to tune up for World Cup qualifying, no doubt. So as by way of another preamble, before we dive into this list of where everybody is and where everybody's going, I'm curious, where do you think we need the biggest upgrades, the most pressing upgrades. the most pressing upgrades in our 23-man roster. You're talking from the Gold Cup squad we just saw. Is that kind of where we're at right now? Yes. All right. So for this little bit, then I won't say who needs to be called up.

I'll just say where I think we were exposed the most throughout the gold cup. Perfect. And I don't know if this is going to surprise anybody because I was pretty adamant about it. And it might be a little bit of a bizarre choice for my number one's spot, but I think we need to, I think we need a serious upgrade at our second string striker. Yeah, I'm not going to disagree. I think it's, I think it's clear. It's clear. I mean, we've talked about it so much that we probably don't need to go and do it again, but maybe give us, maybe give us the Cliffs notes just real quick. Why is it important to have a good second string

striker? Well, first and foremost, like Josie Altadour, at least in, in this summer tournament, it seemed like Burrhalter didn't believe that Josie could be run for 90 minutes a game or even for six games in a row. So it'd be a different story if we could play Josie for 70 minutes every game of a tournament and just have our second string sort of mopping up. But that doesn't seem to be the case. So second string striker for the U.S. men's national team at the moment is actually a pretty pivotal position, made more important by the fact that our system requires. that a lot of our buildup play go into the feet of the striker. Yeah, yeah. So Giazzi-Zardez, as a second string striker,

really limits what we can do. And I think that was made really clear when we saw the jump inability, the second Altador came in against Jamaica in the knockout rounds, and suddenly we were able to play a much more flowing, fluid game with a lot more chances created. So the reason I'm putting this number one

is because I'm kind of thinking of all this stuff in the context of the hex. And I want to make sure that we dominate the lesser teams. And to do that, when I say lesser teams, I mean not Mexico. Yeah. We need to make sure that we have a player in there who we can play off of so we can get the most out of the talented pieces that we do have. So if it can't be Josie Altador consistently, then we need to make sure that whoever it is can play with Pulisic and play with the attacking pieces that we do have on hand. And I guess I would just add on, it's clear to me, I know it's clear to you that Zardis is not going to be able to do that.

And so we need to get whoever can do that ready because we have, give or take, 12 months until World Cup qualifying starts. So it needs to happen post-haste. Right. We need, we need, I don't know if you want to call them auditions, but there isn't a clear number two. I would argue that there isn't a, I would argue that Zardaz definitely is not a number, the number two. option out of the field. But we need to figure out who is. Okay, we got to stop talking about Zardis because

everybody's going to hate us. What's your second most, second biggest need for an upgrade? All right. So again, just going by what we saw in the Gold Cup, I think the second most important position is to find a defensive midfielder who actually defends. And with all respect to Michael Bradley and Weston McKinney, neither of those guys are sort of at the top of their games when it comes to snuffing out attacks, counterattacks, or even sitting in a block defending against buildup play.

So almost everyone else can sort of get the job done against the lesser teams, but eventually we are going to play Mexico. We are going to play Costa Rica way, and we need a lot more steel in central midfield. And so for me, the number two, to get us over the hump against the top, half of the competition we're going to play against is going to be getting an actual defensive midfielder in there. Yeah. A lot of ways we can do that.

I think one of them sitting in Leipzig, Germany right now. Number three, number three biggest need. So I think we've got to really upgrade our non-Paul Aureola winger in our sort of whatever you want to call the base formation. The player who's nominally on the right wing, I think left a lot to be desired. And I wasn't totally convinced by Tyler Boyd. I'm definitely not totally convinced by Jordan Morris. I think that's a position we can really improve.

Okay. And then number four. Let's just tick right through him. All right. Number four is the Paul Ariola winger. I think we can find players who are even a, you just need a little bit of an improvement on what Paul Aureola is giving you. And you'd get a lot of bang for your buck.

He was so, so close, so often. that if you get a little bit better there, suddenly you're just winning walking away. Yeah, 4-0-50. And then the fifth spot, fifth spot that needs an upgrade the most. I think we've got to get a new left-back. I don't know that 31-year-old Tim Riem, centerback, left-back,

is going to still be the answer when he's 32-year-old Tim Riem, left-back, center-back. Although it should be said, as we said last week, he played pretty well against Jamaica and against Mexico, the two biggest games of the Gold Cup. We've seen a lot of worrying signs, though. Yeah, and I'm a submarine critic. I was critical of his inclusion on the roster to begin with, but I will definitely

say he was perfectly acceptable in those two games. I just know time is cruel, and when you start to slip, you can really start slipping fast. Yeah. Well, the list of players we're going to talk about, we're going to work. through today is is all in they're all in europe so we're not going to talk about packs and pomacall or you know we're not going to talk at length about omar gonzalez or daniel lovitz but let's um i'd like to kind of talk about the few the few the few changes that i think are pretty obvious that burholder can make is that okay with you um i think i have three three that are pretty obvious

four that are obvious that will that will that will quickly upgrade the roster. First, Tyler Adams for Will Trap. Yeah, I'm all for it. I feel like... Go ahead. No, I'm all for it because for me, it's a really optimistic discussion to think about how we're already better than what we showed in our sort of bottom, lower, like low moments in the Gold Cup. Yeah, and I think these four changes are pretty much no-brainers.

Tyler Adams for Will Trap, I don't think anybody's going to disagree with that. Trap didn't see the field other than that Panama dead rubber in the group stage. Tyler Adams is arguably the most important player on the national team. He covers a lot of ground. We all know all the things he does well, and he's going to be playing in the Champions League this fall. John Brooks for Omar Gonzalez. Again, I think this is a no-brainer. Brooks is a ball playing centerback.

He's got a level of class and composure we don't have from any of our other centerbacks at the moment. And Omar Gonzalez was not solid. Unlike the other three centerbacks at the Gold Cup, Long, Miazga, and Zimmerman, who were all anywhere from good to excellent. I thought Long was excellent. Gonzalez was not excellent and really hasn't been for years. It seems pretty clear that Brooks should just slot right in for him, if healthy. And then in the midfield, I think it's pretty. easy to drop Georgie Mihailovich and add Paxson Pomacol. I know you're you think Sebastian

Leggett maybe fits in that spot and I guess I'd be okay with that, but I'd rather it be Pommackal. I think Pomacol has the has a sort of upside. He's he's assured in possession. He's positive in possession. He's hardworking. He's one of the best players in MLS this season, at least one of the best central midfielder's and he's tough and he's hardworking. He'd be an immediate upgrade over O'Halevich or Roldon and would frankly would be an upgrade over Westa McKinney defensively. So I think that's another easy choice. And then the fourth one would be Homes, Dwayne Holmes for Christian Roldon. I thought Holmes was the best player for the U.S.

in those disastrous pre-tournament friendlies we played before the Gold Cup. And then he went down with an injury and left for vacation. Um, Roll Don loses his spot not, not because he's so terrible, but just because he's so limited. And we know what he offers. He's not going to unlock an opponent. He's not going to win physical battles at the international level on any consistent basis. Holmes did enough to show that he could be a significant improvement at that spot. So.

