Pochettino's Four-Year Mandate, FIFA's Governance Rift, and the USMNT Strategy

Welcome to the SCUF Podcast, we talk about U.S. Soccer. Hey everybody, players are gathering at their clubs in Europe, MLS is going full tilt, and Pochettino will return for another four years. Sanjay. Vince, how are you? Sanjay, first. How are you doing? Yeah, a lot happening in the world of soccer on and off the field. Just a few things. Yeah, it's been a whole some day of soccer so far. I've been coaching a local camp with my local high school coaches. It was pouring rain today this morning. We ended a little early, but it was one of those days where the field was soaked, everything was muddy. Yeah, it was cool in a way. This is a high school team. The high school coaches and players and then other local coaches help out, and it's like our local town youth, so this happens every summer. And it was funny actually, like when you're working with different groups of players just to get to know them, obviously you'll ask them their name, we go on asking their name and I'll ask them their favorite player too. And this was the first year ever, this happened last week, where after working with dozens of kids, probably about 30 to 40 kids during the morning stations, not a single person named Messi. We had a lot of Lumini Mall, a lot of Embape and some more niche ones, you know, yet some peddry, some, the best was one kid was on the spot, he didn't know who to name and he just said Summerville. He got the nod before Leo Messi did, which was like I was dying, but yeah, you had a few Ronaldo's too, and it wasn't just like United Real Madrid, Portuguese people named Ronaldo, Ronaldo came up here and there, but it was mostly the young, the new generation, but not a single Messi, which blew my mind, so you had a few politics, but yeah, that was fine. Interesting, not a single Messi. I saw a kid with the Ronaldo kid on yesterday of his club, who's the player? Hello. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. Okay. You know, one of those. But yeah, so I'm with the kid on yesterday, the way you're building it up, Sanjay, I thought it was going to be some cultural touch point on how the U.S.M.F. team was breaking through, but you did mention the Christian policy got a couple of mentions, so that's cool, but yeah, it's funny today, today was the first day for this week, and 20 you mentioned that, there was a kid, who I remember when he was little during like project restart policy, this kid's name is Christian, and he showed up the camp with the policy jersey, I took a picture of it and posted it when he was like a little kid, and it's funny to see him like grown up now, but yeah, not too many Americans, no, no, no, no, no, no one else besides Christian, I don't think. I'm still. I was at, just real quick, I was at a coaching class all weekend in, you know, near Athens, Georgia, and the instructor's name was Mario, and he's like a real ball buster, which is kind of the, it's kind of the mode of what these coaching education guys are like, and there was a girl with a Ronaldo jersey on in the group of like 12 kids who volunteered to help us with our class, you know how that works, and he called her messy the whole time. Oh, what a guy, all right. So Pagetino returns for another cycle, it's a four year contract. He says when he signs a contract, he plans to go to the very end of the contract, but you know, in football, especially in and in life, nothing is certain. What do you guys think, are we celebrating? Are we, you know, just kind of taking the news and stride? What's going on? I'm, I'm taking the news and stride, basically, I mean, I think for people that listen to, I don't know, the World Cup post, post-mortem or whichever pod we talked about it on, you know, I was kind of, I think I gave up a strong word salad on whether or not I should be back or not, you know, just kind of like going through my thoughts and even after processing those thoughts, or whatever, still came back to the fact that like it was like, eh, comes back or he doesn't, like I'm cool with it. I would have been excited to potentially get another coach. And I'm also potentially excited to see Podge for another four years or maybe two years, whatever. I do think the possibility they stays for is greater than some people may think, I want to say. I agree. But there's just a strong possibility that the World Cup was the kickoff point given that we saw Podge's tenure, even though the results were underwhelming and I tweeted out today, like we need to get that, this first nation's league, we need to win that because going over three and Podge's first three opportunities get a cock-calf trophy, I'm going to turn the heat up right after that bro, I'm sorry, we can't, we can't be going over three. I cannot accept that. But with the World Cup, him and having everybody healthy, going through his progression that it kind of took to arrive to put in the players where they wanted to be or where he needed them to be or whatever, I'm thinking specifically about dropping Malik into the double pivot, all these different types of things. Once we finally got everybody playing where it makes sense for it to play, we saw the team play how we think they should play. And I can easily see the team just kind of kicking off from there and we just start busing us. Specifically in concaft, the way we should, man, we need to reestablish our concaft dominance, get back to it, and I think Mauricio Pastino can do that. So that's the thing I'm worried about and that's the thing I think we'll be able to do with him at the helm. Yeah, he also said some good things this morning about, you know, he's going to focus on the younger kids and, you know, maybe