Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - Episode 95: Berhalter announces his roster for the September USMNT friendlies

Episode Date: August 28, 2019

Dest, Pomykal, Sargent! World Cup qualifying is now officially 12 months away and it's time to buckle down. Full breakdown of the roster, some preferred lineup discussion, and a dose of what lineups Berhalter is likely to choose. 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. Welcome to the new edition of the scuffed podcast. The International Truce, as they call it in France, is almost upon us. And World Cup qualifying is now officially 12 months away. It's Wednesday, August 28th. And Greg Burhalter announced a 26-man roster for the upcoming friendlies against Mexico and Uruguay. The Gold Cup is past us. We are now beginning Project 20. 2022. It's on. We're here. We're ready. I just did some jumping jacks. Greg, how are you? Good, Belza. Happy Alfredo Morales day to you and yours. The Angels in Heaven rejoice at Alfredo's inclusion in this roster. What a miracle it is. Belza, I'm really impressed with your cardiovascular fitness. I would not be able to do a bunch of jumping jacks and then record a podcast. I'm afraid to say. To be honest, I did three jumping jacks. You will be awarded a Presidential Medal of Fitness.

Okay, okay. Here's the game plan for the day. You let me know if you have any problems with it, Greg. First part, we're going to work our way through the roster, back to front. Second part, we talk about potential lineups versus Mexico and Uruguay and, you know, briefly discuss who they're bringing to the table here. And then part three, we project Burrhalter's likely lineup against Mexico, or at least, you know, talk about what he might do.

Cool. That sounds like a great preview, Bells. Okay. Let's start with goalkeepers. Why don't you take it from here? All right. So we've got four goalkeepers in camp. I wouldn't expect all of them on the game day roster.

But we've got Zach Stephan of Fortuna Dusseldorf, Jesse Gonzalez of FC, Sean Johnson, New York City FC, Brad Guzon of Atlanta United. U.S. Open Cup champions Atlanta United. Yeah, big win for them. Everything's coming up. in Atlanta right now.

You got your wish with the Jesse Gonzalez call up. Burhalter talked him up with reporters earlier, too, loves his confidence. You must feel somewhat vindicated. Yeah, I'm glad to see him get a look in camp. I'm not expecting anything besides a Zach Stephan. Well, I guess I shouldn't say that. These friendly windows get a little dicey with especially Euro-based players who's going to stay for both games. So there's a chance we'll see some rotation and goal.

Yeah. But the smart money is we're going to see Stefan for both games to keep on bolstering his case for a work permit in the UK. Is that the equation? He can take over his Manchester City's goalkeeper next year. Yep. Actually, over the winter break. Over the winter break. Apologies, they'll recall him for the Champions League knockout rounds.

Okay. Who's out, Bells. Who's out in the cold here? Bill Hamid. This is just yet another L in the column for Bill. he seems to be on the outs. Because DC United do not have soccer games

over this international window. So this seems, by all accounts, to be a sporting decision. This remains something where Hamid just doesn't seem to fit in with Burhalter. Yeah.

Honestly, I don't have a strong opinion about it. I know a lot of people out there do. I don't. And I guess that's how I feel about it. I don't know what else to say. No, that's fine. Even stronger opinions I think people have about the other guy who's sort of left off for what I assume are soccer decisions, and that's Ethan Horvath.

Yeah, 23-year-old, maybe 24 by now. You know, time marches on. It is Weston McKenney's birthday today. Oh, that's right. Yeah, he's 21. Legal drinking age in the U.S. He's been able to drink in Germany for some time, though. Horvath.

Yeah, back to Horvath. We talked about this last week. he's had a really rough he's had a really rough go of it at club bruges been replaced by simon minuley he can't play with his feet that well i'm not shedding any tears about it i'm not either that's that's the deciding factor for me i don't and and for anyone who's coming at it with uh but he played in the champions league group stage and he shut out such and such a team like i just i don't really care that much about players who sort of sneak into the champions league group stages with Belgian teams or with

Greek teams like if you're if you're kind of getting in that way I feel like that's cheating apologies to all our Belgian and Greek listeners for this horrible smear against your national pride no yeah I don't I agree more or less all right we also had Tyler Miller who was on the gold cup roster

who was dropped and I don't think that was a I don't think that was a courtesy for his MLS. I guess I don't really know that, but I feel like we're not going to. He's on the fringes. Yeah, yeah. So it's not a surprise that he'd be left off,

even if he didn't have MLS games. But they do have a game. He's LASC, right? They do have one game over the break. Yeah, I think they have one on the first against Minnesota United. Hopefully they can put Adrian Heath out of his misery. I shouldn't say that.

They did just go to the Open Cup final. Yeah. It's all, it's just, you know, can't be too pleased with what he's doing at Minnesota United still. They have a lot of talent on that roster now. All right. Anywho. Anywhere. All right.

Out of the defenders. You take the defenders then, Bell. Okay. Getting a little more interesting here. We got Tim Ream. A lot more interesting. Yeah. A lot more.

There's a lot of interest. Tons of interest, for sure. Tim Ream and. Daniel Lovitz are the clear left-sided defenders in this roster. Not interesting. Okay. And then Nick Lima may be a left-sided defender? We don't know.

Bells, you are burying the lead so badly here. Get to the good stuff. I'm going in order from left to right, my friend. John Brooks, Aaron Long, Walker Zimmerman, and Miles Robinson are the clear centerbacks. and then the lead to which Greg was just referring is Sergenio Dest will get his first call-up with the U.S. men's national team and then of course Reggie Cannon who played well in the Gold Cup at right back. So Dest, obviously, Dest is the lead here.

