Sunset SC Ep.13/What Happened to the USMNT vs Belgium & Portugal?

All right, it's episode 13 of the Sunset Soccer Club. I'm Tyler Kern. We have two US men's national team games to talk about. And luckily we have a man that was on site for both of those games in Atlanta joining us to help us break it all down and talk about all of it.
Still in Atlanta. It's our Munkify. I'm welcome back to the Sunset Soccer Club. What's up, TK? Things are having me on, man. I wish we were talking about two games that went better for the US. We're going to break it all down. Here's kind of how we're going to approach this. We're going to give quick thoughts on both of the games. Just reaction. Some of the things we notice some of the things we saw from the US, especially as it compares to how they've played in the past. And then we'll get to kind of the big picture stuff. What does this mean for the team? Where are we as we now
as it mere months away from the World Cup being hosted here? In case you missed it, the US lost five to two to Belgium and then two to nothing to Portugal. So we are going to get into both of those games. But first since our mom was in Atlanta for both of these games still is in Atlanta at the airport, as we speak, about to fly back to Dallas. We've never spoken to our mom in like a normal place. He's either in his car. Yeah, we're my car. Yeah, like I'm never actually like at like a set up. It's actually got a grace. It is kind of wild.
One of these days, we'll have to like do it for real real, but I actually kind of like this better. Since you were there, what were the vibes like just give us like the lay of the land in Atlanta as one of the host cities for the World Cup, but also in stadium experience. Just what was it like being there for those two matches?
I mean, first off, like, I think I was telling you like before a show, TK, like it might be like one of the more met like the most or one of the most metro friendly places, like when it comes to like taking a train over to the game. So we stayed in Buckhead in our hotel. I made sure it was a five minute walk from the train place of train station. So we literally got there. We walked there and we went to the game. It was super easy. It was like really convenient, like super straightforward.
Coming to walk to the stadium and then from the atmosphere is pretty good as well, too, man. It was really fun. It was kind of like a party, like a festival, like atmosphere, you know, with teams like the first game was very more pro US. The second game was very.
It was a weird environment. I see a lot of people say, oh, it's a bunch of Portugal fans. Yeah, there was, but those guys were also getting through the US too. We're really weird. It's like see. Yeah.
A bunch of like Ronaldo stands that are also like you exactly, exactly, exactly. So it was it was a bit weirder, but I mean, the stadium is great. The atmosphere was really cool. Like, I mean, I was like looking. I was like, man, can I maybe squeeze in going to Spain, Cape Thursday game and like just going for a day because you technically could land in Atlanta, take the train to the stadium, hang out there, take a train back to this airport and then fly out. And it's very easy, like very easy.
We could never hear in North Texas. We could never make that. Just got to drive around. Just got to drive, you know, an hour and sit in ridiculous traffic and pay, you know, your monthly mortgage in parking and parking, exactly, exactly. So that's that's going to be our lot in life. But I'm glad to know that other places aren't quite like that. And honestly, kind of surprised that the metro system is so good in Atlanta, but hey, that's that's awesome. It's legit a straight shot. Like you just like hop on it and you go straight.
You're there. Jeez. Uh, it's just making me more and more envious the more we talk about it. Um, the other burning question from from somebody who is in the stadium is, was it as hard to tell Belgium and the United States apart in the stadium as it was on TV, because on TV, like, uh, everything was a double take and you just never knew.
I like it was, it made it really, really hard to analyze and break down this game, because you were constantly questioning whether or not a player, like what team a player was on it was one of the more wild experiences of my life. Was it as hard in the stadium for you.
It was so funny. So my friend who I came to the game with, he looks at me and he goes, why are they wearing the same jerseys? I look up and I'm like, oh, my guys are really hard to tell.
Um, you could kind of pick off small pieces of the Belgium jersey with the blue and the pink. Yeah, but it was really difficult to tell. Like, I mean, what a jersey miss that I cannot believe that like they didn't come with spares. They didn't like think about this. They didn't like, how does this happen on like the international stage in the warm up game for a world cup. Like, it's insane to me. And it was difficult. It was to get I've, I've played in a weekly pickup game on Sunday mornings with Steve.
Davis, uh, local Dallas soccer man and, uh, yeah, the goat of Dallas soccer talk and, um, you know, uh, sunset soccer club zone Steve Davis. Uh, he, yeah, I tweeted at him that like he would just never allow this to happen. It's Sunday pickup. And I didn't like organized game that gets organized every week via email. Like, we would do better than this, uh, like, I, I could not believe it.