he'll move here permanently. He said he's going to consider that, the towering trees of the Atlanta suburbs are beckoning him. Sanjay, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, firstly, like, I think it's important to step back and remind ourselves that him picking us when he did was a huge deal and him returning for however long he stays, hopefully it's the full cycle, but that's also a really big deal. I think us being us, you know, we're the richest country in the history of the world with a huge sense of self-importance, perhaps arrogance to some, but we're very much a middle-class soccer country and there's more than one reason that he's coming back, but it was cool to hear that what he saw this summer, I think he was genuine about this, what he saw this summer, the buying from the fans, the response to the team and that sport made a difference, right? That seems to have left an impact on him and his staff and he said, you know, they went back feeling, they were feeling empty after a certain point, after the World Cup. So... And I think that's big, just because like, okay, I read that quote from Mauricio and it got me to thinking about like, just his effect on the fandom and the culture in general. Just as, you know, we don't have, regardless of what you think about Greg Berholtz, right? We do not, we now have a coach that like galvanizes people, it seems. And behind Balagan and behind maybe Christian Policic, maybe the third biggest USMNT-related star that come out of this World Cup is Mauricio Paschino, you know? And so, especially for casuals and people that got kind of got on the bandwagon, I felt like he's like, he's their gaffer. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? My friends loved him. Yeah. And so the fact that he's back and, you know, we're kind of keeping that momentum rolling and whatever fans we picked up along the way don't have to learn a new manager or anything like that. I think all that plays into it. And once again, once again, he needs to hit the ground running. I feel like because obviously the goal for the 26th cycle was just the World Cup, even mention that and it's pressure today that, you know, he got the job with just the mandate for only the World Cup. And now with this cycle, him and his staff are going to be focused on more things from the bottom up. It seems, it seems. I guess we'll get more details as it goes on. So the thing I'm worried about when he says, you know, he talks about the connection with the fans that was built during the World Cup is, I wonder how he's going to react to like a half-empty stadium at the Nation's League or something like. I was thinking about that today, Nation's League specifically, right, in L.A., where there was the Valley, then the peak, and how are we, you know, what are we headed for in the Valley? Going back into the Valley, baby. You know, something really changed in a way that I didn't perceive this past summer. I mean, we won't be able to tell until we get there, I guess, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I think it is notable to hear him say, you know, we got a video from US Soccer earlier today, where I think it was Michael Cameron asking him questions. And Potsch said that this cycle won't be a continuation of what happened during the last 18, 19 months. He said, you know, we were only with the objective to arrive in the best condition to the World Cup. Now the approach is going to be different and must be different because it's a four-year cycle. And then in his next response to a question about the pool and younger players, he said, I think we met a number of players. He's talking about the previous cycle, then we're the 70 players and I think we have talent, but also we are seeing that start to appear new talented players, 16, 17, 18, 19 years old. You know, young kids, the possibility and potential to be important players in the next World Cup. And he goes on to talk about how MLS and the Federation are doing a good job, all that stuff. So it sure sounds like he's ready to look at new players, which we all know. So it needs to happen, right? We need a forward-thinking selection strategy to beat real teams at a World Cup. A lot of things went wrong against Belgium, but the lack, we can talk about high floor versus high ceiling, but like we need better players, man. And we're hopeful that the kids were shining light on early in the cycle can be part of that solution. Yeah. And it is encouraging to hear MLS sort of explicitly say something along those lines. Yeah. He sounds like someone who knows his core is aging too, right? Like he doesn't want to be like, oh, he's my guys and this is what we're doing. It's a new cycle. He's always going to want to put the regulars on notice, you know? They're back on notice. I guess so. And yes, of course, bring whoever can help us in along the way. I have no, I mean, after he mined for all these different types of people, I mean, he combed all the way through MLS, you know, combed through MLS. I mean, to the point to where, you know, he might be, he could potentially be a deciding vote on the new commissioner. I don't even know. Like he, you know, just board of trustees, whatever, he got the keys to the castle. But yeah, we just got to, we got to, we got to get back to winning, bro. We got to get back to winning. And you know, now that Mauricio is officially back with us and it wasn't just this, I don't know, John, this trifle affair with the United States as it before he goes back to Europe or whatever, it is, it is time to officially give him his nickname, you know, and I'm not the one that provides the nickname. This is provided, of course, by John McKinney, Western McKinney's dad, Airborne 69 on Twitter. We did not go into this during the World Cup. He kind of tweeted it and left it. You know, he posted another picture, John McKinney with Mauricio Paschino, simple caption. No, no, no long paragraph this time, as far as we know, there was no drama to, to sub tweet about as you did with Greg Brahalter for the infamous mentality tweet, all he says is the man with the plan. And so now, Mauricio Paschino is officially hashtag the man with the plan, bro, no, no, no more, no longer, oh, local, hashtag the man with the plan, man. So let's see this plan play out. And I have, I have tenuous faith that, that we can, that we can get it done. Yeah, I, I've just talking here has moved me from ambivalent to, in favor of the potry hiring, because I'm like, it's like what, what, what are the alternatives? Are we going to find a better coach than him? And I don't know, I don't, I don't think blame for Belgium. I just can't put much of the blame for that on Paschino. Yeah, I don't, I don't put a ton on Mauricio at all. And then if you say, hey, Vince, all right, you could potentially have a situation where the, where the Paraguay match becomes like the new level of the national team going forward, which, or, or you can get an unknown, maybe second tier European manager or some American coach, you know, I'm saying what, like, which bucket am I taking? You know, I think I would take the shot on, you know, kind of continuing, yeah, continuing it from the, from the world cup on and just give that a shot. Like, you know, I would, I've already seen that. I would love to see that continue, whether it does or not remains to be seen. But it's like, Mauricio got us playing like that in a world cup, winning matches. Yeah, let's go ahead and take that shot, man. I think it's worth stressing the part that like there was no obvious other, even American coach never mind a foreign candidate. I would have no problem with getting to 2028 where we expect to be in a cup America and reevaluating. Like, after the world cup, it was like, okay, and even now there's talk about what jobs could come up that would tempt him, but that job clearly isn't there yet for him. At the same time, there isn't a clear option for us in terms of the American pool of candidates or the foreign pool. So maybe that candidate will emerge after a few years when it would mutually make sense to do something else, but obviously the hope, like I said in the post-mortem, the hope is that he saves for four years because if he does, then yes, we're all taking this hands down like we're excited about it, right? If you knew right now he's here for four years, you'd sign up for that in a heartbeat and be happy about it. But I do want to push back a little bit on Vince's emphasis on winning, conca-caf competitions or whatever it is, not that, like obviously I want to see the team win. We want to see momentum, we want to see some of that excitement. We saw this summer, just a slice of that, carry over and build on that. But the most important thing to me is integrating these younger players and if we lose a final year in Mexico or even Canada, but we have kids getting real minutes, what are you saying? I mean, but these kids have to reach a certain level. What are you saying? We're playing kids who currently do not deserve it in order to hope potentially that they're better than whoever's playing in their spot by 2030. I mean, I understand you're premise, but in actuality, how much sense does that make? My concern is world cup qualifying. We have until the end of the next fall window in fall of 2027, everything between now and close to then, including goal cup in like next summer, for me is about, you're saying get them better than before qualifying starts. Yeah, well before then, I mean, obviously even with nations like, we have to win in November right, to get to, we have to advance in November to get to LA in March, so it's not like winning doesn't matter at all any time soon, but it's about qualifying for the World Cup and making sure you're giving guys a chance to not just taste the international level, but do it together in Bill Cohesion. That's what we got to think about for the guys we think will be on the field in a game like Belgium for years from now, and we work backwards from there. I'm, I'm at him in about, about that and beating Mexico, but we beat Mexico, we beat Mexico a lot. And where is that God in us? You know, I was actually just going to say that because like, because I was, where is that God in the sport in this country? We won, what do we beat Mexico like for five years straight or whatever it was? They never beat us. Still nobody cared about the men's national team in America, you know, basically it helped a couple people win arguments on Twitter, and that was the effect, you know? No, no, hold on first of all, because you're skipping paths, you're looking, you can't miss the, I don't know, the trees for the four, what the hell they be talking about? For the trees, yeah. For us for the trees, man. I mean, come on. We got to take care of ourselves first, you know, I want to beat Mexico, damn it. What the hell are we talking about? Yeah, yeah, I do too, I do too, but it is, it is worth, it is worth thinking about like, that was, you know, the picture of all the boys with bullsick doing the shush in, you know, like sepia tone at the stadium in Las Vegas, whatever it was, I think it was Denver's Las Vegas. Yeah, Denver. Yeah, I just think like even that, even that picture, which was like so cool, such a moment for like, for the sicko class, but did it ever, did it ever break through, break beyond that, you know, we do have to take care of ourselves, though, I mean, I'm the first to admit that. I'm not saying