Joe Lowry on Total Soccer Show: "There are more promising young players coming up through the pipeline right now that...

Welcome to the total soccer show USFAT Weekly, it's our regular parade to all things men's national team on this episode. We're looking at the roster for the upcoming international break to see which players will make the cup who will be welcomed into the fall for the first time in this cycle who might be stepping back from international duty. Our predictions coming up over to the next 45 or so. My name's Ryan Bailey, joining me today, oh look, Taylor O'Cosey, hi Taylor, how are you? I'm doing well, Ryan Bailey, it's lovely to have you hosting, whenever we're doing live streams, I always enjoy you hosting and me not having to do the introduction and all that good stuff. Nicely done by you. Thank you very much. Yeah, we are live streaming this episode, as is I want to do. This is our 17th take because I couldn't say the word soccer in the first sentence of the intro, just so you know, just to peel back the time during issue, to an enduring issue for Ryan Bailey. Indeed. Just kidding, Joe Lourys here, hi Joe, how are you? Hey Ryan, I'm great, I've been looking forward to this episode now for quite some time. I think I am maybe more excited about the US than I've been in a really long time, which is just how you should be when you start a new workup cycle, right? Because if that's not the time for optimism in belief, there literally is no other time. So this is the moment for it and I'm going to use it. So let's dig into that, Joe, if you don't mind. What inspires the optimism? Is it the the clean slate ahead for the 2030 cycle? Is it the prospect of new blood? What are you thinking? I think the clean slate matters very little if you don't have anything exciting on top of it. So I will say the thing that I'm really most excited about now is the level of young talent that seems to be coming through this pipeline. And I've talked about this on some recent shows and really since the World Cup ended, there are more promising young players coming up through the pipeline right now that I think there have maybe ever been, at least since I've been doing this job. I think the crop of young talent now is is rivaling and maybe I mean, we'll say it's rivaling at the moment anyway. It's rivaling the Christian policy, Western McKinney, Tyler Adams generation of players in terms of potential. There's a lot of things that have to go right for a lot of these guys to reach that level. I mean, those are three of the greatest US men's national team players of all time, but but the breadth of talent that exists right now in this in this pipeline and the number of players that I think we could even see in this window. It's like we don't have to wait for the delayed gratification anymore. We might actually be at the gratification stage and that makes me really excited. Oh, present and delayed gratification. Both kinds. I love it. Love it. Love it. All sides. Look at what you think it's that more Taylor. I'm stuck on if I'm willing to give it up that those three are three of the greatest ever US players. That's a tricky one. I mean, I don't fully disagree, but for some reason that rag my ball a little bit of like, wait, what really? Are we saying that? But I, you know, I can see it. But either way, I think to Joe's point, like you go back to 2018 and the further to qualify for that tournament. And if you're looking for like signs of optimism, there aren't many from the Federation down, but from the talent standpoint down. It's basically like at that point, politic and a lot of question marks and we hope and see what happens. And in that case, we end up getting the next generation and a lot of talent coming through. But by contrast, you look at the situation at present and you already have a good amount of talent still there, a good amount, a good amount of talent that will be like 30 to 31 and maybe that like could be an issue. But for the most part, you have established talent there. But then a lot of young talent breaking through. And it is a really exciting time because who knows what this roster is going to look like and who knows what's going to happen. I will prop Joe up on that with my long hell belief that like a mid table team in the Premier League now would beat the top team in the 90s because just the way things move on, conditioning, soccer intelligence. So I'm going to vouch for Joe on that one as well. That's a lot of two cents. Go go me also like, I think it's a whole separate sidebar that we don't have time for. I feel like I feel like it's a really compelling take. I think I think people would have already time disagreeing with it frankly. If you say best, I might have agreed with you. But greatest is where I get confused. Oh, let's play the symmetric game then, shall we? It's four to five shows a week. An hour along talking about Zaggo. Oh, we have the semantics, Joe. Great call. I'm for that. Well, we also have something else. Some some kind of forum we have Taylor where people can debate topics such as this. It is our discord, which you can access via patreon patreon.com slash total soccer show. It's our bonus feed. It's the best way to support us. If you'd like to do so, you could talk about the greatest slash best of all time. You could talk about anything you're liking our discord and you'll get our bonus episodes on TSS plus as well. Thank you to everybody who supports us via that medium. Let's get straight to the action. I think we're going to predict the roster for the first selection period of the 2030 cycle. The 2030 cycle feels so futuristic, by the way. Wow. I mean, we'll find cars by then surely, right? I mean, that's the point. Yeah. I hope so. Hoverboards for everyone. Let's let's try and get that. Hoverboards going. Flying cars. Oceans on fires. You never know. You never know. The future is bright in some ways. Anyway, we may be expecting a 26-man roster in this one. We might get more. I personally want to see the college football style 200 people on the field because I don't believe there's any limits in this friendly window. Just as a reminder, ladies and gents, we have four games coming up in this upcoming window. September 26 in Orlando, USMT taking on Peru in what is being called the fan appreciation match. The ticket started $30 as well. Oh, I feel appreciated. Very nice indeed. Three days later, it's Chile in St. Louis. Take it start $40 there. I feel I feel less appreciated. But that one's called the impact match because matches have to have names. And this one is the impact match against Chile. October 3 after that, we've got Mexico in Glendale, Arizona. Larry Town. Looking forward to that one, the cheapest tickets right now I saw on the ticket master were $122. Fan-unappreciation night more like. That's what I'd say. And then three days after that, the fourth game of this window is against our friends from the north in the north. It's Canada in Minnesota. So Taylor, could you set the table a little bit for us about this window? Why does it matter? Why is there four games? Why is this important for the cycle of this team going forward post World Cup? Yeah, I mean, as I understand it, there are four games because people, much like Ryan Bailey, don't love an international break to start the season