But it made for a really, really challenging watch. And even on Western McKinney's goal, I didn't think that it was actually West that was about to get that ball. I thought it was surely this, that's a, that's a Belgian defender. She's going to turn and clear this out. And when he actually kicked it in the back of the net, it's like, oh, shoot, that was, that was actually an American player and we scored a goal. And like, that's, that's wild. But like, every single play was a double take of like, no, but you're going the wrong way or no wrong team. This is, this is wild. So it made for a very, very challenging watch. Um, and crazy to know that it was like that.
In person, I, I haven't heard any of the players talk about it, but gosh, that was wild. Just, I think it's not players that was difficult to like, uh, operate through it because they couldn't exactly tell who's either, which that's crazy too.
As someone who's broadcasted a ton of games, you know, I did FC Dallas games for years. I've done Dallas Cup games. I've, you know, just done games in random spots.
Like the most challenging job I've ever had as a broadcaster is, is doing like the three digit, uh, numbers for the Mexican teams in, in Dallas cup.
Um, but like you get some binoculars, you make some notes, like number three, 17s wearing green shoes and you can figure it out for the most part. I've never been in a circumstance where like the jerseys were basically, you, you could not perceive the difference visually.
Um, and, and the thing is like, I mean, the US, like, they probably could have, like, they had almost a color clash with, I think, Portugal, too, if they were those blacks against a, what's it called bellgim?
I think we have a color classic as Portugal as well, too. It wasn't, it wouldn't be easy to tell either. So I mean, just their jersey cat made things a little difficult, just a mess, just a mess.
All right. Speaking of messes, let's talk about the two, uh, the two games. Uh, here's the starting 11 that started against bellgim. There's some interesting just notes in this already to me, um, the starting 11 was Matt Turner in goal, Tim way at right back, Mark McKenzie and Tim Reem, uh, were the center backs in Antony Robinson was the left back.
Tanner Testman and Johnny Cardoso partnered in the midfield with Western McKinney, Malik Tillman and Christian, policy, uh, playing in front of that too. We can kind of talk about how that operated and moved, uh, with Florian Balligan as the striker against bellgim and just right off the bat for starting 11, I thought it was interesting Matt Turner got a run out in this game.
Um, and then with no Tyler Adams, obviously, you kind of reshuffled the midfield, anything stand out to you, just from like the, the starting 11, Armand, who, um, Riccio, Pochettina rolled out, uh, to start this game against bellgim.
I wasn't like surprised because bell surprised a kind of set like on paper that was a back four right because on paper it was like a back four and then it's so much success with the back five with the third center back in there with the wing backs flying up, etc.
We had a lot more success with that. So when I saw this land of I was like, I guess it's center back issues are causing go back to back four and I know like in like reality that the middle would drop in between and compromises a back three, that's not the same as having a center back there like an actual back three.
So that's the thing I got me off course, it's so much success with this back three that now you're going to go this back four like why that was the part that threw me off and also I agree with you, I was surprised that Turner got a star over a freeze, because freeze looks like I've been punching as God, I think there was a time to experiment with it, I wouldn't say it was four games to the World Cup.
There's a lot of experimentation in this lineup and then again in the Portugal lineup and I understand some of it because you lost some guys the injury, some guys left camp like Cardoso left after the Belgium game, had some discomfort in one of his legs and so it goes back to Spain, I get that sort of stuff.
I kind of want to save the talk about the experimentation for like kind of the what does this all mean because I think I have like a broader frustration with how this camp was approached kind of once we get to the end of the podcast and we'll save it for that section, but no, you're right, like it's been one of the things that it's hard to describe on a podcast, but what the US had essentially done was in their previous matches like against your way in Paraguay, which the good vibes from those games are certainly gone now.
It started off kind of with this idea of three center backs, like a stay at home right back that tucks in and became a third center back and Antony Robinson, whoever the left back was whether it was Max Arvstein or whoever else got to just kind of bomb up and down the left side without too much concern for immediate defensive responsibility.
So you're starting off with three in the back in this case, they started off with four in the back, but still let the outside backs bomb forward and then the deepest center mid, which in this case, most of the time with standard testament just dropped in between the center backs to still nominally give the same shape, but just a different way of getting there in a different way of building out from the back.
I suppose like you want to have different clubs in the bag and that sort of thing once you're actually in the world cup, but, um, and maybe we could say like the first 40 minutes of this matrimon, like actually looked really, really good, I thought, like the US was playing some really attractive soccer.
This was a really entertaining game and it looked like for 40 minutes, a, the US took the lead through a West McKinney goal, but really just like was going toe to toe with a Belgium side that had some just absolutely incredible players on the field.
And it had this really good vibe through the first 40 minutes, is that what you kind of picked on picked up on in the stadium that like the US was actually like playing pretty well through that the majority of that first half.
