And bart. We always go to our man Roy Kent when we need some bringing everything back to center. When it comes to stupidity down here?
What was the stupidity down here moment?
Oh, the stupidity down here moment was racist stupidity from El Classico.
Oh, racism in Spain.
Not shocked, yes, no, not shocked. So you are how caffeine infused, are you, sir?
Not enough? Because I'm still very tired at a moment like one o'clock last night.
All right, so break down this weekend of yours and why why you are heavily fueled in g your caffeine here?
So Saturday, I refereed four games, which is a little bit more than I normally do. Yeah uh, And then had a Halloween party Saturday. Woke up early on Sunday morning to drive to Nashville to Yes women's national team drummed all ninety minutes, got in a car, drove back to Atlanta. Well, I wrote, and I drive thankfully, but ye,
back to Atlanta after the game. And obviously that time change is you know, it's not immense, but it definitely is a little different when you go from central to Eastern And yes.
Yeah, yes, it is, and this is and this is what I try to tell folks when I end up when the bosson, I go and visit her family over in God's time zone. Just ask her. And we're right there. We're probably maybe a half hour on the other side of the Alabama Georgia border. You feel it, Yeah, I mean you just drift over that. You just drift over the time zone line. You feel it. You're still thinking that you're on Eastern time and you get the wall smashed right in front of you.
Yeah. I don't change my watch when I go because it's not worth it. But it also is a reminder that like, oh wait it is. My body is like thinking it's later than it.
Actually, uh huh exactly. So I do have some things that I did want to discuss with you this morning in your increasingly caffeinated, fueled up individual. Let's start with what happened in Nashville, and we'll go through the numbers, and we'll go through the rage that traditionally is attached to it by our friends at Soccer America. But it was a chance for you to drum for full ninety minutes. First off, let me ask how packed was g otis by the way as he thinks about.
It, it was more than half full. Okay, the official attendance was seventeen thousand, which, as you know, John, that is a thirty thousand seat stadium. Yes, it was not full, Abbey. I think the lower bawl was pretty filled in the upper level was not. But you know, again, this is the criticism of US soccer, where they like to play
at venues they feel comfortable in. But problem there is you're tapping into a market one too many times and the novelty and specialty of the national team come into town. I mean, I think I know the men have played in Austin five times, you know, since it opened. Giodis I think is hosted the women four times on top of the men's game. You know, Austin has hosted two games for either team this month. So look glad they're playing in Louisville on Wednesday. That will probably be you know,
I think it's going to be a full house. Last I sold sell like seven hundred tickets. But tickets to the game, John started at forty dollars normal price. Now they did a right now, they did a promotion for like a week for the Kelly O'Hara special, which was
sixteen dollar tickets in the upper two hundred levels. Okay, clearly the up the two hundreds just should have been sixteen dollars tickets for any seat in the two hundreds because if they just weren't full, And when you're charging people forty dollars for a friendly against Iceland, Yes, he's not a bad team by any stretch, that's not. It's just, you know, it's not a name that resonates with people,
and you're gonna struggle to fill the house. I mean, I think US Soccer is learning this fall that they are vastly overpricing their I hope they're learning. I hope they're learning they're vastly overpricing their product. I will say, the tickets to the Nations League game in Saint Louis in November, I think they started at forty dollars, which I think is a fair price for an actual competitive match. But we'll see how full Saint Louis.
Is mm hmm. And speaking of full, according to Doug Robertson of the AJAC Mercedes been opened the full capacity for the playoff match against.
Me, I'm sure that is going to be full. Of Atlantic undded fans.
Yeah, so let me circle back. So you're saying that no offense to the goal scorer, but Carolina Vshalms de tear did not fill g otis no.
I also, I don't think she scored. I think that should be credited to Casey Murphy on goal because she dropped the ball literally and caused that goal to happen. So okay, all right, yeah.
Right, yeah. So USA ends up winning three to one. Vashalm's the Teer scores in the thirty first to make it one nial and I'm wondering. I'm wondering, and I might have had this conversation with myself, and I said self, what is Emma Hayes having a discussion about with her club right now being down one nil at the break on a on a Casey Murphy og credited to Carolina Vishalm's the teer.
