SoccerWise - USMNT, Canada & MLS's World Cup Outlook Presented by Soccer.com Presented by Soccer.com

Episode Date: June 4, 2026

The World Cup is almost here, and David Gass and Matt Doyle break down the biggest questions facing the U.S. and Canada before the tournament begins. From the USMNT's final tune-up against Germany to Canada's injury concerns and roster questions, the guys look at where both teams stand with the World Cup just around the corner. Finally, a look at MLS's growing presence on the global stage as players from across the league prepare to represent their countries at the World Cup.0:00 World Cup Countdown & USMNT Expectations9:47 Germany as the Final Test17:38 Freese, Turner & the Goalkeeper Decision23:30 Projecting Pochettino's Starting XI29:02 The Striker Spot and Other Lineup Questions36:09 World Cup Soccer Fandom Moment41:19 Canada's World Cup Outlook52:51 MLS at the World Cup

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Soccerwise, David Goss and Matt Doyle with you for another USMNT special. Sponsored by Soccer.com. Make sure, as you're getting kidded up all summer, then you go to soccer.com, type in kickback and you can get a membership to the goal club. You're going to want your jerseys because Saturday is the final friendly pre-World Cup for the U.S. men's national team. They are facing off against Germany. We are going to be in Chicago live. We're going to be hanging out at Soccer House. on Friday night. We're going to hang out at the tailgates on Saturday before we go into the game

and then back to the bar on Saturday night. So it's going to be an eventful weekend. If you are in the area, please hit us up. Please come hang out. And if not, the content is going to keep coming. We've got a lot to talk about in this show. We're going to talk about what we want to see from the U.S. We're going to talk about some injury news that's been coming out.

We also have to talk about Canada coming out of their first friendly against Uzbekistan, as well as some of the history that Major League Soccer has made as we had into. this World Cup, but a lot to go over, a lot to dig into as Doyle gives some air quotes for anyone listening to the podcast. But we are, we're close now. We are exactly when you're listening to this, probably seven days away from the World Cup kicking off. That will be in Mexico. And then we are going to have our first U.S. game the next day. So probably about eight days if you're listening to this. And this is the big one, Doyle. I mean, I've been working a ton to get prepped. I think I said it on the Senegal show.

that we did and said it a couple of times, I'm getting excited for many reasons. The biggest one is the World Cup. It's the thing that really helped drive a lot of my fandom, and I think it is. For anything else going on, I still believe it's the best sporting event in the world. Yeah, it is.

And the World Cup itself is such a gateway drug for casual sports fans to become bigger soccer fans and performances like the one the U.S. had against Senegal really help in that regard. And I'm just hoping that they could stack one on against Germany and then bring some momentum into the group stage for three games that are probably not going to be beautiful games. Well, two of them anyway. It probably not going to be two beautiful games. But then like that's kind of the pressure you want. The U.S. has kind of

earned the right over the past 35 years to be the one that has to carry the game against teams like Paraguay and Australia and even Turkey, which is a super talented, but generally underachieving team. And it hasn't been super smooth getting to this point. But, you know, I remember the dark days. I'm old enough to remember getting absolutely crushed in 90 and 98. And obviously, we all remember Coova as well. So let's not take it for granted.

Even if it's not necessarily perfect right now, it's still pretty damn good. And I'm hoping that these guys are able to sort of break new ground. and maybe make a quarterfinal run once again. I can't find the name right now, but I do believe Senegal actually has changed a piece in their roster, and they cut the guy who came up on the defensive line who helped give up the two goals in the first half,

where I talked about it on the show. There's a Senegal team that hadn't really played a back five. They were playing one. I don't know if that was the mirror of the U.S. or to practice it for themselves, and it really felt like the channels where the wide centerbacks have to figure out what's their spacing and when are they going to go and whatnot. It was where they really struck.

and Pepe did a great job to go take advantage of it. Pulisic did a good job as well, shows the reactions there. And it is, I mean, some of the stuff that comes out around a World Cup. The amount of coaches that have changed in the last six months, it blows my mind. Like, you think it's this thing that's set in stone and there's really not a lot of that can move. Looking, you know, Czech, Czech qualified in the playoffs, they're going to go into Mexico's group. They're going to be one of the teams to open up the World Cup. Tomas Suchek was taken away as captain like four months ago and then has now had to play on the team and is one of the stars of the team like there's just so much that has gone on over the last few months where I think when the draw happened you're like all right everything's set in stone let's just check injuries when we get there and now we get to the World Cup and you realize how chaotic it is for most teams not some teams the average team at a World Cup is chaos yeah yeah exactly exactly that we've had

our moments in the past, obviously the John Hark's Eric Winalda thing back in 98 and then the, the GEO stuff from 2022, but relatively speaking, we've been a pretty stable and kind of vanilla grew. Sometimes that's to our detriment, you know, like it would be, it would be more fun if we had a little bit more personality. Maybe some of that will show from these guys in a good way over the course of this tournament. I hope we're around. long enough for it to do so. And honestly, I think we will be. I don't think we're going to get through.

I think that's crazy. And this is one of the things that I'm dealing with right now and like overall world stuff is like people are so excited to be so negative that sometimes I think we jump over five steps and then you look at and you're like, what are we talking about? Like, yeah, there is a chance this US team could underwhelming. There's a chance this US team could struggle to score goals. I think probably if you ask the average fan, the three opponents in the group stage are better than they realize and are going to be tougher than they realize, this is not a joke squad.

Like, this is not an embarrassment group. They are not going to put up zero points in the group stage and get knocked out by Paraguay. It's just that part I think is all ridiculous. If you want to go far, you have to set yourself up and you have to probably get first place place. And one of the gifts that the U.S. and Mexico were given, I don't believe Canada was, is there one of the groups where if you win, you get a third place team instead of a second place team, which is probably to your advantage.

in the next round. The other thing for the U.S. is the better they do, the closer they stay to their base camp. And the worse they do, the further they will have to travel to the point where if they finish in third, there's a chance they end up in Canada, which is kind of funny. It would be in Vancouver, which has its own jokes and memes and stuff that would be around it. But for everything they need to do right there, the whole like, oh, this team's a joke and they're going to get grouped and I can't believe how bad they are and all that stuff. It's just ridiculous to an extent. even honestly even outlets that I really love I love defector I have a day one before day one subscriber and their women's soccer coverage is actually pretty good their men's soccer

coverage is like the worst QSM and T style coverage and this is this is a website a group of who do everything else really really well not soccer like they the u.s national team preview that they had they ran at the same day that they ran their senegal preview was glowing. It was like this is one of the best teams. They had bring so much fun and stability and personality and blah. And the US one was like they suck. They're really bad. Things have been bad for a long time and just like an internally incoherent argument about it. And then they played each other. And it was like, does the US suck? There's going to be a lot of takes flying in both directions. And I get for some soccer people like global soccer people watching Nick Wright and

Stephen A. Smith talk about can the U.S. win the World Cup is probably frustrating in its own way on the other side. So I think there's a level of it that's just pure reaction to that, which I guess I'm having reaction in the other direction. So I can't fully blame people for that. So yeah. But I mean, for so long it's felt like our thing, right? Like it's not a, it's not a healthy way to think about it. But like you do like your hackles raise. Anytime you see a sports generalist come in, and give, you know, first take style opinion on either the men's or women's national team. And it's like, you want to go out there and argue back and educate them. But then it's like, oh, then you're just falling into the trap.