and they don't love two in short order. So we used to have one a couple weeks into the season, then we'd have a few more games, then we'd have another one. And so this one is meant to combine those two, give you kind of an elongated like international break and then you go back to club soccer and you don't have as many disruptions on that front. But then it also lets you get in more games so you could have nationally games or qualifiers in some situations or just a series of friendlies with branding statements behind them. And that also works. But for the U.S. with Pochettino, still in charge, it does feel like an opportunity to reset in some ways and then keep going in other ways. And that is the difficult balance of the second cycle coach. I'll be at one who only had the two years had the abbreviated timeline to get the team ready for the World Cup. So this is an opportunity for him to kind of call in a bunch of new players and see what else is out there in a sort of with a mindset of we have games in four years instead of like two weeks. But at the same time, it's also an opportunity to make sure that the players that you've been relying upon are still those same players that they still have a point to prove a role to play. And so I think for this for this roster for this camp, it's about seeing experience and youth and also some kind of role players all blended together. And I feel like we're going to get some zero cat players. We're going to get some like they've been around for 10 years and have four cat players. And then we've got some maybe established veterans coming in as well. But to me, it's an opportunity to kind of not quite fully hard reset the team, but hard reset a few specific positions. There we go. Innocence and experience in this group, 18th century poet William Blake would be proud. Joe, does that click with you? Looking forward to this window? Yeah. Yeah. I think having the extended period is going to be really helpful for national teams. I mean, coaches talking about this all the time. There's just no training sessions. Basically, when you are in the standard international window format where you got two games, I mean, you have just barely any time on the actual training field. And so I think coaches are going to appreciate that. I think it could maybe make these games a little bit better or at least make teams play slightly better soccer over enough time, which I appreciate. And it also gives the coaching staff an extended period of time to evaluate players. And I think that's the name of the game right now for the US. We understand that the ceiling of players that the US had of the last World Cup was only good enough to take them so far until you referenced it earlier. There's going to be a lot of guys that are just touching their early 30s for the next World Cup, which not saying we should put them out to pasture by any means, but there are opportunities now more than they were for the 2026 World Cup to really put pressure on those players. So this is audition time, man. Like I hope we see a good handful of zero cat players because I'm really bullish on a lot of those guys in the first place. And if not now, when they are are really establishing themselves and you have this clean slate, went, right? This is the moment for a lot of these guys. Maybe not for all of them. Maybe not for every young player that I'm excited about right now. There needs to be a balance in having some AB tests. Could be quite helpful of having the Brendan Erinzen's and maybe the Spassia Brawder's or whatever in this group. The guys that make up the bottom of the other 26 World Cup roster. Let's see those guys against Niko Shakiris and Ajima Medi. Like let's get some nice little you know, game one, game two, game three, chopping and changing to actually get a a clear picture of who these guys are and how they can impact the team. But this I'm looking at this as audition time. Like I hope we see a healthy number of people that we haven't seen audition before because I think the talent is there and this is the moment for it. I like that framing, Joe. There's literally no better time than four years out from the next World Cup to do this kind of things. That's a good way to look at this. Taylor, we're going to go position by position. The players we're predicting will make Richard Pochettino's roster before we get to that real quick. Can we can we sort of playing guess who we're going to push down some of the names of the players who won't be there because of injuries or other things? What's who's not going to be there? Sure. It seems pretty likely that we will be without Western McKinney, Diego Luna and John Lucobusio as potential central midfielders. Who knows if all three of them would have been called in and who knows if more than one of them would have been called in. But all three dealing with various injuries. John Lucobusio picked one up very recently. So he'll be out for some time. Haji Wright is recovering from a quad strain, I believe. Sam Adeneron started the season strongly, but he will be out and he would have been in my roster, I think, which is a prelude to our lack of striker options. Patrick Haji Mang also is still recovering from injuries. So those six players are not going to be included. And then in his sort of round table discussion with a few select journalists, Pochettino talked about how maybe they might not call in players who had just gotten moves. I think there is some looseness to that. I feel like we might get a couple of those guys, but that would be potentially Xavier Gozo. That would be the Middlesbrows who have all suddenly found themselves playing in the championship. Damian Downs got to move to St. Louis, Luca Bombino and Jack McGlin moving to the championship as well. So those are all players who maybe could have been called in, but night might not now because Pochettino wants to give them an opportunity to get more training and get more reps with their current clubs. Just a day host to that injury list. Doug McIntyre, he is also out. Not that I would have had him in this roster anyway. Sorry. Yeah. And then there's other players that potentially could represent the United States at some point. Maybe we'll talk about a few of them later. I'm not sure, but that would be the dual nationals like Noki Banks, who has yet to make up his mind. So he is not called into this camp, but I think there were discussions. There was some kind of conversation about where his level of enthusiasm would be. And I think there's a few more younger dual nationals who could play for the US, but would have to file the one-time switch. And so are not doing that for this camp. But there is even more potential out there potentially. Okay. And just one quick thing, just so we can get the elephant to leave the room. Flow Balagun is not suspended in any capacity, right? For this window or any other future window. I think he's got a suspended sentence. Is that correct? For a year, right? For a year. Honestly, it's a great question that I don't know the answer to. He might be suspended, but it would be for, I don't know, is that violent condi? How many games is it? Was it two games really suspended? He won't be suspended for this window. But it is, it's a great question, Ryan, genuinely hadn't thought about that red card thing