Well, when you looked at the starting lineup, I think it was fair that you could tell that this was not Emma trying to play her best eleven. But at the same time, you know, I think if Emma were to take a concern from the first half, it was we were settling for easy passes or we weren't settling for, we weren't trying to find better passes. We were trying to settle for just get the ball off my foot and try to put it into the box instead of
trying to create opportunities. You know, there were still chances created that way, as you know, you're likely going to create a lot of chances when the likes of you know, Mouse Swanson are on the field. But I think it was just a little I don't want to say lazy, but it was just a little too unsophisticated. Would probably be the word that she would be concerned with. Is it just wasn't trying to take the next step in
what that progression should be. And so there are a lot of like you know, clipped balls, floated balls to the attackers in the penalty area, which John, I don't know if you noticed, but probably not the best idea against Iceland to put a.
Ball in the hocks.
The goalkeeper is taller than Casey Murphy and they had a lot of great, you know, tall defenders. That's just not a winning recipe. But at the same time you have to say, well, we're trying out, you know, all these different players girls who are getting their first caps, girls who are not fully you know, integrated into the national team right now, and that in itself is a positive.
But you saw it halftime, she made changes three goals, So you know, I think that says a lot about her mindset of she wants to win these games, but she also understands the value of getting new players, fresh blood into the lineup. I mean, Emily Sam's who up until now had more gold medals than she did caps for the US national team, gets her first cap and a start right She's never played for the team before, but she starts alongside Emily's Sonnet in the back line.
I thought she was very good. But that's just an example of you know, there were some new faces in the starting eleven, and you could tell that some of them hadn't quite understood what it means to play at the international level, which you don't get until you play literally play at the international level.
So the whole playing at the international level helps with the experience they would get playing at.
The international Yeah, you know, you got to have ten years experience before you get ten years experienced, I think, but you know it is, you know, the case, you can play really well, at the WSL level, play really well with your club team, get that call in and earn that call up, right, But even in training and the US national team, you know, they are very intense,
they keep a high standard. But once you go out on that field where there's another collection of really darn good international caliber players trying to prevent you from doing all the things you want to do, like Iceland did very well, that's where that quality has to click on and you go, Okay, well, how do I make my better decisions, how do I find better passes, and how do I help my team, you know, get in better positions to score. And I think that was the struggle
of the first half. You brought on some new some old blood if you will, Sorry sorry Lynn Williams, but you brought on some old heads, you know, who kind of have that composure of that experience, that quality for an international level. Mixed it with some of the younger players in a series being one of them, Alyssa Thompson being another who glad to see her backs producing for the national team, and that helped score three goals. You know,
That's that's what it does. It also is just a case of the US still being, you know, a physically dominant team, even against a team that's pretty physically dominant themselves.
So you end up with two goals with the with the old Blood coming in, two goals in four minutes, Lyn Williams, Lindsay Horan seventy two and seventy six, and you end up with Emma Sears getting that goal at ninety plus three. And by the time you're done, I mean, and I think that we have to look at this. To Abby's point, in to your point here. We can look at numbers all day long, specifically stats. We'll go through the you know who played, what the numbers are.
But at the end of the day, Emma Hayes is looking for other things. And yeah, you might have been dominant across the board, but it's a dominant butt because shots were seventeen to four, shots on target five to three, three of those end up in the back of the net, two saves each side, six corners to one, twenty two fouls, thirteen of them to Iceland. Five times you were off side and you have possession two thirds of the time.
That to me is no real surprise considering that Iceland likes to go to the Laredo garage and hang out with Marta buses most of the time when they want to do things. Oh good, An, absolutely, so, I mean that's where that's that's where we are here, and Jared's dropping by as we're discussing women's national team and stuff. What's up, Jarrett?
Oh not much? Yeah, Look, damn women's I clicked over at like halftime. I was like, Oh, that's not the score line I expected. And then I was cooked over at the ninetieth minute, went that's the score line expected.
Yeah. It felt a little Nick Saban's Alabama where the team is like, oh, we got this, We're hanging in and this is good, and then you look at the end of the game, you go, why do I have a black eye? You know?
Also, how did they run? How did they run the ball for six hundred yards?
Right?
It is soccer. They're not allowed to run the ball like.