He's the headline. He may be the headline of the whole roster announcement. Why don't you give me your thoughts on Desk's inclusion? It's overdue. I'm glad that it's a step in the right direction. And I said this before. when I was complaining about his omission, it doesn't mean Dest is going to come on here

and knock everything out of the park and instantly be our best right back. He might not beat Cannon out for the job, but he absolutely has warranted an inclusion in the camp. He needs to be seen. We need to explore it. And I'm really excited to have him here. Yeah.

Yeah, it's possible he won't beat out Cannon. You know, he's maybe not as good of a defender. I don't know. I guess he could argue about that. But on the ball, in combination, composure on the ball. I mean, he's like nothing we have at really any of the defensive positions except for maybe John Brooks, who is kind of a completely different type of player, obviously. Right.

The excitement around Dest, I think, is that he seems a different kind of fullback than we've really ever had in the past, where he is a full-out sort of attacking fullback. Yeah. He's got the sauce. Miles Robinson. We're also excited about Miles Robinson. I don't mean, I don't want to sneak Miles Robinson's name under the radar. He's a new call-up and really excited to see what he can do, too. He's been one of the best centerbacks in MLS. Is that fair to say this season? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. I think Matt Doyle, MLS analyst, would say that. Armchair analyst. I want to get his title right. Senior Armchair analyst. Analyst.

According to Doyle, Robinson has been on form one of the best centerbacks in the league. Probably on form better than Aaron Long has been for the New York Red Bulls. There are a lot of extenuating circumstances to that. But yeah, I think everybody's excited to see Robinson in the camp. To me, he seems like a good pairing for John Brooks because he covers so much ground. He's a good one-view-one defender. He doesn't get beat a lot. Brooks can be the guy passing the ball.

Robinson can be the guy defending to put it in very simple and almost child. childish terms. All right. So that is, that's the back line. The player, so who's out? Who's, who's out in the cold either by soccer decision or by extenuating circumstance? Well, start with extenuating circumstances. Yedlin is hurt.

We all know that. Miazga took a knock of some kind. It doesn't sound too serious, but it's enough to keep him out during the truce for Redding FC. So those are the two out for extenuating circumstances. Oh, up, up, up. And? And?

So the conference call with Burrhalter, which I listened to snatches of earlier today. We don't say that. That's not what we say. It's a legitimate word in the English language. Omar was left off, according to Burrhalter, because of Toronto's playoff run. I mean, that's what he said. He was lumped in with Bradley and Altador. Yeah.

Which is a little worrisome that Burrhalter would view. would view Omar that way, but yeah, I don't know. But maybe. Optimistically, he was just lumping in Omar so as to not hurt Omar's feelings when he specifically mentions Bradley and Altador and doesn't want to be like, yes, but we definitely cut Omar. Yeah, I think is a good chance that that's what's going on there. We don't know.

As for the rest of the people left off, they were all left off for what appear to be sporting reasons. And I can't say that I have big quibbles with any of it. Anthony Robinson, the left back for Wiganesey. athletic left off, CCV at the centerback at Stoke City right now, left off, and EPB at Rapid VN,

in the Austrian Bundesliga also left off. And then, of course, Chris Richards, who would have been a speculative call-up to begin with. He was left off as well. I don't know if it's fair to say he was left off. He just, he wasn't even probably considered. Sure.

Yeah. No huge quibble. I'm obviously on record saying I'd love a couple of speculative call-ups per window, especially in something like this, where it's straight friendlies, no consequence at all. And Richards is one of those guys who might qualify. But we are fine at centerback for the centerbacks we've got here. John Brooks making his return.

Richards is definitely surplus to this kind of a camp. Yeah. I mean, the big thing is Dest and big thing number two is Robinson getting a look. And we got both of those things. So I don't know. People are going to find reasons to complain about every part of the roster, and they are and they will. and they have

And a lot of times I'm one of those people But I tend to try to only complain When it's when we're getting the big things wrong When we're not going to quibble too much around around the edges So not quibbling here Yeah and the big thing you would agree right The big thing is is calling desktop

Yes that's my big thing Okay give me one big thing in the midfield The one big thing in the midfield Paxton Bamacol is the big thing in the midfield. Yeah. He's our big midfield thing. Yep. And he got called up.

We're veering really close to being not suitable for work here today, Bells. What are you talking about? I just think we're right on the verge of talking about too many big things. Oh, okay. And snatches. Oh, my goodness, man. You take everything in that direction. It's crazy.

Oh, well. All right. So, Paxton Pomacall, huge gall up. Very excited to see it. And then we have some not quite as big, but still exciting things going on to. Yeah, I mean, the other kind of notable ones that are surprising, I guess, would be Alfredo Morales, as you mentioned at the top of the show. There are a lot of people out there who feel like justice for Alfredo has not been done. And here he is.

He's going to be in this camp. Berthur spoke a little bit at length about him in the conference call, said he had an out. outstanding preseason by our reports with Fortuna Dusseldorf, and he's a fighter, and they want to get a good look at him. And, you know, what I say, great. Good on you, Greg. And then Jackson Ewell is the other sort of surprise. The San Jose Earthquakes, Deep-Lying midfielder, has had a really good season in Major League Soccer.

He's, you know, he's another favorite of Matt Doyles, and he can spray the ball around, kind of a little bit in the trap Bradley mold wouldn't you say yes but I don't think that's how I don't think that's how Burralter sees him I don't think Berhalter necessarily sees him in that role really I don't I think Berhalter sees him more in the McKinney role maybe I'm wrong but and maybe that's just because you will start it next to trap in that friendly that you will play it in so clearly not in the trap role that's right that's true kind of kind of wanted to like scrap that one in the dustbin of history but i'm i'm also excited for a jet while we're on things to be excited about uh he's i feel like he's looked good every time he's played for the

national team um and he's just been beset by injury uh over his entire career hopefully hopefully if he does get in and get a chance to play which i think he will uh he has more solid performance for the squad yep super excited to see the seventh best player for the los angeles galaxy to play for the national team. Rolled on and trap. Roll down and trap also on the squad. And then McKinney is a given. Yeah.

