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El Tri is Actively Bad - Ep. 5
62 Plays2 years ago
Ari and Noah discuss the United States Men's National Team THUMPING of Mexico 3-0 in the Nations League and the hiring of Gregg Berhalter by U.S. Soccer for the USMNT head coaching vacancy.
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Transcript
Greg Berhalter's Reappointment
00:00:00
Speaker
I am proud to reintroduce our next men's national team head coach Greg Berhalter. Thank you Cindy, thank you JT, thank you Matt. You mentioned the interview process, it certainly was a grueling process but it gave me some insight into Matt and the process that he works with and that was
00:00:22
Speaker
certainly intriguing. You know, we're here to try to take this program to the next level and to be aligned with good people, to be doing good people is the important thing. I'm confused. What's going on everybody?
Introduction to 'Lobbing Scorchers'
00:00:37
Speaker
Welcome in to episode five of Lobbing Scorchers. This is Ari Lillianwall. I got producer Noah here with me. Noah, say what's up to the people.
00:00:48
Speaker
I'm not exactly sure what you just said right there, but that was I just you know I hit him with the welcome to the podcast with our you know my elementary school Spanish is going to really shine today.
00:01:07
Speaker
Great, thanks for that. We got a bit of an emergency pod for you here today. I wasn't really planning on doing a pod covering this. I was thinking about it, but really was only going to do it if the logical opportunity arose. And it most certainly did. We're going to be jumping into some US men's national team coverage tonight, folks.
00:01:35
Speaker
A lot went down in CONCACAF Nations League. And I couldn't not lay down my takes on it. I couldn't.
Pre-Match Anticipation
00:01:43
Speaker
It's what everyone's talking about. And I'm jumping in. I'm a little hesitant to dive into USMNT discourse.
00:01:57
Speaker
So getting involved in this whole scene wasn't particularly high on my agenda. I'm not really particularly popular in USMNT circles. I'm on their list of public enemies. And at some point on this show, we'll dive into that story and exactly why that is that I'm not popular with them. But for this show, we're going to save that for a later date.
US Victory Against Mexico
00:02:25
Speaker
We got to talk about the U.S. men's national teams match against Mexico in CONCAF Nations League on Thursday night because a lot of stuff happened, Noah. A lot of stuff happened. Trace Osero. Trace Osero. A new one. I'll be honest, I really did not anticipate the degree to which this was all going to escalate.
00:02:51
Speaker
I was working the game for M.O.S. I was looking forward to it. You know, it's U.S. Mexico. It's always an exciting rivalry. But if you had told me the sequence of events that I was actually about to witness beforehand, I don't think I would have believed it. So we got to lay down a pot about it. There's really no option.
00:03:13
Speaker
What I'm going to do is I'm going to rip off a little monologue here, kind of like I did on the Charlotte episode. And I think in certain situations, especially for game reaction, when I have so many thoughts that I just want to get out there, that's how I'm going to do it. I mean, Noah, don't let it get to your head. But I actually did get a couple of messages after the last episode that were like, man, you were riffing for a really long time at the beginning of that episode. Where was producer Noah?
00:03:41
Speaker
And I was like, you know, I just I had to go monologue. I had to go monologue. I needed to cook. So we're going to do both things. All you producer know fans out there. You'll get your fix. I can't believe I have fans. He's got fans. Sometimes I'm going to just cook and monologue and then Noah is going to be co-hosting for
Rehire Chaos and Fan Backlash
00:04:01
Speaker
some of the other times. We're going to we're going to do both.
00:04:04
Speaker
Sometimes you gotta let the man cook. Sometimes you gotta just let me cook and right here is a situation where I just gotta cook. Let him dig himself into the hole. I don't need to be in cannon fire range.
00:04:15
Speaker
I've got to cook on this one. I've got to cook on this one. Because once again, the last game, this last Sounders game was crazy. This was even crazier. So yeah, I'm just going to dive in and lay down my takes, all right? Rip it. All right.
00:04:36
Speaker
We probably got some foreshadowing on how crazy this game was going to be, because it actually all really popped off before the match even kicked off. Before it even kicked off, the game had not even started, and the timeline was already doused in gasoline and lit on fire. And that's because Paul Tenorio of the Athletic, Kool-Aid Mandin out of left field,
00:05:03
Speaker
and dropped the bombshell that US soccer's exhaustive six-month search for their next head coach is over. And the higher is Greg Berhalter. He's back, baby. Record scratch.
Match Analysis and Reactions
00:05:18
Speaker
We hadn't had a coach since the World Cup ended. We've had fighting at the bottom with a bottom group of players, Anthony Hudson and someone named BJ Callahan in term coaching.
