Positional Changes, USMNT News, and a Potential Boycott | Sunset SC Ep.08

All right, welcome in. This is episode number eight of the Sunset soccer club. I am Tyler Kerr and thank you so much for joining me here for this episode of the show.

It's all here on the stolen water media network here in the Sunset lounge. We are really, really happy that you have joined us for this show. Again, episode number eight we have 134 days until the 2026 World Cup kicks off.

It's just right around the corner now. We can all see it coming and this show is really again just for anybody and everybody who is interested in soccer wants to know more about soccer leading up to and through the World Cup. It's going to be a massive occasion.

It's going to be a great time and we are excited to be here to be talking soccer with you and bringing you so much action week after week. So thank you again for joining us for this episode of the show wherever you're joining us and however you're joining us there's no wrong way to do it and we are happy that you are here. Be it Spotify, Apple, Patreon, YouTube, wherever you're getting us in your ears or in your eyes.

We are grateful for that. Make sure to leave us a review. We would really, really appreciate that here at the show.

We're doing this because we we love talking about sports and we love talking about soccer and so that's why we're here. That's what we're putting in the work and if you're enjoying it at all, leave us a note, leave us a review. We would really, really love that.

All right, let's get to the kickoff. All right, for the kickoff today, we have four topics that we're going to run through here really quickly right off the top. Just news items for your soccer brain.

Starting off with today being Wednesday, January, what is today? January 28th. Wednesday, January 28th, we had a massive rash of Champions League games today and today decided who was going to automatically qualify for the round of 16 in the Champions League, who was going to go to the knockout round that determines whether or not you make it into the round of 16 and then who was getting eliminated.

So to break it all down, 16 teams are going to end up moving on to the round of 16, obviously, but eight seeds automatically qualify and so the eight teams that automatically qualified based on how their games have gone so far in the Champions League are Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Tottenham, Barcelona, Chelsea, sporting in Portugal and Manchester City. Heavy, heavy, lean towards the Premier League teams there. And then the next 16 teams in the standings for the Premier League, excuse me, the next 16 teams in the standings for the Champions League get put into a knockout round tournament to determine the eight teams that will join the aforementioned eight teams in the round of 16.

If it's confusing, don't worry, fat to look up the rules like 10 times. And then 12 teams got eliminated today in all of the craziness. Unfortunately, Western McKinney's goal streak in the Champions League was snapped today, but but you've a one of the 16 16 teams playing for a chance to make it into the round of 16 in the Champions League.

Next, Ricardo Pepe transfer. Now, we mentioned this on the last episode of the show when we were talking about his injury. It has come out and come to light that Fulham have submitted a $38 million bid for Ricardo Pepe to PSV.

I don't know if that bid has not been accepted yet. PSV has a little bit higher valuation on Ricardo Pepe trying to squeeze a little bit more money out of the Premier League side in Fulham. Despite Ricardo Pepe's injury, I really, really love this move for him.

I love this move for Fulham. I think that Fulham is kind of the ideal landing spot mid table kind of Premier League team pushing for a little bit more. Now, it is risky on Fulham's part, right?

Ricardo Pepe hasn't played a ton just either due to injury or due to somebody being in front of him in the pecking order and him being more of a super sub or being a guy that plays more in the Champions League or that sort of thing. So, I'd be interested to see what it would look like for him to play gaming, game out in the Premier League, but I think you would get a ton of chances with Fulham. I think you would get a lot of minutes there for a Premier League side, and I really think that this is an ideal spot for him to end up landing.

Fulham are a team that could really use more production from that striker, that number nine kind of position there for them. And so, I think this would be an ideal spot for Ricardo Pepe. Unlike when he moved from FC Dallas to Augsburg, Augsburg was a team that was really struggling offensively, could not score goals to save their life.

And then he comes into this side and it's up playing out on the wing more often than he plays striker for a team that was already struggling to generate chances and score goals. And it just ended up being a really, really bad landing spot for him after leaving FC Dallas. So, then he goes to Groningen in the Netherlands and plays well there on loan, ends up getting a full-time move to PSV.

And that has worked out brilliantly for him in the moments when he's been there number nine. And so now, this move to the Premier League for the 2022 year-old striker is materializing. And I really hope that it works out for all parties involved.

I think this would be a really, really good move. Now, also on the last episode, I admitted that I think I'd made a mistake by putting Geo Reina in my first edition of the projected starting 11 for the US men's national team for June 12th when they take on Paraguay in their first match of the World Cup. I said, hey, I made a mistake.

It should not be Geo Reina. It should absolutely be Weston McKinney. That was me taking a swing and taking a big ol' miss.

