New Cycle, New USMNT: Deconstructing Pochettino's Cultural Revolution

Hi, hello, and welcome to your favorite average good podcast call which you want. I'm Jimmy Conrad alongside Charlie Davies and Tony Mjola, and we have a lot to get into. Listen, listen, listen, listen, listen, listen. There's obviously a new World Cup cycle that's about to happen. He said, Pochettino, his roster for the upcoming camps is still under wraps, but here because we're gluttons for punishment, gluttons for ridicule, gluttons for for shaming us. Ultimately, if you don't like our picks, we're going to go with a 26-man roster, okay? So that's going to, that's going to be fun, and we look forward to hearing everybody's thoughts about it in the chat. If you want to hit us up later on social media, it's going to be great. We got four friendlies obviously coming up, so who's he going to go with? We're going to talk about uncapped players who we'd like to see, of course. And then the Olympics is looming on the horizon here in two years, Steve Schrundelow, a friend of ours is the Olympic team coach, and what's that relationship going to be between him and Pochettino? Are they going to work together? I assume they are, but we'll have to wait and see. Chuck, coming to you first, you are on Morning Foodie. How to go? Talking a lot of Champions League, you got some good jokes in there. Like, what were you to highlight so you were on Morning Foodie experience today? Yeah, Morning Foodie was fun. I mean, we got to talk about the Liverpool at the Tacoma-Drig Game, which was entertaining and then Arsenal taking care of business as usual, winning away from home at Napoli. As usual, that's like a recent, recent term as usual, as usual, the last two years. And this new, and this new Champions League format, absolutely. That's true. But again, Tony, how many times have we had to say this, Allegory football, I feel for Napoli. When you go from that Napoli team with caught up with the other players, yeah, Napoli player supporters, all of the above. That is just a terrible, breathable. Every time Napoli had the ball, if they weren't in the middle third, you have Allegory pointing at the keeper to play it back, terrible, terrible football. So are you saying that having him play Christian Pulisic out of position wasn't a good idea when you was in charge of Milan? Absolutely devastating for all those players in that Milan locker room. I know Tony watching it as a massive supporter is just, it's just so boring and it's negative. Just terrible. But hey, we're on to bigger, invited things we got, we got Puchatino talking, a whole lot of on the microphone. We got US men's, national team players littered over the Europa League coming up for next week for the Lazo show. So I'm pumped. I'm in a good mood. Come on. It's the fall. It is the fall, even though it was 98 degrees here yesterday, maybe one of my favorite bands back in the day. What's up? Nicholas Shay. Big Tone. 98 degrees guy. 98 degrees. Boy, big Tone. I absolutely love that. So you actually, before we got on the show, there was a, we didn't really get into it in the Lazo. Mauricio Puchatino and him talking about Christian Pulisic and him kind of taking a shot at him about how ultimately him taking that time off for the goal cup last year was BS. And do you find that interesting now or do you think there's been enough dust that's been settled that you can kind of make a comment about that from a coaching perspective? Or do you feel like you should have kept that under wraps as you started? Yeah, I tell you all the time, I'm more of an under wraps guy. I'm more of a close the door and let's hash this thing out. Puchatino is not afraid to make these comments and talk about his players in this way. And I think part of it is this whole culture setting, right? Like I'm going to, this is how we're going to do things. This is the culture, the difference going into a World Cup in his case for me was you're a year and a half out, right? And you've got to put everything together. So even if some guys don't walk this, the line that you want them to walk all the time, you got to play him. And let's face it, half time of Paraguay game. Everybody forgot about Christian and he for what was the goal cup that he didn't play in. And we forgot about that because we're like, this is Christian, right? Unfortunately, it gets injured in that game, but I think we were all thinking the same thing. And Puchatino is like, he stuck, I, this is my guy, like I have to ride this guy right now. Now there's a four year cycle or a little less than four years now, right? He's like 27. I know. And but now Puchatino as a manager can say, okay, he can say, man, my first year, my only mission is to, is to continue to build this culture. And then when you come in for three years, you got to follow whatever it is. I'm using one in three, but it could be whatever you wanted to be. It could be just this camp. I'm going to build this culture and this is how we're going to do it. And he's made no bones about the fact that that's how he sees national teams and national team players. So if you're going to play for Puchatino, if he calls you Charlie today and Charlie, you're coming in the camp, guess what? You're going to do, you're going to have to do it his way. And by the way, you don't even have to guess anymore what his way is because he's telling you in the media what his way is, which is the USman's national team is priority number one. I don't want to hear anything about rest or club football, this or that national team is number one. And I understand why he's coming at Christian, because he's basically saying, if I'm calling out the quote unquote, best player on the team or the most recognized player on the team, this goes for everyone, including him in this new cycle. You better be here. There are no breaks when it comes to national team. This is the end all be all and you put this at number one. So yeah, he's he's setting his stance early where he he wants this program to go in and the kind of the requirements needed to play in his team. All right. So Puchatino's direct quote was, if I don't have a vacation, I cannot arrive fresh for the world cup. So he was kind of reiterating what Puchatino said. And then he went on, Puchatino said, you know, you know, now that that is BS, no, it's to change this type of idea and to build the mindset with the coaches with the people in the organization and in the clubs and of course with the players in the way that we will plan. So it's your point, tones. You know, yeah, this is his way and you're either on board or you're not. I think what's interesting too, and I take this from the coaching course stuff, right? You got to meet your players where they are. What's really interesting for me is that when we came back when the World Cup roster got dropped, right? We had the friendly games. We had Germany and Senegal. Senegal game, I thought Christian was fantastic. Germany game, I thought he looked really sharp and bright and was carried over the performance against Senegal. And then the first half against Paraguay, he was, he was tremendous. And then there was a, this is where his big issue is anytime, anytime he starts to get some significant momentum, there's an injury that happens and it slows him down. And then he just couldn't necessarily have the same type of impact. In his mind, probably at that point, and I'm speaking from Christian Polisik's perspective, he's probably thinking, yeah, that rest was great. I am absolutely flying, Senegal, Germany, first half of Paraguay, then he picks up a little bit of a strain somewhere and it does impact him. And now you think, well, should he have fought through the gold cup without a made him even more healthy going into this one? It's a really interesting conversation to have, but ultimately when you strip all that away, I understand when Mauricio Pochettino is trying to say with regard to, these are the standards, these are the expectations. And if you can't meet either one of those, then we're going to have to find some other people. And he knew, yeah, if you're going to send that type of message, it is usually best to go right at the person at the top, the face of the team as it were. All right, we're going to get into the, to the punishment stuff here, where you guys are going to make fun of us. So we're just going to own it at this point. But with regard to our 26 man roster, we're going to go 26 ahead of this camp. And we're doing that because it's like the World Cup, right? He can obviously call as many players up as he wants, but we want to keep the segment somewhat within the scope of reality. So we're going to go with 26. Now between us, I'm going to be a tale of the tape here. We all got asked to do our 26 man roster separately without talking to each other. We selected a total of 43 different names. We had a full consensus on 10 of those names. And 14 of the other names got the nod from at least two of us. And there's 12 holdovers from the World Cup roster. So tale of the tape here, the consensus picks. And then, and then tones. I want to get your thoughts. Diego Cochin, we all picked him to come in as a goalkeeper Chris Richards, Austin trusty Alex Freeman, Neil Pierre, the six foot seven absolute beast for the Philadelphia Union in the back line. Let's see what he's got. Cook and Peyton Miller with a New England revolution. Okay. Xavier Goso is in. All of us picked them. Malik Tillman, Kevin Sullivan, and Matisse Albert. Wow. 10. Hey. I'm young. We're out of us. We're on the same page for newbies. Right? Yeah, yeah. I think it's important, right? Start of the World Cup cycle. If you're not going to do it now, when are you going to do it? Kind of thing, you know? All right. So here, here are the players who got at least two votes. Got four. What's that wait to it? In that four. So there's four World Cup. Look at you. Thumbs up. There's four that played in the World Cup. Right? Richards, trusty Freeman. And oh, Tillman. Okay. So we got four. By the way, where was the sound of the dance from that World Cup? Okay. Yeah. So 10 players. Maybe we should get into omissions because we had, here's some note. I don't know. Let's get into some notable omissions. I feel like we should go here first, because we had Christian Pulisig not in the team. Nobody picked him. Wes the McKinney, Tim Reame, Matt Turner, Tim Wea, Brendan Aronson. I feel like there should be some type of like, hey, we can't already know what these guys are about. Either they're injured and working their way back into the team. Maybe there's just, we got it, you know, we were picking up what they're putting down. We want to see some other faces and give some different looks to different players. If there was like a meaningful thing, most of these guys would get called in for sure. Maybe not Reame and Turner, but, but, but, but Pulisig McKinney, Wayne, Aronson, I think would be in that conversation. So I just wanted to throw that out there. We left out. So go ahead. No. I think Christian Pulisig and Wes McKinney are in a different category out than Brendan Aronson. They're playing. So it's not, it's not an injury type thing, right? So we're, we're talking about Christian Pulisig. Hey, scored against Chelsea yesterday, shout out to Brendan Aronson. Christian Pulisig. By the way, Brandon Aronson was a player I picked, but I think Christian Pulisig has been injured. So now you're talking about a big window. He needs time to get going. By the way, I think the way that Pochettino has put it in the press, like he's going to say, you got to play your way back in. I think he's going to push him to have the, the performances that you want him to have consistently, then bring, and brings them in. He's, he's going to be called in. But I don't think he gets called in for this window. And the Weston two is coming back from a muscular injury. So though that for me is, is probably why they wouldn't go in versus, you know, if you're talking about Matt Fries or Matt Turner, that is a, hey, we're, we're looking for the next goalkeeper to be the, you know, the, the starter for that next cycle, you know, so. Would you, would you, on that note, would you, sorry, I'm kind of jumping up behind here. With Tim Wei, though, Captain Amar, say, would you, would I say notable emissions, only one of us picked these players, not, not, there wasn't any consensus on it. So I didn't have Tim Wei in my team. And so whoever did or didn't, I think it's interesting. I did not. Yeah. I'm the only one who had him. Yeah. I mean, for me, he's starting at Marseille. He's been the captain. I just don't see how you don't call him in. Yeah. All right. My rationale was just that he knows him. So my, my rationale was, yeah, Weston injured, not playing the two goalkeepers. I think he's just going to go in a different direction. Reem, I put in parentheses on mine because I struggled with Reem because I thought, you know what, there's a game in St. Louis, Tim Reem's at the end of his career. Does he bring him in just to give him a game? I don't know. If he's in that, in that politic, I think we all agreed, right, that he wasn't going to come into this camp, not playing there. So that's kind of the one I'm surprised, oh, he's in the next list. So I'll wait till that. Yeah. I didn't have on my list. I was one of the three. And now I look at it and go, yeah, I made a mistake here. But we'll talk about that in a second. Okay. Yeah. So here's my rationale. No, no, I'm with you on that. So we got 14 players. It got at least two votes. We had Chris Brady in goal. Brian Schwachy, a place for Nashville in goal. George Campbell. I already know who left him out. Sergenia Desz, Anthony Robinson, Johnny Cardozo, Tanner Testman, Audrey Mometti, Sebastian Burholtz, or Tyler Adams, Giora, and a Ricardo Peppy, Julian Hall, and Fuller and Balagan, all received at least two votes. So big tones, you kind of segwayed into, talk about Carlos Cardozo. So in this list, Cardozo is the one I didn't have in there, and I literally just passed over him. Julian Hall, I was the one that I'd man out. You guys, I think probably both had Julian Hall then, I'm assuming. Yeah. I had him as my third choice behind Balagan and Peppy. So I made a mistake here on Cardozo, because he, I think he should be in this camp. But then again, I'd have to take somebody else out, so I'd have to look at that as well. I didn't have Schwachy on my list. I actually thought there is a narrative you could build around bringing Matt Fries back into the team just to let him have kind of a different experience and let him kind of work through. You could put a narrative on everyone. You could say, no, I get it, I get it, because in these camps, I think part of the balance that goes into it is, well, we need to have some, some leaders to make sure that they know, to make sure, yes, I agree with that, the tone for the younger players coming in the camp. This is how you operate. This is how Puchotino, lots of things done. This is how you carry yourself as a, as a fuller national. You need to have those players, even if they're not going to be there two years from now, four years from now, you still want those players to kind of set the tone. Those are, those players are important. I remember coming into the national team and the guys at the Copa America, Jimmy, it was Casey Keller, you know, Taylor tommon, you knew Taylor tommon wasn't going to be in the conversation for a World Cup spot in 2010, but he was there. Casey Keller, Ben Olson, another guy that was like hobbling around, you know, that's just how we, that's this is normal. That's the normal locking game, actually, but Palo Masrani, you know, these were all guys I looked up to and they had, you know, considerable experience playing at that level. So they were, you know, I remember Taylor just always being, hey, get the balls and, you know, trying to mentally get into your head and you got, you got to be strong. And, you know, they, they basically are like, hey, this is how things operate here. And you got to work to, to gain everyone's respect and trust. And so I, I think that's important to, you know, integrate into the first team that you have those kind of characters around. Now, I'm glad you brought that up because ultimately when I looked at my list outside of, well, I guess I had freeze in initially, but I tried to pick almost like a starting 11 of guys in the middle, you know, spine of the team leaders. So you had, you know, Richards would be one for sure, having Jedi and deaths for both of my team. So you have that there. Testman and Johnny have both been in the team before. So, you know, they were guys that I think you could trust. And yet I had Tillman, you could have Peppy, Baligan, you know, so I feel like if you just had enough of those leaders around, I'm in complete agreement. And then they can set the tone for what the camp should look like. I thought was, that's, I think it's a really smart way of trying to approach it. And I assume that's going to be the same similar mix that may be Pochettino's show. We're trying to, like, guess what we think he's going to do, tones. Yeah. I left Anthony Robinson off because I just had, you know, when I looked at all the left backs, I'm like, he already knows Anthony Robinson. So this is my rationale for leaving them off. Bombino just made a move. I know they're really high on him in the youth national team system. Nate Miller, who, because he, he's played as a left back, but he's really, I guess he plays as a winger, right, with, with the revs. That wing back position kind of seems like it gives him a little bit of everything. And then I know he likes Macstarsson. I had, I had a Rob, Anthony Robinson in parentheses here because I still think he's the guy. But I was just trying to mix up the camp a little bit because we know we're going to see a lot of faces. And we know there's a bunch of leaders. I put the leaders more in the spine of the team, but Anthony Robinson, I mean, if you're having a camp, Anthony Robinson should be in, we're just trying to guess what poach might do. No, no, no, it's, it's a little bit of a balance, right? Where you're trying to, what you would do, then obviously, but we're trying to guess what Putchettino can do. I'm kind of curious to everybody's saying in the chat right now. So we all had a, a player to nominate, to fill kind of the remaining three spots here. So, so ultimately, I think there's, but 2324 here. And so, Chuck, do you have a player that you think, sorry, only two spots remaining here if I'm doing the math. I was a math major in college. Everybody didn't graduate. So stay in school, kids, clearly having an issue here, which, which of these last two spots, Chuck, who would you kind of throw a flyer out there of the names we haven't mentioned yet? Cole Campbell was the player that, Elversburg legend, you know, we, we talk about bringing in new players, young players, players, you know, we're talking three years down the line are, are, are, you know, players who can contribute. This is a, still a 20 year old guy who has, has bundles of experience in the last three games. He has three starts scored a goal against, by Elversburg, and, you know, their team is, is winning. I mean, the last three matches in all competitions, they won against Dewey Berg. He played 90 minutes. Then they beat LeRugus and he scored a goal, played 65, played 64 against a mushing lap back. They won four three. So for me, that's a, that warrants a call up. He guys, the kids starting in the Bundesliga, and he's, he's played at Dortmund. He's got, he's got some, some good men experience under his belt. I think that warrants a call up. We're not talking about a player who is coming off the bench or has a lot of potential. This is a guy who's in Europe performing at a young age. I, I absolutely think he deserves a call up. Okay. I like that shout. I'll, I'll jump in with mine and then tones. You can reflect on, on the choices that we made. I'm going to throw in Niko Chikirus. When he's healthy, he is a hell of a player, and then maybe I have some recency bias because I thought he was excellent against San Diego FC last night. Quakes finally won a game for the first time since May 23rd, a three two thriller, because they can't seem to win anything straight forward these days, which makes them a ton of fun to watch. But he's earned the trust of Bruce Serena, didn't have that trust last year, got it this year. They were off to an absolute flyer of a start, the best team in MLS for the first three or four months of the season. Then he got hurt. Can I ask you a question, Jimmy? Yes. Just in terms of the midfield, Bill, I guess, look, right? If you're talking about the foundation in this midfield, right? So if you have Malik Tillman coming in, do you think a Niko Chikirus gets over a Georena in this camp, you know, given Georena now is what he is off to, he's off to a fly and start as well. No, he's your favorite player. A hundred percent. He's a special character, right? And his growth. He plays more like a six, eight, I mean, I'd have Niko a little bit higher, but yeah, I hear what you're saying. Okay. And then you have four games. You have four games. I'm not saying the guy needs to start all four. You can just, you could give him one of the four. Would you call him in? Would you call him in over Brunaritan? I would. Yes, I would. Okay. Because I want to see, I know what Brunaritan brings to the table, despite his good form, and he recency biases scored against Chelsea, very good goal. I kind of already have an idea, like Tony said earlier, like what, certain players, and I think Brunaritan falls into that category. Chikirus for me, when I think about him against some of the other younger players that I was considering, he's got, he's got, he's got a little polish to his game. When you see one of the passes, he, outside of the foot, it's incredible. It's incredible. When you see it, and so the last three games for the quakes, he's been rounding back into health, right? But the last three games, he's played close to 90 minutes and all three. They have two draws in a win, and he had a goal and two assists last night. He missed a penalty. He could have two goals and two assists last night. He just has something to his game that I really appreciate. And in the first goal, he ended up getting in behind the defense. Like he's the one that made a good run in behind, right? He recognized where the space was, good space on situational awareness. I just feel like we're probably going to rely on him in the Olympics in some capacity, right? I'd be really surprised if Toronto and the U23s aren't looking at him, but we'll get into more of that a little bit later. But why not bring him in and give him one of these four games, just to see how he fits in. And then obviously being around the Tillman's and the Reinas and seeing what kind of the demands are of the position. Obviously, Puchotino can show you, but these guys can also tell you, too, based on their own experiences at the highest level. So I feel like it'd be a nice camp to bring him in. So that would be my pick. I was looking at Josh, I'll be honest. I was looking at Josh Winder as well, 20 years old. He's still hurt. He's now with a new New England revolution. We're just looking at centerbacks. He's 20 right now. He played in the last two U20 World Cups for us. I think he's got all the like, he ticks all the boxes for me. Now he's got to get him healthy and playing regularly because he was playing with Benfica's B team. And doing well, I think Benfica really valued him, but he needed some minutes. So he's with the revolution, didn't play in their win last night, but he was injured. And so hopefully he gets back to full health, because I think he will be part of the conversation moving forward. And then I want to give a shout out to Buseo. John Luke Buseo, the guy's been going up and down with Fanatzi. He's now the captain. He's only 24 years old. And when we talk about guys that we want help solving problems that know how to suffer, to know how to still have success, even when things aren't going your way, these kind of intangibles, I think that Buseo continues to grow and evolve in that space. So if he was in the camp, I would be totally thrilled for him and be excited that he's getting this opportunity. I just don't know. We're pretty deep in that spot. And if you want to see Tess, I think that was so impressive. It's, I know we're stacked. We're stacked. We're stacked. So, so I feel bad for him. I mean, imagine, I mean, imagine 15, 20 years ago, if we had someone in our player pool that was captaining a Serie A team or like, now we're good, you know, that's kind of where we are. That's unimaginable. That's it. It is. It is. It's unimaginable. Yeah. So, so anyway, thoughts on. Anyone excited? Anyone excited about potentially secure, the only reason I wanted secure is in there. I actually thought he was still not fit enough, right? And then he dishes out to the cis last night. I know he's still coming back. Look at those highlights. I know. I know. Anyone excited for like in four games, getting 30 minutes of Kevin Sullivan and Securus underneath some forward? Like, just let those guys roam around a little bit and figure out the game and get to attacking players. Like, we, we, we haven't had like two young guys like that come up at the same time that I can remember. No. Yeah. I'll throw in Matisse Albert because at Matisse Albert, for me, is the point he's put him up there. He's, he's in that category as well for me because he's just dynamic. He's, he's got that 1v1 fearlessness that you love to see from, from American attacking players that, you know, you don't necessarily get too much of. And so because think about MLS, there's not too many attacking players that have that incredible, you know, confidence and to go with the ability, right, of quickness and being shifty and, and so I would love to see him on the pitch with those guys at the international level. And, well, I, I know there'll be some people that go, are those guys ready? Have they really deserved to, to play, you know, for the full team? That's fair. That's a fair question. And that is a fair question. What I would say is because you have to treat every case differently, I think in the, in these cases, you're saying, I'm recognizing that these are exceptionally talented players and they deserve accelerated environments, which is the opportunity to maybe gain as much as they can from the players around them, the environment and the competition at that level, the international game. And then they move on. They don't have to get called in the next time, but that's going to allow them to take like two steps forward. Now, it's good thought. Well, we'll get into that a little bit more in the next break. But before we get to the next break, let's take a look at our projected September slash October roster in goal, Chris Brady, coaching, Brian Schwachy, defenders, George Campbell, Sir, Jr. Des, Alex Freeman, Xavier Goso. I had him listen as a wing back. Listen, I know he's more of an out and out winger, but, but I think there's room to have that conversation. He's put it before Peyton Miller is in there, Neil Pierre, Chris Richards, Anthony Robinson, Austin Trusty, then in midfield, he got a lot of them. Tyler Adams, Audrey Mometi, Matisselle Barrett, obviously, he can play different areas, Giarena, Sebastian Berholter, Kevin Sullivan, Cole Campbell, Tanner Tessman, Malik Tillman, Johnny Cardoso, Nico Chiris, Nico Chiris, excuse me. And then up top, Fuller and Baligan, Julian Hall and Ricardo Peppie. We'll see how many we get right once the roster drops next week, but how many think we got right? In honesty, if you look, let's start with the goalkeeper's tone. From your perspective, do you think they're bringing four or three? And then if let's just say three, do you think these are the three, or do you think they bring in a mat freeze or a mat turner? I thought we were picking four. That was the assignment when I got it. So I actually picked Brady, coach, and Schwachy, and so I had those three and a free, the young goalkeeper San Diego that everybody's really, really high on. I thought just poach would go a completely different direction and then throw in the fact that we have the under 23s and we don't know how that camp's going to work. We don't know if Toronto is just going to work with the full national team and his guys are going to be together. Is there going to be a completely separate camp, which of course, if we knew that, this roster would probably change a bit. But if we're going with three, these are the three, I think, if you're going outside the World Cup team that, and well, Chris Brady was there, you would go with Schwachy's had a great year. I don't know that he's a national team goalkeeper, but I think if you're going to reward a guy that's put up numbers for his team, albeit the best team and Major League Soccer, but partly due to him, then that's the guy you bring in. I say we get 18 or 19 out of this. I just wonder if he brings in a little bit more of the core guys than maybe we're anticipating. Like maybe, I don't know, maybe Mark McKenzie gets, you know, someone in that space a little bit, that what did play on the World Cup and maybe he can still be relied upon and Tim Reame could be one, right? Just for the thing that Tom said before by having given him a send-off game, we know that he really adores Tim Reame, so that wouldn't be a surprise. So there could be some of those types of choices that, so my guess is maybe, maybe 20 for being maybe 20. We'll see. Kind of curious. All right, we're going to take our first break of the show. When we come back, we are going to talk about the uncapped players and who we are most excited for and why. So keep it right here. Ooh, baby, welcome back into the show. I'm Conradinio alongside, check Chase and Chuck, big toads. And we're having fun here, trying to dissect what we think Luis Puchotino is going to do for this 26-man roster for this upcoming camp. A big one, four games, Peru, Chile, Mexico, Canada, it's all popping off. We'll be doing our watch-alongs like always, so make sure you're hanging out, telling your friends, and yeah, having some good laughs with us. Hopefully we don't make everybody dress this comment, just, just comment time. So no, just so we can understand. So from Matt D1234, he said, if Chris Brady couldn't start over Matt Freese, why is he there? Well, that just means in his development, he wasn't ready. I mean, a great example of that is in 1994, Ronaldo R9, Nazario, was on the bench and didn't play a minute. And he was behind Bebetto and Romario. Now if they started that cycle in 1995 and 96 and said, why are they calling up Ronaldo? He couldn't play over those guys. Well, again, it's all about where they will be, how they will get their, what's the potential of that player? Now, the coaches must think that Chris Brady has great potential. By the way, in the matches that we saw him play, he was not ready. Now, that doesn't mean he won't be ready in three or four years from now, but at the moment, he was not ready. That's without a doubt. An under Greg Berhalter, he asked his keepers to play with their feet a whole lot. Now I think he's developed, but will he get there at, we're talking to elite first team level at the national team? I don't know. But what we can say is they clearly think he will turn into something because they keep giving him those opportunities. Well, so, Tony, there's a follow-up question here for you, who do you want for US Keeper? But I think before we get to Chris's comment here, I want to piggyback off of what Chuck is saying. Ultimately, that's, how else will Chris Brady will use him as the symbol of this question? But how else does he get better if he doesn't get the chance? Then ultimately, I also make some mistakes so that to Chuck's point, he isn't ready yet, but he's doing enough. We see enough there in him that we got to continue to roll him out and give him looks because we think he's got the qualities that are going to be necessary to be a