We talked about McKinney some last week. I thought we haven't talked about his performance against Byron yet. I thought he was, I thought he was very, very good in that game. Obviously, a losing effort for Shalka, but he played as in a double pivot pretty much. Not exactly a six, but kind of more six than eight, partly because Byron had the ball the whole time. and he, you know, he connected on 31 of 35 passes. I think that's what we need to look for from him in the Bundesliga is accuracy, and he provided it.

So I think he's coming in with a full head of steam. I can't wait to see him play on Saturday against Herta Berlin. One interesting thing about what Berthelter said in the conference call is Taylor Rockwell from the Total Soccer Show came in at the last moment and asked an important question. Where do you see McKinney? Do you see McKinney potentially as a six the way Bradley and Trap have been? And Braltar said, maybe, but we see him as an eight right now, essentially.

So that's something worth thinking about. I know you kind of agree with that, right? I do, but I think I said last week that when Adams is not available, I'd prefer not to dip so far on the talent level. that we get into a wheel trap into our 11 to make up for an Adams and Bradley not being available. So my hope was that it would become a McKinney becomes Adams backup

in the event that Adams is unavailable. Doesn't sound like we're going to get that kind of a setup. No. No, it looks like it's going to be McKinney at the 8 and I guess we'll talk about what's going to happen with the rest of the lineup. Later. You know, anything else notable about the midfielders in your mind

before we get to the omissions? Well, now let's do the omissions. first, then there might be one other sort of note as we transition into the strikers or forward as they're listed, I believe. Yeah. Well, we should talk about Darlington Nagby because I at least had him on my preferred roster. And some news came out, I don't know what, two weeks ago that he said he had, he had only passing contact with Burrhalter. Everybody assumed that means he hasn't been called up. And then Paul Tenorio, the Burrhalter Whisperer, came out with a story late last night, I believe it was. Sensational story.

Well, I mean, sensational is a little bit strong. It was interesting. I'll give it that. That no, no, anonymous sources, familiar with the situation, likely within Soccerhouse, say Nagby was called up for the Gold Cup and turned it down and was called up for the September friendlies and turned that down too. So, you know, Q outrage at Darlington Nagby. Called up as an injury replacement in the Gold Cup. So that means that, so in my mind, just as what this means in the big picture is, as a critic of sort of Burrhalter selections, as I am,

that means that Roldon was still selected ahead of Darlington Nagby because Roldon was on the line of the Gold Cup before the injury. Once Dwayne Holmes became injured, apparently that's what we're going to. when they reached out to Nagby who declined and we took Georgie Mihailovich. Yeah. Berthar clearly likes Rold on. There's no doubt about it. My thought is, you know, some people are saying, well, Nagby lied a couple weeks ago. I don't know, man.

A reporter asks you a question like that and, you know, you're kind of thinking on your feet. He probably doesn't want to say, yeah, they called me up, but I don't want to play. Because then he comes off like a kind of a jackass. So he's just deliberately trying to be vague about it and gave a false impression, I guess. But I'm not, I'm not holding it against Starlington at all. He can do whatever he wants. And I don't think he's like crucial to the future of the national team. Do you?

No, I'm the same. He would have made sense in this window. And apparently, you know, Soccerhouse agreed since he got a call up for this window. But a lot of that is because we are missing a large swath of center midfield slash attacking. players. I like Nagby. I really like his game. But if we don't have him for this game, I mean, he's at his age, I'd say he's probably

a filler, a placeholder. So him not being available, him deciding, maybe he's sort of sensing the same thing. And that's why he's saying, this isn't for me. Yeah. So the people left off are Michael Bradley. He, again, this is the Toronto situation where they have two games over the break and and they're fighting for a playoff spot.

Burhalter said he's a little frustrated with MLS teams for having games over the international break, but he is willing to work with them, and clearly that's what he's doing here. I think Bradley and Altador would be for sure in the roster. So that's why Bradley's not there. Tyler Adams is hurt, of course, that interminable adductor injury.

It seems to go on and on, but maybe we'll get to see him after the truce. George Mahaelovich dropped from the Gold Cup roster. So he and Bradley are the two midfielder's dropped. With Georgie, Chicago do not play in the international. So, yeah, it sure seems like a soccer decision. Nagby obviously has elected not to play. So then who do you have is sort of the other sporting decision players left off?

Julian Green, goal machine, Julian Green, and the two Boone? Disliga and Branda Savagna, who is playing quite well as a sort of a six for FC Dallas. Green's playing well too, I think. I did watch Grotto Firth on Saturday. I got up early to watch that because I thought maybe I get to see him and Sebastian Soto in the game. He just, he looked like his normal self. He's a, he's a fine player. He's not probably a national team player.

That's my opinion. That's fair. it's just because you could say so many of the same things about players who are technically on the national team. That's true. You know, like I guess what it must come down to is just continuity, which sort of gives that incumbency advantage to a will trap or Christian Raldon, despite the fact that they could continuously underwhelm. Servania, for me, is another one that I would have liked to have seen in the camp. he hasn't he hasn't sort of dominated in his showings the way that a paxon pomacall has but we are so paper thin in that deep lying or whatever you want to call that that michael bradley

role yeah you know it it it makes me think about burhalter spoke to tinnorio so that there was another piece with tennario that came out this morning right after the the roster was announced And it was clearly an interview that happened earlier this week. So Tenorio was kind of on the inside with this whole thing. And he says about deep-lying midfielders, we need a player that has a good range of passing. And if you look at a lot of the chances we create in the Gold Cup, it's from overloading one side of the field.