in a really long time now. Probably something we should figure out where, where things stand. But everything that I have heard and read does not imply that Balagun will have to miss time in this window unless he's not called in, in which case, he'll miss all the time. Yeah. And I think it would have to be official competitions, right? Because if you get a red card in a world cup or woke up qualifying, they don't want your national team scheduling two friendlies. So then you're suspended for the friendlies and then you're back for the official competition. So my guess would be that if that suspension does come in, it would be for woke up qualifying or nation's league or something along those lines. But what is the fan appreciation match, appreciation match and the impact match land on that scale of needing, needing more hype and billing. So cheap tickets for those, but our cross-border rivals, those don't need billing. Does that answer your question? It does. Thank you. Okay. Let's move on, we're going to go through position by position predicting the score. Why don't we start at the back with the goalkeepers, Joe? Would you like to kick us off with who you think it's going to make the cut goalkeeper wise? As a reminder, in the most recent score, we saw we have Mr. Matt Turner, Mr. Matt Freese and Chris Brady as the selected goalkeepers. Who's going to make it this time around? So I've predicted four because that's a patch said there's going to be so that that makes it nice and easy. I've kept Matt Turner and Matt Freese from that group of players. I like the idea of Matt Freese coming back in just as like a redemption story. I don't know that this is like a totally personal thing. I don't really care from a on-field perspective if he's brought back in or not. I definitely think Turner should be there from a merit standpoint. And then on top of those two guys, I've added Diego Cocon, the 20-year-old at Lingby over in Denmark, the Barcelona Lone, who has been around this U.S. team before I should mention and Brian Schrocky, the 25-year-old at Nashville, who has been really, really sharp for the best team in MLS this year. I talked about him as my goalkeeper of the year on our MLS awards front runners segments yesterday. So I would have those four guys. And honestly, I don't think there was a real standout amongst them still. I mean, it hasn't been very long since the last cycle ended. goalkeeper is still a big mushy, raw center of an unbaked loaf of bread. And that's fine. I suppose at the beginning of the cycle, but the reality is I just don't feel super strongly about this position at the moment. Yeah. It's one of the two that like I had a harder time with. This one in center back, not surprisingly. Existing issues still exist. I ended up with the same four goalkeepers as Joe roughly. The last one I had with question marks was it's either Chris Brady or Matt Freese. And I do think if it's not Matt Freese, I am really into that. And I do feel like maybe that's Pochettino saying, I saw what I needed to see. Maybe don't make a high profile mistake. But Chris Brady, unless we forget, also made a pretty high profile mistake in the World Cup two-dump matches. So it's not like Brady is flawless and Matt Freese is damaged goods. So I agree with Joe in the end. It feels like maybe you call in some of the goalkeepers that you have familiarity with. You call in one who's had a great season of Major League Soccer and you call in one for the future who's made the move and is getting minutes at senior level. But I don't really have an opinion on who I definitely want the starter to be. And I think I probably am most comfortable with it being Matt Turner because that's familiar. But if it's any of them, I will be interested with the caveat that maybe Matt Freese, I still have some confidence issues in. But I am not the coach. So I don't have to make that choice. Four games, probably four goalkeepers. Could be. Can I? I mean, that's definitely possible. Yeah, that's the flexibility and freedom of starting a new cycle is like we have less time constraints or fewer time constraints. And so you could do that. You could give each one a game and just see you could do the same in the next camp and just kind of keep rotating and spend some time figuring out who seems to get at the most, who gives you the most flexibility and how you want to play and how you want to defend, who's the best organizer, whatever you need to go with. But we do have that level of freedom at this point in the cycle. Excellent stuff. All right. Let's move on to centerbacks, show. Italy mentioned some some you're doing a slight gritted teeth face. As I mentioned, the term centerbacks, is that you know, are you talking about my sweet prince, Tim Reem, maybe making an exit at this point? What are you thinking here? I'm really interested to hear who Joe has here. Hmm. I did not put him in mind. I would not be surprised if he makes exactly the same. I'd have the exact same thinking. And with that in mind, I'm kind of leaning towards putting him back into mind. Go ahead, Joe. No, I was just going to say, and I don't even mind it. Like, if Tim Reem's in this group of players, I'm not that bothered about it. If Tim Reem's at the end of the expense of like, you know, us seeing no new blood in this position group, I would be a bit miffed about that. But then it won't really be Tim Reem's fall. It would be Pochettino's fallen and also him not exploring beyond other non-Reem Tim Reem centerbacks. So I think that there are so little to be excited about still in this position group beyond one name that I think should be in this group. So I'll just run through mine very briefly. I have Richards, trusty, McKenzie, Neil Pierre, and Justin Chase. I'm keeping three guys who are on the workup roster in Richards, trusty and McKenzie. I'm bringing in Neil Pierre, the 18-year-old Philadelphia union centerback who I think I would like to see him in this camp. I won't be shocked if he's not, because he still is quite unpolished on the ball, or at least that's what he's shown. And at my last minute so far, and I think there's work to do there. But he is the most talented young centerback prospect the US has. And he's starting games every game for a team that's undefeated since the World Cup. So I would, I would love to see Neil Pierre on this list. My Justin Chase justification is, man, this is an unexciting position group. Chase undersized to play as a centerback in a back four, but that's what he's doing for the Red Bulls. He's a pretty good defender in space, pretty, pretty good on the ball. I think better on the ball than some other options that the US has. He's not great in the air because he's not very tall and he has some deficiencies there. But I would bring him as well over bringing in someone like Miles Robinson again, or even I'd rather have Justin Chey than a Mark McKinsey or an Austin trustee just because I don't think he's much worse than those guys. And it could turn out that he's a better fit for what Potschina wants to do. So I'd rather take chances there, but I would not be surprised or frankly upset given the state of the position group as a whole. If, if Tim Riem is back around again, Taylor, I don't know why, where you landed on this whole thing as well. I had five as well. Two of