Yunus Lives: Tactical Re-Engineering, Youth Breakthroughs, and the USMNT Pipeline

Welcome to the SCUF Podcast, we talk about U.S. Soccer. Hey everybody, it is August 17th, 2026. European season is getting underway, some leagues have started, some leagues haven't. They're playing in friendlies that we will talk about. How are y'all doing? Vince, how are you? Adam Bells, I'm doing great man, getting back into the swing of things, it's been enough time from the World Cup to where I'm feeling re-energized, ready to jump back into this club season. But whatever reason the World Cup took a lot out of me, I don't know why, maybe it's just because I don't get that emotionally amped up about many things and you know, using like emotional energy for me is very finite. It's not a renewal of a resource, it's something that I kind of got to charge, it's like fossil fuels. Once we tapped out, we tapped out, it's going to take a billion years for all these human ways or whatever, the biomass to turn back into something usable for humans. Same thing for me, maybe, yeah, just going through the whole thing, the ups and downs, the good, the bad, the travel, I mean, you know, I went from low over to San Francisco and back in like 27 hours, you know, and then in the middle of that, if you listen to the call and show them real time, you know what happened also took place before and during the match against Bosnia. But you know, and all that just took a lot to recover from, took a lot to recover from but I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. I got a new basketball rim. Okay. Am I out? Okay. Portable. My wife is against an end ground for whatever reason to send about property values. I don't think that makes a lot of sense. But got a portable, I live on a cul-de-sac so it's right on the cul-de-sac, I give my shots up. Okay. Now we hooped a little bit in Amsterdam and at that point in time in Amsterdam I was like Brahms extremely washed. So getting back into it, jumpers starting to feel a little bit better every day. I tell you what wasn't washed though, that drop step of yours and just vicious, vicious drop step. So I mean, yes, yes, that's something that I'm just always going to have just because of like, yes, it's just easy, you know, you could take a few dribbles, kind of set them up, timing, et cetera, and then also, you know, the power on the turn, I got brush holders, et cetera, know how to use them, et cetera, et cetera. But, you know, back in my day, my game was based on a lot more than that and what I learned in Amsterdam was all the skills, all I have was that drop step, basically, I didn't fail. Everything else was cooked and I wasn't going super hard because I wasn't trying to like sweat in my, like, I had a long sleeve that rugby polo on and some sweatpants, you know what I'm saying? It was just a lot of fabric on my body for a large man, you know, get out there and get them moving. Don't take long for you to really drum something up, but anyway, I learned in Amsterdam that all the skill had been, I was washed in a way that I hadn't been washed in a long time on the basketball court. So I'm slowly starting to build it, build it back up and along with that, you know, I mean, shooting a basketball for me is therapy, the bouncing of the ball, you know, just kind of in tune with your body. What are you doing wrong? Well, why did I miss that shot, et cetera? And it's just brought me back to equilibrium, I guess, maybe that restores your emotional reserves a little bit too. I think so. Yeah. I think so. So yeah, I'm back, man. Let's get going. Sanjay, how are you about to start law school? Yeah, this podcast is going to be therapy for me for a long time now. I'm thinking about basketball. Basketball is actually my original love starting with the New Jersey Nets back in the day, play point card growing up. It was my number one sport. You got a nice team to like in your early years, right? That's one of the best. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My dad would get tickets to through work, so yeah, I love basketball until like late and into high school. That was my my number one sport, but yeah, I picked up a ball in a while, I'm sure I'd feel pretty washed too. But yeah, I'm missing the World Cup. I think this kind of hit me in delayed fashion, the high of covering something like that. And people told me before the World Cup, I was I was warned about this, you know, after you go home and real life just kind of sets back in that that you're going to long for it. And yeah, it's a it's a weird feeling, but I'm ready for the next one. It should feel different covering a World Cup, you know, abroad. I think that's maybe more like what the World Cup is supposed to be. And we've got an exciting one in four years time, an exciting pool to get us there. So yeah, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things, but I'm thinking about the World Cup a lot. See you in Casa Blanca. All right. Miss Moosa, it seems like he's he's going to stay at Milan and he's going to play. He survives once again, man, that's what I'm talking about, that's that's a real mentality monster. All right. Mr. You miss Moosa. You know, it's been multiple managers, multiple managers I got have gotten wooed by a man, you know, the smile, million white smile, you know, he shows those pearly whites off the ability on the ball, you know, if you imagine being a manager, you know, you take over a team and you see you and his moosa glide glide by like two people in practice. And then it like just kind of continues to be a thing over and over like who would not fall in love, you know, hopefully because you know, we've had stops and starts like the Constice out. I mean, remember the love affair that Constice out had with you miss Moosa for a solid three to four months kissing them after they, what advanced to the cup of tight fine. Oh, no, they won the super cup over in Saudi or something like that. That's kissing them on the cheek, warm and braces, all that it coincided with probably you miss Moosa's best club play that we've seen in his young career. And yeah, I that I look, I don't know much about Emmeram. Um, it seems like a lot of people are down on the man, but look, if you and you and his moosa corner, I'm in your corner. So let's wrap. Well, Emmeram came, I don't know if he came immediately from, but he was at Manchester United. So like, if you're at Manchester United, then nobody likes you anymore. That's just kind of like how it works. There's a, there's a curse that falls upon you. It was funny. After this friendly that they played against Manchester United, there was a clip of Emmeram talking to a lot of players and it seemed like they liked him. Granted, it wasn't the whole team, but that was, that was interesting to see. But yeah, Eunice went 76 minutes in this final friendly of the preseason for Milan. And we have a, a tweet from Niko Loškira, who seems to be a fairly reputable source that, uh, Milan turned down three different approaches by Seria, Super League and Premier League clubs for Eunice Moosa, was ready to stay at Milan and coach Emmeram wants to keep him. So it looks like, um, hopefully he'll be starting this Sunday at Serino in their Seria opener. Christian is still out, but, uh, yeah, definitely the most notable item of the week for me, because this, this could be a big deal