Well, to the surprise of no one, Geo Reina is once again hurt for Borussia Munchen Gladbach. He missed their last game against Duke Gart on Sunday. Due to a muscular problem, just really vague, no timetable given for any sort of return or more specifics given on what that injury is.

And this just continues a pattern for Geo Reina where it's, if it's not this, it's something else always for him when it comes to the injury front. And look, it's speculative to say that it's commitment, that it is, you know, is he putting in the work off the field? Is he willing to kind of push through discomfort and that sort of thing?

But the one thing that can be said is that your availability is an asset to a team on a soccer field. And Geo Reina just has not been available on a regular basis for any team that he's played for. I mean, for the entirety of his career at this point, he's simply too unreliable to bank on to be a difference maker for any particular team.

But I love to see him on the field making a difference for the US men's national team. Absolutely. I just, at this point, this has been about like five years of this.

And I think we know what we're getting with Geo Reina. A ton of talent. Boy, I wish he could just stay on the field, but he can't.

And so it's time to kind of move past that idea that he's going to be there and be a contributor for the US at any point because, yes, if he's on the field, he can be one of the most attacking players. And I know that there are some in the US men's national team kind of talking contingent, be it the scuffed podcast or Joe Lowry, who are really smart and good soccer talkers who really believe in Geo Reina. And I get it.

Like when you see him on the field, he's he's in a different class to a lot of his teammates. But the availability simply is not there. I don't know how you put this guy on a roster and can bank on him being healthy for any of these World Cup games.

And also just with the history and the baggage that come from the last World Cup, that whole situation, I think is just it's too risky to put him on a World Cup roster. I'm willing to be proven wrong. If he's able to stay healthy for a good like three month stretch here to round out the 2025 26 season, then I'm willing to reconsider this position.

But for right now, the wall was pulled over my eyes by three consecutive starts in December. But since we've gotten back from the winter break, it's no playing time. It's another injury.

It's being on the shelf again for Geo Reina and not on the field, which is just at this point a pattern that is too consistent to ignore at this point in his career. And boy, I wish that we could see him out there more often. But at this point, just doesn't seem like that's going to happen.

A guy that has been on the field consistently for Crystal Palace is Chris Richards. He made it back from injury and he celebrated his 100th appearance at Crystal Palace. The Premier League side on Saturday on Sunday.

Unfortunately, they lost to Chelsea 3-1 in that match. But 100 career appearances for Chris Richards at Crystal Palace. Congratulations to him.

Not a great game again for Crystal Palace who continue to kind of take a nose dive this season. But good on Chris Richards, the FC Dallas Academy product looking good for Crystal Palace for 100 career appearances. All right, when we get back, we're going to have a little fun.

Western McKinney's manager had a very interesting thing to say about him when it comes to his position. And so I'm going to pose a question and try to do my best to answer it and have a little fun with some of the US men's national team players when we get back here on the Sunset Soccer. All right, welcome back to the Sunset Soccer Club.

I am Tyler Kern. Thanks so much for joining us here for episode number eight here in the feed of the pod. We are thrilled that you are joining us.

Earlier this week, Western McKinney's manager, Luciano Spoletti, said of his midfielder, who's kind of been a jack of all trades for Juventus since Spoletti took over the Italian side. Western McKinney's played all over the pitch for Juvent. He's really done that all throughout his career, even starting at Shalka.

I remember him just playing all over the place there. And Luciano Spoletti had something very interesting to say. He said McKinney is a perfect central striker, one of the strongest as a center forward.

He fights, he's strong in the air, and he's gotten impressive leap. He plays to get results because he makes decisions. He would be a perfect striker, which is really interesting.

I do remember him starting at striker. I think at least one game at Shalka, who was a bad side then in the Bundesliga and Western McKinney was really at the time one of if not their very best player. And he played all over the field for them.

And so this was a situation where wherever he was needed at Shalka, he kind of played and he's kind of continued that jack of all trades role into his into his time at Juventus. And he's always managed to force himself onto the field one way or the other. No matter what the manager comes in saying or believing about Western McKinney, one of his greatest traits and attributes has always been his ability to work his way into a lineup no matter what he has to do.

There's competitiveness there. There's a willing to do whatever it takes, play anywhere on the field. The West, the McKinney just has that kind of sets him apart from a lot of his peers.

Now that inability to kind of specialize in one spot, maybe his held him back from reaching like a top, top, top, top, top, top level. But for where he is, he's played a really good number of games now for Juventus, one of the top sides in Italy. And so that speaks, I think, to his talent level, his ability to adapt to the different situations and all of the different managers that have coached him.

So this got me thinking in addition to Western McKinney, who are the other three players on the US men's national team or in the US men's national team pool who could have played different positions or could play a different position and might be well suited for it given either their size, their ability, something else along those lines. And this was just a fun thought exercise because I would have loved to have seen Western McKinney get developed as a central striker. Now that we mentioned it, he's got a really kind of thick frame that is able to hold off defenders, hold up play, play with his back to the goal.