them have question marks next to them. I went with Richards. I went with Pierre. I went with McKinsey. I went with CCTV. And then I had George Campbell, a West Brown, who's captaining them in the championship. Again, for like a kind of established presence who's been around for a while, but hasn't had a ton of caps for the US, but made the move is getting minutes is playing a lot. And I think in that way, for me, is more of an unknown. And I do sort of want to see more unknowns. And that's where maybe I would drop CCTV in retrospect and add somebody like Justin Chey. I was kind of waiting to hear what Joe thought on him because I can't tell if that's hype. And that's just sort of wanting the next new thing or if there is justification behind it, and it seems like there's enough justification to roll the dice and see how he does at this level. But Richards is pretty much the only one that I feel any level of confidence in Pierre would be an interesting one to see get to minute and see how he does. Everybody else, and I feel very, very bad painting with such a broad brush, but it's just, I feel like we've seen him. And I feel like we know what they're going to be. We know what their ceiling is going to be, but we know what their floor is and their floor isn't so low, but their ceiling isn't particularly high. And I just think Mark McKinsey is similar to up a McConnell, always going to have like a gap in there that's just going to annoy me, even if it doesn't end up getting punished. CCTV, we understand his limitations when it comes to distribution, Austin trusty, I think has had a pretty up and down season to start with with Celtic. And that kind of seems par for the course. So any number of them could be in there. But I think this is the one where I truly am ready to dressy. If he calls in Chris Richards and four completely unexpected names or completely unproven names, I won't really mind because I'm excited to see what comes next in a position group that used to be a source of strength and comfort. And is there much less so that these days? All right, good stuff. Base of the spine covered. Let's take a quick break when we come back. We're going to look at the the the full backs and go through the midfield and the strikers. Hey, join us then. So let's talk to show. Welcome back to us MNT weekly. We are predicting. We're just here. Pots of tea knows roster for this four game stretch through September and October. Joe, we've reached the point of the discussion where we're going to talk about right backs. Who you got? All right, Alex Freeman still. And I think you should still be the starter for this team on quality. I don't think there's a whole lot of doubt in my mind about that right now, although Tim waya could provide some interesting options there depending on how exactly Potsch team wants to play. Wayas playing as a basically a full time right back from our say this year as one of the captains are in bands and some fun stuff happening there. He would be someone to watch. But I've got Alex Freeman as my starter coming into this window. And I have Frankie Westfield, the Philadelphia Union young right back who's been again starting every game for a team that hasn't lost since the World Cup break. I really like Westfield as a prospect. I think he's got a level that's that's quite far beyond Major League Soccer. I think he brings more than someone like Joe Scally who was at the World Cup, but I'm replacing in this roster. I think Westfield has a higher ceiling to his game. And I'm not really sure his floor right now is is all that much lower. So I would love to see Frankie Westfield in this team. There are other options that you could think about for this spot. You could think about Serginio Des more as a right back instead of a winger. The Potsch team doesn't seem to bring Klein to do that. So of the Freeman Westfield Scally and way of options, I would like most to see Freeman and Westfield. So I brought those two players. Okay. Taylor, how's that set with you? It tits pretty well. He's made a compelling argument for Westfield, which is one that I hadn't really considered. This is one where I did sort of stick with what has been here previously. I did have desk like listed as a fullback for me. I think Joe makes a compelling argument for why he might be just hasn't been that underpot. Yeah. But like is that weird like right wingback sort of I guess even though defensively he's still even as a right wingback is like nah, I'm a winger. So yeah, maybe I'll move him out of that spot and put him into like the Tim way right back right wing right wing back. Question mark spot. But either way, desk is on my roster. I'll keep him there. Freeman, desk. And I had Scally as a right back. I like Joe's point. And I feel bad for Joe Scally who is in a pretty horrific situation at club level with Gladbach who are rooted to the bottom of the table and don't seem like they're going anywhere anytime soon. They are what we thoughtful city would be except maybe somehow even worse. So him being there, I would love to give him an opportunity to just get away from that and play some minutes for the US. But at the same time he feels very much like a known quantity at this point, even if he is still what like only 23 I think like still has plenty of time to develop and add new skill sets. I just don't think that's going to happen with Gladbach right now. And so yeah, that feels like one where maybe you do if you're Pocetino, make a statement, you bring in Westfield and you again are showing that kind of established group, but then the like established second group behind them that there's yet another group still to come that could maybe take some some minutes, take some spots. So I am going to in honor of Joe cross out Joe Scally and right in Frankie Westfield. It wouldn't shock me at all of Scally. It's up on this roster. I think it's probably more like for the not if he does. Maybe that will end up being more as left back depth for Anthony Robinson, given some of the question marks around what that looks like right now than anything else. But I think for the sake of the audition period that I think we should be in I would prefer to see someone like Westfield get minutes over Scally who feels like a kind of guy that you can call in just about any time and get a pretty reasonable performance out of it. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing right with a lot of these like you have to pick and choose where you are sort of showcasing that things are evolving and adjusting. And so like if you do bring in Tim Reem, if you're Boxtino, again, like that would make sense to me establish veteran established leader can kind of coach up some of the younger guys, put an armor on the shoulder when they need it in training or if they have a rough 30 minute cameo more so than maybe some of the other center back options. But if you're sticking with continuity there, if you bring in Tim Reem, and if you bring in Matt Freese, I think this is a spot then where you do want to just gamble a little bit and remind everybody again, there's younger players coming through. So that's where it feels like Scally to Joe's point is one that could come through it any time and we know what we're going to get Westfield is the potential new shiny object in that spot. A question I should have asked at the top for the rules of engagement of this discussion. We are saying what we think Potsatino will pick rather than what we want to see. Is that correct? I think generally like the rule for us doing these is like it's 70% what the coach will do and 30% what we want to do is the percentage I've always landed on and then sometimes there's fluctuation. I think this roster for me is closer to what I would want than what I think Potsatino will do. And I'm comfortable with that with that with the addition that I've listed 30 players because I think it's going to be a bloated squad or a larger squad. I should say bloat implies bad things. Joe, 70% rule for you. I was hoping it was 60, 60, 67-ish. Yeah, I'm somewhere in that ballpark personally. I mean, I have no idea what Potsatino is going to do. He's come out and said he's going to bring some kids in, but even predicting what Potsatino is going to do when he said what he's going to do is proved almost impossible across the first couple of years. I guess now bordering on three years of his tenure. So I don't know, man, I went with something that seemed reasonable to me. It's probably a little bit shaded towards optimism of seeing the younger generation, but I've mentioned I think all the other options as we've gone through. So I think we've covered our bases. Good. Okay. Taylor, would you mind telling us who you would select for the left back position? Yep. Anthony Robertson indoors. He'll be 32, almost 33 around the time of the next World Cup, but is starting playing minutes for full of this season. Let's hope that continues. I don't know if he's going to be there in 2030 given the age given how often he has been injured and given the physical demands of the position and what is asked of him so much of his game is built on his speed in terms of attack, but also in transition to defense. If you lose a few steps, are you as effective? Time will tell, but for now, he's far and away our best left back option and very much should be in this team until anyone is able to take that spot if they are and one person who might be able to do that is Peyton Miller of the New England Revolution. He is my back up left back. So I brought three right backs and two left backs. All right. Excellent stuff. I suppose that leaves us to move on to the center of the park, shall we? Have we got Joe's left back? Oh, we have no Joe's left backs. I'm jumping ahead. Joe, excuse me. I have Anthony Robinson and Peyton Miller as my two. I don't know if we're going to see Peyton Miller, to be honest. He's playing as a winger right now in MLS. I don't know that Pachitino knows. I don't know that he doesn't know. I don't know that he knows that Peyton Miller is a left back at his best. So I'm just not thinking that that's the most likely outcome here, but I would really like to see Peyton Miller. It's him in London and Manolo right now that I think are the the next two that could sort of battle to succeed. Anthony Robinson in that left back spot, but I don't think maybe either one's there yet. So this is where I think about Scally maybe being an obvious backup for Robinson and that being just a little bit more boring, but maybe a little more sensible right now, but I've gone on my list with Robinson and Miller. Okay. Joe, did you read the athletic like breakdown of like the roster overhaul and where everybody will be in their ages? I did not. No. Okay. I can't remember if that was Paul and Henry or just Paul, but to run through a few more names that they had on their list for fullbacks, they had Robinson dust way they had Peyton Miller, but other potential left back options would be Max Arstin, but he's one of the middle's bros. He got the move. So yeah, maybe he would be in the plans, but maybe Pashtino has seen enough of Max Arstin for now. Who knows Kevin Paredas. Remember him? He's still around. Yeah, injured again who tracks, but I think that might be just a bit too far. And he's broken right now. So yeah, look, we don't get in the move. Caleb Wiley with Preston. And then George Bello is another one that I think is interesting who started very strongly for last. They've had a good start to the Champions League. He's been a really good performer for them, playing as a left wing back, I think in a kind of back three back five situation. So if you potential names in there, it's a name just a few. There are more, but I think for this camp, I think it'd be really interesting to get a Jedi Peyton Miller combo. Yeah, I just, I don't think Pashtino has done with Arstin whatsoever. I think Arstin and Freeman and Barolter. I don't have all those guys on this roster, but I think those guys are posh guys. I think he feels an attachment to them because he gave them their chances with the national team and they performed well enough that he could justify bringing them to the World Cup in various roles. So I do think we'll see a good bit more of Max Arstin in this World Cup cycle. I just don't know if we'll see him now for reasons you mentioned regarding his transfer. Maybe it makes more sense for him to stick around England. Maybe, maybe not, right? I really don't know exactly how those internal dynamics work. I'm sure it depends a little bit from Club to Club exactly how valuable time spent. Well, some of your teammates are gone is. So Arstin wouldn't shock me at all and I'm pretty unmoved by every other name that was right. All right. Good stuff. Joe, why don't we move it to the center to park now then? Who you got in central midfield? Yeah. So as a reminder at the World Cup, we saw Adams, Rodan, Barolter, Tillman, Reyna and McKenny sort of in this position group. McKenny was a little bit more of an attacker, but you know, reasonably that's that's on the money. I have gone with Adams, Tillman and Reyna as whole over from that World Cup squad. McKenny has him in playing soccer and isn't 100% fit right now. Even though it seems like he's very close to getting back on the field for Juventus, I don't really think it makes sense to bring him into this camp. And then I've opted to replace Christian Rodan and Sebastian Barolter. And my idea is here is that I would really like to see Audra Mamedi most of all in this position group. I will be floored if he's not on this roster. I mean, he's been one of the best defense midfielders regardless of age and MLS at 17 years old. He is really good. He and Kevin Sullivan are like the top young players of this current cohort. And I'm really excited to see what he looks like in red, white and blue. So I think he should and will be in this squad. I have Johnny Kratoso coming back in not because I'm really a Johnny Kratoso believer, but because I kind of like to see it maybe one more time. Then we can lay it to rest forever. And then I've got you this Musa. So effectively Mamedi, Kratoso and Musa, I've got coming in for Rodan, Barolter and McKenny from that World Cup squad. There's a nice amount of depth here. I wouldn't mind seeing Tana Tessman till you mentioned Buccio being injured. He's a fine player to bring to a squad like this. Aiden Morris, another fine player that doesn't move me, but could be in a squad like this. He hasn't just moved to Middlesboro. He's the only one who hasn't of that American for some. That would be fine as well. But really Mamedi is Mamedi and