Right. Holmes did as much in, in 12 minutes as Roll Dawn has done in his entire national team sort of performance. And it's, again, you're exactly right. Roll-Don hasn't really, like, done anything terrible, but you have to be more than not terrible if you want to be a national team piece going forward for an entire cycle. Yeah, yeah. That's how I look at it. And then we've got, you know, we've got Tim Wea is sort of waiting in the wings, and it's possible he could be brought in for Jonathan Lewis or Jordan Morris.

A lot depends on his, what happens with him at Leal. And then Sergenio Dest. I think is knocking on the door of Iax's first team. We'll talk about that more. He seems like an easy, and he's knocking on the door of Iax's first team as a left back. So it seems like an easy, easy ad for Daniel Lovitz. Greg's shaking his heads a little bit.

I'm really, I'm really cautious about who's, what conclusions we can draw about knocking on doors from preseason lineups and even preseason. season goal scored assists contributed. Fair enough, fair enough. And then, you know, I think Joshua Sergeant, even by Burrhalter's admission, is, you know, likely a striker of the men's national team future. His club situation will discuss in some detail later. So, I don't know, any reactions, any comments and concerns other than your skepticism about

door knocking? No, but I also, um, You know, my opinion on whether or not they even need to be in the first team is well documented. Yeah, that's true. Okay, so does that about fit with your cut? You also want to cut Jordan Morris. You want to cut Morris and Lewis? A little.

I don't particularly want to cut Jonathan Lewis again in a vacuum, having a 20-year-old on the Gold Cup roster, who's an attacking player, I think is a great thing. Same with Georgie. But sort of by Burrhalter's own sort of playing, time distribution. Lewis and Georgia just seemed like they must be really low. He included them both. Or Georgie was a late injury replacement, I believe, for Holmes.

But in any event, they had the entire month. They had the opportunity. And neither of them were really put in a position to do what they should be on the team to do. Jonathan Lewis, you think it should be the late attacking sub when we're trying to chase a goal. I think Burrhalter had even described him that way in January. as an excellent guy to bring off the bench, and he didn't use him when we were in that exact situation. You know, you contrast that to what Reggie Cannon did with his opportunity when he got into camp as an injury replacement. He ends up starting semifinal in the final. So Burrhalter

seems like he's willing to adjust his assessments over time. But with those two guys, Georgian Lewis specifically, young guys could definitely change things around. But at the moment, even with extended time in Burhalter under Burrhalter's nose doesn't seem like he particularly rates them right now. Yeah, that's true. And in Morris's case, it does seem like he rates him. He rates him. We said on this podcast, we thought we heard that Boyd had some kind of hamstring deal,

which kept him out of the games at the Gold Cup. We don't know if that's true. That's just, we should be honest, that's just a rumor. And so it's possible Burrhalter rates Morris ahead of Boyd as well. at least in certain contests, in certain contexts. Let's work through the list and the discussions about who could potentially replace a Morris or a Lewis, I think will emerge, as will other pertinent discussions. You're talking about our sort of master list for the European lads. Yep.

Yeah, let's start at the top. Why don't you go for it? All right, first two guys on the list are basically guys that we kind of feel, we've kind of categorized them. So it's not necessarily, it's not geographic, and it's not necessarily in order of importance to the U.S. national team. But it's sort of by what their club situation is going into the fall. First two guys are basically, it seems like, have their spots already locked down. And that's John Brooks at Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga. And it's Ethan Horvath with Bruges in the Belize.

Belgian Division A, I believe is what it's called. The Jula, the Juleper League. Okay, the Juleper League. So Horvath came on strong at the sort of second half of the season last year and seized the number one goalkeeping spot for Bruges and had a pretty solid league showing and had a tremendous Champions League showing for Roos. So in the group stage of the Champions League.

So Horvath, it would seem, would be the prohibitive favorite to remain the number one goalkeeper in Bruges. He's coming off of a finger injury that kept him out of the Gold Cup. John Brooks, meanwhile, finally had a healthy season and was basically a locked-in starter for Wolfsburg at centerback. Yeah, and they got hurt right at the end of the season before the Gold Cup, which is why he was not there. Yeah, it'll be interesting to see what happens with goalkeeper

because Stefan's headed to a new club, Zach Stephan, that is. Sean Johnson was the number two at the Gold Cup Stefan was okay, I guess. You know, he wasn't amazing. And now he's got a club situation that's a bit more complicated than Horvaths, I think. Yes, very much so. And we'll get to his category here in a second.

But for Brooks and Horvath, pretty straightforward going into the year, right? Like we don't have too many questions about what their role will be. error. I mean, aside from the fact that it's competition at the highest level and you're always fighting for your spot, but those two seem to be in pretty comfortable places. Yeah, yeah. So the question with Brooks when it comes to the national team is just, you know, can he stay healthy and will he be available for call-ups when he's needed? And, you know, I guess there's a legit question to be asked if he's even needed this fall. We'd probably want to get him involved and integrated, but not at the risk of his health.

No, definitely not. We can win these games every, every, I don't want to disrespect Canada, but I feel like we can win our group with or without John Brooks. And we do, that's the official policy of this podcast. We do want to win Concaf Nations League. Am I right? Do we need to have a vote on this? I want to win every side. I want to destroy teams and friendlies.

Any weak team we want to, we play, I want to destroy them. So I want to, I want to beat Cuba by nine goals. I don't want them to have a single pass completed in our attacking half. Like, I want to annihilate teams. Let's do it. Let's do it, Greg, with two Gs at the end. All right. Next category is these are players who have a new manager.

And we'll start with Tyler Adams at R.B. Leipzig. He's got Julian Nagelsman, that earnest buck-toothed German genius. And he came over from Hoffenheim. What? That's his official bio. That's the subtitle of his autobiography. He's been amazing for Hoffenheim. And, you know, he was linked with Byron and ended up taking the RB Leipzig job.

You got to imagine Adams is right there in the mix for the starting 11. When he's healthy, he played well enough last spring that he would have to, yeah, he'd have to be, he'd have to look really bad in preseason to not be right there in the mix. West McKin. Or just hoping that he's fit. Yeah. Apparently he's training individually at the moment. So he's getting close to full

training. And then West McKinney at Shalka. He's got David Wagner as the new coach there. Anything's better than what they had last year. And I don't know, what do you, what's your take on McKinney's upcoming season? It's, I mean, it's really hard to say.

He's almost in as much limbo as he was going into last year, where his first year there, he'd kind of been a rotational player, but at least he was always playing some version of a central midfielder. Then last year, he was starting almost every game. He was definitely starting more games than not, but you never knew where he was going to be starting. It could be right mid. It could be right back.

It could be central field. It could be as the recess forward. So I would really hope, I would almost rather he go back to his first year situation where just have him playing center mid, whether that's in a rotation of four guys that he plays every two at every three games or what? I don't care. I just don't want him all over the place on the field. Yeah.

Well, we know a couple of things. We know Domenico Tedesco really rated Weston. You know, they were, he held him in high regard, and he kind of, he played him all over the field in part because they had so many injuries. They didn't have, you know, I think they had points in the season where they had all three of their first choice strikers hurt. And then they called up guys from Shalk 2, like Stephen Scrippsky. Well, Scrippsky came from another club, but he was like, he's kind of like a two Bundesliga merchant. And then, you know, Haji Wright got minutes. And Ahmed Kutu Kutu came in and got minutes.