00:05:28
Speaker
But we got a coach again, and it's Greg Berhalter So that obviously threw the timeline into an absolute frenzy because as you might be aware Greg Berhalter, he's a little bit like me He's a bit of a polarizing figure among a certain segment of the
00:05:43
Speaker
U. S. M. N. T. Fan base could say that again. So they're not what I would describe as fans of Greg Berhalter for their own variety of reasons and we're going to we're going to react to the Berhalter news later.
00:05:58
Speaker
But the timeline was already roiled in chaos anarchy and destruction literally right as the match was kicking off. Amazing time by Paul in the athletic shout out to Paul. He showed me around Chicago a few years ago when I was there for a Sounders game. Great guy and apparently a guy with great comedic timing because
00:06:17
Speaker
The way the athletic dropped that just like literally as the game was just starting was actually so funny. I get why they did it because it was like at a peak time when the interest would be the highest, but the comedic results were undeniable.
00:06:32
Speaker
We're definitely going to have to get him on the plot and ask him about that one. We are. Actually, that's a good shout. That's a good shout. Paul, if you're listening to lobbing scorchers, we'd love to have you on hit the line. But honestly, we'll talk about Berhalter. We'll talk about all that. But if you thought that whole thing was dramatic, just wait until we talk about the game itself, because this was absolute debauchery from front to back on multiple fronts. There's so much to talk about with this game.
00:06:59
Speaker
I kinda can't believe we've once again been blessed with this content so early into this show's existence. It feels like they're just lobbing it all up for the plate for me, you know? Like, where to even start? Dinger after dinger. Dinger after dinger. Alright, I guess I'll start here.
00:07:17
Speaker
This performance from L Tree was legitimately, and I say this without exaggeration, the single most embarrassing, pathetic, disgraceful joke of a performance I've ever seen in CONCACAF. And I just want everyone to understand how much that's saying when I say that.
00:07:43
Speaker
I've been watching CONCACAF Champions League and following it very closely for going on 10 years now. The Sounders have been in it like three or four times. They won it in 2022, famously. So I watched every single one of those games.
00:08:01
Speaker
I work most of the games that the other MLS teams are playing in. And if I'm not working in them, especially as it gets deeper into the tournament, I'm pretty much always watching those because I'm so interested and invested in how they're going. So I've seen a lot of crazy stuff is my point. And honestly, this match kind of reminded me of one of those crazy CCL games. Those were the vibes. But I've seen it all.
00:08:27
Speaker
I've seen a lot of red cards. I've seen the dark arts at their finest. I've seen some of the most comically bad officiating known to man. I've seen MLS teams embarrass themselves. I've seen teams from multiple different countries embarrass themselves. I've never seen a more embarrassing performance than what L tree put in on Thursday.
00:08:55
Speaker
Never. I'm dead serious when I say like it's number one. I'm dead serious.
00:09:01
Speaker
I'll start with the result, which was a result that I think we all enjoyed 3-0 US over Mexico. And it wasn't even that close. It really was not. This was a beat down from minute one to minute 90. And it was fantastic to watch from that standpoint. I enjoyed that. And I'll start with just my first takeaway, which is similar to what I was already saying. But L3 is terrible. They're terrible. Actively bad team.
00:09:32
Speaker
Outside of the CONCACAF implications, that was definitely one of the most embarrassing performances by either of these teams in the history of this rivalry. Before you even get to the subsequent temper tantrum and circus clown behavior from both their players and their fans, they were awful on the field. Like, are you kidding me? You're in the Nations League semifinals, and that's what you put on the field.
00:09:58
Speaker
What are we even talking about? What are we doing? I have no clue what they came to Vegas to do, but it was not play a soccer game. It wasn't to compete. The degree to which they outright embarrassed themselves on that field was staggering. Christian Pulisic was cooking their center mids and their back line all night long.
00:10:25
Speaker
L-Tree had Pulisish looking like prime Eden Hazard crossed with Kevin DeBroyne. They had nothing on him. Nothing. Tim Waya was cooking. He was eating on that right side all night long. Our center mids, Eunice Musa and Weston McKinney, were beating them like a drum out there. The CBs, Chris Richards and Miles Robinson, were eating their attackers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They had nothing in attack.
00:10:54
Speaker
L-Tree got close to scoring one time in this game, Matt Turner stuffed a shot, and then they were offside anyway, so it wouldn't have even countered if their guy did finish it, which he didn't.
00:11:03
Speaker
This was just a good old fashioned prime time beat down in every sense of the word. They they did not look like they belonged on the same field with the US and that's not how I expected this game to go. It's not how these games usually go. Usually US Mexico is evenly played competitive hard fought. They didn't come to play. They really did not come to play.
00:11:26
Speaker
Before this game, I knew that L-tree was going through it a little bit. I think everyone who follows CONCACAF knew that. But I thought of them as more mediocre and in-transition than I thought of them as actively bad. They're actively bad. They're a terrible team.