And then you're just screaming at people who live to get screamed at. And it's like, I won't be part of that perversion. I'm like, I'm going to kink shame that. We are going to be living the dream over the next few weeks. I am very excited overall for the World Cup. I'm really excited for a World Cup show. I'm excited to talk soccer with some of my favorite people to do so with. Susanna Fuller will be with us.

McKellie Giannone, who was on with us for the Senegal game. He will be with us. Eric Crackauer, who's been doing our first touch dispatch show. He will be with us as well. Everyone has a different soccer background that I just mentioned. Everyone has a different part of the game that they love or focus on and also has

deep ties to very different parts of the global game. And I'm really excited to bring that all together. obviously Tom will be out in California. We'll be having him tap in. We're going to have people helping us cover Canada as well. And we're going to have our USM&T shows. We will have a preview a couple days ahead of every game so that we can get you fully set for that.

But on the daily show, we're going to talk about it pretty much every day because this is potentially the biggest thing that's ever happened for soccer in this country, in Canada, and maybe in Mexico as well. So we're going to be hitting all that. The day of the game, we'll talk about it. We will do live reaction shows to the U.S. games that we will live stream. to our YouTube page and then of course the next day on the Daily Show we're going to talk about what happened so we got all the space that we've always wanted to talk about all these things

and I think it's going to be really great let's start with Germany here um I think for starters it's it's cool the US plays Germany like Germany are they're a blue blood in the global game I came into this talking to you about how they are maybe not the same one they were 10 years ago and there's potentially some structural issues inside of Germany that they need to look at and this is the country that made me read a book called Das Reboot about the structural changes they did last time they struggled. So I wouldn't be surprised if things change. There is a high level of professional player being produced in Germany.

And I think the league is as strong maybe as it has been. There is not elite superstars being produced out of Germany. And the two, they're going to lean on at this tournament, if you put in that category. One, Jamal Musiala, I think if he was American, or if he came out of the U. US, everyone would say, well, he was developed somewhere else, right? Like, he's British, developed, playing in Germany and playing for the German national team. So I don't think it counts for their development style. And then Florian Verts, who I could very much see him be a guy who struggled at club. Now has the freedom with the national team. It has a great summer. But you're

hoping on that one. And it's not when you look at 2010 and 2014 and it's up the spine, plus Philip Lom plus Manuel Neuer, plus Schweinsteiger, you know, plus Tony Cruz and Mezzit Ozel of this this team has too many world class players for spots. It's a different group now. It is, but I don't think the fall off is as precipitous as you're kind of making it.

I mean, they got groups at the last World Cup. Yeah, well, so, right. So I think that like part of it is more that Germany has kind of lost its identity a little bit, because I actually disagree with what you said off the top about the Bundesliga being in as good a place as it's ever been. I think the Bundesliga isn't kind of, it's better the past three years than it had been the past 10,

but Biden and Munich's single club domination of the Bundesliga, I think made it worse for the German national team. The lack of competition for that top spot in the league was bad. And then Bayern Munich's willingness to go outside the German player pool was bad. And I do not blame

Bayern Munich for that at all. Byron Munich's job is to win games, not to be the best preparation, preparatory finishing school for German national team players. But I, like, Jessica, Florian Verz, young player.

Yeah, could be a young player of this tournament. Other than Lemini, he is the most exciting young. If you watch first touch, then you have to talk about Jabberto Mora and that as well. So just put it out there. We had,

we had, we had, we had, we had, we had McKellys, uh, monologue. Just to be clear,

I've done nine of those in the last two months. I have spent so much time researching this guy. Gilberto Mora, he's really good. He's really, really, I think Leonard Carl is a little bit better. But maybe I'm just being a euro snob.

But then like, you know, Volta Made is to me, one of the best forwards in the world. And like, I mean, it's not like it was in 2014, but even for the biggest countries in the world, player development, talent development is cyclical. Look at what Brazil's been over the last 20 years

compared to the 20 before that. Look at the ditch that Italy's dug for itself over the past 20 years. Like immediately after winning in 2006, I mean, if anybody needs a Das reboot, It's freaking Italy. So I don't think, I don't think the issue for this German national team is they're not producing enough young talent.

I think that there's a competitive imbalance in the Bundesliga that ends up kind of dispersing top talent to various places. And that is maybe making for a little less cohesive German national team. And I think that's the bruceing. bridge they need to cross. And honestly, I don't know how you cross it in the modern day and age because the 50 plus one rule, I think is awesome. But it means you don't have Qatar or Saudi Arabia or the huge private equity firms that run the game in other top leagues coming in and turning Shalka and Dortmund and Leverkusen into these all-conferencing superpowers.

One is the Byron thing, I think we're not sure if it's chicken or egg, which is it Byron's not bringing in German players, or is it that German players are not good enough, and Byron operates on a global scale, and they are going to sign of the 75 best players on the planet, they're going to sign 11 of them, and right now, those players are French, or wherever else, or Canadian. Well, I will say, right now, it's, they're, yeah, there, it's, it's sort of vectored back to being German, right? If you look at, you know, guys like Musiala and Leonard Carl and, You know, obviously Gurezka and Kimmik are still the Pavlovich, who's one of the best young defensive midfielders in the world.