He is really great in the air. He scores a lot of headers. And so that would have been a fun aspect to him as a striker.

He's really dangerous on set pieces. And he's been very opportunistic when he's gotten the opportunity to score goals for Juventus from wherever he's playing on the pitch. He's been dangerous for them.

I guess really since the new year here in 2026. And so this got me thinking, who are the three other players for the US men's national team who could feasibly have played a different role, played a different position. If you took them and stuck them in this other position now, what would they look like?

And first, well, first of all, let me start with the caveat that I didn't want to choose like outside backs as like wingers. That's too easy. That's that's cheating, I think, in this case.

And so we're going to start off with Serginio Dest as a creative midfielder. Now he has always had this ability to kind of play with a little bit of flair, a little bit of penache, let's say. Always willing to do some some flicks and tricks on the field.

He's really good at picking out a pass, I think. And he's a lot of fun to watch out on the field. He kind of tends to be a luxury player who doesn't play his best in defense, let's say.

So it's always interesting that he's been developed as an outside back throughout his career, because I don't think defending as a strong suit for Serginio Dest, you want him in the attacking third, you want him in the final third. I would have loved to have seen a world where Serginio Dest ends up playing as like a number 10, a creative midfielder who's only job is to set up other people to score goals and to try to hit bangers from right outside the 18. I think that that would have been a really exciting and fun thing to see for Serginio Dest.

You know what? Part of me kind of still would love to see it. My second pick was for a player that could potentially play a different position or one who I would love to have seen developed at this position is Tanner Tessmann at center back.

Now he's a he's a big tall guy who plays central midfield. And yes, that's that's very nice to have in a central midfielder, but his passing range is so enviable for a center back. We are always looking for center backs who are really good with the ball at their feet.

And I think that there's a world where if Tanner Tessmann had been developed as a center back, my goodness, he would be one of if not the best passing center back that the US has ever had in their player pool. Maybe Tim Reem might have something to say about that, but goodness gracious. Tanner Tessmann would be so good in that role.

I don't know about his 1v1 defending or his ability to kind of marshal a back line as a center back might need to do, but I would have loved to have seen Tanner Tessmann play as a center back. I realized this is just one wrong back from where he plays mostly as a defensive midfielder. I think he would have made an incredible center back.

And maybe at some point in his career, he'll end up moving backwards a little bit as he gets a little bit older and kind of playing as a center back. I would love to see it personally. I think he would be incredible.

And finally, last but not least, Walker Zimmerman, he could have been a striker there. Walker Zimmerman has scored some massive goals with his head throughout his career. He kind of reminds me of like Nicholas Falkrug, who was playing a center midfield for West Ham, he played for Borussia Dortmund.

Just kind of a big, kind of hulking figure, viking-looking guy who has scored a lot of goals with this head. Look, this is like an old-fashioned, you know, primarily center forward from like 1994 that I'm thinking of here. But I think Walker Zimmerman would have made like a hilariously great kind of just smash mouth, getting his head bloodied like every other game, kind of center forward as a striker.

So those are my three players who play for the U.S. men's national team kind of in the pool that I think would excel at other positions. This was just a fun thought exercise and something that I thought would be interesting to talk about in light of West Ham McKinney's manager, bringing up the fact that West Ham maybe would have been great or would still be great.

If someone were to try this out, West Ham McKinney would be great as a center, as a center forward, as a striker. I think that would be incredible to see who knows. Maybe Mauricio Pochettino is going to give it a try.

I think it's a fun little thought experiment. So if you have an idea of a player you would love to see play a different position either at the U.S. men's national team level or for their club team.

Let me know. I think this is a fun little conversation to have. Coming up next, we need to tackle a sensitive topic.

There's been a lot going on in the country and I think it's worth talking about from a soccer perspective as a lot of people have brought up what it means for the World Cup coming up this summer and I think we would not be doing our due diligence as a show to address our thoughts on the matter and also address how it impacts the World Cup and some of the things that we are seeing on social media. So stick around when we get back where you're going to tackle that and that will be that. So we'll be right back.

Welcome back to the final segment of the Sunset Soccer Club episode number eight. We are thrilled that you are here. We need to tackle a sensitive topic and I want to do it head on because I've seen a lot on social media just about the World Cup coming this summer and people from all over the country, all over the world coming to the United States and what that means especially in light of what we're seeing in our cities and our streets and the news that we saw over the weekend.

Look, I think first and foremost, I think sports are political. I don't think that you can separate the two. I think that anybody that that tries to or once that is living in a fantasy land and it's a fool's errand honestly.