And then if we can't overload, then it comes back to the middle. And then that player plays a diagonal to a fullback or to a winger running behind the line. He said, we scored a lot of goals in the Gold Cup like that, which is true. So he says, I feel like we need that person on the line. the ball. A person has to be able to process the ball in tight space, has to be able to open up, has to have the vision and the technique to be able to hit a pass like that. Michael is a great

example of a guy who can do that. Will is a good example of a guy who can do that. We want to see those qualities from other players because that's a really valuable weapon in soccer. So all that to say, it does seem like Berhalter is going to prioritize that skill from his six for the foreseeable future. And maybe McKinney can do it. I think McKinney can do it fairly well. I mean, he did it in that tournament. A couple of those patterns that Berthor's talking about were McKinney hitting that pass.

Yeah, that's true. He wasn't hitting the diagonal, you know, so much. Oh, he floated a couple of balls over to Ariola from his right-sided center midfield spot. Okay, okay. I think he hit one to Zardez that Zardes headed back across for a chance. I'm just putting it out there because I continue to think that like Bradley in Trapp being the elite players at that skill.

Like, that's the one skill that I feel like people constantly harp on for justification for Bradley and Trapp's inclusion. And I tend to think that it's an overrated. The difficulty of that pass is overrated. I agree. I'm just trying to figure out what Burrhalter's going to do. He sort of foreshadow that. And it sounds like he name drops Bradley and Trapp as the guys who can do it.

Right, right. So in that situation, Sivania isn't even really. on that depth chart. He's not competing for that place. Yeah, that's not his game. That's not his game. I'll say one more thing about that particular Bradley-Trap situation is if your offensive scheme for 2022 hinges on like an already fading Michael Bradley and the only

other guy like him in the pool is Will Trap, like in my mind that's telling you that's the wrong scheme. Like that's not going to be the scheme then. You have to find another way to generate chances because it's not going to work if those are your two guys. Yeah. I do agree with you, though, that McKinney can do that.

He even did it against Byron on Saturday. He had a left-footed diagonal ball, which kind of caught my eye. Anyway, who else are we missing? Oh, that's it. That's the midfield. That's basically it.

You're really reaching down into like the, not necessarily really reaching, but you're into like Emerson Heinemann or like Keaton Parks. And I don't think anyone's, you know, banging the door down trying to get those guys on the squad. Yeah, maybe a couple people here and there on Twitter are banging that door. But I'll mention, I'll mention Roman Gall because he gets some love. Part of that I think is just because he's got that exotic Scandinavian resume.

After his lights out performance with a goal and two assists, he did not get into the game in their Europa League qualifier and then played like 20 minutes off the bench in their next league game. So despite that, showing Malmo FF still don't seem to really rate him as the guy for them either. So it's just one of those things to keep good perspective about those guys knocking it out in Scandinavia. Yeah. Yeah. And we'll talk about another Scandinavian here shortly.

The last thing I wanted to mention about the midfielder's is that Pulisic is not listed as one in the roster. There you go. And Berthelter downplayed this in a conference call with three. reporters. He also downplayed the significance of positions in general, which, you know, I don't know, we're getting real philosophical here. I think it's two things. I think it is significant that Poole-Sick is listed, or I think it will prove to be significant that Poole-Sick is listed as a forward. And I also think people get too hung up on positions about, well, this guy's a 10 or Tim Rames, a left-back or whatever else. Clearly, the way you set up your team, different positions are going to

are going to function differently. So for everyone's saying so-and-so is a 10, the way Burrhalter has set up his team, his 10 is going to be much different than his 10 played when he was coaching Gonzalo Iguine in Columbus. Yeah, that's true. So, like, he's right,

I think he's right to say people are too hung up on that. You just have to look at what are, how is he setting up in possession, what are the roles and responsibilities of each of those positions? And then, you know, you almost need a description for each position rather than just taking the shortcut and saying this guy's a 10 or this guy's a winger, this guy's the right back. Because Burrhalter has very much blended all of those positions. Yeah. I mean, the number of positions that could be a 10 in the Burrhalter system include both wingers and both midfielders, really.

And I guess not the right back. But both wingers and both both both wingers and both non-Bradley trap midfielders. Right, right. So that's where I think he's correct in saying we're too hung up on it. But I also think it's significant that he's, that Poole-Sick is not listed as a midfielder because it could well mean that Poole-Sick is going to have his starting position be out wide. Paul Are we moving over to forwards? Can we just move over to the forwards?

Let's move right on, yeah. Okay, Ariola, I didn't want to talk about Aureole until we were officially. talking about the forwards. Please, please continue. All right, Ariola left off withdrew himself from consideration for family reasons.

No one I don't think is shouting him down the way we shouted down Darlington, their way they're shouting down Darlington Nagby. Because for some reason, it's just no one treats things case by case. Areola not there. So there's a void in the starting 11 for that left winger spot

and Poulsick coincidences. incidentally listed as a forward. So I think it could mean that Poole's sick is going to start out in the forward position. And that, again, adds into this wide range of possibilities for how we might end up playing, how we might set up. Right. So Arial is out for that reason. You just mentioned family reasons. Tim Wea is out because he got muscle injury at Lille, I guess about a week ago earlier this week, Sunday. And then Jonathan Aeman is still injured and not really in the picture at the moment. Jonathan Lewis is not there as well. Lewis dropped from the Gold Cup roster and we assume that's a soccer decision? I believe so. I would need to double check to see if Colorado has any games, but it's not

like they're in a playoff race or anything. Right, right. They're yo-yoing players back and forth from USL to the first team. Dwayne Holmes. Hiring coaches left and right. Dwayne Holmes also just barely probably missing. out as he's coming back from injury. Yeah, could have, could have mentioned him with the midfielders probably should have. But as you mentioned last week, he could work in that right-sided winger role.

