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The USA will face England on Thursday afternoon and Italy on Tuesday, and we’re here to talk about the roster and who we’d like to see in the starting XI. Might be the first time we get to see Pulisic, McKennie and Adams on the field at the same time! We talk about the U20s and the USWNT later in the episode. 0:30 roster absences 11:48 goalkeepers 13:05 centerbacks 17:29 right backs 18:52 left backs 21:20 central midfield 29:37 attacking midfielders and wingers 35:02 strikers 38:30 preferred XIs vs England 41:40 Short Corners: USMNT U20s, USWNT, USWNT U17s, MLS playoffs Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

We talk about quality of the soccer being played by our U20s in the Concacaf Championship, assess individual performances in some detail, give the new USMNT roster a once-over and welcome Alex Mendez to the podcast. 0:30 how the U20s have looked (not great despite the 26-2 margin of victory) 11:50 the good performers (Mendez, Servania, Llanez, Pomykal, Rennicks, Araujo) 26:00 the ok performers (Lindsey, Gloster, Scott) 29:00 the show-me-more performers (Angking, Real, Fontana, McKenzie, Ochoa, Amaya, Perez, Rogers, Torres) 32:35 the go homes after the group stage (Akinola, Dorsey) 34:50 who might be added to the roster when Ramos makes his changes 36:35 Sarachan’s roster for the USMNT friendlies with England and Italy 46:10 Interview with Alex Mendez, 18-year-old CM for the U.S. U20s and S.C. Freiburg Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our priva

We roll through the American soccer news of the week -- MLS Decision Day, U20 World Cup qualifying, Sargentwatch and USWNT and USMNT rosters -- very quickly so we can get to an interview with Richie Ledezma, the 18-year-old phenom linked with PSV Eindhoven. 0:30 MLS Decision Day from 30,000 feet 5:45 U20 World Cup qualifying mini-preview 9:45 Josh Sargent’s and Matt Miazga’s continuing (and very different) absences from their respective first teams. 21:15 New USWNT roster 26:00 New USMNT roster 40:20 Richie Ledezma on his upbringing, his path to the YNT setup, his trial at PSV and what he’s looking for from the U20s over the next couple weeks. Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

The 4-3-2-1 seems to work better than the 4-1-4-1, but nobody’s claimed the central advanced midfield role. We run through the candidates, and the future candidates, for the job. Then we discuss the U.S. U20 roster for the Concacaf Championship, and then, best of all, Atlanta United 2 Coach Scott Donnelly joins to talk about coaching in USL, George Bello, Andrew Carleton, and USL as a place for young players to develop. Long episode. Please make use of the show notes to get what you want from it. The Current Pool of 10-ish CMs 2:30 Acosta 6:50 Nagbe 13:20 Weah 17:56 Pulisic 23:40 McKennie 27:35 Delgado The Kids Who Can Play the 10 or Thereabouts 33:00 Richie Ledezma 37:27 Alex Mendez 41:05 Gianluca Busio 45:00 Andrew Carleton 48:45 Efrain Alvarez U20 roster for the Concacaf Championship 53:35 Scott Donnelly Interview 1:05:15 intro and general ATLUTD2 questions 1:22:40 George Bello 1:30:00 Andrew Carleton 1:37:45 Chris Goslin 1:40:00 Diego Lopez 1:42:00 Jackson Conway 1:48:30 state of US soccer developm

The USA drew Peru in Hartford on Tuesday, but the big story was the US lineup. We got a starting front three of Jonathan Amon, Josh Sargent and Tim Weah. Reggie Cannon got his debut at right back. Aaron Long got his debut at centerback. Ben Sweat got a debut at left back. Brad Guzan returned from the wilderness. What did we learn? A lot! Listen up. 0:30 intro and Velasquez tactical overview (not because we care about Sarachan’s tactics but because it affects the way we assess individual performances) 14:00 Flores’ goal for Peru, whose fault was it? 17:50 Sargent, Weah, Amon, Cannon and Carter-Vickers (extended discussion, please understand) 50:20 Acosta, Delgado, Trapp and everyone else Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/sc