So it has veered back in that direction. But it like six years ago, it didn't, it wasn't looking great. It was, it was Kimmich and like who else was really interesting in the German national. Which is when things completely fell apart. I mean, that's when it was supposed to be Gretzka and Sane and Nabri, who were going to elevate and be the faces of the national team and all of that where they fell off. So it may just be, okay, this one crop. But I think the hope would be that the strength for German soccer is that because there's the 50 plus one and they can't contend with spending, more German players play at a young age. And they are able to then, because they need to be sold off into the other biggest clubs, the Qatari funded clubs, the Saudi funded clubs, and go off and become some of the best players for other teams like Tony Cruz did for Real Madrid.

and, you know, they've had pieces that have gone and done that. And that's where I'm just looking around saying other clubs aren't coming in to buy these guys, you know, at a huge amount, not in terms of money, in terms of the amount of players that they're pulling in, and Byron's not. And I think that's, there's a little bit of a gap. And the last piece is, it's interesting how you said identity, because to me, I think the German identity, the style of soccer they played, obviously shifted through the Yogi Lo days because they were so good. and the way the game was played shifted.

And when the German team was bad, I mean, 04 was their bottom, right? O2 was their bottom. That's what caused Das Rebo. And they went to a World Cup final in 2002. But they did that because they were hard to play against. They had the best goalkeeper in the world. They had big elite centerbacks and they were good on set pieces. And like that identity for Germany, I think, is lost in a way where their floor now has lowered,

where it used to be, what, a German national team's floor was a quarterfinals? there was no world at any tournament that anything below that was going to happen. I remember during 2018, it was mind-blowing that a German team could go out in the groups. And then all of a sudden, six years later, it was like, yeah, you don't really talk about Germany when you get ready to preview a tournament.

Like, they were not a factor at the Euros. They haven't been. And so it's just a lot of it has changed. But in saying that, they are still one of the big names after we did 10 minutes about it. And it's a big deal for the U.S. It is the quote-unquote send-off game.

and then I think it's a great preparation coming off the Senegal game as well. I thought they did a good job planning these two opponents for this team. Let's take a look at the U.S. And I want to start in goal and then we'll talk big picture about how Potch handles this game and what we see. But there is a new show with Bruce Arena, Bob Bradley and Greg Burrhalter. So I'm going to watch that because I love those three guys. And I don't think I'd put them in a room. And I think you'd see why in some of the interactions in this.

There's still some comedy in there, but there's great soccer. And I thought it was interesting that they were talking about goalkeeper. And Bruce was like, I assume it's freeze. That's why he didn't play. In the game that got split, it wasn't him. And I think Greg Burrhalter, obviously having coached Matt Turner, spoke to Matt Turner's strengths. And it was interesting.

I think that Bob sort of came in on the side and landed on Matt Turner as well. And I hadn't really fully put the freeze thing together. And like I thought him and Turner were each going to get a half or so. And then at a half time of Germany, maybe there's a decision or maybe it's after. But I was intrigued that Bruce out the gate was like, oh, yeah, it's freeze his job. Yeah. I kind of agree with Bruce. I was surprised when you brought this up in pre-show, I was surprised that you were surprised.

Because to me, it felt like, yeah, I'm going to get the backups, get him each 45 minutes. And then against Germany, it's freeze and goal. And unless he has two hollers, he's going to be the one who's starting the group stage. And I'm okay with that because Fries has not played himself out. He played himself into the job. And he's not played himself out of the job. That said, Matt Turner, for all his struggles over the past few years, is back in the best form of his life. Like literally, this is the best he's ever played.

I thought he was really good in that 45-minute stretch against Senegal. the way he came out and took that breakaway right off of Sadia Mani's foot. Like that was elite goalkeeping in a phase that we don't necessarily always consider to be Turner's strong suit, right? We think of him purely as a shot stoper coming off the line like that to make that play was special. That said, you don't, generally speaking, you don't win or lose a job in one game unless you're that poor defender from Senegal. you know, like it's, it's an accumulation of performances

and Freight's performances have been good for the national team. And unless he puts in an absolute stinker against Germany, I think we'll see him. One of the things that's been brought up, which I think is fair, is just Matt Turner does have World Cup experience.

And if he's playing at the level, which is equal to Matt Freeze, or if he's playing better than him because he's capable of it, there is something there that you can rely on on a back line that will have some, right? Pretty much outside of Chris Richards, everyone else will have World Cup experience.

So maybe it's not the biggest thing. It's just one of those where it kind of feels like the door that opened was everyone, and I say everyone, including Potch, wanted Matt Turner to get back to his peak. And now he has. And so it was like, well, so now are you going to walk away from this thing?

Like you've basically been waiting for him to get back, but the pool wasn't bad enough to do that. And to Matt Freeze's credit, he has earned the spot. But Matt Turner is a better shot stopper. And he has more experience. And if that, so what would you do? I really don't know.

I probably would have split them both at half time of last game and this game to give myself more space to make the decision and then decide going into the final game. I thought that I was going to be freeze coming into this camp because I felt if you didn't lose it, you didn't deserve to. But I think that I was. would start Matt Turner against Paraguay is where I sit. Yeah. So the confounding factor here is we don't know what the locker room is right is like.

We don't know what Matt Freeze is standing in the locker room is and how the players look at him and how they look at Turner. And I know, I do know that both of them are well liked. But like, yeah, how would it go over in the locker room if on the eve of the World Cup, the manager is like the guy who you thought was a number one keeper? He's carrying a clipboard for the next four weeks. And the guy who's been, you know, to hell and back with his career, he's the new number one. And the question becomes, how does that compound on Diego Luna not making the team and Tener Tessman not making the team anymore?

And we talked about Pepe and Balligan. And if Balligan is benched or if Tim Wea is benched or Weston McKinney, like it could be a little bit too much for the group overall or it might be. does do you think timway no because I'm the one who told you last show that I would start him at those dual tens and you told me it wasn't even an option and I said I would do it anyway

so I hope it doesn't fall on me but if it did I would go and talk to Tim Weir and we'd make up at the end of all of that yeah exactly fellow Knicks fans you're in the same boat together this month my guess is Turner is a leader in this group because at the last World Cup him Walker Zimmerman and Tim Riem

were like the veterans, even though they hadn't been at a World Cup before. And I would be surprised if that wasn't like respected and understood in a connection. And it seems like from everything you see around the group, that's the case. But this is all insane. If Matt Freeze is on the starting sheet against paragraph, I'm not going to blink twice. Like it's not going to confuse me. It's not going to worry me. So I think part of this debate is overdone in the like there is not a negative side of this.

There is the positive. Do you pick the right guy who's at their best? I don't think either of these guys just losing you a game in the World Cup group stage. I think both of them are pretty good goalkeepers and in pretty good form. Yeah. I'm mocking on wood. So let's get into the rest of the team now. Let's talk.