to be clear, I mean, no, though, the answer bells does, no, because why would it break through to anything, you know, we beat Mexico. And like in a, in a barn burner of a overtime and penalty, you know, extra time and penalties and it was incredible, it was incredible night that we shared with about, you know, 20,000 other people. It was important psychologically for the players for the team, right? Like winning is part of the element for sure, but let's identify the high potential, really the talented kids that, that we need in four years. Let's lean that way. There's like three to four right now, there are, okay, all right, okay, well, look, we need a, we need a, we need a one concaft office, bro, I don't care what you're talking about, bro. We need a, we need a, we need a, we need to sit back on top of our parts. Concaft, I don't really, to be honest, I don't care about the journey, I don't care where it gets us. I want to win now, bro, you know what I'm saying? I want to, we can do both, we should do it to be clear. We should. I want to, I want to talk shit to my Mexican friends. You know what I'm saying? This is all, I'm talking about me, the greater, the greater whatever, when the spotlights on us, when the world cup getting to the quarterfinals, all that, it's good. Great. When we play Mexico and a friendly this fall, I want Audrey Maddie on the field, I want Kevin Solo and on the field, maybe, maybe Neil Pierre, I don't know if he's starting, but I want, I want him playing in that game, I want him tasting that game and who, who, who, to get to get to our only other, only quarterfinal, Sunday, I'm, I'm posing the question to you. Sunday. Who, who do we be? A much better Mexico team. Okay. All right. I'm just in the team they have now. Listener, you get two strong perspectives here on whether we should be playing the kids and it's, you know, it's up to you to decide. It appears the FIFA World Cup privatization plan floated a few days ago. It's not going too well for all Johnny and Fontino. All 41 concatenations rejected it. I mean, you know how UEFA feels about it, they out for blood. They want to destroy him, Fontino. Out for blood and yet they might not be able to get it without hitting the nuclear option, which it seems like they might still do, only because of the fact that Africa is huge and has a lot of countries within it. And they seem to be stated standing behind Johnny, you know. And what I've read, it seems like they, well, I read in one article that from the first, one of the first trips that Johnny took after officially getting the job was to South Sudan. And he's quarter to, I mean, so that tells you where kind of his intentions have been. You know, if you're going to South Sudan, I mean, you know what, one of the newest countries in the world, right? You know, it's a, it's a new seat. It's a somebody new to do the FIFA ball ball, like, you know, that's a vote at South Sudan that counts just as much as England, et cetera. And so, yeah, he has the entire calf on lock, like calf, not only have they, I mean, their statements have been basically the opposite of like UEFA's. And Asia really hasn't said much either. So really it's just, at this point, it's UEFA and CockaCalf with UEFA being the strongest, going against Johnny, trying to get him ousted. You can have fellas who sometimes put the soccer second and the money first. Don Garber is, the MLS is voting on a new commissioner who will eventually replace Garber. Do we care? Answer anything. And Hale, no, I don't care. I mean, we don't care about the MLS commissioner, bro, I mean, yeah. But eventually it, and maybe if something good happens, if MLS does a good thing, then I'll be like, hell yeah, Larry Berg, great job, brother. But as far as like, I mean, I just don't know, I don't know anything about the guy. I'm not tapped into MLS, especially not it's front office dealings. Okay, okay. Yeah, fine, fine. Yeah, I mean, I think I think it's just more about, you know, the culture of the sport and where MLS fits into that because we obviously care about that. And MLS definitely has some catching up to do. They need to elbow their way into mainstream relevance, which might take a very long time. I think it will regardless of who the commissioner is going to be barring a, an unforeseen move towards pro-rel anytime soon. I don't know if this matters. I think the media rights deal that they covet is a generation or two or three away. They're slow just kind of relying on like the organic growth of this sport and demographics. So yeah, I think like, let's just hope they keep playing the kids. We see more clubs playing the kids. MLS teams like we expect them to just to be spending a lot more money soon, right? That's the whole debate in the league is like how much money, how much more money should they spend, how should they spend it, and does that really even make a difference for them in terms of ratings and all that, your ship. So I'm not sure it does in terms of catching up to the prem, like I think it's, it's not looking great for them, but for the sake of the national team, I don't want minutes to be squeezed away from young Americans. Well, I do want to say I was in a hotel on Saturday night. I think it was Saturday night, flipping through the TV and I saw what did I see on ESPN too, but racing Louisville visiting Tampa Bay Routies. It was a five. Louisville City, brother, that's Louisville City. Oh, yeah. Racing Louisville. The women's team. My bad. Louisville City playing Tampa Bay Routies in Tampa, five, it was a five four game Tampa score two goals in the last, I don't know, 10 minutes. And I did wonder, I mean, it's not a, it's not a very cinematic stadium because most of it is empty or like