He's not going to be fit enough. I think that's fine, you know. Right. Or we didn't want to accelerate his return to, he did play with the first team in midweek. If you want to call it that, a lot of those championship sides rotate heavily for the EFL Cup because it's a secondary competition. They're going to end up getting blown out by whatever. Premier League teams they play anyway.

So he played, but that probably was just part of his timetable to getting back to full fitness. And there's no reason to introduce a couple of international games into that schedule. Yeah, I think it's totally fun to leave him off. He played right back in that game too, which he can do, but not his, I don't think his number one preferred position. So who's there? Who are the wingers and strikers?

Pulisic, aforementioned. Morris, Jordan Morris, Tyler Boyd, and Corey Baird. Those are the presumptive wingers. Tyler Boyd returns after his gold cup relegation to the bench. And I believe Burhalter mentioned that it was a, that was a soccer decision, that Morris was just in better form. Hmm. I missed that.

But I believe you. I believe you. So, you know, that's not super inspiring. It's not super inspiring to see Corey Baird make his return to the lineup. But on the other hand, as we mentioned earlier, the cupboard is pretty bare behind him. I mean, can you even think of anybody else? I mean, for me, like the next guy you'd call up would be because I love those speculative inclusions per window that we never see.

It would have been like an Ulyianas. Yeah. And people will balk because he's only played U-19 games. And I just keep thinking like, so what? Like bring him into the camp. We're not signing him to a lifetime contract with the national team. See what he does. He's been very good for the U-19 Bundesliga.

And that might mean that he's good enough for the national team. Might not, but it would have been worth a chance. Why wouldn't we do that, though, anyway, Bells? He's hurt, I think. Yeah. We don't know 100% sure, but he came off in the 14th minute of his last. game. And, you know, they don't put out press releases about U-19 players injuries. So we don't know for sure, but probably he's hurt. But after that, you're talking what? You would be getting

into the Emmanuel Sabi category? I guess, yeah. Sabi Novakovich is not a winger. He's a striker. Apparently headed to back to the Air Divisi. Yeah, I just don't. I'm not. I'm not. I'm ready to be outraged about the boyd I'm sorry the Baird and Morris inclusions because I just don't see that there's that much else out there some people will call for gall but you as you pointed out he doesn't play regularly for Malmo whatevs just a big fat whatevs right this is where I don't get too bothered at all about what's going on in the fringes when we're dealing with multiple injuries or multiple personal uh uh absences yeah I mean I don't get too but bothered at all about All right, leaving the line.

Wea, it would be nice to have Wea there. You know, it's too bad he's hurt because I think a Pulisik Wea winger pairing with a midfield that we'll discuss later is kind of, you know, it's kind of the dream, at least in my mind. Right. At least test it out, see if we could actually go toe to toe and attack Mexico. Right. Leading the line, two strikers. Why don't you go with it? Joshua Sargent.

back in the fold after taking the Bundesliga by storm this fall. So Sergeant comes back. Everyone was saying, well, there was no reason to – people who were justifying his exclusion from the Gold Cup kept saying, well, he didn't play it all in the spring. He has since not really played at all in the opening weeks of the Bundesliga this fall, but now it's okay to bring him in. Well, that's not exactly true.

I mean, he played – he played an entire – he started and went like 70 minutes in a DFL. Pocall game. Sorry, not DFL, that's the Democratic Party here in Minnesota, the DFB Pocall, and the German Cup. And then he played 10 minutes in the season opener, and then he didn't play in the most recent Verde Bremen game. So, you know, correction, Greg. Fair enough. I'm really happy that he's there.

I've wanted him for several competitions now, and so we're finally getting him in camp. Giazzi Zardes is the other returning forward. Less interesting, less exciting pick, Giazzi Zardes. Yeah. We both expected him to be in this camp, and I don't know what there is to say about it. He's a...

Burrhalter likes him, and Altador is busy. Altador has to help Toronto get into the playoffs. I don't mind that allowance being made for a club in MLS. I don't mind that. I don't either. And I just want to also say, we make those allowances for the European-based players all the time too. I'm expecting guys who will leave after the first game this window to return to Europe because that's just what you do when you're playing games that outcomes don't mean anything. Right.

Yeah. Also, also as a vocal Zardez critic, I should say, I don't have a problem with Zardez coming in because as the third striker, he's, as the third striker, He's fine. As the second striker with Josie Altador is your starter, he's absolutely not fine. And we saw that because we have to rely on him in real soccer moments, and he's not good enough. As the third striker, whatever, I mean, your role changes significantly. You're way less likely to see a bunch of minutes. So you're just kind of a good camp guy, a good locker room guy.

Zardez is a third striker. I'd have absolutely no issues with. Yeah, I mean, as a third striker in a roster, you still have to play. and you still may have to play. Hopefully we can get to a point where we don't need to have Zardis in any kind of roster, in any kind of role, but we're not there yet. We're not there yet. And I fully expect Zardis to start over Sargent, at least against Mexico.

That's the depressing part, so I expect that as well. I mean, like you said, I mean, Sergeant, I corrected you and said, well, actually, Sergeant did play in a cup game, and he did get some cameo minutes, in the first week of the Bundesliga, but he's not lighten the world on fire right now in the early going of the Bundesliga season. We'll see if he gets a chance this weekend. Jojo Agostein, Agosteim, got a red card in Bremens,

Ever to Bremen's last game, and Mila Roshika is out with injury for several weeks. So there may be room for Sergeant to show himself in the next few days. We'll see. All right. Who else? left out of the forward pool. That's it, I think.

Joe Jow? Right. I mean, that's hardly a leave off in, if we're being technical. No, you'd be talking about like Bobby Wood, Sebastian Soto, uh, uh, Bobby said. So there's none of those guys are making super compelling cases, uh, to get in. So, yeah, it really is all riding on sergeant. Yeah. And even though, I will say, even though he's struggling, I think he's a better, I think he's a better fit, and I think you agree, a better fit and a better player at doing what Burrhalter needs from that striker position in this system.

Whether that translates into him actually getting to start on September 6th, another question. Yeah, fingers crossed for that. All right, let's get into the upcoming matches. First, we've got Mexico at MetLife Stadium in Hoboken or whatever in the greater New York City part of New Jersey. It's like right across the Hudson River. It'll be an away game. It always is with Mexico, and Mexico's roster is very strong. It includes Hector Herrera, Chichorito, Chicholizano, and Takedito.

Those were names that weren't in the Gold Cup. In addition to the Gold Cup winners, Raul Jimenez, Rodolfo Pizarro, Andres Guardado and Jonas Santos, among others. So this is a full-strength roster for Mexico. We best come correct. Is it full-strength, though, Bells? Can you think of anybody that Mexico isn't bringing that might make them better? Are you referring to Jonathan Gonzalez or Diego Linus?

I'm referring to Carlos Vela. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Full strength within the realm of reality for that. All right. Yes. It's going to be, this should be great. Like, I'm very excited for this, even though I know it's possible that we could get completely poleaxed.

Yeah. I don't expect that. I'll be really disappointed with that, and I'm sure Burrhalter will too. So who do you, how would you, how would you line it up if you could? We don't have to, we don't have to do like some lengthy, elaborate process with this. Why don't you just tell me how you would line it up. Okay. So I'm going to go with, I'm going to use the.

fact that Burrhalter has said McKinney's going to be a six just as a heads-up. I would go with, I would go with Stefan as our goalkeeper. Give me Brooks and Long as our two actual centerbacks. I say actual just because of the way we kind of fluctuate things. What I want, what I kind of want, and I'm hoping, and there's no reason that this can't be the case, is that Nick Lima has been called in and this camp is going to be tested out at left back. And I'm hoping that he's able to take that left-back center back hybrid role away from Tim Ream. So I'm hoping that Nick Lima becomes our left back. And we run out, and I'm hoping that Sergenio Dest does enough that he becomes a clear

first option at the attacking right back, right winger spot. And so Desk plays right back. How's that for a back four? Yeah, it's fine. I don't feel strongly about Lima the way you do. So I would just do the exact same and have Ream there because probably because I expect that to happen. Remus does have a little bit more of that centerback profile that presumably we need in that spot.

Right. And I get that too. I worry that we'll be defending a lot more than attacking. And so I'm more concerned about whether Ream will be able to defend the edge against a much improved Mexico attack than the Gold Cup. And so that's why I'm thinking Lima might do a better job actually being the left back as we sink into our 4-4-2. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point. That's my rationale.

And Liam is younger, so he'd be able to do the job for longer than Reem, if we're projecting out. Okay. So how would you set up the midfield? All right. So in our Greg Burhalter midfielder, midfield, which we'll talk about later how that could be completely different in this go-around. But from what we set up in the Gold Cup, what I'd kind of like to see is Morales and is that holding midfielder, sort of being the Tyler Adams stand-in. But really the Michael Bradley stand in in and Greg Berhalter's mind. I want to see McKinney as the midfielder who sort of drops alongside him on the right side.

And then I want Paxton Pomacall to get the start as the, I guess what you call the Christian Pulisick role to date. Yeah. I like that. I like that too. I think, so I have it set up with McKinney as the six and Morales as the eight because I do think McKinney is a better pastor than Morales. So that fits Burrhalter's sort of profile. a little better, but the fact that Burrhalter said, no, we think of McKinney as an eight, does undercut what I'm proposing here for sure.

Well, and I still think that in his actual possession scheme, like Morales and McKenny are just symmetrical, just left-right flipped, where I thought McKinney's job was essentially the same as Bradley's in the buildup. It's just that McKinney would then be free to get into the attack as we advance into the box. So I don't think we necessarily lose McKinney's quarterbacking if we have Morales as to Bradley and McKenny as the McKenny. Yeah, it's a good point.

It's a good point. It's either, I think those are the two, those are the likely best two starters. It, however you set them up, right? Yeah, yeah, that's, that's sort of what I'm at. And I'm really kind of curious to see what Morales can do because because it's been so long since we've seen him, because he was never playing for U.S. men's national team coach who was particularly competent tactically, he got his reps with, with Clemsman. So he, I mean.

He played on the left wing, didn't he? Yeah, you can only imagine what his sort of instructions have been. Like now we actually get to see him come in with a very defined role. And it'll be interesting to see whether he offers a really like a much cleaner, crisper version of sort of what we're used to in that role. Even from Michael Bradley, like it's possible. It's not impossible that that'd be the case. Morales has been playing in the Bundesliga for the last 16 months. Yeah, longer than that, right?