We can start with the back line, but overall, what's your expectation of how Potch handles this game for minutes for guys that you think will start against Paraguay? I think we get 65 minutes from the starters, with the exception being Chris Richards, who seems to be good to go. He tweeted out yesterday that we're back, which is what we don't want to see. You know, if he's only good for 30 minutes, start him. For sure.

Let's see those 30 minutes from the whistle with the rest of the starters, then make your first change at the water break, you know, and bring in Mark McKenzie because he's obviously the backup for Chris Richards in that spot. But I want to see the starting line.

Paltz's version of the starting lineup is, that's what I want to see for 60, 65 minutes. I'll go through it and you can say no, but Dest, Freeman, Richards, Ream, Jedi, Tyler Adams, who was also training off to the side. I mean, wrap him and bubble wrap if you have to. I don't care. Get him to Paraguay. Yeah, he's, he's, he's maybe 45 minutes, right? I said 60, 65 minutes for the, the rest of the start. 45 minutes for Tyler. We have a precious battling six. It's like the weirdest thing where you're like wrap him in bubble wrap. Then the game starts and like Tyler's in the deep corner pressing fouling dudes and creating the game.

And then the first big question mark I think is next to him. So do you think it's Weston McKinney stepping out on the field? Okay. I don't. I don't. I don't know. Pachitino loves. I think he loves.

I think he loves that. I love said Burrhalter too. I would play Weston McKinney there. I'm not like if it was me drawing up the lineup, I would have zero problems putting Weston McKinney in as a number eight, even though he has played more in other spots for Juventus and obviously has played almost exclusively other spots for Maricio Pachino. Don't care.

I want him on the field. I want him as that number eight. That said, I don't think I don't think Puch feels the same way. I think it's Sebastian Burrhalter's job. the comments coming out of the last game, the positive comments about his work rate and his durability. And I think as we looked back on last Gold Cup, which was clearly like a motivating moment for a potch

of where he really felt like he got the pulse of the group. We all thought Diego Luna was the cultural winner coming out of that. And I think it was Sebastian Burrhalter. So much of what they did went through him. And it's not just set piece service. He also, the moments he chooses to press energizes a team. and with Tyler, it can be some high-level stuff of, yeah, we're going to go suffocate them now. And now it's 30 seconds where we win back the ball and we get the crowd into it.

And we get the team into it. And I just, I don't see anything that Berlter's done to lose it. And if this is what I would do, but also based off what I'm reading off of Potch. And then that puts us in the next spot, which would be then I assume Weston and Pulisic. I'm not sure Weston's a starter. Interesting. I actually think Potch is going to start Malik Tillman. So that's not based off last game because Tillman and Weston both didn't start last game.

Yeah. And you think Tillman overperformed him? I mean, I think Pach really likes Malik Tillman. I think we saw it going back to last year in the Gold Cup. I thought Tillman played great in the second. Like it may be a little overdone because his first three, you know, The first three attacking passes he attempted. One was too late, so he played bolligan offside.

And the other two went like directly into touch. But like at least he was trying shit and dynamic. And then once he got that out of his system, he was awesome, the final half hour of that half. And then he was the one who was dropping back to be more of a number eight than Weston. So that versatility and dynamism, I think shows you how much trust Pachitino has in the kid. I've never felt that way about Malik Tillman. He's always left me a little bit cold. But that performance was really, really good.

It's a type of, I mean, it was from Weston, too. But like, Malik Tillman doing that, I think, was a statement. And I think it gives Pachino the ammunition he needs to start. I think the left feeling cold part with Tillman with the U.S. is there's been times where they've tried to make him central to things. And whether they have or haven't, there are very few moments where you feel like he demands the ball and pushes the game. It feels like he hides a little in U.S. games.

And I don't think this group is good enough to pull someone in Weston who doesn't hide. Weston makes mistakes. Weston gets lost. Weston forgets what's going on. But it doesn't hide. To pull that out of the team, I think is really dangerous going into a group stage where you're probably going to have to push the play at, you know, throughout the first two games, maybe all three.

And just the level of pressure is going to be immense. Yeah, no, I agree with you. Like I said, I would start West McKenney. Yeah. I don't think Poolyssick got the goal. It's big to see. Hopefully he's able to continue. And then the last question goes up top, which a week ago, you wouldn't have waited a beat while I said it.

And now is there more question? There has to be, right? Like, if you look at how well Pulisic played with Pepe, in large part because of the way Pepey was dragging centerbacks around and creating channels for Pulisic to run into, which is like, I think Balligan is a better overall player than Pepe, but he doesn't play the position in the same way. He runs into the same channels that Pulisic wants to run into. So it's, look, it's almost like the overall team building concept that Pachino Express, which is we're not picking the 26 best players.

we're picking the best team. Well, for your 11, you're not necessarily picking the 11 best players. You're picking the best team and partnerships. The frustrating part is like, he's been the boss for almost two years, man. Why are we only getting this? And it makes me feel so pissed off

about that Portugal friendly, which was wasted with Polisic up top playing as a false nine, while both Balagan and Pepe were on the bench. There's like a list of original sins for the U.S. Soccer Federation that I go back. to that's one of them. I think the frustration is fair of like there's a few of these where it's like, why do we not have an answer yet? A bunch of that's on the players. PEPE's been hurt. Turner wasn't playing. Like those were decisions those players made, not the injury, but where players chose to go

play their club and the struggles they've had. And so that's not all on him. I always go back to the original, which is that he should have been hired in January of 2023 coming out of Qatar and had a full cycle. But maybe that wouldn't have given us the answer anyway, because this is the best soccer, Pepey has played since he left FC Dallas. Like that's where he stands. So we may not have figured it out.

The issue for this game is, in theory, I would say, you give Balligan the start to work with those guys and see if it works. But the problem there then is, did you see enough from Pepey, or do you actually need to see Pepey again to decide, did he win the spot?

