Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America

Tutul (@tutulismyname) walks us through the mechanics of why it’s difficult for an MLS team to pick up a USL prospect like Jose Gallegos or Jonathan Gomez. He also talked about why FC Dallas has gone from “play your kids” to “play your 32-year-old Liga MX veterans” in the span of 12 months, and how MLS front office desire for parity gets in the way of talent development.

25 Stories that Made MLS...
...on Twitter: https://twitter.com/25_stories?lang=en 

...on Apple podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/25-stories-that-made-mls/id1485497308

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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The busiest domestic league right now is the United Soccer League, the USL. Matt Hartman (@MattSHartman) joins the pod to discuss nine young Americans honing their craft in the league, and the still-unanswered questions about what the pathway to a higher level might look like for several of them.

Jonathan Gómez, 16, LB, Louisville City
Jose Gallegos, 18, AM/winger, San Antonio FC
Andrew Carleton, 20, AM, Indy Eleven
Caden Clark, 17, AM, NY Red Bulls
Hayden Sargis, 18, CB Sacramento Republic
Justin Che, 16, CB, North Texas SC
Mauricio Cuevas, 17, RB/LB, LA Galaxy II 
Paxten Aaronson, 16, AM, Philadelphia Union II
Beni Redzic, 17, LW, North Texas SC

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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Gregg Berhalter will likely need substantially different squads for World Cup qualifiers in June, for the Olympics and for the Gold Cup next summer. There’s also likely to be a U20 World Cup in May and June. Who goes where? When? How? Greg V broke it all down and then we discussed.

2:50 run-down of the Summer 2021 schedule
6:48 June World Cup qualifiers roster
19:55 which is more important, the Gold Cup or the Olympics?
22:48 Olympic roster
35:45 Gold Cup roster
53:04 U20 World Cup roster
1:00:10 Spare parts and wrapup

 

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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American heroes Sanjiv (@usmntvideos) and Chris (@watke_) join the pod for a draft of starting XIs from the ranks of un-capped male American soccer players. 

Sanjiv: https://twitter.com/usmntvideos

Watke: https://twitter.com/watke_

Here are the rules:

• Only U.S.-eligible players born in 1997 or later are allowed.
• We go youngest to oldest in the draft order, so Sanjiv first, then Watke, then Belz, and then the draft order snakes for the rest of the picks.
• Anyone already capped with the senior men’s national team is disqualified. That excludes, for instance, Pulisic, McKennie, Adams, Sargent, Weah and now Mark McKenzie, Uly Llanez, Sam Vines, Jesus Ferreira, Paxon Pomykal and Brenden Aaronson.
• We’re picking specifically with the goal of assembling the best possible team in 2026. This makes it fun and pretty much releases from any responsibility to be correct in our choices. Everything will change by 2026 in ways none of us foresee.
• We each need to come up with a starting XI, a total of 33 players.
• Dual nationals are fine as long as they're not cap-tied with another nation.

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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We dive deep (and occasionally not-so-deep) on 14 USMNT-eligible players who’ve been busy at Disney World over the past month. 

Aaron Long
James Sands
Mark McKenzie
Miles Robinson
Justen Glad
Cristian Roldan
Jackson Yueill
Frankie Amaya
Brenden Aaronson
Sam Vines
Chase Gasper
Ayo Akinola
Jeremy Ebobisse
Jordan Morris

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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A center forward who drops deep to pick up the ball, wingers tucked into the channels, fullbacks bombing past them wide, two true box-to-box center mids and of course the deep-lying center mid distributor concept. If the Costa Rica friendly is any indication, this is what we’ll see in the next meaningful USMNT match. We make a starting XI and try to sketch out the depth chart.

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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A discussion of the red-hot American winger at Chelsea and Frank Lampard’s praise of him for his ability to “arrive in the box.” Friend of the podcast John Muller pitches in to help us make sense of the phrase, we curate some other ideas, and we spend talk at some length about off-ball movement, maybe our favorite subject. Then we get into who needs a move and who can stay put as the contract year comes to a close.

0:30 Greg blasts Belz for his bad private takes in the past
4:45 Pulisic and arriving in the box
7:43 John Muller (@johnspacemuller) cameo, and then a note or two from @_Susaeta and @finalthrd, and then a lengthy discussion of box arrival.
24:20 Transfer talk. Below are the categories and the players:

Ready to upgrade?

• Dest
• Antonee
• Sargent?
• Kelman?
• Cannon/Pomykal

Suboptimal

• Yedlin
• Steffen?
• Richards
• Netherlands trio?

Contract ending

• Miazga
• EPB
• CCV
• Saief
• Sabbi
• fabian

Untenable situations

• Horvath
• Wood
• Soto

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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The bulk of this podcast is a discussion of the decisions facing Berhalter with World Cup qualifying thrown into uncertainty, and a run-down of what we’ve learned from the Bundesliga.

0:30 DeAndre Yedlin’s stand
2:20 Dr. Velasquez on all the opportunities for assessment lost since coronavirus hit, and a discussion of how risk-averse Berhalter will be with his selection as WC qualifying eventually gets underway
19:10 Bundesliga rundown
50:15 England and elsewhere, plus NWSL kicks off this weekend

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

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Ken Richards, the father of Bayern Munich II centerback Chris Richards, joins the podcast to talk about George Floyd's death, being black in America, Chris’s choice to play soccer instead of basketball and the similarities between basketball and soccer, among other things.

- 0:30 Richards on George Floyd, his fears for his own son when he's back in the U.S., and whether this moment will yield progress
- 14:10 Richards on his basketball career, how his son got into soccer, and his own growing love for the game of soccer

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Matt Hartman and I recorded almost 80 minutes on the U20 player pool. The bad news is we had this conversation in early March. The good news? It’s up to date, since almost no soccer has been played since then.

0:30 preamble, etc.
4:10 Hartman on how this U20 age group stacks up to its predecessors
8:00 the last U20 roster, from January
13:55 goalkeepers (David Ochoa, Chituru Odunze, Damian Las, Patrick Schulte, John Pulskamp)
18:12 right backs (Julian Araujo, Ian Hoffmann, Nathan Harriel and Mauricio Cuevas, Joe Scally, Kevin Bonilla)
25:25 centerbacks (Owen Otasowie, Leo Sepulveda, Jacob Akanyirge and George Campbell, Tayvon Gray, Nico Benalcazar, Nico Slonina, Blake Malone, Kurowskybob Pierre)
36:58 left backs (Kobe Hernandez-Foster, Travian Sousa and Jonathan Gomez, Stuart Ritchie, John Tolkin, Adam Armour)
42:30 central midfield (Taylor Booth, Tanner Tessmann, Jose Gallegos, Cole Bassett, Johnny Cardoso, Matteo Ritaccio, Leon Flach, Thomas Roberts and Gianluca Busio, Marcelo Palomino, Aiden Morris, Chris Hegardt, Moses Nyeman, Danny Leyva, Bryang Kayo)
1:05:00 wingers (Konrad de la Fuente, Uly Llanez, Cameron Harper, Cameron Dunbar, Cade Cowell, Matko Miljevic, Dante Sealy, Giovanni Reyna)
1:10:16 strikers (Ricardo Pepi, Indiana Vassilev, Matthew Hoppe, Charlie Kelman, Johan Gomez)
1:16:30 a quick recap of our respective preferred lineups

Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Check out our store, where you can get Scuffed hats and sweatshirts and other stuff: scuffedpodcast.com/store

Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com

And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedpodcast.com/store

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.