there aren't seats, but I did wonder how many people, you know, stumbled upon that and enjoyed it because that USL is instituting parole, at least that's what they said in 2027. Did I say, look, don't worry about what, what USL is doing or not, but I mean, I know this from the premier division. I don't know if they're starting, but they're, they're aiming for 20, 20, eight around that. So they're starting the premier division in 27 and then in 28, they start sending teams up and down supposedly, nobody believes it is what I'm going to do. We got to, some of those things, you'll believe it when you see it, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, let's talk about some of the kids. Who cares about all this front office nonsense? Really kids are doing pretty well. Sasha, give us, hold on, real quick, just, I looked up Larry Berg real quick. I just want to talk about, okay, you want a little more, you want a little more front office talk? Let's go. Just real quick, because I, I looked them up just to see what the cut of this man's jib is. I figured might as well check it out. Larry Berg co-managed in owner, LAFC senior partner at 26 North, which I mean, probably some type of fund, former senior partner at Apollo Global Management, Apollo Global Management, private equity, it seems, we provide flexible capital at scale to leading companies around the world. We know what time that is. And then before that, former chairman and McGraw Hill education, a textbook man. Okay. Okay. That's all I got. You're going to, you're going to talk to me, Larry. The man who made the math book in high school leading them all, yeah, man, sure. He's, he's well regarded, but I don't think any executive, like, yeah, I don't know how much they can, they can do in the grand scheme of the challenges facing him all us. I mean, with any lead commissioner, right, the power all lies within the ownership still, of course. Like, you know, the whole league structure is the owners own the league. What's Larry Berg going to do? I mean, he's going to, he's going to lean more into the, hopefully, the more ambitious owners in the room, the whole tip things. Let's hit the scale that way, but, but like, again, I'm not sure how ambitious they are. Can they make, can they make them the best league in the world? Like, probably not. They're, there's still, can they make them close to that? Like, I, I don't know, and how is that going to affect playing time for young Americans? Well, we shall see. I still, I still wish there was more kids playing, but I think if you get three or four or five super teams who can do whatever they want, like, the rules are ridiculous, let some teams do whatever they want, and then hopefully the other teams, we get enough production for a man's national team pool out of the rest of those teams, and there's no home ground territory. So kids can go wherever. This is a solid point, I guess, with, with Berg coming from, you know, a new money team. But it just, I guess it kind of remains to be seen when, you know, you got the major, it seems to me the major power player should be in the room, should be the hunts, crafts, et cetera, the people with whom, you know, laid the foundation for MLS to be built upon it. So. It's a, it's a, it's a tug of, not tug of war, but I mean, kind of read, read Paul T'Norio's book. If you want to learn more about this, we're not going to, I'm not going to go into profiles of these people, but, but his book does that well. Larry Bird know about books. Yeah, kind of a, not a growth industry books, especially textbooks. I just want to talk about that cabin volley off the chest, though, like the little, the little combo with Quinn up on the right, up in the right corner, Quinn scoops it over another defender to him. Cabin takes it down with his chest and then swings, volleys with his right foot, his weak foot, and draws an amazing save from the Atlanta keeper, you know, full stretch, hand out. That's a, that's a nasty little piece of work from him. You look good, man. And it's not just like, I mean, they were a man up for, I'm most this game, but just the way he's moving around the pitch, like let in his feet, shifting his weight really well. There are times where he's looked like he's not, he's not as, he hasn't been as, as spry and quick and, you know, gliding around, like, there's been some appearances where you don't see, see that. And now you're seeing it, feels like every time he's stepping on the field, connecting with teammates smoothly, yeah, he's gold-and-dress, the production is yet to come. He nearly had an equalizer, probably should have had an equalizer towards the end of this, but they pulled off an incredible comeback. And he was, he was part of the reason why. Incredible in the, like, it was, it was cool to watch, but they were a man up for, for most of the game. Okay. Neopierre also scored the big, Lanky center back. I mean, he scored the equalizer, ultimately. Yeah, absolute weapon on set pieces. Even just like goal kicks, like, it's cool to watch him just, just on the ball. Yeah, bro, he'd be dominant in the air, bro. It's not just that he scores, I mean, I, I mean, scoring goals is becoming a usual thing from his appear, but like, this isn't just him getting one opportunity, a match, and then putting it away or whatever. He is like, this is a scale that he has sustainably. And consistently, he gets his head to ball and box. Philly's good at finding him, obviously is six, seven, six, seven plus pretty good athletically. Like, I mean, nobody can really compete with him, bro. And like Sanjay said, even on like defensive goal kicks or whatever, I mean, truly, truly dominating, aerially in a way that, I don't know, we've seen a young, I mean, especially on a young center back, but just, I mean, a young player doing a while, I mean, that's just, it's like a plus, plus, plus attribute that he has, you know, like, it knows how to, knows how to find the ball. Like I said, Philly gets it to him, good deliveries. And yeah, he's going to hit like, I mean, before the goal, I mean, I think he was dangerous on like two or three corners before that. So, I mean, even the national, even the national team hasn't had a, I mean, the really the, the only aerially dominant player we've had in the last decade is Walker Zimmerman. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Pierce is next level to defensively also, I think there's, there's been growth. He's obviously, like we talked about on here, very aggressive business handler. You know, not that easy. He's flawless. Like, he probably should have done, could have done better on the first goal, they conceded, where I'm wrong, get gets that, but it was like minutes later, about five minutes later, there was a player where I'm wrong, had the ball on the left side and he's like dribbling over to the right side and Pierce tracks him the whole time and like hunts him down. And yeah, I mean, you just see, you need each game like some crunching tackles, right, there, like, like no mercy business handled. So yeah, he's, he's definitely near the, at or near the top of the list of people we're, we're watching, right? Yeah. Okay. I mean, we've gone the way for the European season to come for me to put my list together, man. But, but, but sure, Neil Pierre is on the list, but just going back to the play, the Sanjay talked about real quick, where he tracked, Mickey across the field, it's like, you know, Mickey is trying, he's trying to shake the man like desperately. He's stopping, starting, stopping, starting, does it maybe twice? You know, trying to hit him with little hezzies or whatever to shake free of him. And Neil's not going for any of it. And this is a man who is six, seven, making these, making this play, you know what I'm saying, and, and looking, looking good while doing it. You know, you know, you know, I'm big on, on movement hips, et cetera, fluid hips. You know, the ability to stop, start as Mickey's moving, the ability to accelerate, decelerate all these things, it seems, it seems like Neil got it, seems like Neil got it. And I, you know, I saw some talk on the discord. This weekend, when the, when the goal happened, as far as that, maybe that's a sign of a, a lack of physical ability with, with Neil or something like that. And I don't know what, what, what I saw from the play, it looked more like an inexperiencing to me. Like he didn't notice that Mickey was in that space until it was kind of too late. He tried to get back and make a play and, and didn't. It was a lot more of a bang, bang play than, then I think people, people think it is, I guess. But so I, I guess I'm here to say that, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm on board, I'm on board. You know what, signed, yeah, I'm officially put them on the list of top five, top five players of watch in the world, American eligible. Yeah, him. So, so, and you don't have a problem with him being in camp, right? This fall, I want to see him, Audrey on the field, Kevin, I would absolutely not put him on a field. I mean, you gotta, you gotta start, yeah, let's watch guys who've been, what, I don't know, a friendly, a friendly against Mexico or against Canada. Like that's, that's a good, we're trying to get in part one of Web, bro. You know what I'm saying? I'm trying to get in part one. I don't know what you're trying to do, Sanjay. I'm trying to get in part one, baby, but I mean, look, to be honest, I mean, fine. You know, if he's, if he's on the field, I'm not, I'm not going to complain necessarily. Like, what do you have to look at starting him in Chris Richards? When, when I watch him play, and as of now, when I watch him pass the ball, I'm, I'm not inspired. Now, I also tweeted this out and people, people told me like Marcus, other people who are familiar, they're like, oh, he can really pass it. It just hasn't shown up in MLS yet. So I'm, I'm waiting. I will be there when it starts happening. Yeah, he can pass it. I just think we got to see him under more pressure than I'm unless, like the tools are there. It's just can you do it, you know, how about you complete some passes under the limited pressure in MLS then, you know, yeah, let me see that. And then, and then we can get him on a field for the United States Miss National Team. Yeah. Look, whoever, whoever's on the pitch, let's just win some games, man. Peyton Miller had a really nice outside of the bootball across the six for a tap in kind of ran into the cup back zone, got played in and then, you know, didn't want to use that right foot is. So he just like outside of the boot, perfect pass for an assist. He is actually good enough to be in a camp soon, like I don't know if he's necessarily ready at left back because he doesn't always play there, but bring him in and let him play there. We can give Jedi some, some, some minutes off if not the camp. That's what, that's the way I'm thinking about it. That's another example. Do you have a problem with that Vince? I mean, we don't got a wingers, bro, so I mean, the opportunity is there. Go ahead and put him on the pitch. Yeah. At attacker, yeah, I'll take it. Go ahead and put anybody there, get some people some, I'll take some speculative minutes for a random attacker for sure because we need, we need some, especially if, especially if Timway isn't hell, I guess. Yeah. Under Mauricio Pachino, you know, that stands right now. Paid Miller is, as the understudy to Jedi and let's