And if he didn't, then it's Baligan, but then you've wasted the time. where he doesn't get to work with those guys, which he hasn't really played with them a ton. And I think that's where this becomes difficult of, if Polisic's playing 65 minutes, how many of them have to be with each guy and that's sort of what Pochitino has to decide on,

my guess would be it would be Baligan from the start. And he's either getting the chance to win the spot or it's his spot to lose whichever way you go. And he gets the start in this one. Anything specific from subs or anyone that you're very much, watching out for besides the ones we just named i mean not really you know i'm a little concerned for miles robinson if if you were you know asked me to wager who's someone who doesn't get off the bench for this one weird that hodge you right didn't um i'm i thought so but he was hurt most of the second half of the

year and then when he came back down the stretch was he's on the roster so you know like i think he's well yeah but he had scored nine to ten game nine goals in ten games before injury and I think he had one in his final eight and again wasn't the same guy and when you're competing for a job with strikers who are as hot and productive as balligan and peppy you can come into the camp thinking you're fighting for the number one and you're holding on to the number three by the time the first two training sessions are over like and that's a good problem that's the problem that you know you want to have as a national team guy yeah geo is the one who's most interesting to me. I think the rest of it, well, I guess Gio and Wes, right? Does West come in or play at all as a number

eight? Does Gio have, you know, 35 minutes in him again? If he does, is it the Gio who we saw last week who I really liked who was just secure and smart or a little bit rugged in spots? Or is it the geo who can get on the ball and glide and be super dynamic in a way that nobody else in the pool can be? you know hopefully it's a combination of the two but like i've been waiting to see that guy for five years now yeah he only rarely i'm i'm curious to see way out just where he plays and how he affects the game i mean if he's going to get an assist every game if he's going to be a game breaker it's going to be hard to keep him off the field but at this point i don't know how he overtakes test and so the the spots are only limited into what they can be and i think there's a little bit more of an

opening where i wouldn't be shocked if mark mackenzie started at right center back and sling over and Freeman came on the field. And this isn't me like questioning Freeman. I think Mark McKenzie is like a trusted guy in this group. And that's what I was sort of talking about on Sunday where it was. I don't think he was trying out to be Chris Richard's backup. I think he's trying out to be a starting centerback on this team. And he's the only one in that group that was capable of that they trusted to play in the

middle, which shows me more than, oh, we have to see him at right centerback because that's a position he's going to start at. and more this is a guy we think can lead our back line. That seems like a big piece to leave out of the team. So I'll be interested to see what Potch does and if he gets in which of the pieces he plays and whatnot. But last fall, we had Dunny on the show coming out of the Paraguay-Urogui games, right?

That was the double. Or Australia, Paraguay, whatever it was. And Paraguay, yeah. No, it was Paraguay, Uruguay. It was Australia, Ecuador. And then South Korea, Japan was that one. Wow, they really. really like link these matchups up.

Yeah. And I said to him like it feels like there's a lot of depth and a lot of options. And then the six months after that, none of that felt true, whether it was because of club form or injuries or the March friendlies. And now I'm starting to feel a little bit of that again. I think some of that is probably levels, which is there is depth against Paraguay and Senegal. There is not depth against Belgium and Portugal. Like there are maybe not the amount of players that can step up to that level in this group. But if you are playing different games States against different opponents. There are options that you actually can.

The trust you're going to have bringing a Max Arfston and is going to be different in those two matchups. And I think that's probably part of what I'm feeling. And the other part of what I'm feeling is the Knicks are about to play their first game in NBA finals. I just have pure blind confidence right now in everything. I don't know if I agree with that, but it's a good theory. I think the Belgium and Portugal performances had more to do

with like literally tactical rotation. rather than squad rotation. It was the wrong time to, you know, check and see if Tanner Testman, poor guy could be prime Boschian Schweinsteiger. It was maybe not the best way in time to test that. The U.S. men's national team will kick off a home world cup. They will do so against Paraguay at SoFi Stadium. It is the potential.

I mean, we are, for all the big combos we can have and we'll talk tactical stuff, we are a good free kick or not a way of this team changing a ton of people's lives in the way they perceive soccer and their fandom and a lot more. Most of the people listening to this show, we're already in. We're already there and many of the people in our lives are. There are a lot of people who aren't and their core memory of I remember back in the day moments. I talk about Clint Dempsey's goal against Ghana in 2006. I talk about the games at the Azteca and Dosazeros for the U.S. from 2002 through 06. that's like my core fandom.

Yours is, I don't know, is it in 1950? Is it the way in Briss? Appreciate that. Yeah, I knew that was coming out myself. I was a fall river marksman, you know, season ticket holder. Between shifts at the mill when you were using your wages. Right, right. I mean, you know, I live in New York.

What's your core memory? Through and through, obviously. Okay. The 1990 World Cup. You know, that was. you know, I was a baseball basketball household. And we, you know, my friends played soccer. I didn't play soccer growing up.

But in 1990 World Cup, we were in Virginia Beach with my uncle. And he was well-traveled. He was a soccer fan. And so I watched the World Cup with my uncle. And he was just explaining me the whole thing. And I was like, you know, why do we suck? And he's like, well, we don't suck. We're one of the 24 best teams in the world.

this first time in 40 years. And I was like, well, then when will we ever be good enough to win the World Cup? And he was like, well, we need a top league first. We don't have a top league. And that was 1990. And that was when I became a fan of MLS because I knew at that point, like, I was going to dedicate my life to doing what I can to make the best league in America good enough to produce Maradonnas and, you know, Lotharmetauses and the like.

And here we are, 36 years later, still plugging away, still waiting for our first global superstar to come through the ranks here. But yeah, I think about that. I think about, you know, Bruce Murray heading Paul Collegery into space. And I think about Walter Zanga, saving poor Peter Vermeza's shot with his ass. And, you know, been some ups and downs. Let's hope that we're back in the roller closer. I watched the O2 World Cup more like general. I watched U.S. games.

I watched the U.S. Mexico game. I don't remember it as a fan. I don't know what happened in that. Let me just say, man, that World Cup qualifying cycle was brutal. The amount of injuries that the U.S. had. Like, there were times where it was like, oh, we're not going to, we're not going to qualify. And then to just to, you know, stack that performance on the back of that cycle. So I don't know what happened.

Oh, there, God. Fans today are soft, David. They would not have been able to take. Oh, 3.04, I don't know what happened. And this is probably a discredit or not just. This is probably some of the work that wasn't done coming off O2. I remember 05 tapping into the hex. Like my first memories of the U.S.

are Eddie Johnson scoring in, in Trinidad and Tobago and Landon scoring. I want to say a brace against Costa Rica at Rice Eccles Stadium. And that whole cycle. And I remember like being on the edge. in my seat for U.S. Mexico in Mexico in which I still believe there was a handball on Mexico's second goal, which made it 2-1. I don't know if it was Israel Castro or whoever, brought it down in the box, lays it off, and then they score down at the Azteca to lose 2-1. That whole cycle, like that's when I got fully sucked in, and it's around then that I also like got fully engaged

in Major League Soccer and came off the back of that and watched the Kansas City Wizards and started watching, I eventually got FSC and started watching the late night games and Jeff Larentowitz. Pretty much. I've said this before. There is a comment on a, I want to say, Sagra by Ivis article from, I don't know, 20 years ago in which a January camp in which I have said, where is Kailen Kar? I am not kidding about that.

That exists. That exists in the world. I swear to God. This is getting clinton. So a lot to look forward to you for the game coming up on Saturday. As I said, we'll be live in Chicago. So if you're in Chicago, Friday night, come to soccer house. Saturday, come to soccer house as well.

We'll be around. If not, hit me up on Blue Sky. I will be out at the game. We'll be hanging out pregame in the parking lot with AO as well as with other people. So it's going to be a fun time. I was at the send-off game for 2010, I believe. They played Spain at Gillette Stadium. And it took me nine and a half hours to get there.

So good luck to all of you with World Cup. tickets out there and dreaded every second of it and then I left. Canada, before we move into a little more major league soccer conversation, played against Uzbekistan in there friendly in Edmonton, didn't, was unaware of Edmonton's game when it came to weather, disgusting weather. Texted a few people at the game, they go, it's Edmonton, of course. Didn't know that that was a known cliche. So I probably will be limiting my future trips to Edmonton based off outdoors activities.

It was like, disgusting weather. right i missed this and rain that you could see the white blowing across the field so it was just like everything seemed bad yeah and probably mosquitoes right it's like some of those giant the northern mosquito yeah edmonton is not high on my is it the one that you go to for bampers that calgary i think that's calgary yeah okay so calgary calgary is for bantmanton is to is to drills you go there for oilers uh so canada played that game against Uzbekistan, who are a World Cup team. Uzbekistan played their strongest 11,

five in the back, fairly defensive. I thought Canada came out. It's hard to tell with the weather. I thought Canada played fine. It didn't feel overwhelming and aggressive. It didn't feel like a Jesse Marsh team. There wasn't energy to it the way that I would hope. And you start to look at this team,

and there's a side of this where they're getting lucky on injuries. Everyone's coming back. But everyone coming back hasn't played. And so moist bombito. Yeah. Moist Bombito looked like a guy who had to play soccer eight months. What Doyle's mentioning is he recovers on this run where he is five yards behind the attacker and he overtakes the attacker and wins the ball.

And then he slips on top of the ball and the attacker goes in for a one-on-one. Derek Cornelia slipped in the exact same spot like six minutes later. And all the attackers were slipping all over the place. So there was a level, I think, of that's the part that's hard to judge of like how actually solid was the field and how playable was it. But it was great to see Bombito make that run and be at his full athletic level. He then left at halftime and they showed him walking to the tunnel with a ice bag wrapped around his leg, which he had broken his fibula, I believe it is.

So that's what he's recovering from. They said that it was a pre-planned sub and that he's fine and that's all the news we're getting for now. But it's worrying because it comes on top of, I don't believe Alfonso Davies will play before the third game of the group stage. I would be less surprised if he didn't play in the group stage than if he did. So you are already behind the eight ball with that. You have some of the attacking pieces who are coming back from injury and are not informed.

Stephen Oostakio, I would say is one of them. He hasn't had the full amount of minutes to be at his best. Richie Larea is on a minutes limit. He is currently out of position back up to Alfonso Davies at left back. and he's on a minutes limit. There is no backup to him at that position. Ralph Pryso. Yes.

Also coming back from injury. In the second half at left back. Yeah. Jaden Nelson also played 45 minutes in the second half at left wing, scored a goal. And this all comes as well. Marcelo Flores, of course, injury called up to the original team. So there is now a spot to replace for Canada.

Canada brought multiple players on this trip. who are not part of the team, who could be added and are part of the preliminary roster. The original camp was 32. It's probably down to those two. There were some calls for Daniel Jebison. I think some of those calls are to keep him engaged in the program.

He's already committed. I think some of those calls are because there's excitement around the attacking pieces in this team. They are to attack front to play against some of the better teams. Yeah, they need to bring, they need to bring Ralph Prezo. And I would try and,

bold face say oh maybe jane nelson plays left back but they didn't do it in the friendly so they're not going to do it in a game the only piece i forgot about and this goes to the injury stuff all the odd met is currently injured he would be first up as he has converted left back because he's played there for vancouver i actually think he's really good there and i wouldn't be surprised if there are stretches of his career where he plays there because he was too good for vancouver to keep him there but i think he can be a true left back for a really good team at a high level yeah i mean i think he's yeah Ali Ahmed is like pure baller. One of those guys who's just, you drop him into any spot and he's probably going to be pretty good.

But he's, as you said, he's injured. So is another guy who you don't know exactly what you're going to get out of him when he's back on the field. And it's unfortunate. It's not the worst timing because I don't think he's going to miss the whole World Cup. Right. He is coming back. Ali Ahmed. No, yeah, he is supposed to be available.

Ali Ahmed. They've not said any questions around World Cup. He is not currently playing in games. So yeah. So it's it's just tough. And I think that, you know, it's kind of a discretion is the better part of valor situation here where it's like, okay, Ralph Preso has shown the ability to adapt to demid and centerback and can probably then play left back and we need a left footer there. Can he hold down the spot for two games before Alfonso Davies comes back or before Richie Larea can start giving you, you know, 35 minutes a night? So it's, you know, it's. It's. It's. It's. It's unfortunate for for jaden Nelson in particular because I think he ends up being the odd man out. But this is just how it goes with team building sometimes. You have to you have to have that breaking case of emergency. And the other piece, you just have to do it.

If you are Jesse's staff is if you're looking at this list of injuries, it's really hard to then land on Jaden Nelson. Because the odds that he is going to stay fit for three weeks are low based off his career. And that sucks. And, you know, I don't want to be the one to say that. but just look at the track record for the last two years. He's in and out. He's in and out. Every good game he has, he's out the next game. So it's hard to then, to add on the list, I said,

Promise David hadn't played a game since February 21st. Alfie Jones hasn't played since December. Mois Bompito hasn't played since October. Like, it is a long list of guys who are unfit, coming back from injury, currently an injury, working their way back. It's hard to add more pieces to that that you have to worry about and you have to be worried about.

My last piece about Canada is, so this was the 4-4-2 from Jesse. Liam Miller on a wing, Tejohn-Bucanan on a wing. I don't know if Tejohn-Bucanin survives this camp, this World Cup, looking off Jonathan David every time he's open. I think at some point Jonathan David

is going to throw him out a window. And then the midfield was Ustakio and Kone. I think against, and I guess the real only example of this is probably Switzerland, maybe Bosnia, I think you have to start Nathan Saliba and make it a three-man midfield. It is just way too open. But clearly you agree.

Yeah. No, I agree 100%. And that is my big worry for this Canada team is that they get overwhelmed. You know, if the press is a half step slow and it was in this game against Uzbekistan, then the whole thing falls apart. And Jesse's got to, you know, he's. got to get them back to peak form and peak, you know, wild-eyed maniacal pressing. If, like, if that doesn't happen, then he has to be some, you know, flexible at some degree.

And that means dropping in a third central midfielder, making sure you don't lose the game there, hitting on the break, which is fine. You can do that. It is the plan B of every soccer team for the past hundred years. There's no shame in doing that. But it would be tough for Jesse because Jesse is my thing, though, is like, I actually think you weaponize this, my Elconi to help lead the press and you unleash him. And I actually think you give freedom to a bunch of guys. You let Ustaki will find the game where he wants to.

I don't think it has to purely be like, okay, we're going to drop into third gear and we're going to play this safe. It's just a different setup of guys out there. To my money, based off what we've seen, I would drop Kyle Laron. I would play Jonathan David as a lone center forward. I would leave Liam Miller in there if he's the one who's healthy. If it's Ali Ahmed, I'd put him in there. If it's Fonzie, then maybe you start to shift things. But I like the idea of playing him at left back, so I would probably leave him there.

I keep Tejohn-Buchanan. And like, I don't think you're getting less dangerous because of that move. It just feels so open down the middle. It pulls Cornelius and Bambito higher, which creates more space over the top. and this isn't Jesse's fault. It feels a lot like 2022, where it was like, yeah,

we're going to go out. We're going to fucking go after Morocco and Croatia. And it was like, awesome, great. And then when they played through it after 10 minutes and it was hot and there were games coming, it was like,

oh, crap. Stephen Victoria is on an island. And I think a lot of the individuals are better now or have experience, one of the two in a lot of these positions. But I still think you can go and be the underdogging, take the game and all the emotional stuff, Jesse Brings while not being as open as exposed.

And on top of that, I think Nathan Salybe was really freaking good. So I think he proved it in this game when he came off the bench and played in the second half. So Canada, they still have one more friendly. I believe they're going to play Ireland and Montreal coming up. So that should be a party. That might be the game of the month in the end for everyone involved. I had not really processed that.

I know a lot of Canada fans, even in Toronto. are heading out for that game because it's cheaper and, you know, maybe better of an experience than actually trying to get into BMO for the big World Cup opener. And for Canada, of course, they also will open up on June 12th. So huge game for them. Bosnia-Herzegovina 3 p.m. Eastern time at Bimo Field. I think there will be a large Bosnian contingent of fans.

I think there will be a larger Canadian one, but I think the building is going to bump. And I've been in there with these added stands in the past, not as big, but for those MLS Cups they had the additional 5,000 and places electric. I think it's going to be a really cool atmosphere and a huge moment. And for Canada, listen, if you can't beat Qatar, you don't deserve to get out of the group of a World Cup. So there's that sitting there. But in that, I would say, that doesn't mean you go out and you're like, okay, let's take a risk. Let's see what happens against Bosnia.

Let's go all for it. And if we lose 4-0, we don't care. It's probably not how I would handle that. Canada, a huge part of the MLS contingent that is going to the World Cup. Tom put a piece out there on the athletic in the news coming out that there are 44 players registered to Major League Soccer teams that are going to partake in the 2026 World Cup. 43, which is a 1970s movie title. It's great.

43 and Hamas, it was just, you know, Hamas. It's a Robert Altman film. It would be like the lesser known Altman film. Like his gunman. Like, you know, he. he rides in on a horse first and then it's like you don't need to know the individuals but they're each like they'll have their little personality trait they're basically one of the seven dwarves in a version and they all also do the job for him and so major league soccer is one of the top team one of the top leagues in the world with participants at the world cup they are the top league in the hemisphere for sure stand alone with players going to this world cup and i think they are one of the tops when it comes to world cup players that are not playing for the country that is the league. Like in Saudi Arabia, there's a number of World Cup players, but 26 of the Saudi

players at the World Cup are from the Saudi League. So that shifts things a little, where obviously there's much less MLS inside the U.S., although you do get MLS inside of Canada as well, which helps a little bit. It's a nice piece to put out there. And obviously, MLS should push the PR around some of this. And I think a lot of it's good. And the headline that Tom went with, because it's the real one is like Sanin Hamas. and Messi are going to be the face of this and they're the big names and they're going to be

central to their teams and their global superstars and all of this. To me, what I take away from looking at these and as I've been prepping for the World Cup and looking at the names in the countries is I do think one of the things MLS front offices have landed on over the last 18 months is a better understanding globally where the league stands and doing a good job of running pipelines. And that's the big two are Australia and South Africa. where they are good leagues, solid leagues. It's hard to make a jump from them to a bigger European league. And even though they are not in the region,

MLS has gone out and got players from countries like that who can come in, be a solid part of MLS teams, and potentially move on or not after that. And I look at the level of band of players, and that is a huge part of this. The other side, sorry. The other side is MLS has done really good job developing players. and there's a lot that have nationalities that they can also play for,

which is the Hades of the world and the Kurosas of the world and stuff like that. Yeah. Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yep. C.J. DeSantos with Cape Verde. I mean, I think there's been a lot of focus over the years on the U.S. men's national team, essentially importing players like Jedi, Sergino Dest, Malik Tilman, Flo Ballagant. but the U.S. has actually produced more players for other teams in this World Cup than vice versa,

which is a good, you know, I think that speaks to the strength of MLS academies. You nailed that one. I'm happy that there are pipelines from countries like South Africa and Australia. If you had told me four years ago that's the pipelines that MLS would have created, I'd have been disappointed. I'd have said, what about, I don't know, Colombia and Chile? What about, you know, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland? You know, there was a time at the start of this decade

where it felt like that's the direction MLS was going. And, you know, creating a pipeline for players from, you know, top 20 to 25 national teams. Now it's more like top 30 to 45. And that's not where I look, man, MLS is still going in the right direction. It just hasn't gone as quickly as we're. It's completely fair to be underwhelmed. And I think it's fair to be underwhelmed from that point of view and even higher.

I would say a lot of those have been built. There's two Croatian players, including potentially a starter from MLS. There's a number of Polish players, Poland just didn't qualify for the World Cup. and Cucho Hernandez is going to be a representative. Andreas Gomez is going to this World Cup. Lucas Sinabria is on the Uruguay national team. There's multiple Paraguayans. I think I skipped over some of those because those felt like they were obviously going to happen.