So it was kind of a great, it was a really bad season for Shalka. I guess the question is, was McKinney moved all over the field because he's not that good as a center mid? Or was it all because of necessity? And I guess we're never going to know fully the answer to that question. I lean towards it was a matter of necessity. Yeah, I do too. And I'm optimistic that he will be a regular starter for Shalky as a, Shalka as a center mid and not like a utility man and not a not like the fourth center mid and a three man

central midfield rotation like I think he'll be one of the top three yeah well best case scenario is at least 2,000 minutes this season as a center mid he needs to get a he needs to get a little more finely tuned when it comes to being alert to danger not giving the ball away yada yada We talked about it at length on this podcast. Dwayne Holmes, Derby County. His old manager, what's that guy's name again? New York City legend. Frank Lampard.

Yes, yes. He's returned to Chelsea as their manager, so he's going to be coaching Pulisic now. And the new coach at Derby is, I'm sorry, at Darby County. Darby County. Darby County is Philip Koku. Of 1998 World Cup glory fame. Okay. All right.

Koku, he was the manager for five years at PSV. He had a little stint at Fennerbachi last year, or in 2018. And here he is taken over at Darby County. So I have no idea what that means for Dwayne Holmes, who was occasionally rotational. He was a little bit all over the field for mechanics. for Darby the way McKenny was for Shalka and generally performed well. Yeah, it seems like Holmes will land on his feet with a new manager, just based on, again, he was one of the stronger players for Darby.

I think Darby have moved a couple of guys up. They had Mason Mountain. Mason Mountain. They had him on loan from Chelsea, I believe, and I don't know where he is now. He's at Chelsea, just scored in one of their preseason games. So he's sort of, Mason Mountain's been promoting. out of Darby, so there's a gap there that Holmes might help to fill. Okay.

A good season for them last year, too. They went all the way to the playoff final and missed going up by just a little bit. Next player, D'Andre Yedlin at Newcastle, how would you summarize his season? The same old, right? They sort of switched to a 352 at times, and so Yedlin was playing like a wingback. but it's kind of been his MO whether he's been playing in relegation scraps or like comfortably mid-table in the Premiership. He doesn't seem to have a ton of mistakes, but he doesn't do anything terrifically positive. And he's just sort of, he just seems like a steady placeholder for a Premier League side.

Yeah. That's content with steady placeholders. He did, I think he did kind of lose his spot towards the end of the season to, I forget the name of the guy who was behind him most of the season. Neither of them is, neither of them is, let's say, beloved by the Newcastle fan base based on the internet chat boards. But then he got hurt and it was sort of, you know, seasons over and he missed the gold cup. He was under Rafa Benitez, which, you know, is kind of a wonderful defensive mind. Now reportedly Rumor is the new coach may be Steve Bruce

Kind of a journeyman English manager He's managed every club Between Scotland and Cardiff City And his job Steve Bruce is exactly the manager you'd have For a team that you just want to stay Afloat in the Premier League

You're not trying to do anything Spectacular You just want to do the minimum to get by Yeah So Weird situation. Yeah, so in that sense, yeah, so in that sense, Yedlin is going to fit right in.

Okay, those are the guys with a new manager. And now let's move on to the next category. New digs. Guys in new locations playing for new clubs. All right. So top of this list clearly is $70 million man, Christian Pulcic. At Chelsea, moved from Dortmund, where he'd sort of essentially lost his number one attacking wing spot

to one Jaden Sancho. No shame in that. No shame in that. Taking over Chelsea where Chelsea have just lost Ed and Hazard. Not that Poulosik is a like-for-like replacement for Ed and Hazard. No one's saying that. How dare you? But there is a giant attacking void at Chelsea now that players are going to need to fill.

And Poo-Sik, I'm sure, will be expected to. He's going to be judged on whether or not he can help fill that void. And that would fill in that void means scoring goals and getting assists that win. games. It's a, it's going to be tough, man. It's a tough, it's a tough situation. I, can you imagine being a fan base that, that, uh, that like discards players as quickly as Chelsea does? Players managers. Yeah. I mean, like, somebody comes in and if you're not Edna Hazard, who are, you know, arguably the most effective player in the world last year, um, you're, you're, you're kind of not, they think you're not that good. You're trash. Yeah, you're,

You're going to be lambasted regularly. So, yeah, I don't know. I'm hopeful that, one, so Frank Lampart, as we talked about it's sort of the new man in charge, you wonder how much of the, if Chelsea struggle, how much the blame will go to like the manager, how much will go to the players, how much will go to the roster decisions. It's going to be a weird, like, a Premier League experiment. Yeah. I think the concern I have, you know, I'm full of optimism as always, but the concern I have with Pulisica is, even with the national team, we've seen that he's not all that clever or ruthless in the attacking third.

I mean, he got the brace, he got the brace against Jamaica on two, you know, two rebound goals. And then he had a, you know, he had a big game against Trinidad and Tobago. So didn't he have a goal and two assists in that game? Yeah. So he produces and he's going to continue to produce for the national team, but there's a lot of times where he's in the attacking third. He dribbles a couple people. And it doesn't, like you said last week,

it doesn't feel like he's going to score. It just feels like he's probably not. And I don't know, I worry about that come. So I'm less worried. I'm more optimistic about Pulisick, I think, than some of the other folks that we talk to about some of the guy's chances of the season. And it's mainly because of the upgrades and players around him. Like I think Pulisic is an incredibly dangerous one-v-one player.

I think to get the most out of that player, you get, you know, you put elite players around him who recognize where to go when defenders are drawn and stretched out of position. And that's where I think pool's – they'll make Poolick's job a lot easier. it'll be easier to find player. I mean, it's the same thing he was playing at Dortmund with a bombingang. Like, when you're with that kind of an absolute clinical finisher, your job as a setup man gets a lot easier. Wait, who's going to be the number nine for Chelsea this year? I don't know.

Is it Olivia Giroux? I can't remember. Yeah, I think it is. And Drew is an incredibly intelligent player, always in the right spot. I think bat shooey's been playing as well in the preseason games. Oh, yeah. They have some chemistry together. Yeah, so I'm optimistic that Pulisic is going to be used really effectively.

For the U.S. Pulisic essentially had to be everything. He had to be the focal point in the buildup. He had to be the danger man on the ball. He had to be the dangerous finisher. And now he doesn't have to be all things. He just gets to be the thing that he's really good at. That's a good point. It's a good point. Nice encouraging point to end the pool of six segment on. Next up is Tim Wea, just signed by Leal, a club in the north of France that ended second in the Liga-un. Last year, well behind PSG, but still second.

And they're going to play. Champions League. Yeah, they're playing the Champions League. So there should be, so there should be rotation. There should be minutes to go around. He's not made any appearances in a French. friendly yet, but I think Leo plays Braga this weekend or maybe it's even tomorrow. Friday. They play Friday, I believe. Okay. Going by Google. I'm just using Google.

