USMNT Roster, FC Dallas, and MLS Playoffs with Steve Davis | Sunset Soccer Club

All right, welcome into episode three of the Sunset Soccer Club. I am Tyler Kern. Thank you so much for for being here for joining us for being part of the club again. Soccer for everybody. We want this to be a place for everybody to come in, enjoy the game, learn about the game, talk about the game and talk about everything going on in the world of soccer. There's a lot.
And so we are happy that you are here joining us this week. This is episode three. We have 212 days until the 2026 World Cup. It's coming up. It's going to come up fast. And so we'll have the biggest soccer tournament in the world right here on our shores coming up in just 212 days coming up on the show today.
I'm going to have the kickoff and today's kickoff rather than recapping and trying to recap the entire world of soccer from the previous weekend. I'm just going to give you the top 3 performers from the weekend and then a game of the weekend. So we'll talk about that coming up here in the kickoff. Steve Davis is going to join the show. Steve has written for the biggest outlets in the world covering soccer.
He's covered 7 men's world cups, 3 women's world cups. So we're going to talk FC Dallas. We're going to talk Major League soccer. We're going to talk the US men's national team with Steve coming up here in just a few minutes.
And then finally we'll profile Tyler Adams for the US men's national team. He's an important player for the team. And so we'll talk about him, what he brings, what he doesn't bring and how he fits into the US men's national team puzzle coming up at the end of the show.
So that's our show coming up. We are thrilled that you are here. Let's get to the kickoff.
All right, this is the kickoff and we're going to talk about the three standout performers from the weekend. First, we got to talk about Jeremy Doku. Now he's a winger from Manchester City and they beat Liverpool 3 to nothing on the weekend.
We talked about that game on the last week's show. Just that it was coming up and we were eager to see what Liverpool would look like coming off of that win against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Turns out they didn't look great. They only managed one shot on target in the second half. Meanwhile, Jeremy Doku, who we're really talking about here, was the star of the show for Manchester City.
Let me just read off a couple of his accolades from this game. He was on the field for 74 minutes in the three nothing win for Manchester City. He scored a goal. He drew a penalty early on in this match.
According to Fatmob, he created the most chances in the match with three completed the most dribbles with seven was the most foul player with four and won the most duels with 11.
So just an absolutely complete performance from the winger who he really shifted sides. He was hard to track hard to follow. He kind of floated all over the pitch, which is not very Manchester City, not very Pep Guardiola.
Normally, they're more rigid in their structure, but they allowed Doku to float in this match and it made them very hard to defend. It made him very hard to track for Connor Bradley, the right back for Liverpool.
And he was just all around outstanding. Like I said, scored a goal, drew a penalty. The early Holland wasn't able to convert in the first half, but all around Jeremy Doku was our first star of the weekend.
Our second star of the weekend is going to be Robert Levendowski. Now he's 37 years old. You've probably heard his name before. He's been one of the best strikers in Europe for, I mean, going on 15 years at this point.
He plays for Barcelona. They beat Salta Vigo forward to two on Saturday in Robert Levendowski, all 37 years of him had a hat trick in that match scored three goals. He's still getting it done at an highly, at a highly, at an insane level for Barcelona these days, even at 37 years old.
That trick for Robert Levendowski, our second top performer of the weekend. And third, last but not least, Lionel Messi, two goals and two assists for Inter Miami in their 4-0 win over Nashville to move on in the MLS playoffs.
We talked with Armand Kaffai last week about how Leo Messi really needed to step up and how Inter Miami, if they were to fall to Nashville and get knocked out of the playoffs, really be disastrous for them.
Messi stepping up on the big stage for Inter Miami in the playoffs, getting it done again, two goals, two assists, and it's not just the goals in the assists.
He's still just the best player on the field by a wide margin. He makes everything happen for Inter Miami. He's the straw that stirs the drink. He oftentimes finishes it off with the goals as well.
And so Leo Messi our third and final performer, top performer from the weekend, our best game of the weekend.
So look to the Bundesliga in Germany, where Bayern Munich drew Union Berlin two to two. This is the first time that Bayern Munich has dropped points this entire season in all competitions, whether it's German cup competitions, the Champions League Bayern Munich had not dropped any points yet this year, until they played Union Berlin on Saturday and then they drew two to two.
So really shocking kind of happening for Bayern Munich, who had been so outstanding so far this season, Union becomes the first team to take points off of Bayern Munich in this match.
It took Luis Diaz going one of the most outrageous goals I've ever seen for Bayern Munich. He beats a defender off the left side of the box going towards the end line.
The ball is about to roll over the end line. He slides to save it keeps it in gets the ball to a dead stand still jumps back up races down the end line and then fires a shot at one of the most insane angles you'll ever see that's able to beat the keeper into the back of the net.
If you haven't seen it, just Google it. It was an outrageous goal for Luis Diaz.
But in this match, Bayern give up two goals. They had had a clean sheet streak running up until this match that falls at the hands of Union Berlin.
Meanwhile, lawyer with a mistake at the back that gifts a goal to Union Berlin, but more than anything, just a really wild turn of events in the Bundesliga for Bayern Munich to drop points to Union Berlin.
If you don't know too much about Union, they're one of my favorite teams in the whole world.
Their fan base is incredibly passionate. They once raised money to renovate the stadium using money that fans would donate from giving blood in Germany.