Or maybe not, no. I don't remember because he keeps, he gives. He'd yo-yo for a while between two Bundesliga and Bundesliga. Yeah, I wouldn't shock me at all if he separates himself, you know, given the level of competition that he's playing at relative to Ewell, rolled on and trap, and then ends up starting this game. And I think that would be great to see. Pomacall, now, Pomacall, I can't remember if I mentioned this already,

but Burrhalter's comments on Pomacall were pretty instructive. Like, he doesn't, he made it sound like Pomacall is there just to get his feet wet. just to get a look at him. No expectations. It didn't sound like Pomacall is going to be slotting into a starting spot in this lineup from Burhalter's perspective. In contrast, when he talked about Desk, there was none of that sort of cautionary language that it was couched in. It was just like, we love what we see from him. He can play both sides. He's excellent on the ball. He likes to attack. He likes 1 v.1 situations. So there was a definite contrast in the way Burrhal discussed Dest and the way he discussed Pomacall, leading me to believe that

Pomacol probably won't start. I don't know if I'm jumping the shark here, but I would like to see him start in that position. I think he brings not only defensive commitment and sort of steal, but he's great in combination. He's a great passer, and he seems to be getting better at that. There was a great highlight from the weekend where he cut him from the right wing and played a beautiful pass to Hayes-Ferrera for a goal that was disallowed for complicated reasons that didn't have to do with Pomacol or Ferreira. So I would love to see that and I love to see him combining with Pulisic on the wing That's that's the hope right that's that's the dream that we get that even for a little bit like

I want that to be the starting lineup If we don't get that give me give me the last 20 minutes Yeah All right so that's that's sort of the listed midfielders I've got and this is where I don't really love any of the options because I don't love Tyler Boyd doing this either But I've got Tyler Boyd starting in the Jordan Morris role, which is on the right wing defensively, but then he pinches in to become like a 10 as we build up. And it's just because Boyd, I think, has a cleaner first touch.

I thought a real issue with Jordan Morris against Mexico was that if Mexico can just mark out our two holding midfielder's McKinney and Morales in this universe, then we have to start, we have to start looking to float balls into the space behind those man-marking defenders. and if we're just trying to sort of float balls into Morris and expecting him to control it, I don't, I don't think, in the central of the park, center of the park, I don't think we're going to get that. I don't know if Boyd will offer it either,

but I do think Boyd, in a limited time, we've seen him, has been a little bit more polished than Jordan Morris with his touch. So that's what I'm kind of hoping for is that he's the right-wing option who can come in and play in the middle of the field. Yeah. I mean, Baird and Morris are sort of similar in that they're just,

They're kind of straight line players who kind of run in behind and try to finish chances, basically. And I don't want, I agree with you. I don't see either of them excelling in the role of tucking in, like just below Zone 14 and trying to orchestrate play the way that position is supposed to, which makes me think maybe Pulis should be on the right. Right. That's what we'll get into when we talk about what Burrhalter might actually do. I'm just sort of setting this up on, based on the Gold Cup.

system and sort of translating it to this group of players. And so that's why I'm kind of listing Boyd off as that spot. Okay. Boyd on the right. And Poulsick left, hands down, and then free to go wherever he wants. Yeah. Which would be a shift because obviously he started out in the nominal 10 role for the Gold Cup and then was interchanging with Ariola to the outside. This would be him starting outside and moving central.

Yeah. Josh Sargent up top. Agreed. Agreed. Surprised. Surprisingly. So then we play, we'll get into whether we think any of this is possible in a moment. But the second match is on September 10th in St. Louis at Bush Stadium, I believe, where the St. Louis Cardinals play against Uruguay.

And the roster includes a lot of big names, Luis Suarez, Diego Godan. Is it Godin? I don't know the answer. Okay, because in French, Rodon, R-O-D-I-N is Rodon, but whatever. We'll crowdsource it. Someone will tell us. Yeah. Nico L-O-Doreau, L-A-F-C's Brian Rodriguez, their new signing, kind of exciting young player,

and then Edinson Kvani, who maybe is out with injury. I'm not 100% sure on that. Anyway, these are good players, and it's going to be a good team we're up against. Do you think we will send some players home before that friendly? You sort of alluded to this earlier. Yes, I definitely think we will, and it'll just be a waiting game to see which. Like, I don't think there's any chance John Brooks plays in both games. I think club and even the national team are smart enough to recognize that you don't do that to John Brooks, given his injury history.

You play his one game, you wrap him carefully, and you send him back to Germany. Yeah. He seems like a very safe prediction for somebody who will go home early. What about? Which will be nice, too, because we. We would like to have the opportunity to get those either Miles or Walker Zimmerman some reps in the game. Preferably. Like I'd like to see Miles Robinson.

Yeah. I could see a long Robinson pairing in the Uruguay game. I guess a lot depends on what else we do, what we do in the Mexico match. A lot of what happens in the Uruguay match will depend on what happens in the Mexico match. But anybody else you think might go home, Pulisic? Yeah. So after Brooks, I also wouldn't be surprised if any of the Euro guys bail after one game. That could be, I mean, that could be Pulsick McKinney.

I don't need to list them all because I just described who that would be. The category of player. Okay. Yeah. I mean, yeah, Poulsick and McKinney seem like the most likely. I would like to see Dest stick around and stay with us throughout the international break. Make full use of FIFA's international laws. Yeah, I guess it's kind of silly to try to project a lineup against Uruguay when we don't know how we're going to line up against Mexico, right?