Musa really are the two that weren't at the World Cup. The almost of every position group I would really, really like to see and I think they will have earned a look for this roster. Can I ask about Musa? Is that like a rehabilitation into the Nashville set up kind of thing? Yeah, I think so. And I think he's earned it right at Milan. It's not like he is playing world class soccer at AC Milan right now. Though he was excellent in a recent game from Milan coming off the bench, but he is he's a good player that can help the US men's national team. And I think Pock took some umbridge with the fact that he didn't want to come and play the goal cup. He's taken shots of those players basically every chance he gets. Pockettino trying to send messages about how now we know it was BS to say that you needed to rest to be at the World Cup and perform. So he is clearly not over that Pockettino, but Musa was good enough to be at the World Cup. I don't think there's any doubt about that. He was good enough to play minutes. And I think would have legitimately helped the team at that tournament. And that hasn't changed. If anything now he's he's playing better soccer. He and Musa then he was at that time. So he should be in a roster like this. I'm married alone. Yeah, you were upset that he wasn't there. Were you? I wasn't I'm not living about it. I don't think he makes the difference between the US embarrassing themselves against Belgium or not. But I think he probably would have helped at that time. Yeah, would he have helped on the right wing where Pockettino was using him? Probably not. Would he've helped in center midfield, which is where he is best? Yeah, I think so. I'm I pretty much the exact same group. I think I move the like the positions around a little bit in terms of more defensive versus more attacking. But yeah, there's the same what one two three five six players across the board. And I think if we don't see Eunice Musa, I'm not sure we're going to see Eunice Musa again. I'm going to receive Pockettino honestly because at this point like there's no reason not to include him. He's he's starting for AC Milan. He's looked good. He's doing a bunch of things that we would want him to do for the United States. So if he's not called in to me, that does, unless it's like one more punishment and then I'll bring you back. It feels like maybe that bridge was fully burned in Pockettino is still making a point on that front. Yeah, Joe was going to challenge you on Christian. Well done. But then he I think you'll be 35 by 2030. So maybe that plays into it too, right? And I wouldn't be shocked similar to Reem. If Pock wants to bring a veteran to put an arm around the shoulder and and rolled on, I think it's still a good player that could help this US team as well. So I'm not out on him totally being involved. I just don't think he's a guy that I'm itching to look at again for the US. So if he's in this team, I think it'll be more because he does bring some valuable leadership and it seems like he very much does. And I think there's a place for that. Joe, I had one more wildcard for you. And I really don't know anything about him. This is sort of bad Jeff C a little bit just in terms of the level at which he plays, but I added Santiago Castañeda of Patterborn, who will be 25, almost 26 by the time of the next World Cup. But again, it's like starting in the midfield for Bundesliga team, not a great Bundesliga team, but is still getting regular minutes and is pretty young. All things considered. So that one for me, that's definitely in the 30% for me less of the 70% what I think Pockett will do. But I think that's another just reminder that there is a lot more talent out there. It's not just 16 and 17 year old. There are sort of 22, 23, 24 year olds who will still be in very good positions and still relatively young and can still have a big impact. So he's one that I think could just be fun to see to get some familiarity and see what he looks like in camp. Yeah, well mind it. Very good. Okay, we need to take a quick pause to pay the old bills. But when we come back, we're going to look at the players who might get some goals in this here roster. The attacking me field is the wide forwards and strikers. Hey, join us in a sec. So let's talk a show. Welcome back to USMNT weekly. Hey, Joe, let's talk about the attacking midfield. The striker support, as I never like to refer to it, who have you got in that position? I have, well, let me maybe start with where we were at at the World Cup. I have politic, wayads and desks and errands in those guys were at the World Cup in this position group. I am not bringing Christian politic to this, to this four game window. I think he's still maybe a little too injured and beat up. He's just now kind of getting back on the field from lawn. It seems like maybe he actually has been ready to go for a little while longer. But the injuries have been part of Ruben Emmerham's justification for keeping him out of the lineup. But now we are seeing him work his way back in and he's been quite good. I think it is minutes for them. So maybe he's actually not quite as injured as I think he is. But I think it might not be the worst thing to give him a window off because it does seem like he is quite beat up these days. Tim Weia is a guy that I don't really want to see in the attacking group anymore. He's playing as an outside back for club like a reference earlier. I think that's correct. I'm happy to have him in this roster. If he's around, I'd like to see him deeper in the back line. Patch doesn't know how to use him. It doesn't seem to me. Patch hasn't really cracked that code. He's playing him on the left. That's where he played him at the World Cup. He wasn't any good at the World Cup. Tim Weia, and I wouldn't be upset if he's not in this roster. It's the day I'm not having him in this team. But I do have Dust. I do have Aaronson. I have Kevin Sullivan for all the reasons that Jeff Taylor and I talked about on yesterday's show. He and Limo Messi are tied, I believe, for the most school contributions of any MLS player since the World Cup. He has been just that good so far this season for the Philadelphia Union. He should be in this team. It seems like Patch, you know, was firing off some fatherly warning shots at Kevin Sullivan and telling him to quiet down with his media availability last week. But still, the play on the field is undeniable. He's he's ready to at least get a look in this kind of level. And I hope and expect that we will see him. The other names I have, I do have Xavier Gozo on my list. This is more of a wish than an unexpected sort of thing. Gozo just betting in at Palace. It feels like if there's a player to think about Patch's comments about maybe I'm not going to bring in all the guys who just moved. I think it would relate to Gozo. Maybe more intimately than anybody else. But I hope we see him. Just for the sake of getting to see the best version of the US men's national team. Because he brings a different skill set wide on that right wing. I think he's somebody that could be quite fun to see in this group. I have Nico Shakiris in this group. The San Jose earthquake's attacking midfielder. I mean, he has just been brilliant when he's been on the field. The playmaking is different than just about any