in terms of constructing our midfield going, going through this cycle with someone who already has, like we talked about last week, the concaf experience. And now hopefully is going to get, uh, the trust of his manager at the position he belongs at. I trust him there too. I hope he does. I hope he's watching. I, I have a proposal for Eunice's technical development plan. You know, the, um, you know, the thing that Dortmund has, like the, the big robot where they play the ball to your feet and then the light goes on on a, like, um, mini goal. Yeah. Football not. What is it called? I think it's called the football not, something not, not come all. I, I look, I'll look it up right now. Yeah. Seven hours a day and that thing at the football now. I'm sorry. Football not. Yeah. There it is. There it is. Seven hours a day. Uh, because, because the, because what we lose the managers is his, is his, like, his ability on the ball, his ability to keep the ball. But what, what ends up, um, causing the break is that he hits a pass that goes the wrong way and, or goes, you know, isn't, doesn't have the right weight to the right foot and then it's a, it's a counterattack at a key moment and all eyes fall on Eunice. So if he could just get his passing a little cleaner, I mean, I still think he, I still think he should have been with us at the World Cup. I still think he's, uh, you know, he's probably a top 15 player for the, in the U.S. men's national team pool. But if we want him, if we want to make, leave no doubt, just get a little stronger in that area of your game. I don't even care if he scores goals. I don't even care if he gets assists or if he finishes, don't care. Just take that ball security to the next level so that when you release the ball, it's going somewhere good to the next level, man, hopefully, hopefully he can do that. And somehow, some way, I mean, like one of the players that are on the outs, um, that has led in Eunice, Musa Stang is, uh, Fofana, you know, the, the Milan six has been there for three seasons now. I want to say, I don't know if it's all on merit or whatever I, I would, I would probably guess it is not on merit. It might be like a contract thing or whatever. But yeah, like losing Wesley Fafana to this Milan team, like, that's a, that's a big deal. They got like, there's the holes to fill there. And I think Eunice will have opportunity because of those holes being created by the, by the departures or the, um, the partures that the manager wants to happen, I guess. Um, so may long continue, man, I mean, you know, there's been stops and starts, obviously, and then in the, and then in a lot of the starts, um, a lot of those minutes have been you. This was a plan winged back. So, yeah, hopefully, you got my boy in the middle. I remember him like I said, man, I'm behind you 100% of the way. This is a potential key contributor in 2030 and he's worth paying attention, worth celebrating that he is, you know, probably going to play a lot for, uh, for one of the biggest clubs in Italy. He's, he's just 23 years old, right, younger than said, by a couple of years, yeah, two years here. We're a football arts in America, by the way, you know, where's our, where's our, where's our tech excellence manifesting itself in the global game? Come on now football. Yeah, our tech excellence is manifesting itself in other ways, uh, speaking of Dortmund, how is, uh, how, what do you, what do you, how you feeling about Matisse Albert Sanjay? Yeah. So he, he played the last 30 minutes with a friend Liggins Roma on Saturday. I don't think he's ready, uh, for this first half of the campaign, like I've said before, I think this, this is probably a winter, you know, Marbella, uh, breakthrough or, or next year's preseason, um, Dortmund are also bringing in another attacker, um, from Greece, the wing or a winger attacking midfielder looks like, uh, Janis Constanteles, I think I'm saying that right. Okay. So he's an attacker and, um, yeah, like, what, what, why do you feel like he's not ready? He's, it's not that he, like, he, he's clearly talented and, and he's composed, but, um, I don't see the separation, the burst, the impactfulness, um, coming from him in, in a way that, you know, reminds me of, like, I don't think, like, I'm just comparing it to Christian and Gio to be honest, not necessarily what they're squatting to offer. And, and to me, like, he's, he's not at that, that point. It was Christian, to be fair, even really almost Christian, it wasn't like every time he played, he was having an impact. There were games where, yeah, he looked like, he looked like more of a kid, um, but, yeah, I mean, the potential impact was obvious though. Yes. Yeah. And with Matisse, it still looks like a player from the U23s, you know, finding this way. He has, he definitely, he's gone stronger, um, but, you know, in terms of the quickness speed, I think we're, we still got to wait a little bit for him to, to level up. Well, I think that's a thing though, it's like, because, because I watched, I watched his minutes in this match and I thought he, I thought he looked all right, you know, as far as like, but I think it's a profile thing, basically, where it's like, you know, you got a young kid and it's like, like, like Christian, for instance, it's like you put this young kid on. This young kid is just like, he doesn't know what he's doing necessarily, but he's just dynamite. You know, you throw him out on, you, you just throw that man out there on that pitch. And you know, he has a potential to make something happen, uh, Matisse's game is a little bit different in that, you know, he operates in the inside a lot more and it requires just a lot more, um, a lot more culture than, than I guess like where Christian, policy might have been just a blunt force object at the point in time, especially when he, when he had the juice to just get going on that wing, uh, where Matisse is just like his game is like receiving the ball in tight spaces, kind of turning, making things happen in, in a round of 014 kind of thing. And like he was able to kind of apply his tools kind of well in this match against Roma, but I guess I can see where, where Sanjay's coming from just because like I said, like if you're not, if you're not a Giovanni Reina trying to do these, he's trying to do Giovanni Reina things. He's not Giovanni yet kind of, you know, he has a little bit more juice off the dribble. I would say he is more of a, more of a winger as opposed to like an attack and midfielder, um, or an, or an eight or something like that, but he's operating in those same spaces kind of. And I've yet to see some like real ingenuity or like, like graduate level thinking from him. Yeah. I mean, but obviously this man is what 1617. So it is coming. But like yeah, the on ramp for him to get minutes at a club like Dortmund playing the way that he plays. It's just, there's just a, I think a, maybe a higher degree of difficulty. Then I would say definitely a higher degree of difficulty because he's relying on his like technical tools, um, a lot more than somebody who's just a supremely physically gifted would be. So yeah, just, I think it's going to require just just a little bit more time. I think he looks, I think he looks all right though. I think it looks too things. One, there's always going to be competition at Dortmund. They're always bringing in young players. There's always going to be that battle. Two, if there's a place where he's going to get play, get to play, even if he's not completely ready, it is Dortmund. So yeah. So to Vince's point, he is like more of a winger, but even when he's in more space, he's not, like, it's not close to what we see him doing at the youth level, right? Where you do see some of that dynamite. I still think, even though he's stronger and he's quick enough, and it's not that he's not fast, but there's still a bit of a lag here where we're waiting to see him do stuff against adults. And that's fine. That is totally fun. Okay. Peppy scored. Death's assisted him. It's a nice, uh, it's a nice ball across that kind of arcs from wide down to Peppy's feet. It takes it first time with his left foot, just, um, dumps it home. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Look, man, I mean, yeah, I guess that's all we can take from this. I mean, who they play? Excelsior? Excelsior. Yeah. Stanley and then boys. So, you know, they're back at it again. The air to busy campaign. Really the only thing I can take, if Rico stays healthy, I just need to get reps. Stay healthy. Get reps. He can cause bells. You're looking at me. You look and I know the feeling might be this whole air to busy season might be a waste for both surge and Rico and maybe it is, but I don't, I don't say that. I'm not saying that. It's a waste or anything. What is it? What does it prove? Well, I'm gonna tell you because, you know, we sat here week after week, lamenting, uh, recos ability, like his hold up play, all different types of things that we saw in the air to busy season last season. If he stays healthy this year, shows me some, shows some improvement in that, you know, because these are, these are things that popped up in the air to busy. It wasn't like he was just untouchable in the league and then also scoring in champions like all that different type of stuff. So he hasn't, he hasn't, he hasn't mastered the level yet. I guess I'd say. So if he can stay healthy this season, eat up 3,000 minutes as striker score 35 goals, you know, playing for PSV. I mean, that's something that you can do, especially if you play in 3,000 minutes at the nine for PSV, um, and show improvement in this hold up play. I mean, that, that would be, that would be great. You know, so yes, it's ho hum on the goal thing, Rico, he going, he going to score goals. We notice we saw it in person in on hoven ourselves, um, Adam Bells, but, um, yeah, there, there's, there's still something to prove for him there. So Genio, maybe, maybe not, um, especially because like maybe if he was just playing straight winger and we know, podge using my winger, like maybe we could see some improvement for him there. It's like, it's just, but that's not the case. We don't get a serginio that we're used to getting and, uh, it's, I, I like the serginio that we're used to getting. I don't, I don't have any, um, I'm fine with him. Yeah, I think we were all just waiting for hoping for a move, right? There was the buy and rumor at the start of the summer with Serge and then peppy, obviously, you know, what happened with, uh, the Premier League interest, um, yeah, the, and to that Poisson, Jay, I'd rather him be here than the, than the Premier League. Yeah, right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And also, you know, champion league is a nice carrot for us to keep what we'll watch them live in those games. The rest of it might be, uh, I'd be, but might be another wise guy out here. Okay. Um, Georena. Excelsior. Uh, Georena is at Strasbourg now as you may already know. Uh, went 45 and a friendly versus Newcastle on Sunday, uh, got an assist. Hmm. The, let me describe the assist because it was, um, it was kind of funny. The, there was a cut back from the left side. It was behind Geo. He did the Geo hands. He did demonstrate with his arms to indicate his displeasure with the placement of the past. And he was just standing there, which I'm not a big fan of. And, uh, his teammate rushes in and presses a guy on the ball from behind Geo also once he sees that the guys in trouble, Geo jumps in, pokes the ball away and then plays a really nicely weighted pass into the path of the guy who pressed him, uh, back across the, like towards the other side of the, uh, of the field. But like just a three or four yard pass, nice weight on it. The guy rifles it in the top right corner and so it's up as a one one draw in the game. So a nice pass, uh, but, uh, let's see some mentality issues already wearing their head. It's crossbow here. Like, come on, brother. You can't be acting like that. You know, if, if the man, if the man who scored a goal did not press to get that ball back, Geo wouldn't have done it. Anything. It wouldn't, that's what happened. That wouldn't have been a play. It wouldn't have been a assist for Geo Raina, nothing. You make your own look. Yeah. The guy who scored made the look. He didn't make the look. I'll give Geo some credit. He did hop in. Well, once again, to the analogy I made back in the world cup, you know, I'm saying he not going to get the party started. He's not as good. That is a good way to put it. Yeah. Party parties going. Brought on Preston. Here comes Geo with the 30 rack. He's like, I'm a clean up. I'm a clean up. I do. Is somebody called me FaceTime me from the party. I assess the situation. I saw I was lit. It looks good. I'll be there. Here I am. Geo Raina. I'm pulling up. I'm pulling up, bro. So, I mean, yeah. Yeah. We need people who, you know, to just, just, uh, in a very messy way, paraphrase Michael Irvin. We need people who are going to get the party started. You know, when you're everybody out there getting the party started. And you can't feel the temperature in the room, bro. Right. It must be that the mountain. He felt the temperature. He's like, oh, yeah. But don't say you need to get on FaceTime to see what the party looks like. He was, he was more active than I thought he'd be. But he looked active as like someone who hasn't been playing regularly for a long time. You know what I mean? Like, they're, they're some moments where he got lost in the, in the shuffle a bit. But, but he was, he was in there banging around. Okay. Yeah. I mean, he did. Okay. You know, like past, past this play, which, you know, isn't assist. I guess I'm not going to come down on them too hard or something, or something like that, you know, just to keep people off my back. But, you know, he's kind of playing a 10 attacking midfielder for a straw sport in these minutes that I saw. And there were just multiple times where he's receiving, he's receiving the ball in a half space between midfield and defensive lines. And he's just not getting the cracking in the way that I, that I want him to. You know, that it's like that patented geo thing where he like receives the ball there. And then he'll kind of just not pat, and he won't pass the ball back, but he'll like dribble back. So, like, basically, you know, we broke a line. You know, we passed the midfield line to get the ball to you, but then you kind of take it out and, and let the midfield line like set by, and now the midfield line is in between you and the goal again, because you just, you know what I'm saying? It's just, I don't, I don't want to see that, man. You know, and like I said, I agree