Yeah, and what we're going to talk about now is it might have even been silly to try to project how we're going to line up against Mexico. Yeah. Because, okay, let's move right into the last part of this podcast, Part three, what will Burrhalter do? And start with the back line. What do you think he's going to do? uh, Bells, you're not going to get an actual

Burrhalter projection out of me because, uh, he's talked about the different things that, like a Sergenio Dest offers. Um, and then you just, you just combine that with,

even, even the fact that Poole six listed as a forward, changes things drastically because if Poole six, uh, forward on the outside and he's going to be pinching in, that leaves room for, uh, a left back to get around him,

which we haven't seen really in a burr-haltered squad because we've had the left back be more of a centerback. possession. So you have all these different options that Burrhalter could deploy and I don't even want to try to list out what you can do. Yeah. Okay.

Well, I'm going to I'm going to tell you. Yeah, you give me yours. You give me your your Burrhalter crystal ball projection. Well, I here's what I think we should we shouldn't be shocked if we see. And it's basically the same backline

I had, which is Ream, Brooks, long, except I wouldn't be shocked to see Cannon beat out Dest. Not at all. Not at all, yep. Or just to get the start and ease Dest in, even if Dest is preferred. Like, you could still make the case that Cannon will play this game. He's got a lot of in-system time logged.

Yeah. So that would be, I think, a backline that we could definitely see from Burrhalter. Given the way he's talked about McKinney being an 8 and how he name dropped Willtrap is somebody who can do the things that he needs from that number six position, I think there's a 75% chance Will Trapp starts the game against Mexico as the six. Everybody's going to be mad, and I won't like it either. I just think there's a really good chance that's going to happen. Yep, yep, that would make sense. Keep going.

This is so bleak, bells. Right. Well, so Pulisic listed as a forward notwithstanding, I think there's still a decent chance. he starts as the nominal number 10. The way Burrhalter has talked about Pomacall, as I mentioned earlier, indicates to me he's not in line for a starting spot unless he just absolutely blows Burrhalter away over the next 10 days or so. So I could see a Trap, McKinney-Pulisick, midfield, and then Morris and Boyd on the wings. And I think Zardis is as likely to start up top as trap is at the same. maybe even more likely. That's, that, I agree with you.

I agree that Zardez, out of all the different combinations that Burrhalter could run, uh, they all sort of require just one of those two guys to start. And I think in Burrhalter's mind, Zardez is just a safer, more trustworthy option. Yeah. And he probably trains better than sergeant and, you know, is more mature. He's quite a bit older. So, I don't even know what, I don't even know what that means, Bells.

I don't even know what it means. I don't either. I just said, I don't even know you anymore. coming out of my mouth. There's also sort of that implicit caveat that because there's two games, you don't have to necessarily read into who starts Mexico and who starts Uruguay. You've got 180 minutes and you divvy them up if you're Greg Burholter. And we could be over-analyzing who gets which of those minutes.

Yeah, right. So I think that's what we got. You got any other thoughts on this? This whole system, you know, he was, I think, tied to a system for the Gold Cup. But I am very excited to see if he stays with that or if he does make drastic changes to the way that he sets up the shape, to the way that we get into that shape. There's just so many open possibilities that it really is, it does become sort of a really curious experiment. Yeah. You know, one thing we should probably talk about briefly before we go is another item in this in this Tenorio article where he interviewed Burrhalter earlier this week was Burrhalter did in some detail address the topic of dual nationals and staying in contact with them. He said it's important for the national team to remain in contact with players, including dual nationals. He also said it's not his job as. manager to to be reaching out to 15 and 16 year olds. So it's a little bit of a, but, but there's a,

he says we need a structure. We should have a structure that maintains contact with people and that's important. So I, it was a little bit of a mixed signal I thought on the whole subject, but clearly he's, clearly he's paying attention to it and he, you know, he had some thoughts. Yeah, that's, it's almost also kind of damning that, that he has to say we should have a structure. Yeah. We don't have one, but we should. No, we're winging things right now, aren't we? Yeah.

But he's apparently been, go ahead, go ahead. No, that's actually the other development I'm excited about in this window is the big soccer house board meeting is coming up right after the Mexico game, but before the Uruguay game. So maybe we'll have filled all of our youth technical coaching positions by the Uruguay contest. Don't count on it, folks. He did mention in that interview that he's been in touch with, He's been talking to Dest about what he likes about his game. And, you know, that's encouraging to hear. He's also been in touch with Pomacall.

And I think he mentioned being in touch with some other player. So that's good news. Yeah. I mean, he, I think, specifically talked about Dest about his ability to come inside from the right back position. So, again, doors open for that inverted right back scheme. There's just a myriad possibility. Yeah, which would make Tyler Boyd make a little more sense out there at the right wing. Yep, yep.

We could see trap dropping in between the two centerbacks who split wide and see right and left fullbacks. Bells. We're back to a whole open chalkboard here. Open chalkboard 2022. Okay. I feel good about this. Any anything else? How crazy is it that like three changes from the Gold Cup roster to this?

roster completely changed the tone of the squad. Yeah, it really does. And I, oh, yeah, one last thing on that is I think it's, it's really cool, even if, you know, whatever happens with Pomacall and Dest in this, in this window, it's really cool for all the other U20s, you know, that a really exciting U20 team that we've talked about a lot on this podcast. It's really cool for all them to see this and to know now, hey, you know, the door is open. If you, you know, if you prove yourself at the first team level, you can get in.

You can get in. And I don't think anybody who watched those games thought there was like some huge gap between Pomacall and Dest and everybody else. It's just a matter of circumstance. So maybe hopefully some encouragement to the Richie Ledezmas and the Alex Mendezes and the Chris Richards's and the Chris Gloucesters and Sebastian Soto's out there that they, you know, they just need a few things to break their way and keep grinding and they can they'll get a national team call up too i'm holding my breath bells i'm holding my breath every weekend yep all right uh thanks gregg thanks everyone for listening we'll see you