Second Half Chaos
00:11:44
Speaker
They have nothing.
00:11:46
Speaker
Before this game I've always rooted against them for obvious reasons as a US fan but I respected them as competitors. I always felt like a game against them was always going to be a challenge was always going to be a hard fight. And after witnessing that game they're literally like a joke to me.
00:12:05
Speaker
Not only are they no longer top dog in CONCACAF, they're deep, deep third. It's us and Canada fighting for the top spot, and they're third by a long shot. And any of their fans who want to argue that, I don't know what you have to stand on after that. I mean, God, that was so bad. The game was actually 0-0 for much of the first half, but the US was clearly the better team the whole time. And the deeper it got into the first half,
00:12:34
Speaker
The more I started to feel like this game is ripe for the taking. And I knew Eltri was toasted in the 36 minute when Pulisic made a solo run where he absolutely torched his defender on the left side. He dribbled around Guillermo Ochoa and had a wide open net. And I thought it was for sure going to be a goal. It was really great run by Pulisic. But he skied the shot. He didn't make it.
00:13:01
Speaker
that was the moment where I was like based on you know that chance and how just the the rest of the game was going this whole half is going like this and this team has nothing on us they have nothing and push ends up getting two goals great performance by him pretty electric honestly man of the match for sure easy but
00:13:21
Speaker
The reason they're a joke to me, L tree goes far beyond how bad they were on the field, which was awful. But you know, that's one thing a lopsided result where you play really badly is one thing, you know, maybe you just had a bad game or whatever. But this is where we've got to get into where it really popped off because this game in the second half became an absolute beacon of chaos, anarchy and destruction.
00:13:51
Speaker
Basically what happened was L tree was getting their asses handed to them in the game. They weren't competing. I think they probably realized mid game just how bad they actually are. And so they started throwing what can only be described as a full on conniption fit and a temper tantrum as a collective. They started hacking the US players. They were committing cynical files repeatedly and basically devolved into a full on unhinged toddler style meltdown from their players.
00:14:21
Speaker
Thanks.
00:14:23
Speaker
It all came to a head in the 70th minute or so when one of their defenders, Cesar Montes, got big boyed by Fuller and Baligon, lost the ball, and instead of just conceding the possession that he just lost, like an adult, he literally just kicks the shit out of Baligon right in the leg. Dirty play, straight red, all day, every day. So he gets the straight red, and that basically incited the first of the two brawls that took place in this game.
00:14:52
Speaker
The U.S. players were upset about that challenge, rightfully, and a whole fracas took off. And this was not your run-of-the-mill soccer player fracas, where they're all just yapping at each other and doing the hold me back thing. Like, this was a pretty real throwdown. And in the midst of that throwdown, Weston McKinney, who was in there mixing it up,
00:15:12
Speaker
Also ends up getting a red card for grabbing the throat of one of the guys that he was mixing it up with So they both get thrown out of the game. That's probably where the most iconic moment of this match happened I think Weston was fired up He was right in the middle of the mayhem and he actually got half of his jersey totally ripped off So he's strutting around half a jersey on he's got this wild look in his eyes And he just starts kissing the US crest on his half ripped Jersey. That was amazing. I love Weston man. God. I love Weston
00:15:42
Speaker
That red card was so worth it. Easy. That shot of him kissing the crest with the half ribbed jersey instantly iconic in the scope of that rivalry. After that, this match was just a dogfight, rest of the regulation. Eltriq had found the shit out of the US players cynically like they did like 27 times in this game.
00:16:02
Speaker
My favorite one was probably when they were getting absolutely cooked on by Gio Reyna for the 14th time in the game. And they got so fed up at how much better he is than them that they just hacked him down. And that was a great Gio moment too. Gio gets up and he's literally just laughing. They're a joke to him too. He starts pumping up the crowd and strutting around. That was great to see as well. I got pumped up for that one. I was like, hell yeah. Talk your shit, Gio.
00:16:28
Speaker
It all popped off again right before full time and just a few minutes after Ricardo Pepe scored the U.S.'s third goal to make it 3-0. And that's when O'Tree started acting like little crybabies again and their guy, Arteaga, made a decision. He decided, you know what?
00:16:48
Speaker
My team is terrible. We're getting beat so bad in this game. We're off to the third place game. Let's see if I can't just get his bow thrown out and he'll be suspended for the next game, which is the final, because they're actually playing in that and we're not. And he succeeded, unfortunately. As sick as Weston's red card was, this desk one kind of killed me because he took the bait.
00:17:12
Speaker
He took the bait. That guy was trying to goad him into doing exactly that. Comes up with his hand and gets him in the face.
Controversial Chants and Consequences
00:17:20
Speaker
And now he's going to miss the final on Sunday. And it's just like, God damn it. It's one of our best players. Now we can't play because of a situation that could have been prevented, I think.
00:17:34
Speaker
At the same time, you know, I don't really hold it against desk. It's a crazy game. And I can only imagine what the environment was like on the field. So I fired up after scoring or assisting. He had the most beautiful way possible. It was a great assist. So it is what it is. God, he was cooking. He had such a good game. But we'll just have to rock without him for the next game.
00:17:57
Speaker
So the game ended 9 on 9, four ejections in total, two brawls, and a 3-0 win for the US over else free. So that's what happened on the field. I know that was a lot. But to add another layer of ridiculousness to this whole situation,
00:18:14
Speaker
In the second half, when it was clear that their terrible embarrassment of a soccer team was getting boat raced off the field that they didn't even belong on because they're so bad at the sport, Mexico fans started doing their homophobic chant, which they've been in trouble for for years. And they refuse to stop doing it. They've been told to stop a lot of times. Games have been delayed. They've been reprimanded in certain different ways. And they just won't stop. They won't stop.
00:18:41
Speaker
They love this homophobic champ. They can't get enough of it. A couple people noticed on the timeline and I agree that was like the loudest I've ever heard it. They were dishing it with passion. And it got to the point where the ref literally called the game halfway into stoppage time because they wouldn't stop. So we called the game. So I mean,
00:19:04
Speaker
I got a few things to say about this. Nothing that in depth or other people haven't already pointed out probably. But first of all, I want to be careful not to generalize. It's not all Mexico fans that participate in this. I've seen and know a lot of their fans and journalists speak out against this. So I do want to note that in
00:19:27
Speaker
acknowledge that it's not their whole fan base and there are people who do speak out against it. But I will say that the amount of people that were participating in that chant, in that game, and just in general, it seems like all their games remains pretty shockingly high. It's like pretty much every time they play, it feels like.
00:19:52
Speaker
It's so ridiculous that this is even a discussion that we're still having. This is not a hard issue to solve. It's really not. Their fans need to just retire that chant. It is that easy. Just retire it. Move on.
00:20:11
Speaker
Use one of your other chants. Come up with a new chant. But there's no debate about this. There's no counter argument. There's no like other side. It's very simple. That chant needs to be out of the game. Needs to be out of their chant rotation.
00:20:28
Speaker
It's not even a good chance. It's not a good chance. It's not discriminatory. Yeah, it doesn't belong in the game. The counter arguments I've seen are pretty much twofold. You know, number one, some people always, some people try to argue that like the meaning of the word isn't homophobic anymore. Like its meaning has evolved and it doesn't really mean that. So it's all good. We should still be able to use it.
00:20:53
Speaker
No way. Terrible argument. You really, like, if you argue that, you should not be arguing that. That is exactly what that word means. Everyone knows it. The people chanting it know it, and they just don't care. So just miss me with that one. It's a terrible argument.
00:21:09
Speaker
The other one, which is equally terrible, is that it's like it's tradition. It's been a part of the chant rotation for so many years, like we can't possibly give it up, I guess. We can't change it because it's like giving up a part of their past or tradition, maybe. I mean, I just I really don't get that. Just change the tradition, get rid of that tradition. You can establish new traditions that don't involve homophobia. Seems pretty easy.
00:21:36
Speaker
seems like a good step forward to step forward. I'm not. I'm really not sure what I'm missing with that, but like just because something is for tradition and has been around a long time, that doesn't mean that you can't just move on from like the word in this situation if it's a discriminatory word, which it is objectively. So the fact that this is still going on is just so ridiculous and it's so embarrassing.
00:22:00
Speaker
They started doing it because they were so mad that they were getting beaten so badly in the game. And it seems like they were like, it got louder and they were almost reveling in the fact that they know they're not supposed to be doing it and it's like, fuck you, we're gonna do it anyway. Which that just adds another layer to how pathetic and embarrassing it is. And it's such a bad look for their team, their whole federation, and their fanbase.
00:22:27
Speaker
I don't know how else to say it. It's absolutely ridiculous that we're still talking about this. I don't really know how to solve that other than FIFA and CONCACAF need to literally ban them from competitions and force them to forfeit matches until that chant is eliminated.
00:22:45
Speaker
like they have to put their foot down on this like there's no end result of this situation that's acceptable other than that chance being outright eliminated from the game so if that's the only way to reach that end to to bar them from competitions and forcing them to forfeit then
00:23:05
Speaker
It's at the point where that's what they have to do. Like I really don't see any other way around that because short of that, like it's pretty clear at this point that their fans aren't going to stop. So that embarrassing behavior from the fans just compounded what was already an embarrassing performance on the field. And the end result was legitimately the most embarrassing performance I've ever seen from a concave team in any competition. You know, like I said,
00:23:37
Speaker
I've been following CONCACAF closely for 10 years. I'm sure if you go back through the years past that, you might be able to think of some other candidates. But to me, this is the number one gold standard for a team embarrassing and disgracing themselves in every single conceivable capacity.
00:23:59
Speaker
So, that's what happened. Next up, USMNT's got Canada on Sunday in the Nations League final.
Looking Ahead to Canada Match
00:24:09
Speaker
And, you know, I fully expect that to actually be a good game. You know why? Because Canada's got a squad.
00:24:17
Speaker
Yeah for sure and They've got like a pretty good all-around team like they they finished top of the octagonal. They're actually here to compete They're not a team. That's full of Petulant circus clowns They're actually in Vegas to play the game, so I'm looking forward to that even if it you know it might not be As electric of content, but you know it should be an actual good game against an actual squad
00:24:48
Speaker
Anyway, like I said, I had my set of expectations for what we were all getting into going into that game, and that was just 102 miles per hour right on the paint from the Paul Tenorio report before the game all the way to the final whistle. Wild stuff, and I just had to get my takes on it.
00:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. No, first of all, like, what did you make of the game, I guess? What was your take? Hit me.
00:25:19
Speaker
I'm hitting you with the takes. I got to start off with the chance stuff because I think that it was talked about a little bit online, but I think that it's time to have a deeper conversation about getting this type of, frankly, just bullshit out of the game. There are so many people that are queer and in sports nowadays and have always been, and especially in soccer, that
00:25:42
Speaker
not banning fans from matches, not sanctioning teams, not actually doing something to stop this meaningfully. It's a slap in the face to everything that supposedly places like CONCACAF and places like FIFA stand for.
00:26:00
Speaker
It's not acceptable. It's stupid. And if you say, oh, this is a great tradition and we need to keep up this tradition, there's a lot of really shitty traditions that many lanes have changed. That argument is just so crazy to me, like. Like, so because like any tradition, like, no matter what it is, you just like are married to keeping it like permanently. That's not how it works. Like stuff you change and you adapt over time. Yeah. Like, so what are we what are we talking about with that?
00:26:39
Speaker
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00:26:49
Speaker
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00:27:12
Speaker
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00:27:35
Speaker
Yeah, it's it's really it's really just honestly it's just disgusting and like yeah to lose and to have that happen and to be throwing cups on the field and all of this behavior that seems to just kind of Be normal at this point for L tree fans, and I don't want to say it's again. It is not every L tree fan I saw a lot of outspoken L tree fans online saying that they're tired of this too, so I don't have a solution I just I'm glad that we're talking about it secondly
00:28:03
Speaker
Wow, that Mexico team sucks. Wow, that Mexico team sucks. I saw some commentary on it on basically how the US has done things the right way, developing their youth players, bringing them up, and now we see where they're at now, which is this.
00:28:21
Speaker
team that has like a bunch of superstars on it basically i mean you have christian pollistic who looks like jesus christ out there when he plays with the u.s. meds national team you know people were talking trash on him because of chelsea's pretty terrible season and then you know balagans out there for the first time and you know i don't know everyone everyone looked great everyone was running on all cylinders we played amazing and i i uh
00:28:49
Speaker
Gotta say like I was outside of all the other bullshit that went on in the game. I was pretty Surprised at how much better than them we really looked mm-hmm. It was a stark Gulf in quality Yeah, like they were not they were not touching us and like that is so out of the norm for us Mexico game I don't
00:29:15
Speaker
I can't remember a game where we beat their ass like that that badly like that there was really not a single second of that game where they looked like they even belonged on the field like and I'm not exaggerating like that was that was how big a beat down that was.
00:29:33
Speaker
I think it was players who were super involved and invested in that rivalry for one, so they were playing their hearts out. But two, genuinely, these players have developed a lot since World Cup, I think. I mean, they got time under their belt. They've kind of grown up in this system now. They're getting their footing. They know their goal.
00:29:54
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know what to say, but people are pointing to what we were going to talk about. Greg Berhalter coming in. He developed a lot of these kids in this team. He might've done a good job, which, which yeah, like I'm sorry, sorry to burst your bubble. If you think he's like absolutely Satan reincarnated, but, um, yeah, since you know, Christian politics, Jesus might as well have him be Satan. It's like,
00:30:17
Speaker
Okay, so okay. That's actually that's actually a perfect segue. Let's talk about this Berhalter stuff because that was the big news before the game that kind of hanging over the whole game the entire time that it was happening, which is that Berhalter is back and
00:30:34
Speaker
You know, there's there's a lot of divided opinion on that. Let's say you can say I would say that the most vocal among the USMNT fan base are there. They're having they're having the day. They're not having a good time. They like you said, they think he's Satan reincarnate. So you can imagine how they feel about it.
00:30:57
Speaker
I mean they're still mad that Jordan Morris got four World Cup minutes, so right exactly so I Mean I guess I'll just give my Burr halter take which is that I Think he's a pretty much like exactly bang average coach that had the team perform exactly up to expectations at the World Cup and You know like if
00:31:26
Speaker
You got it you got to kind of judge it through two lenses like the on field performance in the results and then like culture and vibes and I think the you know, I think the on field performance in results were like pretty much
00:31:42
Speaker
acceptable to actively good sometimes mexico hasn't beat us in six straight games we won gold cup nations league like like his winning percentage is really high so like statistically he's a good coach like i just don't really like when i see like the extent of the hatred and the vitriol
00:32:02
Speaker
it just seems like way way over the top for like when I watch the games and I'm not like looking through it of the through the lens of Twitter discourse I'm like yeah the team looks pretty solid like we're fine
00:32:18
Speaker
We've got like a really undeniably good and talented young player pool like the oh man that I was just I was kind of reveling in it last night just like some of the skill that some of these guys have like seeing geo cook like that man like
00:32:34
Speaker
When he's cooking, he is he's really just a it's a joy to watch him. He's one of those players where like you can't help but smile when he's on the ball because he's he's just that talented. Um, pool is still in his prime and was playing out of his mind in this game. Weston McKinney is one of my favorite soccer players of all time in any context like
00:32:58
Speaker
that last night was like the ultimate Weston McCain. It was a canon moment. It was it really was like even before the red card. He was cooking in the game. He was just doing all that all the kind of dirty work in like ball progression stuff that like he's so talented at and then the whole situation with the red card was just phenomenal entertainment and like he was so pumped up like yeah when he was kissing the crest like you could see how like much it means to you know.
00:33:27
Speaker
Like that's just like so it's like heartwarming to see you know like young players like that Like that's like a kind of growing up moment even like as chaotic as the game was and like That's something like when I look at it
00:33:43
Speaker
I give the coach credit for that. The energy and the vibes that are within the group, that's one of the only things that you can really attribute to the coach. The result in a given game, the coach isn't out there playing. You can talk about tactics all you want, but at the end of the day, that's mostly going to come down to the players.
00:34:04
Speaker
It just seems like the vibes in within the group are good. They all seem to like and respect Greg and so that's I guess that's that would be my other point is like
00:34:17
Speaker
I put a lot of weight on what the players think about this. I think that's important. Some people think that the players should have no say or input on who the coaches at all and just play for whoever the Federation puts in there. But I think if the players are all saying, which it seems like they're all pretty much saying,
00:34:37
Speaker
We like Greg. The vibes were great. We thought we he put us in a good position to succeed at the Cup like we were all pretty bought in on that. Like we feel like we could benefit with him for another cycle. Then I'm like fine with it like that. And it seems like that was the consensus from mostly inside the locker room.
00:34:55
Speaker
Greg said I was on his presser today He said that he acknowledges that there are some fences to mend with Gio Reina specifically which so that's one thing that is the most fair that if you were going to critique it like the whole Blackmail scandal at the World Cup Which I still can't believe that was a thing But like that clouded a lot of the good stuff that we did at the World Cup and
00:35:21
Speaker
You know I haven't I honestly I'm not going to lie I kind of forgot about that for a minute that's like that is something to talk about because that was incredibly unacceptable in any sense for a coach to be to babe like that well. I mean okay what he did that was stupid I don't want to get like super in the yeah not a male yeah yeah
00:35:42
Speaker
But what he did that was dumb in that situation was giving the Speech to the he thought it was an anonymous speech quote-unquote yeah, so he thought that he thought everything he was saying was off record and he told the story about how he almost sent Gio home from the World Cup and that's when Gio's parents got pissed and started bringing up all kinds of stuff from Greg's past to basically
00:36:08
Speaker
I don't know that if that whole situation was like so ugly and ridiculous and it was just the triangle of the most annoying people you know fighting each other it was just like so much drama like that that had nothing to do with like the sport really so I I do think that that was something that they needed to like think about when they were reevaluating Greg but
00:36:39
Speaker
When I look at it, I don't look at it as something that should exclude him from contention. And they need to do the diligence on whether they still think that he's the right guy to lead the program. And if that's the conclusion that they came to, then that's the conclusion that they came to. And I'm definitely not going to be all pissed off about it. I would have been fine with a new coach, because I think new blood, new ideas isn't a bad thing after a coach has already had one cycle.
00:37:08
Speaker
But it's just I don't know people just get Way too bent out of shape about this stuff. It's like not that big a deal Yeah, do you think do you think that us men's national team fans would have been happy ever with any selection? personally, I don't think that's the other thing is like I
00:37:26
Speaker
like you got a name like who would have been who would be better and then that person has to be available then they have to like want and take the job yeah so like this idea that it's like what do you think is gonna happen like if Greg didn't get hired we passed up on like pepper someone like that right no like so like if there was an obviously better candidate out there that either beat Greg out or like I thought was better
00:37:56
Speaker
Some people wanted Jesse Marsh, I think Jesse Marsh, like I would have been I was like, I was down with that. Yeah. Yeah. I was down with that. Like, I think he's a good coach and he, Jesse Marsh is like a good vibes guy. He's pretty good at like culture and energy stuff, which I think is even more relevant in a national team where you're not together a lot of the time. No, a hundred percent. Like I have a whole take that I'll get into on another pause sometime, but just that like,
00:38:21
Speaker
Like energy and vibes is like the most important part of coaching, I think. There's tactics and you gotta know ball, obviously.
00:38:33
Speaker
Energy vibes like cultivating relationships like team chemistry that stuff that I think like Schmetz is really good at man management and like just creating an environment where like players Like can be themselves and they all like each other and they enjoy coming in and playing on the team
00:38:52
Speaker
that's really like the true value of a coach i think is the vibes more than like being some kind of tactical genius because realistically a lot of times tactics are it's down to like how much talent you have how good your roster is in this case how good your player pool is like it's pretty simple sometimes if you have the more talented player pool your results are going to be better and
00:39:19
Speaker
the coach's job to me is is a lot to do with like culture and like the energy surrounding the team and I give burr halter like decently high marks for all that like I don't really know where even his tactics weren't bad though he had the best winning percentage of any US men's natural team coach ever
00:39:38
Speaker
He won the gold cup and the nation's league. He took them out of the group stage. He has the something like the best Goals four versus goals against of any us men's national team coach like I'm not I'm not here to be like saying that he's the best coach ever but like I think the villain the villainization of him is a little bit laughable Statistically speaking and we know that I don't like stats. Yeah, we know I'm not a stats guy, but
00:40:08
Speaker
come on that's like that's unrefutable he's no yeah he's he's been he had a pretty much fine cycle yeah pretty much fine cycle so i do think the one thing that i think is funny about this is that we didn't we didn't have a coach for six months all right and this we did this last time after uh yergan cleanseman got fired and uh
00:40:30
Speaker
Before bur halter came on there's like a huge gap where we just didn't have a coach Yeah, and we were just like going to all the playing these games like with interim coaches Yeah, they're like they didn't the high school coach from down the road Hey, are you guys gonna like hire a coach?
00:40:47
Speaker
Yeah, probably like at some point and it got to a point where I'm like I mean you kind of should probably but that time it was like a year yeah like we straight didn't have a coach for like an entire calendar year and I remember getting to the point with that where I was just like this is getting Ridiculous and then so this time they did like the same thing they waited six months and the reason they were waiting so long is they were like
00:41:14
Speaker
All right, like this is the most Exhaustive Data-driven elaborate coaching search of all time. We've got like a team of scientists and engineers all the best in their field They're there Albert Einstein Einstein is going to help us find this coach
00:41:37
Speaker
And that's why it's like taking some time because the process is like so rigorous and so detailed and thorough that you know, it's going to take a little while and then they get to the end of this like super rigorous data driven process and the guy that they hire ends up being the same guy that just had the job.
00:42:00
Speaker
So it's like what like why would you not just keep him on like from the beginning? I know there was a lot of like that drama around the World Cup that probably maybe that made that was probably the cool-off like we're gonna this is your reprimanding, but you know it also it just is funny like how much they touted the process to have it just lead back to the same guy they already had yeah, I mean I'm sure like
00:42:27
Speaker
I'm sure the process was rigorous. I'm just saying we could get into that. We could get into that like soccer consulting thing. It sounds like a good grip, if you ask me. The firm, they hired a firm to tell them to hire the same guy that they already hired. We could do it. No, I mean, that's more of just like a funny thing. Like I, as far as like what I think of the actual hire, I just really like, I said, just don't really,
00:42:52
Speaker
The only way I would care that much about like who the coaches is if it's someone like you know just out land ish Lee like out of left field and like proven Lee terrible yeah in like multiple facets like Berhalter is not any of that he's proven Lee fine to sometimes good if anything so like
00:43:17
Speaker
I don't know if you're like super bent out of shape about it. I guess I just don't really understand like why you. Why he elicits that reaction for a coach that has been pretty much statistically fine and seems to have the respect of all the players and cultivated some good culture and some good vibes like seems fine to me. So yeah anyway that's yeah I don't really know what else to say about that. They're also they don't even have to qualify for the next World Cup. So like why do you what does it matter.