with you all, when we talk about geo and his ability on the ball and all those different types of things, I, I see it too. I would just like for him to use it consistently. You, you got to press it, you got to press the advantages, man. You know what I'm saying? Well, send that man some Kevin Sullivan tape. I was just going to make that comparison. It's like, he's leaving so much on the table, geo is, despite his, like, unquestioned quality, but one person who's not leaving anything on the table, Kevin Sullivan, man, we'll get there. No, we're getting there right now. Well, one thing on geo. Get all these other guys. Let's let geo, let's let geo get some more fitness under him, uh, league opener on Friday. There's Tim Wei and Marseille. Uh, I'll be watching him closely, um, you know, a lot of people have written his obituary, but this is a new chapter. That's great. No one's coming. Okay. Well, yeah, I'll be reading the chapter too, um, but Philly's one four straight Philly Union, uh, in the MLS, in MLS, uh, and in, and Kevin is the most, he's the most influential player on the field for them, two assists and three goals, second half as they came back from two zero down at NYCFC. So this is like difference making performance again, not perfect. It's not perfect. There's a lot of messiness out there, but man, he is, he is pressing the issue every chance he gets. We talked about this last week. He, he's relentless. He's coming at you. He receives in the half turn. He is not going to dribble backwards and try to do nothing. He's going to try to do something every time he gets on the ball. He's a mentality monster at 16. Yep. Yeah, great come back, great come back one for Philly at, uh, I, I can't wait to start watching games and you say, I'm just ridiculous, but that is a crazy feel like, it's like, I mean, you know, I have my experience watching soccer and baseball stadiums, um, that's where my first soccer game in person was watched at a baseball stadium, um, low of a city, um, but yeah, I mean, like, how narrow the field is and like, like, it's just, it's, it's just not suitable. It's not suitable for the beautiful game man. And Kevin doesn't care. He says, I'm going to, I'm going to come on this terrible field and I'm going to dominate it. There's, uh, yeah, their new stadium is going to go crazy. I can't wait for the national team to have games there. But, um, yes, he'll use on a role in MLS with, uh, a young American head coach playing the kids. Ryan Rector, we love that. This is what Ryan Rector said at halftime or what he said about halftime, um, when they were down to the last night, he said about Kevin, he's one of the guys at halftime that I really challenged. And for a young man, the fact that he can accept this in the moment, take it and then put together what he did in the second half and then have the unselfish play on Bruno's first goal. Um, that's what makes him different is this mentality and maturity. So he's taking a step. He's clearly taking a step, not just, you know, with what we see, um, with the ball at his feet, but in every possible way, defensively too, um, we'll keep talking about him. He's in the, uh, must call up category, in my opinion, along with, we'll get to him out of here. But, uh, yeah, I mean, when you look at the way the Belgium game went and, and who we brought off the, off the bench, there's no reason to keep this guy out of the senior team camp. Anyway. Samia, must call him up, must call him up, I'm tired of, you know, no more messing around. This is where the, uh, the MLS hype machine, the MLS people and, and the Euro snobs, you know, this is where the proxy wars end, cabin puts the, puts the, puts the guns down, like Michael Jackson and that, and that little clutch, you know, tie them up. Yeah, of course, which, which I said, I mean, and also the, the, the, the blood and the crib with the, with the flag, the hand, and the band, that is up, but, um, this particular situation can only happen with somebody under 20, you know, like once you, 21 and above, if you coming from MLS, opinion is going to be split rather, opinion is going to be split regardless, but we all know, um, where Kevin's career is headed, who is signed to already all the different types of stuff. So it satisfies everybody on that front. But yeah, I, I think I'm along with y'all, man, like, like no to a, to a Neil Pierre, I'm sorry. Like, but right now, hey, come on, even though, look, look, the potential is, the potential is amazing, with Neil, um, like that's somebody like as soon as he touches down, I think, he's going to give us something on the business handle in front that, um, I think we just don't have, but, you know, people keep telling me he's like this, uh, that he is a good passer and that he's shown it in like his youth days or whatever, but right now it is atrocious. But anyway, I'm down with Kevin, I'm down with Audrey, uh, with without a doubt, you know, watching these dudes, especially Audrey, like every week is just like, come on, bro, this dude would get there on merit. If he was one of those, uh, 20 and up in my lessons, should we talk with Audrey? Before we talk, I just want to ask a, uh, uh, theoretical question, uh, which of our 20-something national team players could beat up Kevin Sullivan in a, like, in a fist fight? Hmm. I, he would whoop Christian Pulisick's ass, you know, no doubt about it. Ah, man, come on. And Brandon Aronson and Brandon is, I mean, he beat him up both at the same time. I mean, he is, he is still, he's about to be 17, he's 16. To your point though, like, he's been playing, he played with his older brothers, uh, his whole life, like not just on organized soccer, like, um, his older twin brothers, Ronan and Declan, like, he's been around older guys' whole life being scrappy. So he's got a different edge to him that, again, he's not the pretty boy, like, marketing, fit face to the campaign, like, he, he has, um, an intensity to him that I think is, is national team ready? I'm gonna keep going with this even, even though, and perhaps because you guys are uncomfortable about it. Go ahead. Uh, uh, so forget the defenders, like, cause I don't, he's not gonna, he's, Kevin can't handle it any of the defenders, except for maybe Sergei, I mean, Sergei, you know, he would, he would whoop. No, we see Sergei now give a two-piece to, to, to a Mexican national team player, you know, I'm saying, I mean, come on, man, he's got, he's got an edge, yeah, he punts the ball in the stands every now and then, a little bit respect, also, you know, okay, maybe, I mean, that'd be a good one. That'd be a good battle. But, uh, Wes, Wes would take care of Kevin, easy. Tyler? Yes. No, come on, come on, come on, man. Tyler has? Yes. Come on, man. I, I, I would like to see a Kevin, Tana Tess, me, I like to see Kevin, Russ Tana Tess, but I would, I would take that, I would take that, that would be interesting. Um, the Balgan would, would annihilate Kevin, for sure. Yeah, I don't know where, I don't know where Alejandro's and Dejas. Okay, that's easy. I mean, come on. Yeah. I mean, the Dejas is in the, the crucible of, uh, Met, Met, Mexican, of Liga, Meki, look, I, I know where you're going with this, but I think it's more like, Kevin would just, like, fit in and, and be scrappy and like, hold his own, I don't know if he's whooping anyone yet. I remember as a press