give Jedi some time off, it's in his best interest too. We gonna play somebody left back that don't play left, I mean, he projects his left back. He has played some left back, yeah, but not, maybe not this season, I don't know. Yeah. Gozo got hurt, right? Yeah, but we have, let's call him in the camp too, he can give us a Greg Jenner's performance in against Mexico. No, he'll be, he has, he has a little hip strain, but he is expected to be available tomorrow, so it's not a, whatever you see on Fought Mob, stay calm. I'm so glad you brought up hip strains because Georena is headed to Strasbourg, what, four million dollar transfer free, so the, with plus some add-ons or something, hard to figure out this man's career at this point, I will say, but, new beginnings, here's to new beginnings, new beginnings, new beginnings, people are writing his obituary as we speak for the European journey, but let's see what happens, you know, they're praying on his downfall, aren't they? Yeah, they have been for years, and you know, we looked okay against 10 minutes for Belgium, and it was in a coincidence that it was when he came on the field. That's true. So zero shots, still, the team, yeah, there was composure on the ball. The team wasn't melting down after he came on the, it's just his presence makes a difference. Composers hail while we didn't threaten to be the force. No, that was our, that was our best, that was our best 20 minutes of the half of the game before the, before Matt Freeze just like drove a nail 17 miles into the coffin that he had assembled. Hey, man, we'll each have the composure, that was it, that was it that day, okay, all right. They're also just technically, they're the best players on the team, so it's not a coincidence. Yeah, that I have to say, I have zero expectations for this, for this move. I mean, that's the safe, that's the safe stance, for sure, I don't know, I'll tell you, Jay Arena, he's going to Strasbourg, he said 4 million, right? Strasbourg is a good team, good, I mean, I don't know, I don't know where they finished in, I don't think they finished in, I don't think they're in Europe this year, but like, as far as, they were close, me, a league on, watcher, for the, like out of the teams, basically, when one of our guys plays Strasbourg, I check it out, because obviously, they're part of Blueco, right there, Chelsea's subsidiary, whatever, there's a lot of talent that filters through, and yeah, they just have, they just put out talented teams, and you know, that's basically just one of the games when like one of our guys plays them, I'm locked into it, to see what the performance is looking like, because the talent on the pitch is absolutely there, for the most part, with this team, and it seems like, I think I saw some stuff in the discord, where like, they listed out the transfer values of each player, out of Strasbourg, it's like preferred 11, I want to say, G-O-RANN less than them, so it's looking like he's brought in to be a death piece, at least to start, we'll see how it goes, whether G-O-RANN is like a Phoenix or not, but that's for right, I mean, look, yeah, I just can't, I can't put any faith in, and this happened in bro, when I have not seen, over this period of time, him truly gave the favor of a manager once, now, yeah, which a lot of that just requires him being healthy, and he just has not, although he was, to your point, he was mostly healthy at Gladbach this spring, so he's got to figure that out, well, I mean, mostly, when Old Dew took over, when they were in the relegation zone or whatever, and the new, and the new guy took over, G-O-RANN missed like, I want to say like a month, month and a half, like, right around that period, after he was kind of gaining him some momentum, like, this is, yeah, you say, you say mostly healthy, which he was kind of mostly healthy for G-O-RANN, but it's like, you got to put these, you, we need some knocks, you know what I'm saying, we all need a month and a half out, two months out, we need a niggle, we need a knock, you know, that's what we need, that's what we need from G-O-RANN, we all need these sustained absences, bro, because for whatever reason, he seems to get, forgotten about quickly, despite all of his, um, ethereal effervescent, transcendent talent on the ball, that, that's all I'd like to tell me about. Like, I'll be honest, I don't have expectations for it either. I'm not projecting my, my pool, my lineup for this cycle with, with him turning his career around in mind, but if he does, if he does, what's going to happen? If he does, this team can't, this team can, as Mauricio said, touch the, what did he say, touch the moon? Yeah, if G-O-RANN, if G-O-RANN is even close to what we hope he can be. You got G-O out there, you got someone, you got Kevin, you got Audrey. Yeah, Pierre hand him a business in the back there with Freeman and Richards and paid Miller going up and down and, we got a dream, man, we got a dream, uh, uh, spain, the next World Cup is in Spain, Portugal and Morocco, mostly Spain and Morocco, Portugal's got two venues. And hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, we got, we got a few games in South America too for the, uh, 100th anniversary. Yeah, three token games. As of now three, so again, going back to the Johnny stuff, it is significant because if the World Cup expands, you might have more games there, you might have more groups there. It could be out of control, it could be madness. Yeah, I don't know. It, it seems as if it's cooked. As it stands right now. What do you mean? And, and like, 16 14s, 16 14. Oh, 16 14s for the World Cup is cooked. It's so stupid because that's such a better format. In terms, like, yeah, as far as like, yeah, the