Okay. Good for you. Good for you. Yeah. So that's, I think that's one to watch. I don't know that he's guaranteed to be a regular for Alliel. How do you feel about that? So they drop 10 million on him, right?

So I don't know if the final number is official or not, but that was the number that was being bandied about. And you don't drop 10 million on someone who you don't intend on playing. So they've got every intention, I think, of playing him. It's just sort of TBD, whether or not Wea is good enough to justify that kind of investment. But even if he's just sort of, even if he ends up in the role that he had at Celtic, where he's a, he comes on in the last 10 minutes of most games, like he's 19. that's not that's not the worst thing yeah is it enough is it enough for uh burhalter to call him up over say jonathan lewis a player who's performing well in major league soccer for colorado rapids a team that's doing pretty well has had a nice run of form like it i mean cue the same old debate

between fringe or you know minimally minimally engaged first teamer in a top league versus regular starter in MLS. Yeah, I think, first off, I'm not a fan of doing the whole algorithm, like, oh, this level trumps this level, and so you have to, he's now ahead of a Jonathan Lewis or Jordan Morris or a Tyler Boyd. But, I mean, you do have to take a new account.

This is like a Champions League group stage team. But, no, mostly I think what you do is you just monitor Tim Wea and you think of what kind of player he is, what his player profile is, as Greg Berlter would call it, and would the abilities he brings, make your team better? And it really should just be that simple. I don't think you should penalize,

unless Tim Whale literally is buried and isn't even making game day rosters, I don't think the first team minutes thing should be, I don't think like struggling for first team minutes should be an issue. It should be a deterrent for calling them up. Okay. well it'll be interesting to see it and it'll be if he if he does get minutes for leal and still doesn't get called up in september um it'll be interesting to see the outrage that pours out that i will bring to the table yeah i'm a big timwayoff fan

i think you do a lot of play a lot of different positions for us especially in our in our sort of build-up heavy system with rotating players yeah totally would love to see him in the next camp and in all the camps after that over a player like Jordan Morris. Let's see. Zach Steffen, signed by Man City. Now he's on loan to Dusseldorf. He's got a little competition, doesn't he? He's got a little competition at goalkeeper.

I mean, I assume so. I can't proclaim to have watched a ton of Dusseldorf games despite the presence of Alfredo Morales on the Dusseldorf roster and often on the team sheet. but Dusseldorf are returning their first string goalkeeper from last season. So I don't, Michael Renzing, who I don't know, again, I don't know much about him. But he's still there. He played 30-plus games last season, right?

Yeah, yeah, he was their goalkeeper for, I think, every league match. So hard to say whether Stefan's being brought in as sort of a clear preferred number one, or if Stefan's just brought in for depth or just to, to battle it out in camp. I mean, we always talk about how every day you've got to fight, but that sometimes is not the case. Sometimes players, teams will buy a player and like, oh, we are buying our first choice goalkeeper.

I don't know if that's the case for Zach Steffen. I think it'd be a reach to say. I mean, how could any team know based on an MLS performance whether or not somebody's clearly going to be an upgrade over their existing goalkeeper in the Bundesliga? It just, it's, so what are you going to say it was, it'd be a reach to say that he's a lockdown starter or at least more of a reach than to say that he's not? Yeah, I think it's definitely more of a reach to say Stefan is coming in as the definite number one.

Okay. Truth is, we don't know, but it doesn't seem like it's an obvious thing. Tyler Boyd, signed by Beshechtas in Istanbul, greeted with open arms by that fan base there. I think the tweet, the announcement tweet, has 10,000 retweets. already. Crazy. That's more engagement than than U.S.

soccer gets on its on its tweets. So that means he's nailed on to the 11 then, right? Does it work like, does it work like that? I don't know. What do we know about,

what do we know about Beshikthas? Nothing. And the Turkish for league in general. Correzma, Koresma is a winger there. I saw he scored a goal and a friendly. So I'm sure, you know,

they always have, They always have good players. A lot of times aging stars from other parts of Europe. But I can't imagine it's going to be a cakewalk for Boyd there. I don't have a ton of reference for the Turkish Super League. Bessikthas finished, I think, third last season. I don't know how they prioritized Europa League last year, but they did finish below Malmo in the group stage.

So they finished third in their group in the Europa League behind. Swedish side Malmo home of Roman Gaul. Yeah, that doesn't look good. I guess what I know about they're basically always in the top four in Turkey, right? Beshtas and Venerbachi and Galatasari.

I don't know. We'll be watching those Turkish league games carefully as the season goes on. How do you even get those? Do you know? Are they on BN? I'm guessing that's going to be like dodgy stream territory. Yeah.

Pop-up ads and viruses. Let's throw in. The next player is Bobby Wood. So let's throw in a question from a patron on Patreon. Carl Sanders asks, Bobby Wood's looking okay in preseason. Say he plays well in the two Bundesliga. Do you see him making it?

If you had to pick between Sebastian Soto and Bobby Wood, both playing well in the Bundesliga, who would you pick? Let's take care of the details on Bobby first. He's at Hamburg. It's kind of a new club, but he's been there before. He was on loan at Hanover last season. It's back into Bundesliga, which he rocked back in the early 2010s, which is what got him in the, actually, I guess it would be more like the mid-2010s,

which is what got him on Jurgen-Kinsman's radar. What are you going to be looking for with Bobby? And then let's answer Carl's question. I'm looking for Bobby to be a, I want to say, like, quote, unquote, dominant goal scorer in the two Bundesliga. So his big season from the mid-2010s was with Union Berlin, where he dropped 17 goals in 31 games. Coincidentally, the same number of goals, Andrew 29-year-old Andrew Wooten scored in the two Bundesliga last year. but while Bobby when Bobby Wood was doing that I think he was very clearly

the second best striker that we saw in a US-Benz national team jersey unless he count Clint Dempsey during the 2018 cycle so if he is if he's sort of playing at that same level for Hamburg in the two Bundesliga I think you have to you have to jump him back up

towards the top of the pool for the moment at the moment. Yeah, I guess so. He's in the short term, right? He's 27. He's not an ancient player. Right. There's not a lot of competition either.

I guess that's the big thing. I mean, Sergeant Soto and Zardis are probably, you know, not in that order, but are sort of the next tier down from Altador. And you all know what we think of Zardis and Sergeant and Soto. We don't even know if they're going to play first team minutes this year. And we don't know for sure if Bobby Wood will either. I think he's come on for a sub in a couple of games for Hamburg in the preseason. So we don't know what his sort of role or his position on the depth chart is there.

I just sort of always go back to that where I don't think players have giant swings in their ability level at the age Bobby Wood's at. So if we saw what he was at 24, then at 26, he's 26, not 27. my mistake. No worries. He's going to be roughly that player still. And that player was definitely good enough to be on the field for the U.S. national team. Yeah. What if he and Soto look about equal in two Bundesliga?

Is there an argument to call up Soto instead? There definitely is. I just don't see why you wouldn't bring the both of them. Yeah. Okay. All right. Carl's got another question, but we'll deal with that later. Who's next?

Anthony Robinson. Anthony Robinson just made his official move to Wiggin. He's the attacking left back. If we are ever going to play with an attacking left back, I think Anthony Robinson at the moment has the inside track on that position. But it doesn't look like we're going to be playing with an attacking left back. Well, as a late game sub to let our wingers pinch farther to the inside, which is what Daniel Lovitz's role was described as in the Mexico game.

I think Robinson got short shrift for Burrhalter. Robinson was one of the few guys who had, who looked really good attacking for us in the lost year of 2018 in our friendly tour. So I still think you can take from that that. Robinson can be a very effective attacking left left back. Okay. All right. And just to put a bow on his club situation, he was an Everton commodity, I guess you'd say, for a long time.

For 10 years, I think he was in the club, and he's been on loan each of the last two seasons. But I think any hope of him breaking into that Everton first team sort of ended this just in the last couple weeks, because he signed permanently, when he signed permanently with Wiggin. So now he's a Wiggin player. And that's where he is. Andrea Novakovich. I still, I'm intrigued.

You don't know for sure where he's going to land. Yeah. Tell me what you think about Andrea Novakovich. Well, I don't know. He's a good holdup. He's a good holdup striker. He's got a huge frame. He's got pretty soft feet for a guy his size.

He's not going to turn and burn anybody, but he, but for the role that Burrhalter has with his striker, somebody who can come back to the ball and connect with teammates, I think he's pretty good at that. And it's just weird to me that he hasn't even, I don't know, he hasn't even blipped onto the radar. He's Olympic eligible too, right? I can't remember.

The cut off is 97, so he is. Is he a 96? He was born in 96, yeah. So he's not Olympic eligible. Yeah, he's back to Redding. We don't know if he's going to go on loan or not. Hopefully not. Hopefully he can try to prove himself in the championship

rather than go back to Holland. So yeah, so his evolution was two years ago. He was in the Dutch second division where he was leading school goal score for Telstar. Last year he was in the Dutch First Division in the Erdivisi, where he was the lead. goal score for Fortuna Sittard, and now he is at least playing preseason friendlies with his actual club Redding, and we'll just figure out if Redding rate him enough to keep him

on board or if they send him out on loan again or try to steal him entirely. Yeah, I guess we'll see. Another striker, Aaron Johansson, why don't you take this one? I know you have a soft spot for Aaron. Oh, I just, he has, he's, he was one of the smoothest players to watch on the ball. Johansen, so Aaron Johansen is now at Homerby in Sweden. He's, I think, 27, 28 years old. The, he's never, he's, I don't remember the last time he had an actual healthy season.

It was probably before the 2014 World Cup. I, I think Johansson will just be a fun one to watch. I'm just hoping to see highlights of some flick or clever pass that he plays every weekend. But I don't know that he really has much of a future with the national team. Yeah. Just wanted everyone to know where he's at so they can follow him and cheer him on. Yeah. Well, it's really too bad because he back in was the fall of 20 or the spring of 2018.

So, you know, more than two years. No, let's see. Yeah, a year and a half ago. He had a month and a half where he was held. for Verda Bremen and he was outstanding. He was so good. He was so good in that stretch and then he got hurt again. Yeah, in that stretch being like five games.

In five games he had like some highlight real assists and goals and then and then injured again. And you just have to, yeah, you just have to be disappointed for the guy. Yeah. Had you right, signed by VV Venlo in I believe the Dutch. Bells, fell, fell, fell. Yeah. It's VVVV Venlo. The third V does not stand for Venlo.

There's three Vs and then it's Venlo. Oh, my goodness. So many Vs. It's a quadruple V's situation. Okay. VVVVV Venlo and it was kind of a funny announcement on Twitter. It was like a Tinder match simulation. Did you see that?

Yeah. Where the first like 10 options that they didn't match with were all guys that VVVVV Venlo probably would have preferred to have matched with. No. Well, it was weird. It was weird. But there he is. He made his Bundesliga debut last season,

scored two goals, I believe, or was it just one? I think he had two. I think he had two goals for Shulka. Not a player that I particularly rate, but he's got his chance in the Dutch second division to kind of solidify himself and sort of set a new foundation. Not just that, but it's another one of those guys that'll be, I just like these sort of experiments where guys switch leagues like this,

especially into leagues that we sort of think of as inflationary. I was going to say where you go to the Dutch League if you want to pad your goal scoring stats. So we'll see if that kind of holds with Aji Wright. If he goes into the Dutch League and drops a 20-goal season, I don't know if that would. I mean, it's crazy because would that even affect your rating of him that much? And he's pretty far down the depth chart for me I would I'd need to see some really

some really outrageously good footage of him of him connecting play as a striker You know I mean he's gonna score bangers if he gets chance Gets a chance if he has time to tee it up he can He can put his laces through it and put it on frame He's done that at every level But it's just a matter of like does he Does he create any expected goals

In the run of play of a match he didn't really do that for Shalka. He didn't. And so, you know, he stopped playing, right? Yeah. Something else I think of note for his Venlo move is that it's a one-year deal, right? I mean, Venlo haven't dropped, sunk a ton of money into him. So they're very much just sort of testing the Haji Wright waters.

Yep. All right, Matthew Olson-Day. He's newly signed by, is it Rotherham United? I always default to Rotherham. I don't know if it's Rotherham or Rotherham. Okay. I pronounce everything like Sharingham. Okay, Rotherham.

Is that League One? I believe it is. Yes, yeah. So he's going to be keeping company with Linden Gooch in League One. Okay. Just so much concerned. His pedigree, also under this pedigree, most people might know is the Manchester United Academy. So, yeah, just keeping tabs on him.

Jonathan Klinsman, tell us about where he is. He's in the Swiss Super League. St. Galois. Join Kakuda-Munay's former team. Is that what it is? St. Gallen? Is that Gallen? I'm going to have to delete this out.

We're a train wreck. We're in the weeds. I guess not necessarily in the weeds with Cleansman. We're just hoping that Cleansman is the number one goalkeeper somewhere. So is it St. Gallen? St. Gallen?

I assume that's what I was pronounced. St. Gallen. Okay. Why don't you start the Cleansman section over again? Next up is Jonathan. Next up is Jonathan Clemsman. Jonathan Clemsman has moved from Hartha Berlin in the Bundesliga

over where he wasn't really even making the roster. He might have been third choice at Harth, Berlin. He's now in the Swiss Super League playing with St. Gallen, and we'll just have to wait and see if he's been brought in as a number one or if he remains a reserve player. Young goalkeeper, Jonathan Clemsman, he's what, 20? Yeah, he was in the last two-20 cycle, so he may be 21 now. I'm not sure, but still very young. I think more one to keep an eye on than probably either of the two who preceded him, Haji Wright or Matthewa Sunday.

I mean, future-wise. Next up, let's do a bunch of guys who need a home. We don't know where they are going to end up, but I'll start with Matt. We assume they're not going to play with the clubs that are paying their wages. Yeah, Chelsea is paying the wages of Matt Miaska. It does not look like he will be playing centerback for them, at least not this season. We don't know where he's going to end up. Nothing, no rumblings?