Absolutely, as the kids were saying, they're going to ban for band with the Belgium, like they were absolutely like, I know, either until a couple days ago, when it comes down to the way that they were playing.
It was really fun, but I find almost TK became a little too expansive at times, because there was because I know a lot of you'll talk about, I think it was kind of oddly mixed about Tim way up versus Doku.
I think Doku was very dangerous in the first half, very dangerous. It just never had an end product to it. And I think that was a result of the US kind of playing this unstructured style of playing that it basically said, okay, like we're going to have both our full backs fly up.
Both of them fly up is going to be room for Doku to operate and Doku had playing room to operate, et cetera.
They were finding him with relative ease, even the first half. I know the second half that change and actually more direct towards him.
But again, I think it did work though, right? Like they produce a heavy of chances and it was fun to watch.
My only concern was when I think I think we all can agree that Belgium talent wise is better than US. Yeah, I think.
Like, and I think when you're playing as team as a talent, there's better than you that, yes, you can play as expansive stuff. It's going to leave you acceptable to things happening. And we saw that kind of change toward the end of the first half.
And literally every time we look like we saw Doku in the ball, maybe my friend looking at you and like, damn, like, something is going to happen here. He's just too dynamic for way.
I mean, it's not like in a situation where I was surprised where it happened the second game, but I was surprised.
If you have Doku there and you have way out there and where isn't like.
Like I took a shut down like defender, right? No, we wouldn't call that. He's not Aaron one basaka or something like that.
Exactly. Exactly. I was surprised like, okay, hey, like, you put a lot of responsibility on him.
You know, you're more marked McKenzie to like take up the burden against Doku when like, you probably should be throwing two or three bodies at this guy.
And be like, hey, let's slow him down. That's that's exactly right. Like, you can get on way if you want. However, to me, like that misses the point that like Jeremy Doku skins, primarily right backs.
Like on the regular and this is not way as normal position. He's much more kind of if he's going to play in that role, like it needs to be a wingback kind of role where he has way more defensive cover.
You need to be able to throw two or three bodies at Jeremy Doku. And so like, you can get mad at way at all you want.
If Syrginio desk is healthy and playing in that spot, he's getting absolutely roasted killed. Like, yes, there's there's not a right back in the US's pool or in most pools for that matter. And like, that's the thing about like when you go up against the team with the star, don't you game plan to like shut that guy down somehow.
Exactly. There was no game plan. It was so effortless when it Doku was getting the ball. Yeah. And just they just found him every time.
Especially after and I know Matt Doyle and a couple of others have highlighted this, especially after the hydration break, which is we were doing hydration breaks from the games inside, but that's I think there's going to be a thing from here on out.
After the hydration break, Belgium made a conscious decision. It seemed to go way more direct that like first ball to De Bruyne, De Bruyne a big 40 50 yard switching ball to Doku in acres of space.
And then just from there, like the US is just carved up absolutely because you're right. The US was playing a more unstructured kind of system. We were bombing people forward. It was causing Belgium problems. It took one small stylistic fix.
One small change to the Belgium system. And it just ripped the US open. And from there on out the rest of the game, like it felt like Belgium could just name their score. Like how many how many goals do you want to score who all who needs their first goal here in a Belgium shirt, because boy, there's going to be chances of plenty. And I think the frustrating thing is a you didn't game plan for a player who does this on the regular in the Premier League, like you'll turn on Manchester City and regularly Jeremy Doku is the best player on the pitch.
Amongst other guys that are 100 million dollar players. So you didn't game plan for him. And then you couldn't adjust or didn't know how to tactically adjust once Belgium switched and adjusted like, yes, you may have had the better of the chances in the first 30 minutes.
But boy, when Belgium flipped that switch, like there was no response. And I think that has to be just a massive concern coming out of this game.
Right. And that's the thing like in those games against Peter Guay and the game against Australia, for example, like basically here's the ball, take it. Yeah, like we're going to sit back to compact shape. When a team is challenging you with possession and stuff, you have to also know your limitations as well to look, I understand the US.
Going on plays way no matter what, et cetera. But sometimes you think of burrow halter in the way that he played and he coached his, they were very structured because he kind of knew limitations of the national team.
And yes, they made for pretty soccer. No, but did it increase the floor. Yes, the floor was a lot higher. Like that game, I bet you in the brawl to like, if you meticulously game plans like maybe like a 2L Belgium win or something.
Yeah, it's a lot more, I think, I think closer. But like when that happened, and when don't you continue to go to the ball, no adjustments are made.
You were like, this team just kind of like rolled over. It's like, okay, we're done. Like we just, we have nothing kind of coming. We've no adjustments to make it, et cetera. No one off the bench.
I think it's not everything to death. I don't think it's as good as I thought we would have. I think the depth is really rough as you see the subs go in.
I mean, we'll talk about more and I think the second game, the level drops.
Quite a bit. And the test was.
I didn't think I want to have a good performance to be like, I think Western had a great performance, but I think the rest.
Yeah.
Policy missed some chances.
It was maybe Cardoso's best performance in a US shirt, which isn't saying much because his previous performances had largely been pretty garbage, but I thought.
I thought he was, he was only in for the first half though. So like, exactly.
Does, does he make a difference in there over Roldon?
I don't, I don't necessarily, I don't necessarily know to me, to me, TK, the thing that worries me is.
If you're going to practice the World Cup knockout game, you'll get smashed.
Yeah.
And like, that's kind of set up for this. The World Cup knockout game, you can go ahead.
Well, I don't know if someone's sitting there charging their phone, but.
But.
It's a, like in the World Cup knockout game, it is very difficult to.
Like you need to knock up the game, you slow it down.
You actually did a good job at the second game, right?
Yeah.
In the first game, it was just openness.
It was like, you're watching a game like this, something you're bound to get scored on like multiple times because it was too expansive.
It was too like, like risky.
Like, you know what I mean?
Like it wasn't.
Like you have to know your limitations.
You know, this is, this is something that.
On the post game show, like they were, they were kind of talking about quite a bit.
Um, you had Kyle Martino and other guys talking about the US.
How the US was famously like difficult to play against in the past.
Because the US didn't necessarily always try to like.
Outsock are you?
They would outwork you out hustle you out all of those sorts of things because the talent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a lot like me, so we met friend.
We went, we're both from Iran, right?
Yeah.
We're famous from Iran.
Iran plays that kind of way.
Totally.
Where.
Where they.
And I was telling them the US is kind of cut in between where they're better than that technically.
But they're what's it called under that like level of the being the best team out there.
So like now it's like, OK, how do we play?
How do you stuff?
Like Iran, for example, every game they're going to play the same way.
They're we compact.
They're going to reach an encounter.
And that they play expansive.
They're terrible.
But the US is stuck in that in between where it's like people expect them to play better soccer and have better soccer players.
But like, they're still not going to have to compete at the top to your talent.
Well, and I think it totally does because I think that a strange aspect of just where the US sits in the global soccer food chain.
They are so much bigger and better than just about every other team in the region, right?
Outside of like Mexico and occasionally Canada when they turn it on and they're playing really, really well.
But like, the US should beat everybody else in conquercaf.
And so you have to play like this domineering kind of you can't play like just let them have the ball against Guatemala.
Like you've got to go out and you've got to dominate that game.
But then you cannot play that exact same way.
Turn around and play that exact same way against Belgium, right?
Like there aren't too many teams who Belgium has to adjust how they play against, right?
Like they go toe to toe with France, like Jeremy Doku's still going to get chances, right?
They're still going to try to do some of the same things.
The US almost has to completely revamp.
There's only like what 10 teams in the world that could do that.
That's just going and not change their style of play no matter who they play.
But there's not like.
And but I think like the challenges that I can't think of too many nations that have like made the leap from what you're describing.
From like in 2010 we played this way.
And now here we are in 2026 and we want to play this way, right?
Like has it really happened?
It's kind of like an interesting case study.
But like yeah, but like and I mean, even if you want to think about like who has joined like the upper pantheon of the sport.
Like Spain is the most recent team to win their first World Cup, right?
But like they'd been a good soccer nation for a really, really long time.
The Netherlands has never broken through but probably been like the most influential soccer country of the last half a century at least.
So the US is attempting to do something that like just doesn't get done, especially not by countries that like don't eat, sleep and breathe this stuff.
And so that's I think on a fundamental level.
That's why we find ourselves in this really weird middle ground where like not good enough to like go toe to toe against Belgium.
It's good players, you know, should often like beat every team in our region, but like can't get over like this really weird hump.
And that's why like the expectations for this upcoming World Cup are way out of whack and kind of kind of wild to me the more that we think about it.
I agree with you, man.
It's like a really difficult balance, really.
How do you balance like that leap?
Like I don't, I don't know because I think the US has improved rapidly when it comes to academy systems.
When it comes to the setup of MLS and other aspects of it, but man, like these tenders established, like you can't compete.
And I think the way the one word I described that performance against Belgium was naive.
Yeah.
Like you didn't walk in there with a plan.
You didn't walk in and he said we're just going to play it away and like for lack of an effort, we ball kind of mentality.
