The Scuffed Podcast | USMNT, Yanks Abroad, MLS, soccer in America

Yes it was a Panama B team, but the U.S. is likely to face several similar sides at the Gold Cup in June, and the win on Sunday was a coherent, competent, even dominant, performance. Compared to US-Bosnia in 2018, and January camps in previous years, this was a step in the right direction.

We run down the action and inaction in Europe over the weekend, Greg explains what worried him about the USWNT’s 3-1 loss to France, and then we talk about who the 6 is going to be for the USMNT vs Panama, and we give our starting XIs.

LA Galaxy's academy is one of the top talent centers in American soccer, and U19 head coach Brian Kleiban is in the middle of it. He's now got former players all over the U.S. boys' youth national teams, he's been to two straight Development Academy finals, and he joined the pod for a wide-ranging conversation on everything from the time he spied on Bielsa in the early 2000s, to the MLS draft, the U20 World Cup, the Development Academy, and his long-term ambitions as a coach.

Ajax and U.S. U20 right back Sergino Dest joins the podcast from the Netherlands for a chat. And then Greg and Belz gin up predictions mostly to honor this coming weekend's return of the Bundesliga.

We talk about the Pulisic move to Chelsea and lots of other moves, run down what we’re looking for from January camp, and then (don’t miss it!) interview Martín Vásquez, the dean of the Real Salt Lake academy, which has been a factory of talent for the U.S. U20 team in recent years.

Clarhaut is the 32-year-old manager of Nyköpings BIS, a club in the Swedish third division. He’s taken the road less traveled. Grew up in New Jersey, played college soccer, was an assistant coach at a few colleges in the Northeast, and then got an assistant coaching job in Sweden and was named head coach at the club mid-season in 2017 when his boss was fired. He gave Scuffed a wide-ranging interview that covered his coaching path, his work in Nyköping, his views on the U.S. men’s national team, and some of his personal coaching philosophy, among other things.

Joey Anthone and Matt Hartman join for a draft of uncapped U-21 Americans with the goal of assembling hypothetical teams for the 2026 World Cup. The three of us each picked a 20-player roster (or 60 total players), and briefly discussed who came out best.

In August, we recorded a catalog of worst case scenarios for USMNT players abroad in the first half of the European season. This week we check in on those (a disconcerting number came true). Then we discuss Ledezma’s pending move to PSV, the Champions League draw, and Dave Sarachan’s new job.

A lot happened over the past couple weeks in American soccer. We take it on piece by piece. Check the show notes.

Andrew Erickson, the former Crew SC beat reporter for the Columbus Dispatch, joins the pod to talk about covering newly announced USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, and then Belz and Matt Hartman discuss what we learned about the U17s in the Nike Friendlies.

U.S. men's U20 coach and youth technical director Tab Ramos joins to talk about the Concacaf Championship and a few other things. Then Greg and Belz talk briefly about the Italy friendly, evaluate the first team minutes requirement floated by some after the game, and break down the satisfying, trophy-winning 2-0 win over Mexico in Bradenton from the U20s.

Belz, Joey Anthone and Matt Hartman take a deep dive into the pool of players born in 2002 or later and therefore eligible for the U17 World Cup next year. We talk about how this age group stacks up against past cycles, discuss more than 50 individual players and try to answer a bunch of very good Twitter questions. This is a long one. Use the show notes. If you get bored with the discussion of one position, skip to the next. We start with the top prospects, generally, and move our way down at each spot on the field.

It was a pretty bad performance from the Americans at Wembley, but hiring a coach should help. Don't worry. This is not as sad of an episode as you might think.

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.

We talk about 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.