Yeah, so so far. No, I haven't heard anything, but so far in his Chelsea wanderings he's played for who, Vitesse in the Aredivisi. And then he went to France for a doomed four-month stint playing for not, snuck out in the middle of the night, and then landed at Redding and helped them avoid relegation out of the championship last season, kept them in the championship. And so it seems like he's performed well at all of his stops. So I think he'll find somewhere to play. Yeah. I mean, hopefully a lower table Premier League side, but if I had to guess, I'd say he'd find himself back in the championship again.

CCV, I think, is basically in the same spot. Is he still a Tottenham, a Tottenham man? I believe so, but I think they've said, they've basically publicly said, I think, that they are trying to sell him. Okay. Again, most likely, outcome is a championship landing spot. It seems like it, yeah. I think that's just the easiest league to do business with, probably.

He also played pretty well for Swansea City over the last few months of the spring. So, you know, there you go. EPB, Eric Palmer Brown, I think, is a little bit more complicated. He was at NACB. of course, his wages of being paid by a man city, just like, you know, roughly 15% of the soccer playing workforce in Europe. But Nakhbreda got relegated from the Ayrdivisi, and it'll be interesting to see where Palmer Brown ends up.

I think he was okay. I think he was okay for them. Kind of got better as the season went on. Yeah, all three of those guys, Mioska included. I know Miaska is essentially. at this point we're considering him in the United States first 23 whether he's starting or not to be decided but all three of these guys young centerbacks who are

who have been playing consistently over the last couple of seasons that's that's all like I mean it'd be great if if some club really wants one of these guys and shells out to buy him off of their sort of rich stepfathers but I don't I don't really care I just want them I just want them playing somewhere I assume they're all sort of getting paid pretty well by these wealthier clubs. So I'm all fourth guy getting their paychecks. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I guess of the three, Eric Palmer Brown is the most, I feel like we kind of know what we have with Miaska and to some extent what we have with CCV. Eric Palmer Brown is the youngest of the three, if I'm not mistaken. And the one who seems like, you know, if anybody's going to break out and be, you know, turn out to be a potentially top five league. centerback. I feel like Palmer Brown is the one who could surprise us, you know. But I'm not counting on.

I'm ready to be surprised. Next three, Shaq Moore. Where is he? What's up with him? I think he, I assume he's still under contract with Levanti. He was playing for the Levanté reserves in like the Spanish third division last season. After, I think the club that he was on loan with,

like went into administration, like went bankrupt. And so he was recalled from that club. And it's just sort of, I'm just sort of training. He's playing glorified scrimmages. I shouldn't say that. I'm not familiar with the Spanish 3rd Division. I don't know what the level of play is. But hopefully the guy finds a place to play regularly for a first team in the next month and a half.

Yeah. Yeah, it seems like a lifetime ago that he was playing the league of matches. Remember, he started and went 90 at the Camp New. Against Barcelona. Yeah. And played really well, and played really well. And then he played well enough in his few chances with the U.S. national team. He even had 90 minutes at left back where he didn't embarrass himself.

That's right. I think he was the right wing back in our one-one draw. with France right before the World Cup. That's right. He's had some good moments in his year. That's what we're saying. All right. Last two players in the need-a-home category are Chris Richards and John.

Go ahead. Chris Richards and Jonathan Damon, and they're a little bit different than everyone else where they have homes right now. Chris Richards, we all know, is at Bayern Munich. But it just feels like he's not going to break into. Bayern Munich's first team and I feel like we both agree that he's too good to be playing in the three Bundesliga so it's like he we want him to get loaned somewhere yeah and best case would be that like a lower table bundesliga side takes a chance on him but otherwise two Bundesliga team

surely could use Chris Richard's services and then Jonathan Amen it's basically just because I think we're high on his attacking ability, and we're still riding that high of the Peru-friendly. And Greg Burrhalter said that these guys in the Danish leagues need to find a higher level to play at, so I just want aiming to get moved. And there have been reports in the Belgian press as recently as earlier this week that Club Bruges,

where Ethan Horvath plays goalkeeper wants him. And he wasn't in the 18, right? wasn't he in the 18 for the season opener. Yep, their league has begun, and Amon was not even on the game day roster, so whether he's on the brink of a move, whether he's injured or whether he actually isn't rated, despite all these transfer rumors, uncertain. But it'd be great to see him move even one step up to the Belgian division. Yeah, it would.

Okay, now here's the kind of more exciting speculative section. Players More lottery tickets Yeah Players for whom We are hoping There is a breakthrough Uh

We'll start with Josh Sargent at Verda Bremen Had a kind of a rough Second half of the season Played a couple of matches Didn't play particularly well And then didn't play Much at all

Through what February March, April and May And then July Was left off the Gold Cup roster by Greg Burrhalter in favor of Jazzy's artists. What do you think?

What do you think is going to happen with Sargent? We've talked about this before when we were kind of dissecting the Bremen games each weekend in the spring. He doesn't seem like he's a great fit for their system the way that they use him. And I'm not trying to make excuses for him. I think Sergeant is basically a number nine. I think he's like a leading malign striker. and Bremen basically plays with like a three-man front line and Sargent was sort of one of the wider players

in that front three as a starting position and I don't think that suited him very well or he wasn't well suited for it. Are those the same thing? I think they're the same thing but I agree. Yeah, it's a very complicated system. It's not like it asked way more of him than just to come back to the ball and be sort of a focal point for the.

attack and then get into the box and and find a pocket of space to score a goal. He's like he's going from sideline to sideline, it seemed like, in those games, as were all the other attackers, is very fluid. And, you know, he was defending, he was defending down the flank. Never, didn't look comfortable, didn't look comfortable at all in the spring especially. So I don't know. I don't know what, I don't know how he fits in there. And there's a ton of, there's a ton of other attacking talent.

on that roster, including 82-year-old Claudio Pizarro. So that's one where we're hoping that Pizarro finally has his decline and is just is just going to be a player manager from now on. But they did export at least one of their attacking players, right? Cruz is gone. Yeah, he moved to Turkey. Okay. He heard that Tyler Boyd was going to Turkey and he was like, I'm going to.

Yeah, so that's good. but I don't, but Cruz was, Cruz was more of like the number 10 in that system. It's hard to apply these numbers to that system because it's, it, it doesn't really fit the 433 sort of numbering system that we used. But yeah, they did lose one, they did get rid of one attacker and maybe,

maybe more, I don't know. Okay, but again, Josh Sargent doesn't necessarily have to seize the, uh, starting striker role, uh, or even really,

sees a starting role at all in my mind to be to be a u.s national team call up i think he just it's kind of like what we were saying he just can't be buried like as long as he's not buried on the bench if he's if he's a regular rotational guy or a regular substitute uh i think that's more than enough uh to get him to get him called up for for the games in the fall okay who's next uh next up The guy we're really hoping has a breakout Sergino desks for IACs. Left back Sergino desks for IACs. Yeah, he's been playing with the first team and training with the first team. We know that Tagliafiko, the Argentine left back, would be ahead of him in the depth chart at this point.