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah, you know what I mean there we do we do we got it. We got to progress at the next World Cup. Yeah, that's the thing like I thought I thought we would realistically realistically. Did you ever think that they were going to be a team like that? They lost to the Netherlands. Yeah, you're they were going to beat the nether. No, I was never
00:44:07
Speaker
going to happen. Probably not. No. I, the only reason that I actually did think we had a chance in that game is because as I understand it, their team is kind of like a young and up and coming type group, similar to ours. So my kind of hope I guess was that like maybe their relative and experience, I know they have some guys that were very experienced, but like
00:44:28
Speaker
their relative inexperience maybe that can like maybe that can affect the game and give us more of a 50-50 look even though they kind of out match us on talent but then the actual game itself you're right like it's like they're just they're just a much better team than us it does like
00:44:45
Speaker
People get so hung up on the tactics for that Netherlands game and like it was starting and who doesn't like there did I folks like there that game was never gonna be a win no there would have been a miracle there a lot a lot better than it's the same thing as the Belgium game in 2014 yeah that team they had Belgium had 39 shots on goal like you're really gonna act aggrieved on like coaching and tactics that we didn't win that one you're gonna blame Wando for that we gave up 39 shots yeah like
00:45:14
Speaker
So I don't know. It's silly. It's echo chambers on Twitter who have gaslit themselves into believing that the US men's national team is somehow like a top 10 national team in the world. I don't even know if they've gaslit themselves into thinking we're top 10. They've gaslit themselves into thinking that Berhalter's coaching is what's preventing us from getting there, from getting to that level.
00:45:42
Speaker
and i don't know like i just don't really see that i see a player pool that's very talented but not yet experienced and deep enough to like really truly hang with the big dogs on the world stage but i also see a lot of signs that were like getting there that game last night like that
00:46:01
Speaker
God, we played so good. They looked like a team. The footy was ready to play. God, it was so good. We talked too about when they signed Ballygun, you were like, we now have a nine. Christian Polisic can now play a ball to someone who can score a goal. We haven't even talked about that at all. But I know he didn't score last night. And he didn't show up on the stat sheet at all, really. So it was a pretty quiet debut.
00:46:31
Speaker
But I just think there's a pretty good chance with how talented a player this guy is that he could really elevate our team a lot. I mean, how many times have we talked about over the last few years?
00:46:49
Speaker
USMNT striker mis-insiders We can't finish our chances We actually are like it's so frustrating when we're actually playing good footy, and we're generating chances And we just can't finish him like no matter who the number nine is mm-hmm this guy seems like a guy that is
00:47:09
Speaker
is pretty ruthless. He's going to start finishing those. The more acclimated he gets with the team, the more he generates chemistry. That's so exciting. This team needs that so badly, so badly. And I will say, he was pretty quiet last night. But you can see how just having a threat like that keeps the defense more honest. On our second goal, where Pulisic scored,
00:47:37
Speaker
He ball again is pulling a defender with him on a run He's making that really like freed up the space that Tim way I put it into for Christian to score that so like that's that's like Hugely valuable right there just like how he can soak up attention from center backs and have like defenses Key in on him and that like frees up everyone else to work so like I saw that and I was like oh
00:48:00
Speaker
Yeah, like that's you know they had he's keeping them on us They have to respect that run whereas like a lot of our strikers you probably don't even have to respect that run I love Jordan Morris, but you don't need to like Keep your eyes on him a thousand percent of the time like the little two-man little two-man Christian and be like yeah, but and like you know it's more even about like just Like psychologically in that situation you know they were like
00:48:28
Speaker
Like we have to we have to track this guy. This is this is a problem And so I don't know that was just exciting to see and it's just exciting to have him on the team I'm really I'm really like don't let anyone tell you that you shouldn't be hyped about that because this guy He looks like a really really good player, and he's exactly what the team needs like to a tee exactly what the team needs
00:48:49
Speaker
It's too bad Greg burr altars gonna ruin him. He's gonna ruin them, but I think I think too It's it's also something that we've said on this podcast a million times. I think we should lobbing scorchers trade market It's about personnel sometimes. It's about when you don't have people Like when they're out injured just getting them back can change the game bringing someone new in who's a threat can change a lot more than a coach could ever change and
00:49:14
Speaker
100% so anyway once again Thank you so much to everyone who's been tuning in to these episodes really appreciate it Please just like subscribe rate five stars if I could get some more reviews on Apple pods Right as some reviews and make them five stars. I got like three up there One of them's mine. They're all from my homies. Yeah, that's from Noah. So it's like no
00:49:39
Speaker
Whoa! Not a homie? Come on. Well, I mean, you know, outside of the podcast. Fair, fair, fair. So that did sound funny.
00:49:51
Speaker
We're going to catch you for the next one. Yeah. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Twitter. I'm at a r i l l g in the podcast. It's in the podcast description so you can find no is there to not even going to let them say it. Yeah exactly. Thank you for tuning into episode five and we'll catch you for episode six until then we out peace.