So I mean, just an outrageous club. The fans absolutely love this team. Really fun atmosphere, really, really fun team.
But Union Berlin to Bayern Munich to was my match of the weekend. Okay, coming up. We're going to talk to Steve Davis.
He's going to join us right here in studio and we're going to talk to him about FC Dallas, the local team here in DFW.
Their their MLS season ended at the hands of the Vancouver White caps in the MLS playoffs. And so we're going to talk to him about FC Dallas, what they're looking for moving forward.
We'll also dive into his favorite matchups coming up in the MLS playoffs as we hit the conference semi finals.
We'll also talk a little bit of the US men's national team and they're upcoming camp with matches against Paraguay and Uruguay coming up here in just the next few days.
And so we'll have Steve on next right here on the Sunset Soccer Club.
Alright, join us now here in the Sunset Soccer Club is Steve Davis. Man, Steve's written for ESPN Sports Illustrated NBC Pro Soccer Talk, the Dallas Morning News.
A bunch of places throughout his career and he was lead TV analyst for FC Dallas for five years and now provides analysis for the FC Dallas radio broadcast.
Steve's covered seven world cups on the men's side three on the women's side. He's also the founder of Pleasant Grove Sports and Soccer.
Non-profit organization creating opportunities and experience for underserved kids in Southeast Dallas.
Now he's the director of legacy systems as part of the Dallas 2026 team for the World Cup next summer Steve.
Now that we're out of time.
Now that I hear all that, I think I should ask for more money for doing this.
Yeah, we're talking about it next time.
Well, we'll have our people can contact your people and we'll go from there.
I need I need people. I wish I had people. Don't we don't we both need people, but thanks for doing this.
Sure, man. I appreciate it. Happy to have it to be here. Good to see you, man.
Good to see you too. So we I didn't mention the ESPN Soccer today and all of the other things.
Right. We co-hosted a show together and we talked a lot on that show about the local team here in Dallas for worth FC Dallas.
Year one under Eric Quill is in the books for FC Dallas. You were there. You saw all of it firsthand coming off of that first season with him in charge.
What's the vibe? Well, how are people feeling after year one with Eric Quill at the home?
I hope people are feeling okay about it because of the way it ended. It ended trending upward.
It was a very rough beginning. I think that any managing at that level is a lot about problem solving.
You know, anybody can put together a practice plan, a cogent practice plan. Anybody can have a philosophy on, you know, do they want to, they want to press high?
Do they want to sit deeper? Do they want to go vertical? Quick or all of that stuff? Anybody can do that.
How do you handle problems as they come up? And I don't, I think he was given a very tough problem that I know we're going to talk about,
which was fitting mutual cost into the system. He did, he was sort of a square peg into a round hole of a system.
I don't think Eric did a great job initially of solving your problems, although in fairness, I think it was kind of an unsolvable problem.
Yeah.
Then once they transferred, moved mutual cost a long, I think the problem solving, all of a sudden, I was impressed by Eric Quill.
I was impressed with the way he sort of patched together something on the fly that worked.
And it got him into the playoffs and then they ran up against a buzz solve a team in Vancouver.
But it was trending upward. I think if it had gone the other way, where they started hot and then they trended down toward the end of the season, people would have a right to feel less good about it.
But if you were at that last playoff game against Vancouver, they did, they did lose in penalty kicks.
In an equalizer at the last minute, but they gave a very good Vancouver club all they could handle. They showed a lot of fight.
They showed exactly what Eric Quill wanted them to show, which was after they got thumped in Vancouver. They didn't lay down.
They came back strong and I think that is probably as good as that season could have ended.
So the answer to the question is, I think there's reason for people to feel optimistic. And I think they are because things trended upward at the end.
I want to talk about that upward trajectory. But first, you mentioned Lucho Acosta and it was one of those things that I think if you were paying attention and you know a little bit about soccer, you could kind of see coming to a certain extent.
Lucho Acosta, a guy who is a, look, they had to jump at the opportunity to perhaps add a former league MVP to the roster.
But everything Quill said when he took the job was, we're going to change how we play. We're going to go a little bit more vertical. We're going to go more direct.
And then you have this opportunity to bring into a, bring in a guy that doesn't do that necessarily needs the ball at his feet needs to take play.
And so like you said, square peg round hole, is it, is it as simple as breaking the season down to Acosta on the team and then a post Lucho Acosta era or is that too simplistic?
No, it's not simplistic at all. I think that's, I think that's exactly how you have to break the season down. That's what I just did.
Saying that things weren't working, you know, and then they got rid of Lucho Acosta and not how the numbers in front of me, but the record.
Well, first of all, the I test was very clear. The record was very clear. They were a better team without Lucho Acosta.
I think it played into a lot of the ways that Eric will wanted to play, just like you said, he wanted to be a little bit more aggressive and, you know, Lucho Acosta sort of tended freelance.
And so that doesn't really fit into a system. You can build a system around a guy like that. Leo Messi has been teams have been building around Leo Messi like that for years and years.
And it works. And you know why? Because it's Leo Messi. And Acosta a couple of years ago and his MV PCs and the 23, he was good enough that you could do that.
You know, as his level declined a little bit and as he didn't have the right kind of players around him, he just couldn't build that way.
So I think it was well worth the club taking the big swing. It took a big swing with Petra Musa home run. It's been great.
Then they took a big swing, trying to add that second attacking piece who would make them this elite offensive unit didn't work.
And by the way, credit to the FC Dallas organization. I think smart organizations. It does not always work this way.
You know, with organizations, but in this case, FC Dallas, they recognized a mistake. They moved on. And I think that was good.
So the answer to question is not, I think that's exactly the way you assess it. Then you assess Eric Quill and the end of the organization post Lucho and you say, OK, there are some things here that you like.
And there are some things here to excuse me. Some things here to build off of for 26. And you say, OK, but that's exactly how you have to assess the season.
Just put a line right there when Lucho calls to left the team and assess first half and second half.
So now that we kind of had that end of the season swing upwards, making the playoffs, who do you look at on this team and say, OK, these are the guys you're going to build around moving forward.
Some kind of older, maybe bigger deals coming off of the books with like a Sebastian legit, some of those guys, who are you looking at?
You mentioned Peter Musa with the Croatian national team right now, which is a really nice feather in the cap there.
Who's on this team that you look for kind of as building blocks for next season?
Yeah, I'll start with Musa. I think this is sort of a story. Maybe people haven't talked about or understood yet.
Him getting on to Croatian national team and showing that I can be for I can play for FC Dallas and be recognized and be called into the national team.
I think it's very important. Yes.
There's otherwise he might think this winter. I need to get back into Europe so I can be recognized. But now he knows it can happen this way.
So Musa obviously scoring 18 goals tying the single season FC Dallas record along with Jason Christ, Kenny Cooper and Jesus for us.
That's your that's your attacking building block. Once across the left and the attack started running to Musa, things changed quickly.
So that's it. Ossazio Uruguete. I think is already top 10 MLS center back. I think if he can just raise his game a tiny bit and maybe two ways like he needs to be a little bit better defending the box.
And then he needs to be a little bit better. He can be I hate to use word naive in moments because it's really just about being aggressive overly aggressive in certain moments.
If he can sort of tame that instinct and understand center backs and reading the game is so important. If he can understand just not to be quite as aggressive in certain places because he makes a mistake every now and then that you know can cost him.
Usually if somebody gets behind him, he's got the recovery speed. But if he can just sort of tame that instinct a little bit, he'll be top five MLS center back.
So those are two great building blocks. I think Christian Capis and the midfielder is he's like a darling to nagby starter kit in a way.
And that that almost sounds too reductive, but he does a lot of the things that nagby is done for all these years.
He just retired with Columbus with a pocket full of MLS championships, but just a real solid possession guy who orchestrates and it doesn't do anything flashy, but it does all the little things sort of what a younger Sebastian legit who was when it was healthier used to do.
So I think you got a great building block in defense, a really solid building block in midfield, a terrific building block up front. And the goalkeeping situation is solid. If it's not, you know, Martin, Martin pause is still a top 10 MLS goalkeeper and he got beaten out.
Yeah. So I think the goalkeeping situation. So you got the spine of the team. Those are your good building blocks.
And then you kind of add from there. And that's that's the luxury of having that that spine almost figured out and settled in that ways. And then, okay, who are those pieces that are going to go around? So what are the needs going into next season? Is it wing? Is it outside backs? Where are we looking for improvements?
Sort of all of the above. I do think they need to get better and deeper center back. I think the guy, the young Brazilian midfield Kyke can be very good. He needs to just keep maturing in his game.
He needs to get another winger. So the answer to your question is sort of all around what they my opinion is that the club has done really a good job now of establishing those building blocks. And honestly, that's the harder part. Now what they have to do is the second half of that is add a lot of the supplemental elements around it.
So they've got a good outside back and check more, but they need they need another one. And they need a couple of depending on how they want to play wing midfielders or or is it is you know, play four, two, three, one, which I think what Eric will wants to play. Do they have another winger or two that they can add?
A great, a great attacking piece in Logan Farrington is sort of as your second striker backup striker, you know, for for Musa, if he needs to go away from international or ever gets hurt, he's pretty durable.
So it's just I keep hitting your microphone there. Sorry about that. Good thing you got a good producer over there. He's he's he's going to edit all that out.
So just those supplemental pieces around it. And I guess in a way that can be harder because it's all about managing the salary cap smartly and making sure you're not tying, you know, too much money into, you know, giving it to a player that's, you know, on the backside of his
playing career and he's he's up there and in salary. So you've got to manage that and integrate the homegrown, which I hope they're doing more of guys like Nolan or so.
It's it's just adding the supplemental pieces sort of all around the field.
Yeah, you mentioned FC does fell in the playoffs to the Vancouver White Caps who just really an outstanding team added Thomas Mueller and a lot of fun to watch. And now we kind of have the conference in my final matchup set in the MLS playoffs.
We have San Diego taking on Minnesota and a clash of styles in just about every sense of the word Vancouver versus L.A.F.C.
Which is just going to be outstanding. I think Philadelphia versus NYC FC in the east and then Cincinnati against Miami or the four pairings.
Anything standing out to you. What's the what's the matchup that you're like this is this is must watch this is box office.
Well, obviously with messy, you know, I watch him. I'm still, you know, a messy fan. I still enjoy watching. Although it's interesting. I've always been such a big messy fan, but Miami's become a little bit of the villain.
Yeah.
And you know, the money team and all that. So that sort of juxtaposition is always going to be it's going to be fun to watch. But the one I'm really looking forward to.
The soccer nerd in me wants to see Vancouver L.A.F.C. Thomas Mulder has come in and made a really good high level Vancouver team that much better.
He's just he's got that swagger. He's got that belief on the other side. You've got a guy like son hung men who has come in and he is just absolutely terrorizing the league.
And they already had a guy to terrorize the league in Dennis Bunga. And the funny thing about them is that.
Bunga and Carlos Vela, the really great Mexican international sort of another day.
They were on they crossed over for L.A.F.C. for a while. They'd never really had that that that relationship. But in fact, they sort of clashed in some ways.
Son and Bunga, they had it. They understand each other. They had like each other. They both do the same things in terms of running and transition.
They know where the other one's going. You know, there was a time. I oh gosh, I wish I had the number. Maybe you know where they scored either one of them scored. I think 15 consecutive goals.
16 something like that. Something just ridiculous. Yeah, you know, for two players to dominate that way. So that's the one I'm really looking forward to.
It's going to be outstanding. You feel like son has this ability to play with just about anyway.
Anybody the way that like he partnered with Harry Kane for so long and now he's doing it with Bunga in MLS that there's a skill in knowing how to be incredible while also not having to be like the guy I think that son has always embodied in a way that.
I think it's just really fun. It is. It's high level thinking combined with having just a team oriented attitude. And of course, being very skillful all along the way.
So also, you know, because he has blogger, he didn't have to come in here and immediately be the guy. He's one of two guys. And I think that helped him some too.
I think that I think that matchup of Vancouver is going to be outstanding. And then San Diego versus Minnesota. I'm going to watch just because it's a battle of wills right into very competing styles with what San Diego wants to do in terms of possessing the ball and building.
And then Minnesota, which is just what like 1990s.
Yeah, championship. They don't want the ball. They don't want the ball. You have it. We'll be we're fine back here. We're going to get after you when we want to.
And we'll score a goal. And we're going to throw the ball in from, you know, from all over all around the field. And we're going to we're going to scrap together two goals. And, you know, can you get two to match it?
And now that the the playoffs have moved from the best of three to now, it's just winner take all one match. I think that makes that matchup that much more interesting and appealing because you're going to see a battle of wills that are going to be tried to.
They're each going to try to impose their style their will on the other team. And I think that that's just fascinating.
No lies detected there, but I got to say, man, the one game it is. It's exciting and all that. But I just I wish they wouldn't go back and forth. First, it's one game to plan. Then it's best of three. Then it goes to one.
And I just it gives me a little bit of whiplash. And I like the best of three. I like that the series builds a little bit. I like that players get mad at each other. And, you know, you try to play in the same guy. There's a couple of series like like Dallas. Have it gone to game three.
You had to play them four times in a row because they played on decision day. Yeah. So yeah, the one game is exciting. And just for me, it just there's too much ability for something weird to happen on that day. And then the better team might not go through. So I don't know.
It's but, but it is exciting. I would be personally in favor of smaller playoffs with best of three that series because I think you're right. I love the the building of drama.
The I kind of like that they're not aggregated. And so the scores aren't aggregated. And so you wipe the slight clean after the first game. I like all those aspects.
And by the way, I understand why they sort of want to this best of three. It was to add inventory for Apple. The scenario you just proposed. You have about the same amount of inventory of games.
So when you get get garb on the phone. Let's let's let's get down on this. We have we have a direct line and the red phone over in the corner.
But okay. So one of the challenges also with MLS playoffs is you've got this weird international break. Right. Kind of smack in the middle of your playoffs, which is really not much longer, but okay. Yeah. Yeah.
There's a different conversation. Totally different conversation. But I also worth mentioning that you have these international windows that show up kind of throughout the season for MLS.
It is more ideal for the European calendar. But now if you're Major League Soccer, you have an international break. So US men's national team players jet off other players for other federations jet off to join their respective camps.
We have a US men's national team camp that we can talk about with Mauricio Pachatino. And he has a tough job on his hands, kind of preparing this club or the side for the World Cup next summer.
Because there are unique challenges to being the manager for the US. You have to deal with this MLS calendar. You have to deal with players needing to fly halfway around the world. Now that we're a little over a year into the Mauricio Pachatino era.
What are your feelings on the 10 years so far? It is a tough ask. He was given a tough assignment. You know, this is where you say something like, you know, if it was easy, anybody could do it. Right.
The other unique challenge, you know, you didn't mention there is that they didn't have, they don't have qualifying matches as a host nation, just like Mexican with Canada, they get the automatic birth. So you don't really have those tough matches that, you know, where you really are able to assess players under pressure.
So you've got that. I think you was given a hard assignment for another reason. I think that as we all sort of suspected and I think no now.
The thing had gotten not only stale. That's not the right word under a great bird halter. I think it had gotten comfortable. Really comfortable.
Yeah. And you know, and I was actually able to, I don't really talked about this publicly, but you're the first. But I was able to just watch a couple of training sessions.
And just a couple of things I saw it just spoke to how everybody was just happy and comfortable. And I think that has its value. I think Greg did a good job of fostering that team spirit.
When you go into the second cycle and everybody feels that way, though, and you don't feel that edge of competition and everybody feels comfortable in different ways and things are down around the training camp to make players feel comfortable.
I think you lose an edge. And so that was another challenge that Potscat as he inherited the job. You know, it's only, it seems like it's two years ago, three years ago, but it was only barely a year ago that he took over.
Yeah. And if you remember the first training sessions under Pots was down in Austin. And what did everybody come always saying?
Oh, that was tough. Yeah. That was a tough session. You know, so I think that spoke to the out players were, they were feeling too comfortable under under Burhalter. And, and then you know, he goes through the, so I think as he comes in, he assesses immediately. Well, this isn't about putting together something tactically that works for the scrupper players.
This is about changing. We got to, we got to take a step back from there. We got to change mindsets. We got to, we got to change the way this pool of players thinks about this job of, of coming in here. I got to, I got to change the whole, you know, reconstruct the whole, the whole monster here.
Then you got to put something together tactically. So I think it was, it was a tough assignment all along.
I think you're right. And I think that, you know, you can have multiple, you know, we, we, a lot of, a lot of people thought this at the time when they brought Greg Burhalter back for a second, to start a second cycle.
Second cycles just don't tend to go well. And you can, you can maybe do it like with, with France has kept, did he had to jump around for a long time?
Germany did it. Germany did it. The advantage that nations like that have over the US is that you've got a guy like starting in the Champions League, who's a, here's your backup.
For the US, that top crust of player, I think, or the primary people we talk about when we talk about people that have gotten comfortable, the,
the mechanics, the, the, I don't, I don't know about Tyler Adams. He doesn't seem to be wired the same way. But I think it, I think it's similar.
And so I think that that's, that's the big difference. Those, those guys aren't getting pushed by another guy playing in the Champions League or by a guy starting for PSG weekend week out.
And so you, you lack a little bit of that competition. So you have to create it almost not artificially, but through the culture of the team and through what expectations are.
And I think that that's a challenging thing for a coach coming in who doesn't know the players, doesn't know even what it's like to coach in an international setting.
I think is, it's challenging to do with the limited amount of time you have with the players.
So what are your real options? You bring them into camp and then you don't play them or what potch did. Don't bring them into camp.
Yeah. In certain cases, you know, send the message that you are not a lock. And I think that applies to a lot of guys that there might be two guys on that team that could really all through this whole thing could really feel comfortable.
And then one of them didn't even show up for the, you know, for the summer games and policy by which by the way, I think that was silly.
Everybody got so upset about that. I, you know, I mean, my gosh, the guy needs needed some rest. You know, you know, if he, if he's playing well right now, he's, he's looking, he's looked good since the rest.
So I think you, I hope that everybody that got in that media echo chamber last year and didn't want to be the sort of the kid sitting by himself in the school lunchroom.
Once everybody started dogpiling on policy and saying, well, how did you do this? And never why did you do this? And, you know, I hope they now come back and if, if policy looked sharp and well rested, you know, in eight months time.
Hope everybody raises their hand and says, I was wrong about that. So it always seemed perfectly reasonable for me to, for him to take a little rest.
No, I mean, because I think the discourse around the US men's national team always has an air of, there's almost always a little toxicity to the, to the conversation.
And all you have to do is go look at any roster announcement and you don't see a whole lot of nuance when it comes to the thinking about it.
You see a lot of very reactionary hot take.
Yep.
Kind of thing. And I think that's often reflected.
We've made it.
Yeah.
We've made it.
We've made it.
That's where it's always been in other countries.
Well, you know, I said that when I think it was Pulisic's dad who kind of fired back at one of the guys.
And I said, I said, now we know we've made it.
The father of our top player is responding on social media to media personalities in the soccer world.
This, we are a true soccer nation.
Feels good, man.
We did it, buddy.
We did.
We did.
We dragged it in here.
We've, we've seen it through all the way.
No, but all it takes is a tiny bit of nuance and thinking.
So you go look at the recent roster announcement.
I go look at, I did the bad thing and I went to the comments.
You know, it's a Christian rolled on his ship.
I don't know.
No, Weston McKinney.
What, what's the downside?
Well, Weston McKinney has a, has a new manager at Juventus.
It's probably more important that he starts weekend week out for Juventus than is in this camp.
Perhaps is, is I don't know how I, how I tend to approach.
That, those sorts of, those sorts of issues.
However, it could, it could also be.
Two things can be true.
I think you're right about, about the nuance and it's certainly going back to
Plistic and different players that were rested or, or whatever.
The McKinney thing is a little weird.
I get admit.
And he's always had a, he's, he's got a weird relationship with every coach he's ever had.
They always hate him at first.
And then he, then, then, then they find a value in him and, you know, sometimes he,
and he, look, and he was sort of on fit last year.
And that had, you know, that's going to drive coaches crazy.
So this one, I was a little surprised that he didn't, he didn't commit for this one.
But I, I expected to be here in the summer of 26.
So on this particular roster, I mean, it's, we'll, we'll put the, the whole roster on, like,
maybe in the show notes or that sort of thing.
I'm not going to read every single name right now.
Maybe names any, or maybe even spots on the field that you're looking at as, like,
okay, we'd like to get some information here.
You have always said, you can't, it's hard to play your way all the way onto a world cup roster
and I can't play like this, but you can pretty easily play your way off of it.
So other spots on the field are people, players that you're looking at specifically
when it comes to these two games against Paraguay and Uruguay.
I think, maybe my answer here will be instructional on a bigger picture,
because the answer's no.
I, I think we've got a lot of information about all these guys.
And it's sort of like, you know, all right, who do you want to see?
Who, who, who wants to come into this camp and, you know, who, who do you want to see?
And I'm like, I know what, kind of, I feel like I know what they can all do now at this point.
Is there anybody, you know, is there anybody that we see sort of breaking through, you know,
the way maybe policy did before 18 if they qualified for 18?
No, no, no, is there somebody, maybe a couple of guys returning from injury?
So, but they're not all the way back yet, you know, they're Anthony Robinson, not healthy.
So, okay, well, who else? Well, what about center back? It's not really settled.
Oh, yeah, but I don't think it's going to get settled in this one,
because I don't really see outside of Chris Richards, who's, I think, I think doing well and doing great.
And he'll be, he'll, he'll build around him.
But anybody else, I mean, can anybody, can anybody finally displace Pearl, Tim Rehm,
or we can, you know, drag him back out there, bless his heart?
I don't see the guy that's going to do it.
So, no, I don't know what I'm really looking for.
Playing Uruguay and Paraguay, those are going to be tough games, especially Uruguay.
And that'll be good, so maybe we find a little bit more.
But honestly, do you think you're going to learn anything about any guys out there
that you don't already know?
No, I think, I think you're right.
No, because we used to talk about this with Cleansman all the time.
When you wanted to find information about a player, you, you go like for like,
but keep a lot of the structure around him.
Yep.
And I think what I was hopeful for is you got to see another player play next to Tyler Adams.
Okay.
In the midfield.
Well, Tyler Adams, now off the roster, except for the head injury, and born this game against Aston Villa.
That would be a injury too, right?
He had two things going on, I believe, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think you got a knee knock in their previous game.
And so just beat up.
And Tyler Adams is always a little, a little beat up.
Yeah.
But so I think, I think you're able to get data points like that.
If you're able to bring in Tyler Adams and have who plays best next to Tyler Adams.
That's what you're looking for.
That's what I'm looking for.
So like, oh, is it Tanner Tessman?
To be?
Is Christian Roldon start to be, yeah, is he that guy that's kind of a Swiss Army knife type midfield
that could do a great job for you at the World's Cup?
Now you don't get that data point.
And so I'm less interested in that.
I was interested in, okay, so if it is Raymond Richards, who's the,
and they play with three centerbacks, who's the third?
Are we going to, can we just rotate in one or two guys next to those guys and see?
But we don't, Richards is not in this roster.
And so we don't get that opportunity.
And so I think the opportunity to actually learn.
How does this guy look when he plays next to this guy?
Is there cohesion?
I think Tyler Adams is a, is a really, really good player who solves a lot of problems,
but also creates a passing issue.
It does.
It does.
If he's healthy and he's proven last couple of years to be more,
as you just said, more fragile.
Yeah.
So I think, I think they lost the ability to get data points that maybe would have been nice
coming out of this camp.
That's it.
Maybe, you know, we find a little bit more out about if there's a big mistake in goal,
big mistake in defense, you know, we find out a little something there.
I'm not sure what else we're going to learn at this point.
Yeah.
I think, I think you're right to highlight the challenge of not having those workup qualifiers.
And so you have to be battle tested somehow, have to create some resolve as a group.
And it's, it's strange without the guys that I would call like the leaders of the team present.
But I think having, having a deeper bench that, that has played against teams
like Paraguay and Uruguay is never a bad thing.
Yeah.
I will say, I guess the one thing I am looking for a little bit is Ricardo Pepe.
I want to see, you know, how he's, how he fits in.
I think he's a really interesting character because I think he was probably,
we're all starting to think, oh, he's, he's just starting forward.
He's just, he's the striker now.
Of course, he's FC Dallas Academy.
I think parts like them.
I think he was doing well.
And he got hurt, PSV, now he's back.
It hasn't, it hasn't been totally injury-free since he can't, since he came back
and had sort of a slow go, but he's playing again, not starting for PSV,
but he's starting.
I'm going to say he's playing.
He's scoring goals.
It's Holland.
So, you know, everybody scores goals.
But I am sort of interested to see how he gets back and to see where he is in terms of international play
because Paraguay is good, Uruguay's defense is even better.
So, that's the one that, we will find out a little something, although even there,
I think we know what Pepe can do.
It's just, you know, where is he in sort of the comeback and the ability to do what he was doing before,
which is scoring some goals at international level.
He, you know, you have strikers that do a lot of things, right?
In addition to scoring goals, and, you know, I think in Balagan, you have a guy
who might be at the top of the depth track right now, who offers you a lot in terms of maybe
a link up play and that sort of thing.
Whereas Pepe, you have a guy that is just, just Ruth, the guy just scores goals.
He's a finisher.
He's a finisher.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think Balagan is a more well-rounded player.
I think he does.
As you said, you know, he's got a little more speed so he can run behind and, you know, slash a little bit more.
But if you're just talking about a guy that you want in the penalty area who can score,
that's, I think Balagan can too, but I think Pepe might have him edged a little bit there.
You're talking about the guy that in a more comprehensive way about helping the team.
I think maybe that's Balagan is ahead right now, but maybe these two games say something about that.
I'd love to see it.
I'd love to see some more reps.
Steve, before we go, tell everybody about what you're doing in Pleasant Grove.
And, yeah, I think I want people to know the work that you're doing down there
and maybe if there's a way that they can be involved in their support.
Well, I appreciate that.
So Pleasant Grove is an area of Dallas that most people just don't even know exists.
It's just where the workers live.
It's actually a pretty big chunk of Dallas.
It's a Southeast quadrant of Dallas, and it's where I grew up.
That's predominantly Latino now, and they love soccer, but there's not a lot of access.
And, you know, and also with my role that you mentioned, the legacy director of the World Cup organizing committee locally,
you know, we talk a lot about equity of access, equality of access.
You know, because soccer, youth sports in general, but soccer, I think soccer sort of led the way
and sort of siloing off youth soccer opportunities in the pay for play model.
So what can all of us do who are invested in soccer to sort of create just a little bit more equity of access?
And that's what I'm trying to do in Pleasant Grove.
Just doing some, excuse me, some camps and clinics.
We do them mostly free.
Doing another one coming up a couple of weeks here.
It's sort of a higher level clinic, but where this is a good example of high school players that sometimes in that area
are really good players, but they've never had high level coaching.
Then I arrived to high school, you know, 14 years old, and they've missed a lot of coaching in there.
You know, so we're doing a higher level clinic, hoping to get some FC Dallas coaches involved.
I think we will, like we did last year, we got a Morgan's dollars at this one to provide the players and the high schools down there
who again, some of them are really good players, but they've never played for a proper team.
Yeah.
It's all been streetball for them.
So they get to high school and they can pass, trap, shoot, and sometimes they can't play soccer because they haven't had that higher level coaching.
So we try to field some gaps or we try to do some camps for, you know, middle school or sort of a higher age elementary
to where they get a little higher level coaching, and also just, you know, things to happen down there.
You know, literally we have, we hear people come up and say, hey, thanks for doing this.
Things like this don't happen at Pleasant Grove.
Yeah.
So we just try to field some gaps that way.
I love it.
I love it.
Well Steve, thanks so much for spending some time with us this morning and talking.
You know, I love talking soccer now.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
I know.
Yeah.
No, but we love it.
So thank you, Steve.
You got it, man.
All right.
All right.
Huge thanks to Steve for joining the show.
I always love having Steve on whenever we can.
And it's probably a face you'll see multiple times as we get ready for the World Cup coming up next summer.
All right.
Let's get to our US men's national team player profile.
This week we're looking at Tyler Adams.
Now Tyler Adams is a defensive midfielder.
He plays for Bournemouth in the Premier League.
He's had a career where he's played for several different clubs.
He started off with the New York Red Bulls in New York as a homegrown player.
Moved over to Germany for RB Leipzig.
Moved to Leeds for a brief spell before landing with Bournemouth.
And Bournemouth is playing well this season.
And he's a key part of what they do.
He's a defensive midfielder.
Like I mentioned, he's 26 years old.
And last week we talked about Weston McKenney, who is a Swiss army.
He's a Swiss army knife of a player.
He can play all over the pitch.
He's lined up in lots of different spots.
Tyler Adams is the opposite of that.
There's a very clearly defined thing that Tyler Adams is very good at.
And then there's very well defined weaknesses in his game as well.
So for a manager, you know what he's good at and you try to maximize that?
You know what he's not good at and you try to minimize that.
And that is the Tyler Adams experience.
We've known about him for a really long time.
He burst onto the scene.
Probably back when he was 15 years older.
So a little over 10 years ago now.
And he's just always been a prospect that people have followed.
Because he's one of those homegrown from New York.
I came up and was playing for the New York Red Bulls at a young age with Jesse Marsh.
In a system that really benefited his playing style, right?
And so like I said, he's a defensive midfielder.
Who's really hard-nosed.
He wins a lot of tackles.
But the weakness in his game is that he's not a prolific passer.
He's not somebody that's going to advance the ball up the field.
So we'll get to that here in just a minute.
But I wanted to read a quote from his manager at Bournemouth and Doni Iriola.
Who says Tyler's a competitor.
He's a great leader.
You have to challenge Tyler.
Even in training, he's going to complain if any decision doesn't go to his side.
But I love these kinds of characters.
They want even more.
He's all the time focused.
He's a captain.
You can see he's been a leadership position in all the teams that he's played for.
And every manager that he's ever had from Jesse Marsh at the New York Red Bulls all the way.
To Iriola now at the Premier League with Bournemouth.
Have said a similar thing to Tyler about Tyler Adams is that he always wants to get better.
He's always challenging himself.
He's hyper competitive.
And that's just the kind of guy he is.
That's the kind of duty is he wins a lot of tackles.
Like I mentioned, if you go look on FB ref, which is a website that catalogs stats for players.
They have the same site for baseball and football and all these sorts of things.
So if you go to FB ref, you can see how he stacks up against other central midfielders in terms of what he is per 90 ratio is for different statistics.
And so they mark this with a with a bar graph.
So a red bar graph means that against his peers, this is not an area that he's strong in or a green bar graph, which will tell you he's above average or elite in certain categories.
So for Tyler Adams, everything that is related to being in possession, so passing the ball and moving the ball down the field progressive passes things along those lines, Tyler Adams is below average amongst his center midfield peers.
That's just not where he excels in the game, but where he does excel and where he is elite is breaking up opposing attacks.
So he is elite in tackles in disrupting play in winning duels.
He is absolutely outstanding and that's what he does for born with.
He's not tasked a lot with progressing the ball as like a ball playing midfielder.
His job is to win possession for the team and then move it to somebody else who can do that job to break up attacks from the opposing team and then move the ball quickly to somebody else who is tasked with moving the ball up the field.
That is what he does when you're in a national team situation like the context that we're talking about Tyler Adams here that presents an interesting dilemma because you have to have this guy on the field.
He does something at an elite level that you absolutely need and there's nobody else in the player pool who can do it quite like Tyler Adams.
The challenge then is how do you overcome and how do you compensate for the weaknesses that he presents as well.
If he's not going to be an elite ball playing center midfielder, then you have to compliment that with somebody who is or incorporated into the style that you're going to play right.
That's the challenge like Stephen now we're talking about of management is that anybody can put together a practice plane, but it's how do you solve problems and how do you maximize the strengths of your players and minimize the weaknesses.
And so for Tyler Adams that's part of the equation with the US men's national team is do you put somebody next to him who is better at playing passes who's better at being a progressive ball mover in the midfield.
What sorts of things can you do to again highlight and accentuate those strengths which is breaking up opposing attacks without exposing him in possession.
And so that I think is a big question from Mauricio Pochettino because Tyler Adams as long as he's healthy and that's a big caveat as Stephen I were mentioning earlier as long as he's healthy.
He's a guy that's a locked in starter for the US men's national team.
So what do you do and how do you compensate for those weaknesses. I think is a big question for this team moving into the world cup because he's a starter.
There's no way that if he's healthy that he's not on the field for the US in their first game in the world cup. That's just how important he is.
That's how good he is at the other aspects of the game right is he's a locked in nailed on starter for this team.
Even acknowledging like the weaknesses in his game and I'm emphasizing those because they're present and they're there and they're easy to identify.
But he's an outstanding player playing in the best league in the world for a team that's a top half of the table team and born with.
So don't hear me say that the Tyler Adams is not a good player. He's a great player. It's just about acknowledging what he's good at and what he's not.
And then observing how the team have the team accommodates his skill set and works within it because again you want to maximize what he's good at.
You want to minimize the things he's not good at. So when it comes to this upcoming camp and these games against Paraguay and Uruguay.
One of the things that we were really excited to see was how do you pair a guy.
How do you pair another midfielder next to Tyler Adams that does that for you that doesn't have to be good at the same things.
But he's good at other things and allows him to fully be his ball winning defensive midfield playbusting self.
How do you compliment that in a way that makes sense for this team.
And so that's what I was excited to see. It's a bummer that he has now been dropped from the roster due to injury with born myth.
Again, that's a thing for him is throughout his career. He's really, really dealt with a lot of injuries.
And so we'll get a look at some of these other midfielders. But there's not a like for like replacement for him on this roster.
There's not a single player in the US men's national team player pool who can do what he does.
So it's about finding who you compare with him effectively. And we'll see who's able to do that.
Whether it's a Tanner Testament, a Christian rule done. There are options for the US men's national team.
But it's about finding that ideal piece next to a Tyler Adams in the formation for the US.
And so that's a look at Tyler Adams again, an incredibly important player, a very, very good player for the US.
And one of the key players going into the world cup. I'm interested to see how they build around him.
The same way that I'm interested to see where Western McKinney fits into the puzzle and how Christian policy gets used as the most important and best attacking player on this team.
So a lot of intrigue. We'll see what these upcoming games with Paraguay and Uruguay revealed to us.
Again, those games are coming up. I believe Paraguay is Saturday, November 15th.
That's when the US is going to take on Paraguay. And then Uruguay is just three days later on the 18th.
So we have those two friendlies coming up. And as Stephen, we're talking, we're hoping to get some more information on this team.
But there's not a ton that we're going to be able to learn. And so it's about observing those little things.
Can there be somebody that can play next to a Tyler Adams?
Who's kind of leading the striker battle and those sorts of things?
So that's what we're keeping an eye on upcoming for this game against Paraguay on the 15th.
We're going to recap all of it on next week's episode. And so I'm really looking forward to that as well.
So you'll want to tune in to learn a little bit more about how the US played against Paraguay.
And then we'll preview the upcoming match against Uruguay.
We might even record after the Uruguay match just to make sure that we're able to digest both of those games and kind of bring you a recap on this camp for the US men's national team.
But that's going to do it for episode three of the Sunset soccer club.
Really appreciate you being here and joining us again, reach out to us on social media.
We're at Sunset Soccer Club on Instagram. You can find us on all the different platforms.
Find us on YouTube all of those sorts of things.
Also, you can email us Sunset Soccer Club at stolenwatermedia.com.
If you have questions, if there's something that we're not covering or not talking about that you want to cover, we can talk about it.
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And so we're here with lots of other wonderful shows that are doing incredible things.
So make sure to go check those out as well. And we will be back a week from now.
But thank you again for tuning into this episode.
Go enjoy your soccer. Look out for one another and we'll see you next week.
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