And there's, you know, there's rumors that Veltman, another right back, will be on the move before the transfer window closes. so there may be there may be room for desks at right back to i don't know there's a lot of there's just a lot of chatter around iax that dest is is making a move yeah and i guess i sort of put it in the like where there's smoke there's fire category but you're kind of you're you're saying where there's smoke there may just be a smoke machine yeah the the preseason in europe is is one massive smoke machine uh you I don't think you can take any preseason, like, starts, preseason goals or preseason comments from coaches and players to literally mean anything. Like, it's essentially just a month-long exercise in, like, gamesmanship, public-like negotiating ploys, where owners will say, oh, we're totally set it right back because we have this, we have desk and we have these three other players.

when in the back room, you know, next door, they're trying to, they're going to break the bank on some new signing. So you can't take anything or anything until the opening day of the league and who's playing where and who's on the roster and who's actually logging minutes. You probably need three weeks. You need three weeks into the season. Okay. All right. Well, I choose to be more optimistic than you, but I get it. I get it.

I'm not necessarily not optimistic. I just don't just don't take those sorts of events for translating to anything. I think I just think Dest is a good player. The fact that he's training with the first team now gives me a lot of hope that at the very least, even if he stays with Young Iax for another

season, at the very least he'll be one of their in-betweeners that'll jump up for like their cup matches for the first team, which I hope again satisfies that technicality that we all recognize as existing that players have to be playing for their first team before they can play for the U.S. Yeah, speaking of which, also in Holland, a few miles to the south of Dest is Richie Ledesma. He will definitely be playing with young PSV to start the season.

That season starts in a couple of weeks, I believe, and he just has to earn his way into the first team. I don't expect that to happen quickly, but I would note that Ladesma has shown himself to be pretty adept at navigating a jump in level. Now, that's a pretty big jump and level, obviously, from Young PSV to PSV-Iainhoven. But if you remember, he came on in the U20 World Cup against a team of professionals from France and immediately looked like one of, if not the best player on the field for the first. 30 minutes before he ran out of gas because he was not match fit. Yeah, and that was coming off like a, I mean, almost like a six-month injury layoff. I think he'd gotten back to a few games with Young PSV, like some sub-appearances or some brief

starts. But yeah, Ledesma clearly has a very high-level play in him. But we don't have nearly as much information about his role with the club that we had with Dest after Desmaid played a full season with Young Iyx. Or nearly a full season. We don't know if Ledesma will start for Young PSV. Is that fair? Like, we don't even know where he stands with Young PSV.

Yeah, that's fair. We don't know. I mean, you got to imagine they're paying him a lot of money. They're going to give him opportunities with Young PSV to show himself. But I'm hopeful. No, I'm hopeful for that too. And he's not training with the first team right now. Is that right?

That's right. He's training with Young PSV. I mean, based on the photos I've seen. So, yeah, so that matters. Desd's training with the first team is is some indication that he's like close. Ledesma not actually being in the young PSV first team training gives you an indication that he's not he's not as close. That's he's going to have to really he's going to have to really jump some guys. Desd traveled to first team training camp.

Like they did like they're doing like an off-site thing. Yeah. He's with them. Okay. Next up, Giovanni Raina. Yeah, I put these in guys who are like the most exciting like. who get you the most excited about what they could be. So Giorina will be traveling with the Dortmund first team

through these United States of America for their money-making tour. 16-year-old Bundesliga starter confirmed. No, I mean, it is crazy that he's 16 and he's going to be on this tour with, you know, Marco Royce and Goetza and, you know, the whole crew. Sancho. Yeah. But he's American and it's an American tour. We've seen this.

This ain't our first rodeo. So yeah, so we're hoping that he has a Chris Richard summer where he does a lot of cool things and generate some buzz. Would be pretty shocked if he's anywhere near the Dortmund first team. Really, I'd be shocked if he plays at any point during the season. I'm not even like a, well, let's ease him into the fall and then maybe in the spring he'll play. Like, I don't expect Geo Raina to be playing in a Dortmund first. team game this season. I would not be shocked.

I think he is a man among boys at the U-19 level. He's a freak, man. He's so athletic. He's so, he has this ability to glide by people. We've seen it already, right? At the Dortmund U-19s? Yeah, like in his first friendly against the fourth division side,

he just, he like nutmeg the guy and then dribbled around the goalkeeper. in traffic and slammed at home. He's a monster. And I would not be shocked if he, if he has a Pulisic-like breakthrough at Dortmund. Probably wouldn't happen until the spring. If it were to follow the Pulisic model perfectly, it wouldn't happen until the spring.

He turned 17 in September, I believe. So not September, December, November, somewhere in the fall. Okay. All right. But in any event, definitely like an exciting, I mean, an exciting young American playing for a Champions League caliber team. Like, it shows how much things have changed where he's just one of many, and it's not just everything riding on Giorina.

Right. It's cool. Chris Gloucester. And Sebastian Soto. Yeah, we'll take them together. Let's pair them. Package deal. Both in Hanover, both, which is now in the two Bundesliga after getting relegated.

Soto played pretty well in his. half of the friendly over the weekend and Gloucester apparently did not play so well I didn't watch it did you watch it I'm guessing not no I wanted to it was available and I and I had it up but literally like pulled it up right at half time and then got distracted

with small children and couldn't had to had to take care of them and couldn't get the game back on well at USMNT videos that prince of American soccer Twitter he he put together all touches video of Soto and Soto was good Soto played well

scored goal didn't he no he did he scored two goals earlier in the week in a different friendly but i had my friendlies mixed up yeah he did uh he did create some chances and his hold up play was was pretty nice so i you know who knows i think i think sodo has as good of a chance if not better of getting first team minutes this fall than josh sergeant i know i'm not the only person saying that but well it i mean it it it helps there's a there's a there's a goal level of where you're playing. I mean, Soto will be playing two Bundes League of minutes and

that's an easier wall to break through. For sure. And does it seem like now neither of these guys are going to be on the move? Because obviously they're, they'd both been linked with PSV. I know nothing's over until that August 31st transfer window closes.

But are you thinking that they're both going to be sticking around at Hanover? Latest report is that Soto is willing. to sign with Hanover. I haven't read anything about Gloucester. Okay. Okay, so these guys could be getting comfortable in Germany for the next 12 months.

Right. I mean, in a way, I hope they do. I hope they just stay where they are and settle into the life of a professional first team soccer player. The two Bundesliga is a fine level for a 19, 20-year-old to be playing at. Ullianez at Wolfsburg is, I know he's got the number 10 shirt for the

U-19, so that's kind of cool, even though he's a winger. I don't know what else there is to say about it. The kid is swole. He's been putting on muscle, and he was fun to watch at the U-20 World Cup, not 100% match-fit, much like Ledesma. And so he was an impact substitution, particularly in the win over France. I think he's just going to, the word is he's just going to start with. with the U-19s, probably much like Gio Raina, and we'll see how he does, we'll see how he plays.

Yeah, Ullianas and it's basically the same thing for Alex Mendez at Freiburg, right next door. Although, are they right next door, Bells? I don't know my German geography at all. No, they're not next door. They're not next door. They're on the opposite corners of the country, pretty much. One train station away.

Mendez, though, is a little different because he's older, so he's, So he's got to play with their... He's got to play in the fourth division of German soccer. Unless, of course, he's on the move. And I, you know, the rumors out there are that it's possible he will not be playing for Freiburg this fall. And man, up somewhere else. We wouldn't hate that, right?