third place stuff was crazy. It was really quite convoluted when it really got down to business. We didn't even think about it because, you know, we, we started off in, in fantastic fashion, but you have like, countries of fans, fans of countries, you know, waiting to see if, whether or not they're sticking around, is there a place like, it was, it was so dumb. Yeah. No, I agree. I agree. And it, and it took all the, it took all the meaning out of our game against Turkey. So, um, one more thing we got to talk about is, uh, Sebastian Burhol. I guess we got to talk about Brando too. Brando had a goal and assist versus Liverpool in a friendly. Look, I'm channeling, I'm channeling Greg Velasquez here where we're not going to spend a lot of time talking about goals scored in friendly. Especially by players who are like, fully baked out the oven, you know, but anyway, he scored the goal and assist versus Liverpool. Sebastian had a positive friendly versus Espanol. When we, uh, oh, I guess we have, we mentioned it on this podcast. That Sebastian Burhol, there's that middle's bro now. I think we did with the Marcus. Now it's official. Yeah. And, and he, yeah, gone. Well, well, Max is going to, I think that's, that news has come out as well. The middle's bros. Do you think I love it? Well, take it. It's so terrible. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. I wonder how much people are going to show that video of Aiden and Sebastian doing that sparkly dance around middle's bro this season. You know, I mean, bros, it's, it's going to happen for sure. I treated this like, imagine they get promoted in the whole soccer world. See that video. But, but if, if, if middle's bro is like on there, if they're on their stuff, the, in the way they should be, like every time they get a win, you know, I'm saying, like these, these two boys just came and dominated your midfield and left with the video posted. You know, I'm saying just kind of kind of in the way that I used to use the proud and excited video. You know, that, that's middle's bros friends proud and excited. You know, so it should be spammed constantly, constantly. But yeah, middle's brop kind of Columbus crew. I sure, I'm sure the bros themselves would love that. Look, don't, don't, don't write these, these men off. I mean, Brenda, yeah, obviously, goal and assists against Liverpool. Sounds really cool in a certain year, not as cool now, maybe to fans, but, uh, uh, but yeah, even though they're, they're fully baked, they're, they're self-qualified for the World Cup. Um, these are the kind of guys you want in the squad. Fair. And, you know, I like that, some, um, I think some highlights and stuff from, uh, Seb, from Seb's play in this friendly against Espanyol. You know, you look, you look good. He looked good legitimately. Um, yeah, I've said this like, like the way he's improved, it's, it's impressive. It's just like, we can't talk about him like he's a teenager because he's not. Bro, I didn't know it, but I was like, I don't know how hard I thought he was. I didn't know he was 25. Yeah, yeah, it's, but like, but he has gotten way better fast. So, you know, Seb, so Neil Pierre one day, good on him, like him some corner. The chapeau's a mirage though. We know that now. Doesn't matter how good you look there. By the way, while we have, uh, been recording, uh, Larry Burry, it's, it's official. It's going to be the next commissioner. And, uh, shout out McGraw Hill. Got, uh, not a Houghton Mifflin guy. No, man, the Jefferson County Public Schools is McGraw Hill, brother. Okay. I've also got to report my boy, Ben Jacobs, his reporter that Alexander Cheferin, who's the president of, uh, Yueva and Nashel Kleefe, are going to meet in Salisbury, discuss a club World Cup boycott if Johnny and Fontinae remains. Uh, plus some senior officials want to abandon the FIFA president title and create a leadership team lab by a chair. I think that's a good idea. I also saw someone, someone tweeted like, it should just be like a rotating thing between confederations. But, um, I bring up the club World Cup thing to say that apparently, like there's nothing that's been agreed to between leading European clubs in FIFA so far. And the $250 million in solidarity payments to clubs that not compete in, in the last club World Cup. Uh, according to the athletic, that remains unpaid. Uh, and the formula for that hasn't even been determined. So, like, club World Cup's future, we thought that could be maybe more event, event stuff in the US, um, but that future is very much uncertain. And, um, last but not least, who knows how this affects maybe getting 2038? We all want that to come back and it's funny because according to the, the principle of rotating, um, around confidence, we were like, it wasn't, um, far-fetched at all for us to be posting again that soon. But, um, who knows what's going to happen now? Well, all we need to do is elect a president who's nice to Europeans and then will, and then everything will be better, you know? Somebody who likes, somebody who likes Europe, admires it. I think they would want some interesting food. They want, they want some more tournaments for themselves soon. Germany and we'll see who else. I thought about Germany. Yeah. I need that, Berlin. I need that. Oh, yeah. World Cup. Yeah, that'd be great. We'll grant that. Scuff. We'll grant that. Well, it'll be the German exemption. Uh, thanks everybody for listening. We appreciate you. Uh, if you want to skip all the ads, join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. You get Vince's clip notes videos, uh, any extra episodes we do, which Sanjay and I have done quite a few over the last six months. Vince too. Thank you for listening. We'll see you.