The laboratory was humming Thursday night in Tampa when the USA lost 4-2 to Colombia, with Saief, Bradley, Green and Weah experiments underway, among others. What did we learn? How did the midfield look in McKennie's and Adams' absences? How good is Kenny Saief? Those and many other questions asked and answered in today's episode. Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Let’s start with the bad news. Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic will be absent for the upcoming friendlies against Colombia and Peru, but there are still a bunch of interesting players involved in the camp (Weah, Sargent, Novakovich, Amon, Cannon, Saief). We get into all that and discuss the lineup. 0:30 the big absences 11:29 new additions, Colombia, and the US goalkeeper and defense 24:35 the US midfield, forwards and wings 38:42 Short Corners: USWNT 11, Concacaf 0; Carleton's big upcoming offseason; Alex Mendez & Uly Llanez to Germany; Matias Almeyda to San Jose Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Dave Sarachan released the 24-man roster for the friendlies with Colombia and Peru on Oct. 11 and 16. The big question is who will play in which capacity in the midfield, and we talked about that for a while, among other things. 0:30 brief overview of the roster 17:45 snubs 25:15 extended discussion: how are we gonna sort out this midfield? 1:00:35 Short Corners: USWNT World Cup qualifiers, Cristiano Ronaldo’s depressing news, Sebastian Soto the U19 goal-scoring machine, and the U.S. U17s go to Mexico City Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Special guest Joey Anthone (@USAprospects) and I do a bare-bones run through the roster options for Tab Ramos. We also discuss the format of the U20 Men's Concacaf Championship, the roster rules and the changes that Ramos might make mid-tournament. Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Greg and I wrap up the last USMNT camp and what we learned -- it's quite a bit more positive than our reactions to the games themselves. Then we’ve got an interview with Marc Nicholls, director of player development and academy director for the Seattle Sounders, and we come back with Short Corners at the end. 0:30 takeaways from the recent USMNT friendlies and camp: 1) the 4-2-3-1 deserves further experimentation, 2) gotta find McKennie’s role, 3) we’ve got a core of 7-8 near-lock starters now, 4) let's use the next two camps to test new players against the floor, which is set by another 7-8 players we saw in the last two friendlies. 46:05 Marc Nicholls, director of player development and academy director for the Seattle Sounders. Their U17 boys won the DA championship last year, they’ve given at least 9 teenagers a USL debut this season and at least 6 Sounders players have been called up to youth national teams in the past few months. We talked about his work, the Sounders’ style of play, the development ac

We won the game. It was not pretty. But Greg thinks we learned a lot. I just wish we’d learned how to get Tyler Adams and Weston McKennie to both excel at the same time in the midfield, which we did not. Also Sarachan’s first half plan was not good enough. 2:15 lineup, formation, plan and brief game overview 11:40 goalkeeper 12:30 centerbacks 14:50 fullbacks 22:05 center mids 23:57 tangent on why there isn’t more tactics stuff from traditional soccer reporters 28:40 back to the center mids 45:22 wingers 48:40 strikers 54:55 what we learned, etc. 1:10:38 short corners Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Sarachan surprised us with a 2-centerback formation and some shuttling specialists on the wings, and the U.S. lost 2-0 to Brazil in a limpid but not disastrous friendly on Friday night. 0:30 shoutouts and Sarachan's lineup 7:00 goalkeeper 9:35 centerbacks 14:30 fullbacks 26:12 central midfielders 42:00 wingers 45:35 striker 55:13 what we learned Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

The Sarachan roster, omissions, our starting XIs for Brazil, and a solid (IMO) discussion of Pulisic's absence. 0:50 omissions The Scandinavian Contingent Pulisic injured and Ives article Cannon, Sargent, Parks, etc. 17:50 the 25-man roster Sarachan called up 28:00 our starting XIs for the Brazil match in the likely 3-5-2 49:00 short corners: Champions League draw and Schalke/Dortmund/PSG, U20 camp, U20 players Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

We’re back in our comfort zone and we’ve got a roster episode. The men’s national team faces Brazil on Sept. 7 and Mexico on Sept. 11. We break down the options and in the process conduct a routine checkup on the U.S. player pool. Then we review the first matchday of the Bundesliga season and Belz spotlights the recent USL appearances of Joshua Atencio for Sounders 2. 0:30 preamble 9:25 goalkeepers 12:08 right backs 15:35 centerbacks (EPB got the call-up, listen to the segment if you want to know what we think of that) 25:53 left backs 28:58 central midfield 41:45 wings 48:54 strikers Short Corners: 56:38 Bundesliga Matchday 1 Recap 1:13:56 new USL kid to watch: Joshua Atencio Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Games kick off Sept. 1 in the U19 regular season of the U.S. Development Academy. Joey Anthone joins to detail his preseason top 10 and the key up-and-comers across the nation. We cover some big themes at the top and then dive in. Bext XIs, preseason “awards” and answers to listener questions ensue. 0:30 Introduction and Big Themes MLS academies losing players to Europe for free. The emerging class of elite academies who gather talent from other academies. Changes to the DA schedule to make games more competitive. Joey's Top Ten 32:20 FC Dallas 42:40 Columbus Crew 51:45 Seattle Sounders 1:06:05 LA Galaxy 1:14:30 New York Red Bulls 1:19:15 Sockers FC 1:31:05 Chicago Fire 1:36:30 Sporting KC 1:45:35 Atlanta United 1:48:56 Preseason Awards 2:00:20 Preseason Best XIs 2:05:00 Listener Questions Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord s

