The Straight Red Card

Ricardo Pepi hasn't scored at the club level in 150+ games, but is it time to push the panic button? Herc and Seb sure think so, at the club level. Derek and Brett cover this topic and whether they feel we should be worried. Pepi may be near half a year without scoring a club goal, but one must remember he went 3 months without a club match.

Hoppe also found some playing time, seemingly out of nowhere. The manager hasn't played him in weeks, why now all of a sudden?

FIFA and UEFA have released a joint statement displaying unity in removing all Russian teams from all competitions. UEFA also removed the Champions League away from Russia. Sweden, Czech Republic, and Poland all reached out to UEFA in stating they would not travel to Russia for the away matches in Russia. Do you think FIFA and UEFA made the right decision? Is this fair to the players?

Jesse Marsch is the new Leeds United manager. For better or worse, this was not a well kept secret. After a failed stint at Leipzig, Jesse will be aiming to rebound at Leeds. Do you think he'll do well? Do you think he'll keep Leeds from being relegated? Will he keep the job if they are?

Derek and Brett are joined with Max Bretos to discuss the final window of World Cup Qualifying for the USMNT. We also delve into the topic of whether there is a black list of journalists and content creators, whether the USMNT mainstream media are too soft and timid, and whether we'd get an actual answer from Gregg Berhalter if we did.

Josh Sargent is starting a new path in his career. While not being proficient in scoring at this point, Josh has found himself playing out wide or even in the middle for Norwich. Given his work ethic, skills, and technical knowledge to know where to be, Josh may in fact succeed. If relegated will Norwich continue to utilize him out wide or do we see him back up top.

USMNT will likely see him up top still with the opportunity of playing wide, but that first requires a callup.

Derek and Brett discuss recent quotes from Luca De La Torre, Eryk Williamson, and others. Talks about how the system is complicated and tough to learn for new players on their first couple windows. The system is successful at a club level when you have all the time in the world to go over things, but Gregg has 6-8 days at most with 3 of them consumed by games.

McKennie is injured and will not be present for the final and vital World Cup Qualifying window. Derek and Brett talk about that and many other of our stars who played in Europa and Champions League.

Derek and Brett are joined by Sam from YanksReport to discuss Bobby Warsaws interview with Gregg Berhalter, where to play Reyna when/if he is healthy, Pulisic's interview about trying too much, and more.

European leagues are often tempting for any professional soccer player, but are all leagues created equal? Derek and Brett talk about the influx of MLS based players transferring to lower level European leagues. These might be lateral or slightly higher moves, but are they worth it?

Toxic fandoms are all the rage today, and USMNT fandom is no different. Seriously though, the topic continues to show up. "USMNT Twitter is toxic" is displayed in my feed daily it seems, but is there any merit to the statement? Derek and Brett review a video from our friend Sam at YanksReport where he asked these questions to Former World Cup defender and friend of the show, Jimmy Conrad. What side of the coin are you and do you think you are toxic?