other US player. His ability to spot a pass, play passes at bizarre angles that you don't think you should be able to hit or anybody should be able to hit. He does and can really, really fun player. And I think you could help this US team. So I've got him on my list. And then I have as my last player in this group, Justin Ellis, the 19 year old attacker for Orlando City, who has been an assist machine. He and Antoine Griesman have linked up so well in Orlando. Last time I checked, he was the only Orlando City player that Antoine Griesman followed on Instagram. Griesman's talked quite goingly about him in media values this season. Ellis is a bit of a positionless player. Is he a nine? Is he a 10? Is he a half space guy? Don't really know. But Patch Tino might be able to figure it out. You've got Uruguay courting him with with his Uruguayan eligibility these days. Ellis is a talent man. He's a different kind of player than the US typically produces. And maybe I'm not quite as confident, sort of like Peyton Miller that he will be in this camp. But I I sure would like to see it because I think he's a player on a half. Joe one clarification. Did you have way I am politic in years or did you leave them out? I left them both out. But I wouldn't be surprised if they're both in or or not really. I have a question about politic. I was similarly on the fence. That was one of my big questions was is there an argument for leaving off Christian. For any number of reasons, you listed the primary one that he's still been recovering from injury. But this week it feels like that narrative suddenly shifted. Maybe I haven't been paying attention. But I feel like the narrative for like the last few weeks has been picked up the injury didn't really have a pre-season, has been picking up his form. He'll be in Emoryms plans just as soon as he's back to full fitness in places way into kind of contention. And maybe that leads to the second thing that's happened, which has been like he's on the outside looking in. He's not an Emoryms plans. He has to prove that he belongs and justify his continued involvement. I think that switch happened really fast. And I'm not entirely sure why it happened. But he does seem to be in a pretty bad situation at present with fitness and then with the lack of playing time. He comes on in the second half this best weekend and gets an assist. So that's positive. It's quite good. Yeah. So I did still have him in mind. I had Tim Wei in mind as well. And I think Wei especially I had included with an eye towards like what can we do with the system to get more different players in there? To Joe's point, it seems like no one with the US and maybe nobody at club level understands how to get the best out of Tim Wei or what the best Tim Wei is. It seems like it's right back. But then same time I've read some concerns about his one of you one defending about his kind of situational and awareness since he's not really a natural defender and is having to become one at this point in his career. But I think him being included. I had desks as a fullback, but you could put desks in that spot too is like just more experimentation with wide attackers. I don't think would be the worst thing to figure out if that's going to work for us or we don't have enough depth there. Let's change with that position group is going to look like and figure out how to kind of play to our strengths instead of our vulnerabilities. Really with that in mind the only differences I had because I had Wayne Pulisick. I had desks though I listed him previously. I had Aaronson, Kevin Sullivan, Nika Skaris. I did not have Xavier Gozo. I think he should be there. It's just that he just moved. But I think Joe makes the command like argument why he could be in there. Instead I had I think I already said Brendan Aaronson and then like I kind of I kind of want to include our boy former inner Miami. I forget where he is in Italy, but Ben a Kramaski. Ben I mean Kramaski is a Parma. Parma. Thank you. Yeah. And it's still only 21 has plenty of time to develop. It's still pretty raw. But in the end because if we're going raw why not go the raw as the raw. Math is Albert. Come on down. You have nice minutes and see your level. But why not just get the hype train fully fully rolling. What could go wrong? That one also feels like maybe a step too far or too soon. But if we're going with things that would make us really excited. I think I like to look at this list and just thought if you're not calling in players who've moved there is an opportunity for other players to get an opportunity. I'm going to say opportunity a few more times. But I just want to go with somebody who I think will be will be fun to watch. It's the Josh Allen principle of fantasy football applied to US raster construction. I like it. Well, he's in the Dortmund plans, right? So why not in these plans? There you go. There you go. Good stuff. Policic not making this roster would be the biggest headline surely, right? It would be a headline, but I think Patch could reasonably explain it with he's not 100% fit and we want to give him a chance to bet in a little bit more at Milan. I mean, what's happened here is that Policic was injured multiple times of the woke up, right? Andrew himself in the first game. Andrew himself in the last game. And then Ruben Emmerheim has come out and said that he picked up another injury and training at the start of this season when he when he got back into Milan. He also said though that Policics been upset that he's not playing and of course he is like that's the most milk toast quote of all time. Player is upset that they're not playing soccer. Shocker. I mean, that's that's how it is. But that sort of gotten blown up and now people are thinking, well, maybe more. He's not an ever in plans. Is he an ever in plans? I think a reasonable explanation is that politics not been 100% and calling him in to do another two flights across the Atlantic and play four games in this window. Like maybe doesn't make sense. Maybe it does. I really have no idea. I just think if if he actually is in 100% fit, you can justify it quite easily. And Patch Tino will have that information. He can also say whatever he wants. If he is fit, I'd bring him in. No doubt about it. I mean, 100% not having him in the squad. I just don't get the sense that he's 90 minutes fit right now. So that that's why I didn't have him in. And I think that would be a very simple justification for Patch Tino should that be the case. Okay. Very good. I believe that leaves us as one position to discuss striker. Hey Joe, here you go. I've got Florian Baligan. He's sharing playing at Monaco right now. So I think he could use some minutes in his legs. That feels like a no brainer. Got Ricardo Peppy. And I've got Julian Hall, the 18 year old Red Bull New York striker, who started this season quite hot, still has been playing and starting games for Michael Bradley's team. Those are the three that I would have that's replacing the injured Haji Wright from the World Cup roster. Baligan and Peppy, of course, were both there. Hall is the young striker that I'd most like to see right now of the current group. I don't think it's really all that close. I mean, there's a lot of other fine options. I think you could make quite a list of fine options. But