We wouldn't hate that? I guess it depends on the landing spot. I don't have any insight on where that will be. But... And this is just based on sort of how we know Freiberg's youth teams play. right like they don't Alex Mendez is basically like in this frenetic

scrappy side and Alex Mendez is not necessarily well suited for a frenetic scrappy side well the argument was it'd be good for him to play for a frenetic scrappy side because he needs to you know empower his his frenetic scrappy side but um

I don't know I don't know I think the fourth division in Germany is a low enough level that I don't know that Mendez would be happy to be playing there. And I don't know what the likelihood is of him, you know, how quickly he can move from that to the Freiburg First Team and what, you know, what benchmarks he needs to meet to make that move. So it seems like a long route to first team football.

And if he can find a place where the route is a little less complicated, then I think I'd be happy if he did that. All right. I'm hoping for that. for a, I'm hoping for some kind of a move to Holland. That's what I'm hoping for. I want to see him put in a position where we get to see the best of the things he can do on a regular basis. Yeah. Holland seems like a good fit.

So, how would you categorize this next category? Oh, man, they're just, they're dudes playing in Europe. Let's move through them real quick. Just say where they are. So we've got Emmanuel Saabie and Christian Kappi both playing at Hobro. So Sabi started in their league opener and scored a goal just over the weekends. Kappi was an injury time replacement. So, you know, something.

I mean, it's something. Roman Gaul is playing still in Sweden, but he's not playing very much for Mo Mo. Mo Moe currently top of the table in Sweden, who are like 10 games into their season. Their calendar is a lot different than everyone else. But Gaul is playing like every other game at best. Yeah. So just, again, we're tracking him. Julian Green, still in the two Bundesliga.

No Bundesliga side has decided that Julian Green will solve their attacking issues and scooped him up. And Green has not been called up yet by Greg Beralter. Hard to see Julian Green really having a being key piece for the U.S. at any point. Yeah, agreed. and then Linden Gooch playing in League 1 for Sunderland who did not have the storybook

promotion on their way to a double promotion back into the Premier League so they are still in League one sort of treading water there and Linden Gooch seems to be sort of treading water on that team unbelievable story that a club with a stadium with 50,000 seats in it or whatever it is is playing in League 1

and can't get out. And then we still have Brandon Heinzike on the list because he's playing in Belgium and he's started in their court tricks first game of the season. He was, I believe, starting for him. Well, good for Brendan. No, I've got that backward. Belgium haven't started their league yet. Brandon played in their, starting in their preseason games.

So he's just still being tracked. None of those guys really are moving the needle terribly. I think if any of them, I feel like if Sabi keeps scoring goals, he was scoring goals at the end of the season for Hobro, scored in their league opener. I think we're still hoping that he comes on as some extremely dangerous winger. Yeah, Sabi is the one in that list that seems like he has a chance of breaking into the national team. And his goal yesterday was really nice, a really nice finish.

I didn't see the rest of the game, but I think, I think USM. MNT videos just put out to Sabi all touches. So get back on there and check that out. He really is doing an incredible amount of work. And it's really useful work. It is. It is. Okay, let me run through the last bit of the list here.

These are old guys. Tim Ream. Tim Reams at Fulham. Fulham's going to be back in the championship, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, but they were bad enough to have been double relegated in one season. historically bad year in the primary league but yes tim ring championship player yeah the glory days the glory

days of clint dempsey and uh that samora guy are long gone bobby zomora great pole and then uh phobby and johnson at brusia mitchin gladbach he's still there it does not appear that he is in

gregg burrhalter's plans uh alfredo morales still at dusseldorf same not really in in burrhalter's plans Danny Williams, what's his club situation? He's not a Hutter Sealed anymore, but I don't think I've seen his name on any contracts. So I don't know. I don't know where he's going to be. Okay, well, pull up some more contracts, see if you see his name.

Timmy Chandler at Eintracht Frankfurt coming off a year sullied by injury, but I think he's back to full health now. Hey, maybe he can play his way into Berthalter's heart or vice versa. Eric Lehigh at Whole City and Jeff Cameron at QPR, Queens Park Rangers. It's funny how far Jeff Cameron feels like he is from the national team after being probably our best centerback in 2016, 2017. Weird. It's crazy, isn't it?

Yeah, so everybody on that list seems like they are, everybody on that list to me seven months ago, I would have been like, oh, yeah, these guys will have no more games for the U.S. national team. Lo and behold, Tim Riem is our Gold Cup starter. And at this point, everyone has him as our number one left back. Yeah. It's discouraging. What is the distinction between him and the other ones?

I don't know. I honestly, it's still kind of blows my mind that Tim Rieme is our, and again, because he's our gold cup starter, he's also penciled into every depth chart going forward. Yeah. Well, it's hard to think of who the replacement would be for that specific position that he plays. All right. Anything else? This has been kind of a rambling episode, but it's just to get everyone like oriented for this club season that's kicking off here in Europe in the next couple weeks.

A staggered start, mind you. Some of the leagues have already started. Two Bundesliga starts in a couple of weeks. weeks. I think Bundesliga kicks off like mid-August. Yeah. Well, let me ask you this. This is another question from Carl Sanders. Any particular long shots you'd want in a camp. And he mentions Novakovich, Sabi, and Morales. I think we can dispense with Morales because I think there are better options in midfield. But, you know, Sabi and Novakovich both play positions of need. What do you think they would need to do to justify

a call up. Novakovich needs to keep scoring and it needs to be in the championship probably scoring goals. Or he needs to be loaned to like if you're going to be in the Aere da Visiere, I feel like you need to be loaned to a top Aardavissier side. Similar to like if you're going to play in Scottish law, you got to be playing for Celtic or Rangers. So if Novakovich is starting for Redding or playing for Redding and scoring goals and making an impact, I think that gets him a look. personally I think I think my long shot hope is actually for Bobby Wood and like I hope that Bobby Wood gets welcomed back into the fold. Maybe I'm the only one who's like maybe that's the least exciting long shot pick ever but

I just want to see what what a Bobby Wood type player, Bobby Wood level player can do for the US because I still think we need to find a good backup striker. Yeah. And Josh Sargent ends up taking over as the number one strikers, even Burrhalter has kind of said. like we got to have a decent backup in Bobby Woods 26 Yeah but Bobby Try to imagine Bobby Wood

Coming back to the ball And attempting to lay it off For a for a central midfielder Who's streaming forward Is it gonna be any better than Zardis Yes Much much much better than Zardez I don't I disagree

I mean it'll be a little better than Zardis But that's not his strength Clever Clever combination in tight space I don't know if you think that Bobby Wood's going to provide us that That's another one of those like little experiments that I want to I want to see what a Bobby Wood level player gives us and be like all right It's it's nowhere close or it's like okay this is a suitable Baseline to build off of and so now everyone has to jump over this baseline with the whole thing was Ardaz and the gold cup

Is I don't even think we got the baseline like he was so far below the baseline and then out of door came on and you're like oh man this looks so much different. Yeah. So I just feel like we never even got a chance to see what the, what the, uh, floor has to be for that, for that position. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Well, I think that's where we're going to end it. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks, Greg. We'll see you.