corps. I mean, Russ Ryan told me, what are we taking? Ryan, Ryan's really nice guy, but when he's under, he can't, Kevin's still 16 years old. What? It's not enough for him. No, he's like really, but he's very, very physical and, um, you know, it's like an action boss. Yeah. No matter. Um, okay. And for people that, they don't know that once a more background on Kevin and maybe have been holding off on the hype trainer, whatever, um, just watch the MLS doc on Apple TV. I think it's like episode three, I want to say, it's the, you see the episode two or three where they really profile Kevin and his dad, mom, whole family, like it, like it starts off with, I think Kevin needed help with this very easy homework, uh, that, that Quinn Sullivan, I think it's up, helping them with, uh, but it goes, it goes through everything and, you know, I can only hope that this comes to fruition. That the next airborne 69 is, is Papa Sullivan, Brandon Sullivan, but if, if he decides to document, you know, different things on social media, I don't know if he will, but like, you can watch the doc. The man is electric. Really? Electric, bro. I'm telling you. I watch the doc, bro. You, you just got. I don't know. I don't know if he has time for social media. He's, he's all business, uh, you know, he's a teacher. He's coaching too. Uh, but yeah, great, great people, but super educated people was what I remembered. What stood out to me? You, you understand the cabin mentality once you watch that episode basically, like, well, you're not going to catch Kevin dance into a Taylor Swift song on TikTok. No, I come on. Come on. Um, so you can beat up eight and more? I'll, I don't know. Aiden's pretty tough. Yeah. I would, but, um, but we do have to move on to Sebastian Burr-Hotter. So what's up with him went 90 against a newly promoted Lincoln city, uh, Lincoln city. Mm-hmm. For a middle's bro, um, you know, he played well. I mean, he kept things taken. I think he's mostly the Aiden Morris is out right now. Has an injury. I don't know when he's expected to be back, but he's mostly, he was doing the Aiden Morris thing kind of facilitating possession. I mean, you know, this is a newly promoted side from league one. Uh, they had them boys packed in to, uh, to their own defensive third for, you know, 90% of the match. So, um, Seb was just kind of having the jolly up. Well, we'll check in later when he gets some, you get some real comp, you know, when he sees Ryan Reynolds and them boys, uh, we'll, we'll check back in, but this was a, this was a good start. Good start for Seb. Rexham. That's Rexham for all of you who don't know what he's talking about, Ryan Reynolds and them boys. That's Rexham. But, uh, are you subbed into this one too? It's not forget about him half an hour, roughly. Okay. Brenda and Leeds, they, uh, uh, whooped on Noke and Augsburg for zero on Saturday. They both started. Yeah. Um, Brenda got an assist, um, kind of a simple, uh, transition moment. For Leeds, uh, Brenda receives a ball left side of the box, just kind of turns and passes a square to his Leeds teammate, teammate who thumps it home. Uh, so good for, I mean, look, Brenda was out of good preseason. Yeah. Goals and assists everywhere. Great goal, First Man United earlier this week. Yeah. So, if he, if he can keep it, if he can keep it going, that'd be great. And like, you know, maybe just maybe. Brenda was just like, because, you know, we're so obsessed in the soccer world with youth and potential and whatever, like, you know, maybe Brenda was just taking a very traditional path to being a professional soccer player, you know, it's like, you know, he hits his prime years and maybe in his prime years, we're seeing something, you know, maybe it gets us a little nine goals, six assists, you know, he's definitely going to be a useful player in this, in this cycle. All this experience has to mean something. I think I agree with that. One thing on a, on Noki, look, I know we're desperate for centerbacks. And he obviously technically has, um, there's a nice foundation there and he has physical tools. But, uh, we got to be realistic. Like, he's not going to come in and like be the savior, especially defensively. I mean, that's putting it lightly, Brenda. This man is Mark McKinsey light right now, bro. I mean, respectfully. Damn. I mean, he's at the scene. He's at the scene of the crime of almost every goal of these scores in this match. We got to pump the brakes. He still loves like, just fly out of position. Yeah. He's very eager to hunt the ball. Like, again, he has all the tools and, and on the ball, it looks nice. But, you know, like we talked about, you know, like bells, like you talked about with Bob Bradley having business handlers, guys like, you know, Jay Demerick, Guch, maybe aren't the sexiest ball playing centerbacks, but do the job defensively. No key is not close to that. And for that reason, I think I'll end up with us sooner rather than later because I don't think he's going to snip the German team. Like, bro, come on. You, you look at it anytime soon, at least. And then you look at Noah Cobbanks, like, come on, man, bro, you're not, you're not getting a diamond shopped call up, bro, they're doing what you're doing now, which is very nasty. Well, and look, and this is the thing about it, let me, let me put you on to something I like to call responsible wise, okay, when you watch in a defender, you watch the actions, but then you also got to watch the other team shots or goals, okay, in the, in this match leads have four goals. So I was like, let me just go ahead and watch the goals. And that's where it, that's where it shows up that that's because on a per action basis, I was looking at that. I was like, you know, no, he actually handled his business, all right, with this match aside from the first goal, where like the Brindow assists where he was kind of, didn't know whether to get pressure to Brindow or to, he was just kind of stuck into mines, get pressure to Brindow or get to the person who Brindow passed the ball to, which, no, he didn't, no, he didn't either, didn't either, but so I didn't see the other three goals on the, all actions playlists or whatever. And I look at the goals, I'm like, oh, man, come on. This is, because the coding of actions doesn't, it doesn't account for when you just don't follow an assignment or like below an assignment or if you're standing next to somebody and they get played in on goal, that's just not going to show up. So you got to make sure, you got to make sure you hop in on them, on them goals and or shots. But yeah, man, I think the second goal he was following, I think his name was Justin James, James Justin, so he was, he like kind of passed the ball, came inside and got a return pass on the, on the one, two, he's in on goals, got free goal, that was no, he's man. The other one, it was him standing next to his middle center back and there's an attacker right in between the two of them. I don't know whose man it really should have been, but he gets played in on goal scores like very, just straight through the middle, no resistance from the, on the Augsburg back line, another Lee's goal. So it's, we're dealing with the same things from last season, unfortunately. Yeah. And hopefully, you know, he gets a full season starting and can iron out some of these things. But you, you, you need more maturity at center back and so you can avoid center backs and goals. Let's not forget to mention the Celtic tandem of trustee and CCV, trustee got a goal in a cup win and good to see CCV back out there too. So yeah, I think, you know, in terms of the games this fall, I'm talking mainly about trustee here. I think that's someone you give a run of games sooner rather than expecting no key to come in and save the day. I think trustee and Chris, you know, that's a, that's a partnership I like to see. That's fair. We can talk about trustee. The CCV is like, you know, if, if the man with the plan knows anybody, he knows they're part of it. Exactly. And the fact that he hasn't been around, let, let's me know that we probably don't need to talk about. I mean, it was injury for a long time, but that injury doesn't, doesn't help his case. Uh, turns out we're in terror. I was shaking my head, but not because of trustee or CCV. I was just thinking about the center back picture in general and it's nasty. Yeah, I'm hoping, hoping Neil Pierre starts passing the ball crisply. Look, I mean, the defensive stuff is good, man, it's good. So I mean, you know, and, and no key, I'm not personally, I know you guys aren't either, but I just want to be clear. I'm not giving up on no key, like he's, he's 20 and it's center back is a position that typically takes a little more time to, to, to bake. So, so to, so to strike her and like, I think a while ago, I drew the analogy between no key and, and ballo in terms of positional scarcity and what they could do for the team. And I'm just, I think Vincent are on the same page. You're like, don't expect him to come in and have like a ballo level impact anytime soon on, on, on this team. And, and, and really not, I sit here and think about it. I mean, when did Chris start to get, when did Chris start getting first seed minutes in the Bundesliga? Yeah, even Chris, I mean, he got him, he got him early, like with Hoffenheim, right, when he was like on that loan, like he got him, but it's even between that and when he was like an established trusted player from the national team, there was, there was a bit of a lag. Chris was definitely good enough early on. So, yeah, it's the same thing with no key, like it's going to take some time. I, I think Chris was playing at a higher level in the Bundesliga. Sooner than no key was. Right, right, that, that's the point I wanted to make. I think at the same age, I think I would take Chris at this point. Definitely. Okay, Johnny Cardoso versus Tim Wea and another friendly. This one was on Friday. Obviously, Adleti versus Marseille way, way I started and went 87 minutes. Johnny went 56 for Adleti. Yeah. So just a pronunciation, just a pronunciation note, it's, uh, it's at let it, at let it go Madrid, no age, athletic bill, bow. That's right. Okay. Go ahead, Sanjay. Look at bills here. Now, not much to add on this, uh, good to see Johnny fit. Um, had a lolligo opener on Wednesday against Malaga. Tim Weiss was playing some right back in this game, not some right back. He, he was right back and, uh, he is right. He is a right back, I guess. Yeah. So yeah, Johnny, again, like Eunice, um, it was really a shame with Johnny because we thought he'd be there this summer, especially after the performance he had. And that first friendly in March, we were excited about him. So hopefully he can pick up where he left off and, uh, really establish himself. I've been thinking the more I watch him play, I'm getting excited about the possibility of him playing with Audrey. If it's a double pivot, um, I'd like to think they can compliment each other pretty well, but, but, uh, we shall see. Yeah, where was the captain in this game? That's right. Captain the side captain, Marse, which, you know, when you see things like this, it might, it might give you, you might feel immense pride. You might feel like George Wale proud and excited to watch his son, Captain Marse. Um, but so he wore the arm band, um, their usual captain, Captain, uh, Oyberg. He has like two first names or something. Yeah, he peered and that was it. Oyberg, you know what I'm talking about, former Tottenham man. Tottenham, yeah, what Southampton man, et cetera, um, captain, he was taken away from him and it was because he has turned down, he's turned down at a transfer to Newcastle, uh, for 15 million. And so Marseys, uh, Marseys owner is kind of retaliating at him by stripping him of the captaincy and then, uh, Bruno Genicio, Marse, manager had this to say about him way, he can be a captain way a captain. It's a decision that comes from management. If I'm being honest, it's not a decision I agree with, but I'm just an employee. I, I, I, I, I, I never seen a reluctant ass arm band given to somebody, um, but there it is. There it is, man. That's funny. The, the, I'm just an employee like, yeah, I got, you know, you say what you got to say. Um, well, we're real quick, real quick, uh, I just want to shout out Timo. He had a, he had a very nice, he received the ball at like the right back position. They're, you know, and build out where a right back would usually be. Receives it, comes inside drives through the entirety of the athletic defense and plays a one, two with is a blast from the past right here. Fellas, Mr. Amin, how do you? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He, um, he was gone. He's been a Marseille player, but he was on loan in Turkey last season. I think he's, he's back this season. So, uh, one, two with Mr. Herde, uh, Tim gets the ball back. He's now on the left side of the left side of the box driving towards goal. Takes a, takes a left footed shot. Um, it goes, it goes wide of the goal, but it was nice though. It was a nice play. There was a lot of other. Timway, it was even the ball on the right and pumping crosses in. It didn't amount to much with that play. That play was nice. Hoping to get his mojo back at the potch because that, that Turkey game hurt my heart. Yeah. But yeah, while we're, it's been a league, uh, we got Testman and Leon. Um, so he was back at center mid in the win over Sparta Prague last week to advance. Big win, big win for Leon. Yes. So now they got Fenerbahce coming up, uh, first like it's tomorrow in Istanbul, three o'clock Eastern. So it looks like the center act thing might not stick. Maybe he'll deputize here and there for them, but he's a center midfielder. Um, that's right. Um, and they were, they were up a man for like most of, most of that match against, uh, Slavia Prague, which they, you know, um, so I mean, Tener, Tener did all right. I'm, I'm looking at Fenerbahce just to see because I know Turkey's been spending some money lately. Uh, ooh, they got a, I mean, those big ones, the big clubs in Istanbul, they're no strangers to spend it on. Oh, bro, they got, uh, so see, I remember our turquoise from a turkey when we played them in New York. Yeah. Biggie scored. Um, Marco, a senseo, Mason Greenwood, Matteo, Gwendoosi and Golo Conte that they got Scrinny are at center back. They got Nathan, okay, a center back. Hey, man, I think that's a good team. Dad, Nelson, tomato, I mean, like all these dudes, like, some of these dudes are getting up there. Yeah, like, uh, the last three or four I mentioned are all over 30, but Hey, that's a team that I could win the European championship on penalties, every single knockout game, you know. Hey, man, that's just like Portuguese. Leon got the, it's not going to be a walk in the park, I guess I'm saying, and especially, I mean, you already know what's going on when you got to go to Turkey, um, for, for a big match like this. So I'm, I'm, I'm locked in, I'm locked in. Hopefully we get Davos when he go in live from the persona. That'd be awesome. All right, Alex Freeman's not playing. We're not playing again. No, he's in the same, same situation that we left him in last season, you know, I think the man's name is merino. I want to say the right back in front of him. He didn't go anywhere. Um, he was playing in front of him last season, and he started off the season playing in front of him once again. Now, I mean, I didn't watch the minutes of Alex Freeman did not play, but they gave up two goals to racing Santander in the first half of this match. I'm wondering if Mr. Marine, you got some, uh, you got some egg on a shirt. I don't know. We're not worried. We're not worried. Hopefully, yeah. Hope to hope. Speaking of egg on the shirt, um, you know, real quick, before we go any further, that's one of the phenomenon in sport that nobody really wants to talk about. But we all accepted as being, uh, you know, we know it's there. You know, when you sit behind somebody, Hey, you praying on their downfall. Hey, look, you don't want nobody to get injured. But if they happen to get injured, that's not a solid thing. Yeah. Also, cheering for him to play, to play like ass, you know what I'm saying? It's a, it's a weird situation to be. You don't hear anybody talk about it that much, really. Uh, and I feel like, especially with how cut throw soccer is, I feel like we need to give more players on the record. Speaking about what they maybe did or did not do to get their spy bag. Yeah, be fun to find the one or two people who would tell the truth about that. I mean, you know, you talk, we talked about our, uh, MLS owner blackmail, uh, plan. I mean, you, if you in that situation, bro, I would, I would exhaust all, all avenues, bro. Well, there's the, I don't know how much people will do to make stuff happen, but it's like that. Emotional part, like, yeah, they tell the media, oh, like, you know, it's a competition. We're all going to do our best, but it's like you are quietly emotionally, like, you know, rooting for the downfall. So, look, if, if you and your team aren't putting in every effort to get on that pitch, look, maybe you pick up some ladies at a night and, and, and, and make sure that you don't laugh at the craft magic. You know, I'm saying, I mean, look, man, I don't know. Yeah, all right, agon, we were going to say something about somebody else with the egg on their shirt. Sort of, yeah, I mean, we can get into the transfer stuff and transition into that, uh, Malik, Malik, he played, he did play 70 minutes in a friendly versus Newcastle on Saturday. But, um, according to our flat, our friend, our friend, Florian, Plattenberg, um, levercruz in her open of selling him for an exceptional offer. Uh, Plattenberg said Malik is now wanting to watch until a deadline day, uh, his, you know, it's his release club release clause last summer was 35 million euros, um, which levercruz in activated. So, yeah, we had, we covered, you know, this, uh, little drama, um, with his comments about, maybe a perceived lack of support from the club. So, um, let's see what happens. I have, I feel like he'll stay. I kind of hope he stays, but, um, this is a funny situation, honestly. I mean, it's, it's possible somebody comes up with an exceptional offer. Maybe, you know, they, I mean, we see this all the time with somebody balls out of the World Cup. Yeah. And they go somewhere based entirely off their performance at the World Cup, you know, too. So, uh, because, because you would not be buying them for performances, I've levercruz so far. Unfortunately, that's true. But, um, except for, yeah, a couple of good games and champs. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's some good games here. But, uh, I'm not worried about Malik. He's going to be fine wherever he is, I think. And he, he, he played well in this friendly. Okay. Uh, Ballow still at, he's still at Monaco, but there's what Tottenham still in the, in the hunt. Yeah, nothing super new on this front last few days. But, um, the noise out of France still suggests, you know, Tottenham would be the, the likely cedar. But, but again, nothing is close to concrete. Um, we've got, Prime interest from Joe Scally, for Joe Scally too, allegedly, uh, supposedly it's, it's full of them in Bournemouth, in England. And, um, maybe Marseille too. There's interest from there, according to Sky Sports, Germany, um, and other outlets there. So, yeah, it sounds like he, like, might not be, yeah, I mean, it might be contingent on, on that. But so, so Tim, like he, he would link to Sunderland before, like that interest goes back to before the World Cup, I think. Um, but it, you know, there's, that's resurfaced recently, and who knows if there's anything to Sunderland, specifically. But it doesn't sound like Tim's ready to leave. Um, would you want to leave the French Riviera to go to Sunderland? Yeah, I was about to say it, like, especially Tim Lea, um, I think he'd rather do a lot of things and be in the North, England. Yeah, with, with Scally, the, the rumors are that, um, he might not, like, be in the plans. But also, like, if he stays there, is he, like, not going to play out of a hard time seeing that happens? So, so yeah, just, I'm going to keep an eye on it. We are still waiting for Gozo to be announced as well, uh, I'm assuming that's, that's work permit related or something, but, um, see what happens. Okay, let's talk about Audrey and Justin Ellis, and then, uh, you know, get out of here. Yeah. What, what do you guys see him from Audrey? You were, you've been impressed with him really a lot too, Vince. I mean, of course, I mean, I'm impressed every time I watch the man play, you know, it's just, uh, the consistency in his performance, it's just like, at this point, you, you would think he'd be telling, oh, for something, bro, you know, I, I don't know, I don't know how many minutes he's played at this point, but it has to be, and it may be. The break in the middle helps, it probably did help quite a bit for Audrey, you know, being, being as young as he is, first professional season, first, first team, professional season, getting all these minutes in his legs, et cetera, but, uh, yeah, it's like every time you see him, he's providing the, he's providing that same quality on the ball, there's just, there's just no drop off. And then in this match, you know, I'm saying you see him, you see him get a, wasn't it? Isn't an assist? He can assist. Yeah, it's a, to Forrestburg. Yeah, I love it. Like the ball through those played across them, but, hall, hall played it to him. It was a nice pass. And then he slipped it into Forrestburg. Yeah. And it's just, um, it's the Audrey remedy that we've come to know and love. It's like nothing more than is necessary. Ball comes to him, receives it on his right foot, and then boom through with his left foot, like nothing extra whatsoever. Like the, the set that he made with his right foot is perfect for his left foot to just come swipe right through. He does us all bang bang and quick succession. You know, it's When you see it's, it's like when you see Somebody doing something like this, right? It's like the hard things made extremely simple and Audrey at this age is able to make Things that a lot of players in our player pool struggle with just seem Increasingly, they're just simple as hell. Yeah, Audrey's just out strolling with his dad in the backyard or something Playing one V1. That's how it looks like on an MLS pitch, man. That's just And it's worth, it's worth like emphasizing. It's not just him coming deep and like collecting the ball from the center backs, right? Under like no pressure like he's getting the ball higher up and doing stuff and that makes you think about Talk before about the double pivot if you know, you need to play him with the It's called a bodyguard And that ends up pushing Audrey higher at times because right now they play single pivot right just play through him. He's deeper Initiates everything, but um You know finds himself higher up He's playing so he plays in passes in this game I watched I tried to watch games in Spanish and the Spanish play by playing. I was losing it Every time we tried to pass the ball. He was losing it like he played like an or he played an ordinary pass Relatively ordinary pass that wouldn't come off and the commentator was just like excited and you know that's the kind of That's the kind of player Roger Medi is so um, yeah, man Cuz cuz there was to your point. There was a second pass. I mean it was more than this There's another pass. He plays to for his word for yes, yes, we're ready. Yeah First touch let him down, but yeah, that was the one. That was yeah, bro It's like this is nasty man. This is not just ball progression like like you said not just ball progression from neat We've seen this multiple times now to where we can know that this is a part of this man's toolkit Like in the final third he got juice to it don't just show up In his defensive half of the field or whatever like him And he's not just popping up in between the centerbacks making easy passes sideways backwards. Yeah, no bro. This dude He's a real deal bro. He played if he played a few that it wasn't just on the deck He clipped some like little diagonal balls into Over their back line. There was like a very narrow margin to do it And he put it pretty much in the right spot and the rebels couldn't get on the end of it But they dominated the first half and a lot of it was was what he was doing Um Still weighing whether he wants to play for Albania or the United States and come on me reportedly. I think we got him I'm confident about Hall too though. There was a quote from Hall recently about you know how he's Could go other way kind of thing. Yeah, even it's it's it's a it's a it's a dead heat between Poland and the United States of America for Well one thing about hall getting the call up like The rebels played Mia here Mena's got to start again at center forward um And I don't know if that'll continue, but you know hall has started nominally wide left um Last couple games and I asked my go Bradley about this and He basically said like regardless of where he's starting He still gives him a lot and he'll find his way into good scoring situations Which is true and I get that if you're coaching the rebels You want to try things that make sense for the whole team, but um if hall like We need to see hall continue to start as a center forward. In my opinion I grew the Marcus Marcus's you know said he could project to be like a Balligan type center forward in terms of his movements, you know Dynamic former winger moving out in I like that. I also just think like he's probably not good enough To be a winger Um at a high level in Europe or for the national team like I like I don't know if he can be that I'm kind of skeptical So um, I'd like to see him be that center forward Hopefully he gets back to Getting minutes there from the start soon, but uh speaking of center forwards I think you know just an Alice might have the uh The inside track on on a on a cam call up right now if you get to compare him to hall Mmm I was gonna say about hall See you in crack-out I mean come on man Come on man, what are we talking about Ellis and then well real quick real quick before we get out there's Albania us thing only thing Albania got Is do a leeper and Audrey Mimetti said he don't listen music all right No music zero music said he's not a music guy uh, you know Now now maybe he's a beautiful woman So so do a leeper reached out maybe that is still a deal Albania apparently is on the come-up as a tourist destination Everyone knows about Croatia and other parts of Of the Balkans, but uh i hear good things about Albania, but Yeah, it's I'm sure Albania is beautiful. I'd love to visit Justin Ellis He scored over the weekend of snap header from 10 yards out We'll just see it You really do love to see because I didn't know the exact number before Um, we recorded last week, but when i when i was telling you about his whole deal bells I was thinking to myself. I was like how many shots is a man attempted in the last Like four games in it and i looked at it. It was like two You know something like that. It's like he's not Getting to it In other places and playmaking is has been his main thing But over these last two matches he's played over his past week, you know Started to see some more shots start. Obviously that goal and then this last match he played against Cincinnati um Really really live there as well. Yeah more more shots than then usual. We got a solid Four Four in this match for mr. Justin Ellis because if he's going to take a sitter forward We got to get these shots off brother, you know um There's something that uh Julien Hall doesn't have much of much difficulty with but anyway he got he got an assist Uh, just a nice little Justin Ellis layoff receives the ball hits at one time um That an entire e-spicer kind of runs on to it. He's he's one on one with a With the Cincinnati defender He beats him to the ball Kind of rounds the keeper scores a goal This is like 50 yards. It may be like 40 yards from where the past was received by By mr. Spicer, but the layoff from Justin Ellis made the whole thing happen Um bells have you have you watched him yet? No You got to get on it bro. You i'm telling you you're going to love him You're gonna love that the same things that will make one fall in love with uh with the geovine arena That's just an Ellis bro. Yeah, I'm getting excited thinking about him I Marcus read it this and I've been thinking about a lot like getting guys like him Mehmeti even caverns on the pitch to and then you got some runners with them like ballo Gozo you in christian ever you can still run um Weston, you know Payton Miller maybe in the left side payton Miller by the way um almost had a disgusting goal but was Subbed off with the head injury. We hope he's okay. We also hope that um He's playing as uh As left back again soon or or gets the european does that soon because this you know this winger thing needs to needs to stop But but yeah, I mean Justin Ellis Talk about guys who can play with the ball in the deck like him and Mehmeti facilitating for Other dynamic attackers uh there's a could be something cool Cooking in this September camp All right, I'll I'll catch up on Justin Ellis. There's a lot more soccer about to happen Thanks everybody for listening. We'll see you You