top goalkeeper eventually. How else do you blood these guys if you don't allow them to get out there and make some mistakes from time to time? Yeah. To expand on what Chuck said, you got to project four years from now, a little bit of that. If you're playing a tournament right now, maybe you look at this a little bit differently. But Matt Turner is going to be 36 at the next World Cup, so likely not going to bring him. Matt frees it be 32, which is if he's still in form, it's an age that you live with. Chris Brady's 22 years old. So you look at, is this a guy that now can be part of three World Cups, right? Think about it. I mean, he's been part as a third goalkeeper. The progression should be that you move up. If he develops the way they think he's going to. You got Diego Cochin, you got, I still think Gaga's Loneena once he gets his feet underneath him is going to play a party. He's got to find a place, much like Cochin just did, where he's out of the big club and he's at a club where he's playing right now. Remember, when Gaga's Loneena left, he left with the Chelsea and all of a sudden he plays his first game in the national team and actually broke my record as the youngest goalkeeper ever to play for the national team, right? It was a record that a lot of people didn't think was going to be broken for a while and then he's never played again for the national team. You went from breaking a record to never broke that record. He should have broke that record. God, what were they thinking? But I think Cochin's done a really good thing. I got it. It's great. You're Barcelona, you're training every day. You're facing the players, you're facing every day. Remember, he was with the national team in the World Cup throughout the summer as an extra goalkeeper. There were two. I can't remember who the other goalkeeper was off top of my head, but anyway, he was one of them trained also. They know him very, very well. Now he goes to what is it, Andrew Rick, thank you, was the other guy. Now he goes to, where's that Lingby? And now he's playing every week. And then the next step is to get to another club after this. So that's the progression that you want, but it doesn't matter if it's goalkeepers or not. You've got to look at these guys and go, even if you're looking at an Anthony Robinson, all the work he does, he's 29 years old right now, he just turned 29 recently. So after the World Cup, so he'd be what, 32 years old at the next World Cup, is he going to be able to do what he does now? Those are the things that Pochettino has to measure up. I keep looking at these ages here. Our team, by the way, is still really, really young, really young. I can't believe like, I, I, I suppose I didn't pay much attention at the World Cup, right? But we still have a lot of young guys in this group. So Tony, talk to me about this from a goalkeeper perspective, because when I look at Spain who won the World Cup for everybody that was living under Iraq, they had David Raya, who plays for Arsenal. We're arguably the best goalkeeper in the world, or at least in the conversation. Yeah. Raya's top five in the world. Okay. Top five. And then you have João Garcia plays for, for Barcelona, and they got Unai Simon, who plays for Athletic. So in terms of like club status, Unai Simon would probably be the least of the three, Arsenal Barcelona Athletic Club. So, so, so, but De La Fuente, the manager for Spain, thinks that Unai Simon does what he wants to see. So it's interesting that yeah, we might even have a talented goalkeeper that, that could be, seems like kind of on paper as the number one, but maybe fits, maybe the number two, quote unquote, number two, and number three actually fits the mold of how the team plays better. Just, I don't know, it's, it's, I don't know if you thought Simon was the best goalkeeper there. And if that, that's as a mood, mood conversation. But I didn't know, uh, it's interesting that even though we might have three really talented goalkeepers, one might fit the system better, they might not be the number one on. Tony's looking at you like, do you want me to slap you upside your head? We had that at the U.S. talk about Casey Keller, Tony Miole and Brad Frito, you're talking about it. We did. That's true. I could have gone back to that. He's like, I just want to come over and just grab what he talked about. No. He wants to do that every show. No, no, no. But see, see, Mone's been the guy there that has taken them to this rise, right? I mean, he's been the guy. He's got over 60s. He's got, where is it? No, he's got 66 caps. David Ryan is 14. So he really hasn't played a lot, but he picked a guy by the way. I don't, wasn't there like, he, they broke the shut out record and there were like three or four games where he didn't even face a shot in the game. So I'm not taking anything away from him, but that's a real nice luxury to have with your goalkeeper. Did you ever feel that, Tony? Did you ever feel like your club had a roll in? And when he got Jimmy Conrad playing defensive problem, there was no problem. You know, in terms of your national team, Tony, did you ever feel like there was a hierarchy based, based on your performances, but based a little bit on, all right, this guy's going to have an advantage because he plays at this club. Or I played, I'm a lesson, they played in Europe. Well, I've told the story before Ziggy Smith, you know, may rest in peace. I mean, he wanted Brad Friedle as the goalkeeper in 94. I mean, he, he pushed for him because he knew he was going to Europe after that. And, I mean, he, and, and remember. Hey, you used to play a guy too. Yeah, you used to play a guy, he, which was fine. And I knew it. By the way, I loved, I loved Ziggy and I loved working with him every day. I also knew behind closed doors, he was pushing for Brad to be the goalkeeper. And remember, Casey was in Europe at the time. Casey would have put another wrinkle into it, but I don't think he and Bora got on great. I think Boram was maybe a little bit different. I'm not sure Casey massaged the relationship with Bora, probably the way he should have for his national team career, right? I think he and Bora just didn't see eye to eye. And, and, you know, they didn't, for whatever reason, I have no idea. But yeah, I, I think there was, there's always a little bit more so Chuck back then because there were so few guys playing in Europe. You know, one of you guys said before, imagine having a captain in Cediat team and you don't bring into the national team. That you're, whoever said it, I forget. That's exactly right. There's a guy in Europe, there's no, the guy in Europe was coming no matter what. Right. And it didn't matter. Automatic. He was playing in the World Cup, no matter what. I don't know how to, it panned out at the World Cup roster wise. But yeah, so it's completely different now. Now we're at a point where we can leave these guys off the roster. I know we have arguments about it. We debate about it all the time. How can you, I think Johnny was probably the guy that I was most held bent on, at least before the World Cup thinking at the legal Madrid, playing in Champions League. How the hell do we leave a guy like this? We're not even thinking about him. Now the injury is, you know, changed the ball game a little bit. But that's why I was kicking myself before about not putting him on my roster. But yeah, Chuck, the dynamics have changed. No doubt about it. Yeah. And I think that's a healthy thing ultimately, right? Competition everywhere. All right. So Chuck, lead us here on, on cap players that you are most excited to see in this upcoming camp. And why? Who's the one player? I think he teased him a little bit in the first segment. But what do you want to see in this one? Well, it's funny because I was, I was writing to our producer, Des, and I said, man, it's a good question. I really like, you know, guys that you guys have already picked in Matisse Albert. Like that's a player that I'm really excited about. A cabin Sullivan, Audrey Mometi. But in the end, Cole Campbell. He's uncapped. There's a lot of potential. I remember the stick he took for talking about ball and don't he wants to win ball and door. It's one of those things where you keep that one to yourself. You know, the ball. Come at you know, you're not even playing at Dortmund yet. And you're talking about ball and door like that. There's steps. There's levels. Who doesn't want to win the ball and door? You know, keep that, keep that inside. Let that drive you. But that's part of learning in the maturity that comes with being a top professional. Here he is making up the right step in his career to go to a club where he's still playing in the Bundesliga and he's going to be playing. He's going to be counted on. And so far, it's been a great move. So I think he's earned a call up and again, there's a lot of potential along with this player. So it'd be good to see him in camp. Yeah, I think to... Bruce Adortman doesn't just spend money on any young players, right? They do their homework and they're very thoughtful and intentional about who they get. And he started there. And I think that's a good sign and now he's getting a little more freedom to get out of that now and step up and take the responsibility of being the top signing, record signing for a smaller club. But obviously they're off to a flying start. So the Elversburg train, I'm on it right now. We'll see how far Cole Campbell can take them and hopefully they can stay up in the Bundesliga this season. I'm going to go next. I'm going to go Xavier Goso. I want to see him in the team 19 years old. Just made the move from Real Salt Lake to Crystal Palace. He hasn't started any games yet. He got 17 minutes in the lead cup, 22 minutes so far in the primary league. But he got to come on against Manchester City. He can play winger. He can play wing back. So he's got a little bit of flexibility there on the right side of the field. He loves to run. He loves to get in behind. He loves to be a thread in behind. He can take people off the dribble. He can hit a decent cross. He's got some room for improvement in some of the different areas. I also love his willingness to get back and help defend, which I think puts him in that wing back conversation for me. He's not afraid to do that type of work. I don't necessarily think any player likes it, but he clearly takes some pride in doing that. Here's my one thing that I'd like to see him improve upon. I don't know if you ever use him in build-up. I don't know if he's being utilized as much in build-up. He likes to be the one that kind of is on the end of the build-up. He wants to be the end result, getting in behind. Obviously, a terrific quality. We need as many players that are dynamic getting in behind as possible. But it would be nice to see him kind of add that element of, like, he's also starting the build-up, creating some combination play, and then getting on the end of it again. So there'd just be some of those that like to see, and obviously you can always refine your cross. And I remember we used to talk about Jedi Robinson. I think you just hit a better cross. The guy is very good and has improved that area of his game a lot. And so I think that would be a good role model for him to look at. But I want to bring him in. I think he's got, he's very exciting. I want to see him play. And I hope that he's on the radar for Pochettino in a way that brings him into this camp, and we can see. When you talk about that, Jimmy, that reminds me of Peyton Miller too, as one of those uncapped guys that I'd like to see, just because even though he might not be ready to be there, I think it would do so much for his game to have an understanding of how Pochettino operates, how anti-Rodges operates, the service, the speed of play, the decision making, the timing. And that would allow him to take that big vault forward, I think, because he's come a long way in just the past six months. I can't imagine with a national team cop and being pushed in that way what it would do for some of these young players. Because I can speak firsthand. When you get that national team cop, the one that you've been dreaming of, you're there with all your role models, and guys you looked up to and watched on the World Cup, and all of a sudden the ball is moving in your head spinning and the coach is yelling at you at the same time, and you have, you know, I remember a Gucci and Yewoo just bulling me over. I mean, absolutely took me out. And I remember getting the, you know, Bob, I thought I was the only one that did that. You know, Gucci took me out. He was the first one to clean me out. I thought I was going to be on a breakaway against Tim Howard, score a goal. Hey, wait, what was your first game? It was your first game. So it was the summer of 2007. Before that gold cup, we played China in San Jose. That was my first cap. And so there was two weeks before that we were in LA at the Home Depot Center, which is now, you know, digging the health sports bar. And I remember just wanting to impress, you know, the young player. But I learned so much more than I could have ever imagined in terms of the expectations, the standard baseline of intensity and the physicality that comes in. And just how much you have to be thinking two or three steps ahead. And that everyone's coming in 100%. Like going to take your soul type of challenge. And so I think a lot, a lot will be learned for some of these younger players. And now we have a good foundation there. So that, I think that's the benefit. Yeah, no, no, I think you're right, too. I think that's the underlying thing as well as that you could bring these guys in tones. And you get to show them where you want them to be. And then you can obviously tell them, you can show them. And then they can learn it for themselves as they're out there playing against. And with some of the guys they've been looking up to throughout this last cycle. Who's your player for you? Yeah. And Jimmy, get a taste. Go home. Maybe go home for a year. Right? Maybe not be on the team for you. Work on your game, maybe. And just be hungry, right? Yeah. Hey, that's where I want to go. That's the group of guys that I want to be with. I think there's a, there's an element of that as well in this whole thing. I'm going to stick worth where I've been for sort of a couple of months now with Audrey Mimetti in the middle of the field. I love the kids' composure. I love his decision making. He's got three ranges of passes. Never looks sort of out of place. Doesn't, doesn't look hurried. You know, I always say this about when I watch Red Bull games. Like, because we have this image of Red Bull, whether it's Arby Leipzig, whether it's Salzburg, whether it's the New York Red Bulls, it's the Red Bulls 100 miles an hour. We're going to go on press and you're going to, and it's going to, it's sometimes going to look like bumper cars. You know, we have this. Yeah. And he, he kind of does all of that, but he looks, he looks like he's playing fast and thinking fast, but he doesn't ever look rushed to me. And in the middle of the field, that's so important to me, right? When I look at my teams and will you have a guy like that? So I want to see him develop. I know he's young, but he's the kind of guy that I, I just want to see. Everyone that comparison early on to him is, is Busquets, you know, because we've had a sample size of Busquets in our league, the end of his career, that Busquets never really looked flustered, never looked rushed, never looked like he would, the game was too fast, and dictated the pace of the game. So he's the one guy I think, if I had to pick one, I know it's, it may not to some people be the most exciting position on the field, but I, I think his upside is incredible. I want to see him continue to grow. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think he's going to be part of the Olympic conversation, for sure. Even though he's eligible for the one in 2032 as well, that's how young he is, which is absolutely crazy. Let us know who you think should be or what to play, or you're excited about why in the uncapped category, we have a couple of shouts for Ta-Ha-Habrune from the Columbus crew. He is 20 years old. I like him better when he plays a little bit. More in the pocket in midfield than when he's out now. Sometimes he gets a little bit higher up the field, so I just had a goal recently off the bench against the Colorado Rapids. And so he's a dual national, could play for Morocco as well. So if there's any kind of pressure or urgency to maybe give him a look, he starts to get into that Moroccan team too. Not true, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, not a good shot. He's going to move a lot of the aside. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, there's a good shot. He's going to move a lot of the aside. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, this is kid. You should take a look at him. Anyway, that is the end of that segment. When we come back, we're going to get into the Olympic team conversation and how it all kind of plays together and give you some insight on the Olympic team in particular because there's only an 18-man roster, which I think makes some of the decisions pretty difficult for Steve to run the low on his staff. So we'll get into that right after this. Ooh, welcome back into the show. I'm Jimmy alongside Charles and Antonio. James, I should have gone by James. Sorry, everybody. All right. So we're going to talk about the importance of the 2028 Olympics to this new World Cup cycle. Marisa Pochettino said this. And I quote, we are going to be available always with Steve Toronto low working with him and him working with us and being always involved in trying to make the best decision for them because I think we have a core of young players that need to play in the Olympic games. I think it's an objective for our federation and for the country to try to be a contender for the gold medal and I say it's important. It's going to be in our country and we are going to support that in always. The decision on the first team of the players that are in that process is going to be that. We're going to take the best decision all together always. So good. It's good to have that type of support. The Olympics is something that I think. Yeah, I know. It feels like there's always... Praise the Lord. It didn't always feel like we were rowing the boat in the same direction in terms of that. So when I hear that from Marisa Pochettino, now we need to take into consideration that the Copa America is also going to be... I think Copa America is first and the Olympics is right after. So be interesting to see which players get released. But there's clear energy from Marisa Pochettino to make sure we have the best team possible, especially because we are hosting this tournament and it's going to be pretty exciting. Yeah. Can I add something? I think what's interesting is... I saw this as well. And this was a quote from Dan Helfrich, the COO of US Soccer. And I think he's probably looking at kind of what some other teams have done, right? Spain, France and Morocco, I think, were the top three in the last Olympics. There's seven players from those teams to be on the World Cup roster this past summer. And if I can find this, Dan said this. There's a lot of data that suggests that success and youth world cups and in Olympic cycles on the men's side create accelerated player development and create the conditions for success and subsequent world cups. And yeah, I am in total agreement with that. He ended up going on saying, you will see us strategically investing more attention and resources and focus on the Youth National Team Games program on elevating the men's Olympic team to prepare us to be in the best competitive position. I think those things will have a significant role in the competitive preparation for our future men's World Cup and other major tournament performances. So yeah, we'll get a lot of good energy from Dan, from Marisa Pochettino. And now obviously, Steve Toronto is a significant hire as well. Got a nice CV. We're not relying on maybe someone who doesn't have the same type of experience. Jones, you've been around. You've seen this Olympic Slash World Cup stuff and the balance and trying to figure it all out. How excited are you to kind of hear this energy about the Olympic team moving forward? So excited. I, this has always been a bit of a frustration for me. Every time we get to the Olympics and we're like, no, this guy's playing with the full team. The one thing about the Olympics for me in general, you have most players only ever have one chance to play in it. Ever, right? It, because it's age restricted. You can't come back to it. You can't want you to pass it. That's it. Unless you're one of the three outstanding, you know, overage players. I don't even know if they're still doing that this Olympics. I have no idea. I think so. I assume they are. Yeah. And we've had much better possibilities at the Olympics, especially the last, you know, the last Olympics, to put a better team on the field. We had good teams on the field. We had great, we would have been able to put together great teams if guys were allowed to go. Greg was not of that mindset when he had the opportunity to bring guys in. He was not in that, in that mode. These words to me, look, look what it did for Mexico, right? Years ago, that golden generation that they had, it goes on at wins the Olympics and all of a sudden, you know. They beat percent on the final. Yeah. Yeah. And look, it's such an important competition. We keep talking about the lack of chances for players to play in big competitions. Now, people will, some people say, it's the Olympics. But when you're a 21-year-old player, it's a big thing to play in the Olympics, right? It's a big thing to try and win a medal. You're fighting for something. And now being at home, I'm so happy when you were reading that out of smile on my face because we're, I think we've missed a boat, Jimmy, a couple times with our Olympic roster. All right. Chuck, as our resident Olympic participant in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, you know, how important is it for us to have a good showing and to this player pool in particular to have this opportunity? It's massive. I think not only for the players that are playing in it, that goes without saying, but for the country, for the fans in this country, also to continue to grow the game. I remember being inspired by the Olympics as a kid. And it was just watching the Olympic Games and what it means to the world and how influential the performances were. So for me, it's a, it's a mandatory ask for any player who is age eligible eligible to go to the Olympics over over America. That's, that's what that tells me. Pogetino and Steve Schruinerler are saying, we're going to, we're going to do our best to, to medal and go for the gold. In order to do that, anybody who's age eligible eligible is going to that. That's going to be the priority. I love that because that's, that's what we should be aiming for. Let's, let's win at the youth level. I'm always thinking about, when are we going to win a youth world cup? When are we going to get, you know, get an Olympic medal on the, on the men's side? I think we're close. But for me, that's, that's what I want to see. And we have such a talented roster. I mean, when you're going through it, you're going, oh my god, Kevin Sullivan, Matisse Albert, Xavier Gozo, Neil Pierre, Peyton Miller, Julian Hall, Diego Kuchin, Adrian Mehmeti. Those are the guys we just talked about in the show that are all age eligible. Um, it's, it's, it's exciting. And I love the fact that Toronto Low is, is there as the head coach and he's making those decisions. He's there with Pogetino and it's a collaboration. Yeah, it's going to be pretty exciting. I'm, I'm really curious as to how much effort there's going to be, to, to, like, say we have someone to your point, big tones, Greg Berhalter, maybe had a player that was, you know, under 23 and didn't release him to go