Worst case scenarios this season for several Americans playing in Europe. 0:15 Worst Case Scenarios Part 1: Pulisic, McKennie, Weah, Adams, Acosta, Yedlin, Brooks, Amon, Saief, Wood and Sargent. Bach 35:50 Worst Case Scenarios Part 2: Miazga, EPB, CCV, Richards, Moore, Robinson, Sabbi, Gall, Gooch and several others. Billy Holiday 1:10:20 Short Corners: The U.S. women’s U-20s get bounced out of the World Cup in the group stage and why is that? ESPN+ will air some Eredivisie matches this year. George Bello returns from injury. Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed

Chris Richards joins for a conversation from Bavaria, where the 18-yr-old is on loan at Bayern Munich, getting ready for his first regular season U19 game this weekend. Then Greg and Belz run down the European-based player pool ahead of the regular season in the big leagues, and then we take a few Short Corners. 1:23 Richards interview starts. Since the audio is spotty during parts of the conversation, below are timestamps and transcriptions of key things he said that were difficult to hear in the recording. 1:50 Richards on how he found out he was headed to Bayern on loan: “Towards the end of our (U.S. Development Academy) playoffs in San Diego, I got a call from the technical director and he told me that Bayern wanted me to come on loan until December and initially I was like there’s no way this is real, but then I got all my final information and was told to take the next flight to Munich about a week after our last game in San Diego. As soon as I got here I was immediately thrown into first-team train

We take a closer look at the league that has become the destination of choice for young American players by interviewing people who regularly talk or write about Werder Bremen, Hannover 96, Schalke and Dortmund. Josh Sargent, Bobby Wood, Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic are the main events in this episode, but each guest gave a good sense of each club’s overall situation and addressed the rising population of Americans in the Bundesliga and Bundesliga academies. Greg and I had planned to talk about Frankfurt, Wolfsburg and Gladbach to talk about Timmy Chandler, John Brooks and Fabian Johnson, but we ran out of time, as you’ll see. 1:25 Patrick Davey from the podcast Radio Free Weser, on Josh Sargent, the cocoon of development that’s being built around him including Claudio Pizarro's mentorship, Sargent's prospects for first-team minutes, the bullish case for Werder Bremen this season and some quick thoughts on Aron Johannsson and Isaiah Young. Podcast: https://rfwpod.podbean.com/ Twitter: https://twitt

European preseason is always a time of inflated hopes and dreams. Players getting chances, and fresh starts, and new contracts. We run down of a lot of the action, and then Greg breaks out some half-assed high school math as we try to sort out whether the player pool is taking a step forward. (It is.) 0:30 We summarize a lot of the preseason news for the under-23 player pool, including Pulisic, Hyndman, Richards, Carleton, Gall, Parks, etc. 35:30 Is this time different? Buckle in for a rambling discussion of old U-20 player pools, new U-20 player pools, 2012 changes in the development academy and a hypothetical USMNT 2018 World Cup roster. 1:09:45 Short Corners: Davies to Bayern and Acosta to Colorado Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://ww

Joey Anthone (aka @USAProspects) joined the pod to comb through the U-20 player pool and we didn’t stop. Who will be available for November qualifying? We projected that. What are the biggest challenges for Tab Ramos? We explained them. What are the areas of strength in the pool? We pointed them out. Who will be the 6? Who will be the 9? Who will be the centerbacks? Check, check, check. And then we each gave a 20-man roster and answered several listener questions. Carve out time over multiple days because you won’t be able to handle this in one sitting. 0:30 Intro 8:25 Who will be available for U-20 World Cup qualifying? (Adams, Sargent, Weah. Amon — no; Taitague, Soto, McKenzie, Carleton, Durkin — it’s complicated; Ledezma, Mendez, Llanez, Booth — probably) 58:20 Who will be the No. 6 if DC United makes a run and gets into the playoffs with Durkin at the 6? 1:09:30 Who will be Mark McKenzie’s centerback partner? 1:21:40 Who will be the striker? 1:31:25 Areas of strength in the pool: fullbacks and wingers 1: