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

We dive deep (and occasionally not-so-deep) on 14 USMNT-eligible players who’ve been busy at Disney World over the past month.  Aaron Long James Sands Mark McKenzie Miles Robinson Justen Glad Cristian Roldan Jackson Yueill Frankie Amaya Brenden Aaronson Sam Vines Chase Gasper Ayo Akinola Jeremy Ebobisse Jordan Morris Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus...

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

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

The bulk of this podcast is a discussion of the decisions facing Berhalter with World Cup qualifying thrown into uncertainty, and a run-down of what we’ve learned from the Bundesliga. 0:30 DeAndre Yedlin’s stand 2:20 Dr. Velasquez on all the opportunities for assessment lost since coronavirus hit, and a discussion of how risk-averse Berhalter will be with his selection as WC qualifying eventually...

Ken Richards, the father of Bayern Munich II centerback Chris Richards, joins the podcast to talk about George Floyd's death, being black in America, Chris’s choice to play soccer instead of basketball and the similarities between basketball and soccer, among other things. - 0:30 Richards on George Floyd, his fears for his own son when he's back in the U.S., and whether this moment will yield prog...

Matt Hartman and I recorded almost 80 minutes on the U20 player pool. The bad news is we had this conversation in early March. The good news? It’s up to date, since almost no soccer has been played since then. 0:30 preamble, etc. 4:10 Hartman on how this U20 age group stacks up to its predecessors 8:00 the last U20 roster, from January 13:55 goalkeepers (David Ochoa, Chituru Odunze, Damian Las, Pa...

This is part 1 of the Total Soccer Show-Scuffed collaboration episode. Part one is in the Total Soccer Show feed.  https://www.totalsoccershow.com/ In this episode, Daryl Grove and Belz talk: Tyler Adams Jozy Altidore Best shot at a future elite left back What US Soccer/the USSDA could be doing better Does Kreis implement Berhalter’s style? Is the USMNT back on track? Dark horse high-quality USMNT...

We talk about the men's Olympic qualifying roster, Greg V goes on a rant about how much better the men’s U23 player pool is than at any time in US Soccer history, and we give a consensus XI for the opening match in Guadalajara against Costa Rica. 1:15 goalkeepers 2:10 centerbacks 5:55 fullbacks 10:30 Greg’s bit on how much better the men’s U23 player pool is than at any time in US soccer history 1...

A US-centric MLS opening weekend recap, plus a look ahead to USL opening weekend and some discussion of the USWNT U20s and the She Believes Cup. 0:30 intro and dolphins 4:10 Dallas — Ferreira, Pomykal, Tessmann, Cannon and Gonzalez 15:00 Philly — McKenzie and Aaronson 18:05 Seattle-Chicago — Leyva, Morris, Roldan, Mihailovic, Pineda 22:55 RBNY-Cincinnati — Kyle Duncan and Frankie Amaya 25:45 MLS s...

Olympic qualifying kicks off March 20 for the U-23s and the senior USMNT goes to Europe during an international window at the same time for friendlies against the Netherlands and Wales. Lots of moving parts. We try to sort out who might be on each roster. 0:30 the roster for Olympic qualifying 30:20 the roster for the March friendlies vs the Netherlands and Wales Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed...

John Pranjic, the host of the 3four3 podcast, joins for a conversation about the need for promotion/relegation, his problem with most American soccer media, and the best USMNT XI right now. I made detailed shownotes for those who want to skip around. 0:30 intro 1:20 Pranjic injury news 2:45 why he says “you don’t know” to people on Twitter 7:35 is the problem ultimately the lack of promotion/releg...

There’s enough in here for everyone to find a few things to disagree with. Enjoy! (And yes, Gio Reyna made the cut.) We'd prefer that you listen so I won't post the whole list but here are a few rankings to give you a taste. 8. Jozy Altidore 21. Timmy Chandler 32. Mark McKenzie 38. Niko Gioacchini   Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Pa...

An 18-yr-old got a USMNT goal on his debut, another young attacker played quite well, and the U.S. beat an experienced Costa Rica side 1-0. We’ve been pleased with January Camp. We talk about all of that, plus Olympic qualifying. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of k...

Our guest today is Abel Meszaros, a newsletter writer, TV analyst and occasional guest on the Talking Fussball podcast whose specialty is German football. Abel does a weekly show for SportTV, the Hungarian network that carries the Bundesliga, and he breaks down the Bundesliga in DETAIL in his weekly newsletter Bundesliga Bulletin. He helped us make sense of where several Americans (not all of them...

Tyler Adams dominant return to the RB Leipzig midfield and Gio Reyna's professional debut headline what's been a pretty encouraging run of news for the U.S. Men's National Team. We picked out 10 things. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we...

We run down the big news of the past couple weeks, including Brian McBride’s hiring as USMNT general manager and Josh Sargent’s great weekend, and work through a list of American players who need or could use a move right now. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key...

We discuss the January Camp roster from bottom to top and try to answer several questions from patrons on Patreon. Not a bad episode! Happy New Year and thanks for listening. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https:/...

We wrap up the year — what went right, what went wrong, what went reasonably ok. Actually a lot of good stuff happened! Mostly with the player pool. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed C...

We choose our Scuffed Top 40 for December, the last one of the year. Pretty straightforward episode, we start with our #1 player in the pool and work our way down to a spitballed #30 through #40. In any case it’s a good chance to discuss player selection and take another good look at the player pool.  Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes....

Who played, who played well, and who has a future with the USMNT? Freed from the constraints of things like “producers” and “brevity” and  “Andrew Wiebe,” MLSsoccer.com analyst Matt Doyle joins the pod to go long on the young American player pool in the domestic league. We look back at 2019 and look ahead to 2020. (Yo! We forgot to mention Gianluca Busio! Major omission. Interesting young player a...

A "professional" win in the Cayman Islands. Where do we stand now? Are we still trying to disorganize the opponent with the ball? Is that possible with the players Berhalter seems to prefer? Not our best work, but we try to get into these questions and answer them.  Tom Marshall's piece on Fortuna FC, the south Florida club for Cuban defectors: https://www.espn.com/soccer/cuba-cub/story/3989260/am...

The USMNT defeated Canada 4-1 on Friday. The big news is Berhalter dramatically adjusted his defensive tactics. Meanwhile, the boys still can't play out of the back. Dest is cap-tied. Lots to cover and we didn't get to it until a day late. Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a...

We do actually think of a couple tweaks Berhalter could make that would inject this game with some hope and joy. Before that we talk about Earnie Stewart’s assessment of Berhalter’s performance in comments to reporters, give a sense of what the Canadian player pool is up to these days, and discuss potential lineups for both teams on Friday. At the end we briefly discuss the U23 Olympic qualifying...

We talk about who should start against Canada and Cuba, without tailoring our preferences to Berhalter’s tendencies, and then we read and try to answer several listener questions. 0:30 opening thoughts and extended discussion of the roster and lineups for the upcoming games against Canada and Cuba. 41:30 listener questions segment (IT’S REALLY GOOD) 1:10:00 quick thoughts from Greg on the USWNT ga...

The US U17s’ trip to Brazil was cut short on Saturday night with a 4-0 loss to the Netherlands. That’s it. We’re out, after a 4-1 loss to Senegal and a 0-0 draw with Japan. Scuffed regular Matt Hartman joins me to recap Saturday’s game and try to take something away from the tournament. - 0:30 opening thoughts and lineups - 6:15 scoring summary - 22:15 big picture takeaways The Earnie Stewart/Berh...