Hall is the one that I think has potential to break out of that tier and become closer to the Peppy Baligan tier. So those are the three that I would bring in. And for me, it really wasn't even like a mental conversation putting those three on my list. Okay. I had a little bit more debate about it largely because Joe Hall is not in the ideal form coming into an international break, correct? I mean, yeah, he has not been nearly as prolific in front of goals. He was to start the season for sure. Yeah, because looking at like, I'm not saying this should happen, like Logan Farrington, scoring more goals more consistently and certainly more recently, Melon Loskey, the same. But I don't know if they have the the youth to then justify the hype the way Julian Hall does. But it is another position where like you have strength in Baligan and depth and Peppy. I think it would be interesting to see how Pots uses Peppy if it's kind of different looks, different styles. Again, I think if there is some experimentation with tactics and formation, maybe we'll see a difference in how Baligan is used versus how Peppy is used. But after that, like it could be Ajamaeng, but he's hurt. It could be Haji Wright, but he's hurt. Joe has Justin Ellis elsewhere. I'm less familiar with Justin Ellis, if I'm being totally honest, because I don't love Antoine Griezmann or Orlando City, the way Joe does. Damian Downs is in the conversation, but he's just gotten a move. So maybe he is out of consideration, given that recency of the move. I don't know. I'm just curious right now, in my opinion, but that's that's my own burden to bear. Say again, I'm Damian Downs. I just, I don't think he's done anything to be in the conversation. If if I'm honest about it, so I didn't have him in my, in my, yes. And so basically leaves Julian All, Brian White, or Josh Sergeant. And I've made an argument for Josh Sergeant previously that he's in very good form. He'll only be 30 come the next World Cup. But he also sort of feels like a known quantity, at least from Pochettino's perspective. And that's one that I think will be really interesting, because he has been very much in the outside looking in. He did get some opportunities under Poch. I don't think he really took them, which is why he wasn't at the World Cup. And I don't think we're going to see him in this camp. I feel like if you are going to kind of just bring in the three strikers, maybe they bring in more. And then he is, but pending that, it feels like it's going to be the three. And it's the two obvious ones. And then I think you go youth and see how he does. Excellent stuff. Is that kind of two thirds experience? A third innocent seems to be a patent you guys have developed throughout this roster to me. So that seemed quite good. That's a good ratio of new blood, I would say, for a roster like this. So Taylor, how does that, how does that sit with you if we say roughly a third of new or not new, but you know, not recently caught up players? Does that sit well with you for going forward here? Yeah, I think it does, because I think like I am always going to let that Belgium loss loom large. I think when it comes to this past World Cup, but if you, like I wouldn't say remove that from the equation, you can't, but there were good performances at this World Cup. It is not as though the US crashed out and nobody was good enough. And we've got to kind of completely reimagine this whole roster. They put in some good performances. They had some good wins. It was on track to be the most successful World Cup ever in my mind until decisions were made and things were overturned and then losses happened. And so it's like seeing through that lens of one terrible performance and a lot of off-field distraction, I think you don't need to reinvent the wheel here. I think you go with the players that are still either going to make you better right now or are likely to better like that you have familiarity with right now or that are going to make you better long term. And then you bring in yeah, that third kind of younger prospects, unproven players, unknown players or unknown quantities that you can then kind of figure out if they fit or if you need to keep kind of experimenting. But I don't really love that when you look at like the spine of a team of goalkeeper center back central midfielder striker, huge to three of those spots feel very uncertain to me because we have Baligan, but he and Pepe are so different in terms of the way they play and how they want to attack and what their strengths would be that like they're almost like, I mean, Baligan is one A and maybe one B, but then like Pepe is one C, but they're almost like different equations and then there's not a ton of depth behind them. So I think there are three spots in this team that I am most intrigued by and most hopeful we find some solutions too soon. Excellent stuff. There we go. All right, that is our predictions from Richard Pochetino's roster, which we expect to drop on Thursday this Thursday as we record. I'd know Joe, should we do a little show after it roster records and discuss that? That sounds like a plan, doesn't it? I think it sounds like a great plan. Let's do that tomorrow. Maybe we'll do it live here on on YouTube if people can come hang out with us or they can listen afterwards on their favorite podcast player. That could be a good thing to do. Deal. Love it. Let's lock it in. Excellent stuff. Yeah, look at us coming up with plans. Definitely on the fly. Taylor Oakwell, thank you very much indeed for your contributions. This we appreciate you very much indeed. My pleasure, my friend and my final question for Joe, is there any player that could be included that would annoy you, Joe? Wow, that's a that's a great question. No, I wouldn't wouldn't be mad at that. I mean, hall hall was not a player that are rating the same tier of of prospect as some of these other young guys right now. Yeah. So I wouldn't be totally miffed at that. I don't I don't think so. There are players that if they're not around, I will be miffed about. And I think that's mostly Mehmeti and in Kevin Sullivan, though a few others, I think are are darn close to it. But really, I don't think so since since Taylor did one more thing, I'm gonna do one more thing as well. And just say Ryan, you talked about that third ratio of innocence to experience. I think it's going to be less than that. I'm patching those roster. I think I was a little more tilted towards these the guys I would like to see. Yeah. Like I think we could see a Joe Scallion instead of a Frankie Westfield. And we could see a Max Arstin instead of a Peyton Miller. And I think we might not see Securus and Ellis and Kevin Sullivan. That's the sort of thing that that it feels like patches is maybe not going to go all the way in that direction. But a fifth or a quarter new blood, like four or five guys, maybe a little more than that. That that feels about right to me. All right. We'll tinker with the ratios and we'll talk about that tomorrow. Joe Lowry. I'll say goodbye to you as well. Thank you very much indeed. Oh, and goodbye to you, darling. Till we meet again. Oh, too kind. Listen, thank you very much for joining us via this meeting. We appreciate you very much indeed. We'll be back on the feed very shortly, but for now, bye.