That, And it felt that way. It felt that way, jar.
Look, I planned the flag for Jenn and I swanger at all moments. I she is an absolute.
Joy to watch, so absolutely, But there are good performances, you know, individually, again, I'll shout out I thought Emily Sam's was very good in her first ever appearance for the national team and playing with Sonnet, who you know, I think is a very experienced player but probably not really a factor for the twenty twenty seven cycle. But
let me rephrase, maybe shouldn't be a factor. We need to figure out if we can find other center backs better than Sonnet because she's on the other side of thirty unfortunately for her, and so Sam's putting out a great kind of film clip, you know of Hey, I can I can be Germa's partner. Tianna Davidson unfortunately has the Roosevelt case of made of glass and can't rely on her to stay healthy. So if you can get an Emma the Emily SAMs not in the series that's
been confusing me all week. If you can get Emily Sam's, who has, by the way, playing on the best team in NWSL, the best defense in NWSL, if you can get her integrated into this team through this fall, right, that as a positive going forward to the actual next as we turn the page to the next cycle.
Because I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's something that I felt like we haven't. I know, we've talked about it on here, but like as a as like a gelatinous collectivist fans in this country like we so often we enjoy these players and we don't. I feel like we often don't think enough about okay, but what's coming next? Because so and so is after post thirty years old
and not trying to push them out the door. But I need to have somebody else there because father time is still unheated, and I want to make sure that yes, so and so is doing great. Okay, great, they're thirty one years old, right, we need to start getting minutes to younger players so we did not do not end up in another situation where we roll into a World Cup saying if everyone stays healthy, this could be a fun time.
Yeah.
Well, and I thought we saw that Jared with a series on the other on the attacking end, who kind of looks like a younger Lynn Williams, fast strong, gets the great at getting the ball to the in line or getting her cross in. Probably needs to work on actually a little bit more of the finesse of the game. But she gets a goal and assist. That's good for her.
Lynn Williams also with a goal in an assist, and I think that, to your point, is like Lynn is great, but she's on the wrong side of thirty as well. And the reality is you do have to find, if not replacements, the backups, and that's kind of the fact finding mission I think for this window is how do we fill in some of the backup roles on this team, specifically on the wing. I'll again shout out Alyssa Thompson.
If you have Alyssa Thompson backing up mal Pugh on the left or excuse me, Male Swanson on the left wing, that's pretty darn good.
Right.
If you can find Emma sears as you're back up now to Trinity Rodman on the right side, that's pretty darn good. So that that has been the positive of this particular windows so far. The results are whatever.
Yes, the results are whatever. So our Soccer America sky is falling. Weekly friendly numbers. Casey Krueger Emily Sonnet got six as Emily Sam's gets an eight and her debugen and Eiswanger gets a five.
Mid probably because she only played forty five minutes. I'll just say that.
The midfield got four. Sam Coffee, Corbin Albert Olivia Moultrie.
That was a tough midfield, mainly because you know Moultrie's oh is she nineteen yet? Yeah, she's nineteen. She turned nineteen two days before I had a birthday. Wow, so coffee Albert fine. Moultrie added into that doesn't give you what you need as a dynamic midfield just because she isn't there yet. But again, she's nineteen, she's playing professionally.
I think this is her eight season playing professionally. It feels like I'm joking, but she was the one at fifteen who is like, hey, I want to play professionally.
You know, yeah, Carolina st had a fourteen year old player, right, Yeah.
That was actually cool to see, So that that's more of a like, yeah, she had a rough game, but you know, I'm not a huge fan of his, but how many rough games have we seen from Jay Fortune? And he's finally becoming someone who at least not terrible. And that's kind of what you want to see from Moultrie is how do we get her to get continually better every time she steps out of the field. This was not a great game from her, but I understand why. I mean, look, you've got Iceland as a competent team,
like very competent. They're good, they have some very good individuals. That midfield was tough, and she didn't have a personally great game. Hopefully she learned. Hopefully Emma can take that film and say, hey, this is where we need you to get better. Jerry, you want to talk about Jay Fortune.
I know, no, no, no, it's not that. It's it's it's that I love this conversation, not for Jay Fortune, because we had this conversation about George k Amble when he was here. Because George Campbell was just so nice and once and he would have those games where people were like, this guy is gonna be starting for this team next year, And then he would have games where I mentions would get lit up, like why is this person playing this sport professionally? To doing fine in Montreal.
He's a good kid, he's fine.
And luckily he's getting some extra rest of this offseason.
He is. You know what, Brad made sure. Look, Brad's a good leader, Brad and made sure that boy got some good rest. Like he said, you know, a kid, you got a long future ahead. I'm gonna make sure you get some extra rest, get some time to review some film. I got you covered. Don't worry about it. That's just a good leader.
Brad isam.
But every time we talk about this like this, I always think back to the concept of pitching to cross our metaphors and baseball where they forget who I think it was one of the bravest three Aces mentioned that. You know, you only had your ace stuff only so often. What makes you really good is when you can when you can make it work when.
It's not your day.
And I'm glad you mentioned that about Multie. So, yeah, it wasn't a great game for her, but it's so important for these young players, I think, to learn when you don't have it, when you're not on your game, you got to make it work. And if that means you're occupying space, bringing people who are on their day into the game and trying to make everyone around you better than that's what you got to do. And you
just got to make it work. And it's something that I don't know if we talk about enough on a broad spectrum.
Yeah, again, I thought the midfield was rough the first half. You may changes you had a much better midfield performance in the second half and you score three goals. Weird how that works.
Strange how that plays forwards up top male. Swanson got a six, Jade and Shaw got a six. I got four, yas me and Ryan. Her second cap got a six as well.
Yeah, Shaw, not a great game from her. I do think that Swansen and Shaw, I don't know if they were deployed in the best way. They seem to be switching a lot painly. I don't know if that's Emma or Mal being mal, But you know, I think maybe for Jaden, she still needs to figure out what her
best I mean, she's also young. Forget that, she's you know what, twenty, and she's still figuring out her best not just position, but her best moves and centers of gravity and you know what is she what is her best spot to make something happen on the field, And so when you're trying to figure that out, you know, at a different place than you are at your club position. Yeah, she did fine the first game. Second game, I mean
that was great. But I think Jaden's one that you have to look at and go, Okay, she's going to fit into this team some The problem is is she going to be the Well. She can play attacking med well, she can play left wing well, she can play striker well, she can play right wing and then you go, but
how do we get her in her best position? And I think Emma's trying to struggle to figure that out because John, there's a lot of other good players on this team, and she may not be better than the starters, you know, when fully healthy, but she's like slightly behind them in all of them. So it's just a matter of how do we get her in her best position, and sometimes it's just not gonna happen.
Goal scorers each got eights according to our friends at Soccer America, Alyssa Thompson ends up with a six, Emily Fox got a five, Sophia Smith got a five. Sam's becomes the first player to start on her WNT debut in two years. Sam coffee against Nigeria was the last in September of twenty twenty two, first player to record a goal and an assist in her debut since who Kristen Press. There you go two goals in an assist February ninth, twenty thirteen against Scotland.
By the way, John, I have to say, yeah, Alyssa Thompson has been going to the Kristin Press school of playing a left wing because what she's doing is like, Oh, that's Kristin Press, but shorter. She's a tiny little one, but like you watch your play like, oh she like the goal she scored in the first game, it was like, Oh, that's a Kristin Press goal, and that's like that. I don't think Kristin Press has you know, I'm glad she's
back playing for her personal health and mental health. But I don't know how much longer she has to play. But if she can just be the Oh, who's the dude who's specialty is literally just defensive ends. I can't remember his name in the NFL, like in college, he's not a coach. He just get brings people in for
his own like training camps in the summer. Smith, yes, question, Yeah, like if Kristin Press can just be the like, Hey, I'm taking all the left wing and we're going to learn how to do all these five things that make you a dynamic and golf scoring left.
Christine Press Chuck Smith's summer camp.
Yeah that.
I I will always wonder what might have been with Kristin Press because if, like if if it had been a different era and she had stayed healthy and you had not had the absolutely fantastic. Yeah, the tail end of Abby Wamback's run yep, like sprinkle in some Sidney little room magic in there.
Like Yeah, it's just.