And it's like you, you cannot do that against Belgium.
You need to have some sort of like some sort of semblance of a plan and it looked like as soon as Belgium figure out, do everything fill apart.
There's nothing else.
Take away from the game and except that OK, dominant first 40 minutes, but like was Belgium still dangerous.
Yes.
Did you like, and did everything fall apart from the 1050 minutes, been a second half before the massive changes happened.
Yes.
Yeah.
Like overall, it's just like, I think you have to take away from the game.
We can't compete against these guys on the, on a talent. That's why and that's why tactically you set up in a certain way that allows you to restrict the game.
And if, because Doku just found something space, space, space isolated one on one.
OK, if there's maybe two or three bodies on him.
If maybe there's, he has to go through a couple guys.
That's where it gets difficult.
That's why teams play this kind of bark to bust style, especially when they're worse.
Yeah.
Because that's how you restrict the game and must in the US should park the bus, but it's OK to sit in the low blocks sometimes.
It's OK to like suffer and not have the ball.
That's OK.
Mm-hmm.
Does that be for long?
And I think that says like a soccer nation, we have to kind of understand that too.
Like, it's not all going to be beautiful soccer done, et cetera, et cetera.
Sometimes you have the bunker.
It happens.
Yeah.
Every, every team goes through it.
Inter Milan hasn't had to give back the champions league.
They won under Jose Maria.
Exactly.
Just bunker in the hell out of everybody.
Like, exactly.
It's, it's not aesthetically pleasing.
And if your goal is to entertain, then that's a bummer.
But if your goal is to win trophies with a World Cup, not, not to entertain.
Like, I'll entertain some aspects, but I want to, I want to, I want to go World Cup.
Yeah.
If it's.
Yeah.
It was, it was brutal, the man.
It was a brutal.
I mean, I'll be honest.
After was, I think, three, one.
It was over.
Like, there's nothing to take away from the after three.
One can take away that.
No, you can't take away that.
That game was over.
It was three, one.
The players were deflated.
That's absolutely right.
So that's a, that's a lot on USA Belgium.
I have less on USA versus Portugal.
Here's the starting lineup for that one.
Matt frees in goal.
Alex Freeman.
Chris Richards.
Austin trusty and Antony Robinson.
Start along the back line.
Aiden Morris.
Seb Berhalter.
And Weston McKenney.
Started in the midfield with Malak Tillman.
And Christian Polisik.
As the starting striker.
We'll talk about that.
And Tim way up front.
Kind of in like a four three three shape.
I didn't get to watch this one nearly as closely.
But let's start off.
I mean, I, I think the, the first place you have to start.
This is two new win for, for Portugal, by the way.
You get an absolute banger off of a corner cake of a goal.
But I think you have to start off with Christian Polisik,
starting as the striker.
I understand you're trying to get him closer to goal.
You're trying to get him going because he hasn't scored in 2026.
But.
Well, that was it.
That was a choice.
That was a decision.
What the hell we're doing?
I think, I didn't get that.
I didn't get that at all.
I was very confused by it.
And to be honest, like,
I like the rest of the set up made sense.
I like Alex Freeman.
I was like that right center back to cover way up.
Because he's fast enough to cover the ground.
Yeah.
For Alex for that.
That's a pretty good game.
Yeah.
To be, to be honest.
Polisik, man.
He had two stinkers.
Yeah.
He did not look great against.
Belgium did not create against.
Portugal.
And he was up top.
And he was not great, man.
Not a good.
At all.
So, I mean, overall, like.
Just.
I don't like.
If you had a real forward up there,
I think those chances get finished.
It's certainly more likely.
It's a.
It's a.
It's a choice because.
He's not physically able to deal with.
The strength of a center back,
who's just going to body him off the ball.
It deflated so many chances.
And destroyed the US's ability to kind of control.
Play and like play out, right?
Yeah.
That was a problem because when the US was playing.
So the US played the opposite of the way it plays.
Belgium was up more composed.
I was sent back.
Make Portugal kind of hold the ball suffer a little bit.
Etc.
But dude.
Like.
Did no one to hold up the ball.
Yeah.
So did they play the ball long ball forward?
You don't have big pat in there.
You don't have.
Uh, flow.
You don't have.
Peppy.
Peppy.
Yeah.
You just pull the sick.
It's just.
Pull the sick isn't up.
He's not a target for it.
Sorry.
It's just the reality situation.
He's not.
So overall, like it was like.
Just didn't make sense.
It didn't make.
I mean, I get why I want to experiment with it.
But like, again, like.
You have a.
Just strike your competition.
Why wouldn't you want to figure out like who's your best?
That was dumb.
I thought that was a stupidest thing.
You never strike on this.
You have peppy.
You have fall again.
You have.
Uh.
I just wanted to say that it was a stupidest thing.
You never strike on this.
You have peppy.
You have fall again.
Uh, Argymont.
And.
We decided to go with.
A non-striker.
Yes.
I'm, I'm right there with you.
Like it made absolutely no sense.
It didn't make sense.
In like.
From the get go, like it was obvious,
like it wasn't going to work.
And it wasn't working and you're absolutely like.
If this was.
You know, back in the days when like if Josie Alcador was hurt,
we were rolling out like.
rolling out like, you know, Alan Gordon or something. Then you're like, all right, let's try out
our best player at strike. Yeah, and just kind of see if we can create some dangerous situations
or whatever, you know, like, let's, let's see if that works. That is, that's not the atmosphere
that we currently have. Like, Baligan is, is a good striker. Ricardo Pepe is, you know, full of
him is trying their nuts off to, to buy him for like $35 million for a reason because he's a,
he's a good striker. Like, what are we doing here? Like, is there, is there, it's, again, like,
it gets into the stuff I want to talk about at the end of the show, but why experiment this way
in this particular camp? Like, if this was this time last year, then maybe so. Maybe like,
you want to like try, like, oh, maybe does this wrinkle work? Is this something we could roll out
in a game in the World Cup? At this point, the stakes are too high. We're too close. Like, the time
for experimentation like this is over. You can't do that, man. And it's just because the game plan,
I actually think outside of that made sense. You sit back, the way that Portugal scored the open
goal was a mistake by the U.S. Fatinia found Bruno Prenange. He was like the red C basically split open
and he was, and he was through like, but like, the U.S. I thought played really well. I wish they
played this against Belgium, but I think Belgium was stronger a little bit more than what happened.
But the problem was when the U.S. would try to get the ball, they actually had really
nice attacking sequences as well. They were getting forward. I thought this performance was
acting really good from that perspective, but there were situations where they were suffering.
And when you're suffering without the ball, you need outlet. If you're pressing, you need outlet.
Like, and I think the centerbacks that were in trusty, free minute Richards, I think
Richards is, I think, finally, but I'm not really sure about trusty and free man. Okay, let them have
outlets where they can kind of lump it forward. Let's just say I'm making up a name here.
Big Pat Ajimans up there. He can win. He's huge. He can win so many tools and he's won so many
jewels and drawn so many fouls. Like, is the game in the champion? Exactly. Yeah. So it's like,
you have a guy like that winning all that stuff, etc. You can calm the game down. You have
a possession higher up the pitch. You can kind of build and send the pressure to the opposite
way, but they think and pull sick. Man, you had opportunities and completely fluffed them and
completely fluffed them. He was frustrated. He got fouled, kicked out their frustration foul.
It happened again, kicked out again. He was very frustrated by his performances. And
rightfully so you are quote unquote, happened in America, quote unquote LeBron James's soccer or
what some people call him. Like, you have expectations and you put up these stinkers. Come on.
There's rough. He's had a rough 2026. There's no doubt about it. We were really hoping that the
2025 form would carry over and so far it just jokes on us. It did not carry over at all. It did
not. One thing I will say, TK, I kind of mentioned this briefly, but I don't think you should be
a starter, but Alex Freeman is definitely making a case to like make national team for sure.
Like I just he just he's just so interested in this guy who first full-time last season was
basically last season. Now he goes to LaLiga. He just impressed me, man. He just impressed me
with how quick he closed down. He's actually on ball. He's created a chance for a pull stitch.
Like, who is this guy? I mean, I get he's great. I'm less play. He's a great right wingback.
That's a center back in how he's been deployed. I'm actually really like that mix.
D-Rob last time he was on the show was talking about how like is Alex Freeman the answer to like,
hey, if all the the sons of NFL greats like played soccer, like, I mean, it's a it's a it's a great
shout. It's a great shout. I mean, for me, I would start him at that right center back spot
if the world started covering the way. Yeah, I mean, because it's way as caught up high.
Way more dust, honestly. Exactly. You have this guy who's super fast. You can cover a lot of
ground. And also, I think can hold his own. Yeah, like I covering him. I literally was like,
that's exactly how we set up the team in that capacity. I can I like the performance TK though.
I like it. This is you suffer and you do this thing, etc. But just the setup didn't didn't do
them any favors. Exactly. You need an outlet to get rid of all this pressure that you have.
And they have a couple other notes from that game. I thought I thought Matt Freese just kind of
showed that he should be the number one. I Matt Turner in the the game against Belgium. I kind
of thought the first goal. Honestly, like, I didn't see enough people kind of questioning it,
which made me question myself. But look, the here's what I'll say. Like Matt Turner has like
pretty glaring deficiencies when it comes to distribution within his game. The like thing that
you could always say about him is he's a quote unquote shot stopper. And when he was in MLS,
like he was an elite shot stopper. If that is why you were on the field, I kind of think you have
to make that save. I realized like evaluating goalkeeping and that sort of thing is a way
different skill set. And so it seems a little harder to do for guys like us. But just to me,
I looked at that was like, even if you see it late, like it's not that far off your body,
it never leaves the ground. It's from 30 yards out. Like I kind of need you to make that save.
And so Matt Freese, I think kind of solidified his claim, I think, to be the number one for
the US when the World Cup starts. And then I didn't think this was a great game for Aiden Morris.
I think in the the first goal that you were talking about, I think he should have kind of
tracked back to almost exactly where the shot was taken and maybe cut out that pass in the first
place from Bruno. And then on the second goal, like I think it's him trying to close out,
you know, Felix. No one closed out like that was so that was that was lazy. That was everyone.
That was really that was really a lazy effort from the team. I think that's a good way to put it.
But I think he was the closest one. And like I just I don't know that I loved like the effort
there to try to stop that from happening. I mean, he had he collects the ball at the top of the
box. I think was preparing to hit it first time instead takes a touch. It bounces and has
enough time to collect and hit it just incredibly cleanly from the top of the 18 on a corner kick.
I'm sorry, just like absolutely not like not a chance. And so to me at all, all the more
reinforces like good guy. I hope Tyler Adams is healthy when June 12th rolls around.
Yeah, that's that's that's that's a big takeaway takeaway for me was I think we actually played
pretty well in that game, but still. And it was a mixed lineup too, but still I'm just
much of two knows is kind of baffling me a little bit. Let's get into that because that kind of
takes us into the what does this all mean? What do we take away? I mean, two defeats to teams that are
obviously more talented than you. Mauricio Parchettino drove that point home saying that you know,
Belgium and Portugal have multiple players that would be ranked in the top 100 players in the
world and US might have any yeah, rough, rough thing to say about your team, but also
was entirely true when you took the job and it is your job not to complain about the talent
that you have or don't have because this isn't a club team. You can't go buy different players.
You just have to make the best and make the most of what you have. So this was the case when you
took the job over a year ago and it is the case now heading into a world cup that yeah, you probably
don't have a single player ranked inside the top 100 of the world. It was your job and still is
to elevate the team to play better and experimenting in these last two matches the way he did.
I don't think makes for a cohesive squad that understands roles, responsibilities and how they're
going to play when we take the field against Paraguay. So that is my biggest frustration and take away
from these two friendlies. It's not that we lost necessarily. If we lost but played the exact
same way that we played against Uruguay and just didn't get the goals and things didn't go away
or whatever the case may be, that's fine. It's the weird experimenting and the lack of elevation
of players within the system that he's choosing to roll out. I think just has me more confused than
ever and I went into this camp hoping we got answers instead. I leave with more questions.
The experimentation threw me off because again, we were four games and we started. Now we're only two
games away. The World Cup roster will be named. Why are experimenting in tactics? If his back three
works, stick with the back three. Stop with this. If a union striker, he's a striker. For me, he was
honestly, I hated it. I wasn't mad at the performance. I just hate the experimentation. Stop
experimenting. The core group needs to figure out what they're doing. Then Yanke Mountain
figured out from there. The system is what bothers me because the World Cup is it will be a
tournament of matchups. You have to accept your team to win in every single matchup. But not like this,
it feels like it just feels like the team probably lost any momentum and had going into the World
Cup. Any of it. What Nally plays Senegal was going to be tough in Germany. You're going to have
momentum going into that. I mean, at least if you're actually going to say you can drew both games
and did our best, you know, I think both teams are weaker against Mexico and we're going to say
U.S. Belgium, in Portugal, I mean, like labs for weaker. They're more rotated. But like,
I used to mention when I was an idea, kind of a more concrete idea of what's going on.
And yeah, I made some use in there now with Brian Gutierrez and something. But with the U.S.,
you kind of just like, what just happened? And experimentation sucks, man. I think that you have
four, three, four forwards fighting for a position and you go no forward in game two.
Yeah, what is that? What message is that sending to anybody?
It's the depth chart so solidified at striker that like that you need that you could afford to use
a game with none of those guys on the field. And like, I thought I'd you want to pep you,
if you could effort and like, end of the second game, effort is a keyword.
Audimon scored off and Pepe created turnover. And like,
Pat came on, like, waiting a second half. But like, why wasn't that part of the system begin with?
Like, I don't understand how they're trying to use these pieces.
I mean, the answer is just, Tyler Adams comes back and everything will be solved and will be happy.
But I'm a little worried with how this ended up. I think it's pretty bad. Like, when it comes to
like, just man-managing and stuff like that. And like, I wish we saw, like,
McKenney maybe used in the ways that you they, we saw like bits and glimpses of it. But like,
maybe like, again, like, I don't, like, I would love to see something where you have a forward,
pull us like a McKenney as you're two attacking tens. And then, okay, where are you two sixes
are, where they are, and have wrestling, how can I fill out? But
that would have been that would have been exactly what they did against your way.
Just plug and play with different players, right? Okay, McKenney's in this roster. He wasn't in
the roster against your way. Great. We're going to plug him in where Reina started in those games
against Paraguay and your way. Awesome. Let's see what the difference is. Let's pair him up next
to Pulisic. Like, these are your two best players, generally speaking. Let's put them underneath
Balagan. Same way that we did against your way. And let's go ball. You know, that that I think is
what we needed to see. And it's wild to me that that's not what we got. And I think that
Pachitino gets a pass, generally because he's a foreign manager because he's had Premier League
success and all of those sorts of things. But my God, like, this was very cleansemanesque of him.
And just so naive, I think you used that word earlier. And I think it spot on just an incredibly
naive use of two games when you only had four coming into this camp. And now you've only got two left
to try to figure this whole thing out. Just. Oh, buddy. I'm worried. I'm a little bit more worried
now we can't talk through this than I was before. Well, a buddy who's not like not super,
super soccer plugged in, but like aware of the game, right? Um, Texan was like, what, like,
how am I supposed to feel about all this? And I kind of just responded and said, like, it's easier
for me to see how it all goes really, really wrong now than it is for me to see how this goes
incredibly right, especially now that like the piece of news is that Turkey has qualified and
answers is like the fourth team in this group. I'm telling you, man, like, it is easier for me to see
how like, the US kind of like ends up in a bad spot and limps their way to the second round.
Because you'd be a third place team. You're a third place to make it in this world cup. So like
like, that would be that would be a matchup. So people were throwing around like, yeah, people
were throwing around semi-finals and that sort of thing. Boy, it really matters who you draw
in those knockout rounds. And like, if you're a third place team or even like a, what, a second
place team and you draw, you know, one of the teams that won their group. I'm sorry. Like,
well, I mean, so the US is slotted if they're second to play in Arlington actually.
The crazy thing is, now this would be crazy geopolitical, wouldn't it? They could, if Iran
finishes second in their group, they would play U.R. on US in Arlington. That's one of the matchups.
The other matchup potentials, if it finished third, they're more likely to play Germany.
So it would, that would be in Boston. If it finished first, it'd be a lot easier. They'd
need to finish first because I mean, if it's not Iran, it'll be Egypt, who's also going to be
difficult as well. Like, these, like, these aren't going to be easy games. I think for the US,
we came and looked at forehead yet because I think, I think they'll be fine against Australia.
I think they'll be fine against Portugal. What's fine is find a point or find three points.
Right now, my comms levels kind of got a little bit. Yeah. Conference level is lower after this
camp, for sure. If you were coming to this podcast, hoping to get like a glimpse of joy,
I'm sorry, but that's just not, it's just not there after these two matches.
I'm on let's, let's wrap this thing up. Let's lean this plane. Any final thoughts, any takeaways
that we haven't talked about yet from this camp that you'd like to get out there. If this is a
therapy session that you need to just to get out of your station. I just don't get it. I
shouldn't get a whole pulse. It defines his form because if his form is bad, the rest of the team
looks awful. Yeah. Pray for health for Tyler Adams. Um, pull the six form has to come back and
then you kind of just cross your fingers about a couple of other things, but
exactly. There is a pathway to this looking better, but we just didn't see it. And that's a,
it's a missed opportunity. I think so as well. I think some try to miss opportunity to
accept the fans as well too. Because if you're a fan of this, you're like, well,
here we go again. We could have been doing uplifting podcasts. Instead, we're doing what the hell
were we doing out there? And thanks. Shout out to everyone. What are we doing? What are we doing?
What are we doing? Armand can find joining us from the Atlanta airport. Armand, thanks for being
here, man. Thanks for doing this. Of course. And everybody, thank you for tuning into this episode.
We appreciate it very much. As always, shoot us questions. If you watch those games and you
disagree or you have thoughts, uh, send them our way, we happily welcome all of your feedback.
We'll be back soon with another episode of the show. But until then, enjoy your soccer and we'll see you next time.