Sports because they bring people together, they bring a lot of people together from a lot of different backgrounds that immediately makes it political plus it's big business, right? Anytime you have big business, it becomes a political endeavor. There's money behind it.

There's a lot of people behind it. It brings together communities. You merge those two things together in the form of sports and you immediately have an extremely political vehicle and I just don't think that there's any getting away from that.

You don't have to look any further than the extent to which Donald Trump has tried to connect himself to the World Cup throughout this presidency, right? It matters to him because it is a political thing because it is a platform. It is a stage and that's what politics is and so I don't think that we can avoid tackling a topic like this on a soccer show just because we want to have good vibes or something like that.

I've said from the outset of this show, if you go back to episode number one, that my goal for this program is for it to be a place where anybody and everybody can come together and talk soccer, right? And I mean that by anybody and everybody. I believe soccer is the most inclusive, the most community building sport that there is because it's so easy.

All you need is a patch of just ground basically and a round object and you can play soccer and it has been bringing people together for 150 years now across the world and it's a beautiful, wonderful thing and it even cuts through my cynicism from time to time. I look at how big business the sport has become, how run by just corporate profits and billionaires and all of that sort of stuff that the game can be sometimes and it's easy to get really cynical but then you see some incredible stories and you look throughout history at the way that the game has mattered to communities and brought people together and it reminds me all the time that this is a wonderful thing that we get to experience together and talk about and have fun doing. And so with all of that said and with the full knowledge that our soccer stadiums and our soccer fields are wonderful places and places that are often full because of the rich diversity and immigrant population that we have here in the United States and that's something that I think is really beautiful about it and really, really wonderful and that I personally celebrate, which is why the events that have happened in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities over the last several weeks have been really distressing and really disturbing and I just have no time and no place for the actions of this administration and for ice as an entity.

I think it should be abolished, I think it should be out of our cities, I don't want any part of that, anywhere in the United States. A secret police operating with full-impunity, murdering citizens in the street is not something that I am about and so let me make that extremely clear, that's just my personal opinion that does not reflect the beliefs of anybody else within the Sunset Lounge or the stolen water media network kind of podcast network and community, that's just where I stand and I have this platform and so that's what I'm going to say as far as this particular issue, I think what happened over the weekend was tragic and I think that it deserves to be called what it was and I believe that was a murder. That being said, the response that I've seen a lot on social media has been people calling for foreign countries to boycott the World Cup as a result of the political turmoil that we are seeing in the United States and I think and there have been a couple of people Mike Goodman on Blue Sky has been really really good on this topic that have pushed back and said it is not the job of foreign countries to boycott to help drive home that this is the US's mess to help fix the problem that the US has created in and of itself.

These are athletes and these are countries that value this event. For many of them, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as an athlete to get to go and play in a World Cup. You just don't know how many of these you're going to get to do in your career and so that opportunity doesn't come along very often and then asking a country to boycott because of the craziness that we have going on here.

Germany was one of the countries mentioned, right? What if Germany just boycotted coming to the US? That's again asking Germany to stand up and call out our bad behavior and the mess that we have created and so I don't think that doing that is in the best interest of the United States and the best interest of the tournament.

Again, that is I think putting the responsibility somewhere where it doesn't belong. The responsibility for what is going on in this country rests solely with us to fix and you can do that by calling your representatives, calling your senators, something that I am doing and advocate doing very, very strongly, but it is not the responsibility of other countries boycotting this gigantic event that matters a lot to people across the world just because we have problems here at home. I totally get it.

The debt is coming from a place of wanting to make a maximum impact in a way that will be noticeable. It is asking too much sacrifice on the part of a country that on the part of other countries that have a lot invested in an event like this to ask them to bear that burden just because we ourselves in the US are kind of a mess right now. That is my perspective on other countries boycotting the World Cup.

It is also my perspective on what is going on in our country with Isom with this current administration that insists on lying to our faces on a pretty damn regular basis. I understand that might not be your opinion, that might not be everybody's opinion out there, but that is my opinion. I have this platform and feel compelled to use it in this particular way.

That is going to do it for this episode of the show, not exactly the most exciting or uplifting way to finish the show, but that is how episode 8 is going to go. We appreciate you joining us very, very much here in the Sunset Soccer Club. We will be back again soon next week with another episode of the program working on getting great guests that are going to be able to bring a lot of insight to you about the World Cup coming this summer.

Again, still working to get experts to talk about the teams that are going to be playing in the US's group. So a lot of exciting things coming up on the show. Again, if you enjoy the show, make sure you subscribe.

Leave us a note, leave us a review, whatever it takes to communicate that you're enjoying it. We would appreciate that very, very much. I'm Tyler Kern.

We'll be back soon with another episode, but until then, have a good one.