I mean, they're gone, right? They came and left and where's the next Andres Gomez and Cucho Hernandez. And my hope is that there, you know, I had hoped that there would be a floodgate kind of moment. especially when when Messi arrived. And it just, it hasn't happened like that. And I think Tom actually gets at it in his column being like, it's, you know, cut out the final 16 teams of this World Cup and make it a 32 team tournament. For sure.

And MLS is in the exact same place just about it was four years ago. And that's a good place. I think it's actually pretty strong evidence that MLS is and remains a top 10 league in the world. Like the leagues ahead of MLS are the. Premier League, the Bundesliga, La Liga, Liga, Liga, Syria, the Turkish Super League, which has been spending, the top teams, been spending a lot of money the past couple of years, and the Saudi Pro League, which you already covered. Like, MLS is eighth in the world.

It's a good spot to be in. But it's not, it's not where MLS could be. MLS could be sixth. And I don't think that would feel out of place. and the types of players that, you know, Cucho, if he was still in MLS, would feel like a real feather in the cap. And the goal for this next cycle for MLS has to be to get to that place where the Cuchos don't have to leave for Ray Al-Betis to make the goal of the club team.

That stands out as I've been doing the research and digging into teams and looking at where players play is for, I think South-Cohmars, America is the easiest one to talk about. For a level in South America, it's acceptable to be a starter at Cruz Azul. It's acceptable to be a starter at Independiente and River. It's acceptable to be a starter at pretty much any of the Brazilian teams, maybe not even a starter. Like there are guys who will start in the World Cup who come off the bench for Flamengo and Fluminense and Palmeras and those clubs. And yet, Cucho couldn't get into the Columbia team being the MVP pretty much of Major League soccer in a group that Andres Gomez is it.

So like, Andres Gomez coming off the bench or being a spot start at Vasco da Gama works better for the coaching staff than Cucho. And I think that's a space that Major League Soccer really needs to fix themselves in because for League of MX, when they bring in Dita, he stays through year 32 or 33 season because he's going to be on his national team. He's going to go to Copa America. He's going to go to World Cups. He's going to win championships.

And like that's what that player wants. and the money's there. For a lot of those guys, the money would be there for the U.S. as well, would be there for Major League Soccer, but the profile isn't there. And that's where I think that next step, the U.S. has to push.

It's not an issue in South Africa and Australia because they're pulling players from those, from MLS anyway. They don't care. Yeah. Senegal, another one. You look at the West African clubs, some of the North African clubs.

Obviously, there's a lot of European passports and players in those spaces where they can go, but the ones that can't, it doesn't feel like MLS has tapped in, MLS has tapped in to Eastern Africa and tried to pull players from, you know, some of the countries that aren't contenders for an AFCON. And that's where MLS has seen a little bit more of the success, which if there's ambition, you want to continue to push that and push that higher. Well, Major League Stock is going to be a League of Choice in about six weeks.

So congratulations to all of us for getting to this point and accomplishing such a feat. This was a blast. It's been fun getting ready for these. it's fun watching the games play we won't have a live reaction to germany because we will be at the game but we i'll have a column up on or a newsletter up on tactics free zone dot com i'm not going to the game i'm sitting there in my hotel room watching it because i first of all because i didn't get credentialed so thank you for us for that u.s soccer um so i'll be sitting in my hotel room watching it and i will have an instant reaction newsletter dedicated to the

the coverage. If you want a capital J journalist, not someone who's going to go to getting the sun, see the game. More like a capital B blogger. I'm pretty sure the capital J journalist. I'm actually shocked you're not just going to write in the coffee shop. That's like true to form. Just like make sure you are. You know why I could afford a house? Because I don't spend money on coffee shops. No avocado. Real generational shift there from Doyle right at the last second. Thank you so much to soccer.com for being our sponsor for all of our USM&T coverage reminder. If you're going to buy a U.S. kit, if you're going to buy a Mexico kit, anything else as you get ready for the World Cup, I've got a boatload of stuff I'm excited to be wearing during the World Cup for all these teams.

I've got any Iraq T-shirt. I've got a Senegal training top, which I didn't wear on Sunday, but I'll be wearing to the two Senegal games. I will be attending at the World Cup. If you are going to look for any of that, make sure to go to soccer.com. And if you type kickback into the promotion code, you get a free goal club membership. So thank you once again. We will be back with Germany reaction stuff as well as looking forward into the World Cup after the game. And then, of course, we'll have your paragraph preview.

We will talk U.S. women's national team against Brazil, myself in Jordan, next week in reactions to that window and that camp that's going on down in Brazil. And we have a daily show every day, 9.30 a.m. Eastern time. It'll be up as a podcast within 15, 20 minutes after it's over, recapping what we saw the day before, previewing the day to come and just talking vibes. Where can we watch that day? We'll be live on our YouTube page on both on soccer wise and on First Touch. So you can go to either of those.

First Touch has all of our World Cup coverage. So if you know anyone that's trying to get into this stuff, we've got these bio episodes about every country where you can go and you'll learn about, oh, this is their legends. This is how the sports started. This is sort of the core of the game. There's a lot of other stuff. We talk about food and music and all those things in those as people try to get interested,

as well as explaining what to know about each team. And then we will have the daily show that will be on both those YouTube channels, as well as on our podcast feeds across every show that we produce. And there's also an Instagram handle. Yeah, first touch. 400,000 followers. So you can go follow us there. We're going to have some people out.

And there'll be clips from the show. With your promos, do you want to do it? No, I'm just making sure you... I don't think I have to explain social media to people. I assume people know about it, but yes, you should follow us first touch KSM. Follow us on Soccerwise HQ and follow us on Soccerwise underscore Woso. We'll have clips about all of this stuff. We will have promos for all this stuff.

We did a ticket giveaway for A.O. For this Germany game, which is really cool. We're getting two people out to their first game. We'll do some Jersey giveaways off both those feeds. So make sure to follow and share on the... those and then we're going to do a lot more ticket giveaways, not for the World Cup. Sorry, we don't have the, I don't even know

if you're allowed to do that, but after the World Cup, we will be doing the World Cup. No, I don't think so. US, M&T and WNT games going forward, trying to get people out to the games, because I've said it many times. I think the in-person experience is the part in the US that sells better than anything else,

which is why it's great that it's really expensive and impossible to get two World Cup matches and at World Cup games. It'll really drive people to the game. coming out of this. So thank you to you, Matt Doyle. Thank you to Gregory. As always, thank you to all of you for listening and we'll talk to you again very, very soon.