play in the Olympics. Right. If you have the opportunity to do so. MLS players too. MLS teams were like, no, we're not sending our, our players. Mm-hmm. Stop that. I mean, you a soccer and Pogetino right now, JT bats and they better be going to every MLS club. L.A. Olympics. The Olympics are here on our soil in the United States oil. If they are called, if a player is called up, his butt better be going. He better be released. By the way, what, what blows my mind is, if you're a sporting director in MLS, knowing that there's no relegation or promotion, that you make, you make so much money based off selling players. Like, we're, we're still a selling league. Yeah. You're telling me you're not going to allow your, your asset to go and raise their value. If they perform in a, in an Olympics, you don't last your mind. That, that's, you're, you're elevating, you have the chance to raise a player's profile by five to $10 million with strong performances. So allow them to go and do their thing. That's, that's part of the development. And Jimmy, look at this sort of good will for the sport. We kind of built around the World Cup, right? The energy, people jumping on board, higher, as the tournament went on, higher viewing numbers than ever. I imagine we converted a, you know, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of fans, at the World Cup. Some people's biggest sporting event that they watch no matter what is the Olympics, especially here in the US. Some people only watch the Olympics. They'll watch everything. I'm one of those guys, right? I don't, I don't care. You have a US flag on our US jersey on. Like, I'm watching you. I don't know about you. I watch curling and I watch like things that I would never, that I would suck at, that I would never watch in a rip. But man, you put a US jersey on and I'm, I'm like watching. There's people like that just want to, imagine a deep run in the Olympics at home. Like, I don't know why you wouldn't want to take advantage of that. I don't know why you wouldn't want to try and recreate a little bit of, of what we had in the summer here in the US all around the country. And these games, you'd be a perfect, a perfect, a person to play the role of Mel Gibson in the Patriot, Tony. You're, you're, you're, you're. You're that guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. So here's a photo of doc you with LeBron James at the Beijing Olympics. That'll be a young bro. Look at the young look. Yeah. Look, look at that. So much better looking at it all working. Look, look at the swagger in that photo. It's so cool of you to take photos with your, your fans. Yeah. Manly cool. Oh, man. That's like, you used to be really good looking. I used to be sharp. Oh, my God. So, so enough. I think what's interesting is when you, when I said before that the Olympics in 2024, were a precursor for, for France and Spain and, and Morocco in particular, having five or six players on those Olympic rosters that ended up being the World Cup roster this past summer. I look back now at the 2000 Olympics. We finished fourth in that tournament. I'm not going to use overage players because they were already on the national team at that point. But, but the other players were Brian Dunseth, Chad McCarty, John O'Brien. So he would be one that was in. Joey D. Jimorinos. I grew up with him. Played a you soccer with him. He, he didn't make a like the full team. Danny K. Liff did. So that's two Ben Olsen would be three Peter Vynas, Chris Albright, Romero Corralis, Landon Donovan. That's four Sasha Vickdreen, Evan Whitfield, Josh Wolf, Conor Casey, Tim Howard. That's a pretty, you probably have what six or seven guys there that ended up contributing. Conor Casey ended up scoring. The goal is it got us qualified for the 2010 World Cup, even though he didn't make the, the roster. So you have guys that contributed there. Maybe seven or eight ultimately on that roster. But in 2008, that's Chuck's team. You had Chris Sites and goal. Marvel Wynn. No, no. Rage goal. Brad Guzant. Oh, yeah, he's down at the bottom. But he was he an overage player. So I'm not counting those guys. Okay. Yeah. So Parkie, Michael Parker is Brian McBride, Brad Guzant or the overage players. Yeah. So you have Sites who didn't go on to play the full team or didn't have a significant run on that. Marvel Wynn, Arosco, Michael Bradley, Dax McCarty, Marisa Dew, Stuart Holden, Danny Zatela, Charlie Davies, Benny Phil Haber, Freddie Yadu, Josie Altidore, Patty Anya. I didn't know that. Robbie Rogers and Sasha Kleschen. So another what? Like what? Six or seven or eight guys that ended up having. Do you say Moa Dew? Yeah, Marisa Dew. Yeah, he's in there. He was the captain. I mean, our squad was, we felt really good. Hey, what'd you finish in that one? So we won the first game, one nil against Japan, Stu scored a great goal. And then the second game we're playing the Netherlands, we're we're up. Two one, 90th minute, we absolutely balled on the Netherlands. Marvel Wynn had, he looked, I'm talking, when I talk about a world class right back performance, it was that where he was, he was Kaffee out there where everyone was like, who the hell is that? That's the kind of kind of performance, even us were like, oh my God, Marvel looks like he should be playing for Real Madrid. And you know, players were leaving that whole side. They were like, I'm not going on the left side. I don't want to deal with that, that guy, that guy is an animal. And they score a free kick late under our wall. One of their overage players, a striker shot it right under our wall and made it 2-2. So the final game, all we had to do is get a draw against Nigeria in the last game. And Michael Orozco gets a red card in the fifth minute, elbows a player for no reason. And next thing you know, we lose two on, I hit the crossbar on a free kick. That one hurt. He's still better. So he's still better. Yeah, he got it up. He got it over because he got it over here. So then Nigeria goes on to get the silver medal. They lose to Argentina. De Maria scores and Argentina wins the gold medal. De Maria, Lionel Messi and Kunaguro were on that team. I've heard of those guys. Yeah, pretty solid. Quite. And their overage player was Raquel May. So that was quite the team. But yeah, we always look back on that Olympics with a sour taste in our mouth, because we know we should have, we should have meddled. We had such a quality squad. It was well built. But in the end, we didn't deliver. I look at this team now. They absolutely should be in the conversation for meddling. Like they should be in a semi-final. Last Olympics, Jio Reina should have played. Pepe should have played. Moussa should have played. Scally could have played and none of those guys went. I don't want to hear a coach being like, hey, I tried to get these players, but the clubs wouldn't release them. Release the guys. Let them play. Release the Hounds. Let's go. Release the Hounds. All right. I'm going to call it a show. But before we go, we have some more Champions League happening today with some Americans in action, including PSV, taking on Shakhtar Danetsk. That'll kick off at 12.45 PM Eastern. And then Fenerbahce, taking on Arroma. That'll be at 12.45 PM Eastern as well. And then the Europa League kicks off next week. We'll be excited about that, obviously. A bunch of games this weekend for our players, we'll get into that in our next show next Tuesday. So thank you for hanging out with us. Have a great rest of your week. Enjoy your weekend. We'll see you on the other side. Later. On September 24th, from Executive Producer Kim Kardashian, and the producers of Love Island's USA, baseball, and Scottsdale go hand in hand. Games are intense. Parents can also be very intense. What was that? A new, unscripted series about the parents behind Elite Youth Baseball. This is going to stop. All right. Let the games begin. I will drop you right here. What do I do? You don't even know what's about to come. Team Bombs Baseball, streaming September 24th, only on Paramount Flies.