Overcrowded attack room. Like I wonder what her legacy would have been if she could have stayed healthy and she had not picked that era to exist in.
Mm hmm. It's good.
She's I feel like she's gonna be underrated.
Yes, So coming up, it's gonna be Linn Family sold out. That's going to be a great environment. I think I'm super excited for them, us and Argentina Wednesday to complete the complete the friendlies. What are you up to bat and lead off Friday morning?
I mean, I guess I'll be here at nine oh five, Well.
There you go, maybe ten Yeah, okay, because you know, well and it'll be just to put a bowl on the whole thing.
So absolutely yah yeah yeah. I mean that's the thing is, you have three friendlies this window, which we haven't had really before outside of you know, the She Believes Cup. So three actual friendlies means you get three opportunities to kind of test and measure and judge you know, player performances, overall team performances, and again I just want to say Iceland is good like that. That that's the thing that like the US is going to have to deal with.
They've dealt with it a little bit. But going forward is a lot of the European teams are just baseline competent at soccer. Now, you know, that's weird what happens when you actually allow women to play soccer and give
them a you know what funding? What I know, And that's just going to be something that they're going to deal with when playing European competition going forward, because unfortunately with CONCA CALF, while there's some improvement on that front, a lot of the CONCACAFF nations just aren't at that level.
But I mean, you've got, you know, especially with Iceland, you've got several players who are on Champions League squads, you know, playing for very good teams in Europe, and two three one wins is pretty good against Iceland, you know. And again, yes it's after a bunch of subs, but subs count two. And it's not just the subs, it's
the ability to continue to wear down a team. So what would this look like if you had your preferred starting eleven and everyone's healthy, you know, I don't know, but the fact that you're able to bring on like in the first game you bring on Shaw, uh, and she scores, but you also started Alyssa Thompson and she scores.
And in this game you go, okay, well the first half isn't great, but you make I mean that was because you you were experimenting Ryan Moultrie, like even to an extent, Shaw playing on the right, like those are experimental.
You know, Uh, you're kicking the tires one stuff.
You're you're taking some chances here to see that's what you're doing, right, you're fact finding. Okay, it didn't work as well as you wanted to make a few changes, and those changes are bringing on Lindsay Horan, who still very good despite what people want to say, and bringing on Lynd Williams, who yeah, I mean yeah, oh my Lucy Browns shadowed her out for Vallandor like chance and
everyone blew a gasket. Now, I personally think if you're picking a US women's national team, it should be Swanson or Smith. That's just me. But like you can't deny Lindsay Horan and her quality when you watch her play for Leon, you know, anyway, The point is the depth on this team is getting better. And that's kind of what Emma Hayes is trying to do, is we I think we have twelve to thirteen really good players that we can rely on to perform when they're healthy. How
do we fill in the rest of the roster? Right, if you're going to get a twenty three player roster, how does that fill out? I mean, you even got a new goalkeeper. We didn't talk about the actually and play. It doesn't really matter. But you know, the girl from Utah comes in because Jane Campbell, Mary has to go home. Right, That's that's the benefit of this camp is getting all these new players in and you just increase the pool, something we haven't seen a lot of from the US
national team. Black Co tried it, but he didn't really use them, Right, That's been the problem is you brought these new players into camp, didn't really use them. You know, Savannah Mello is a perfect example of that. But now what does Emma go You know, I'm very curious what
her strategy is for Wednesday. She basically said. With NWSL finishing out their regular season on Friday through Sunday of this week, she's not gonna play those players who have the Friday night games, so that does limit your selections now, but you know, for I mean, here's the other thing. I mean the terrible schedule making by the French schedule makers.
But we have PSG and leone players and you can kind of say, like, now whatever, they're fine because most of the time PSG Leone aren't playing great competition.
For many of my problems, well, fair.
Enough, but Leon and PSG play each other Sunday. That is bad schedule making because it's great to get the excitement. But like you just had all like Leon and PSG have a number of international players, like they're tired starting elevens or international players and whether they were playing Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, they're coming off the international break. That is not smart from those schedule makers.
I'll just say that I give the schedule home makers a harrumph.
Yeah, yeah, we don't love that. But anyway, I'm curious how she's gonna play this. And again, Argentina is a couple of steps down from Iceland as we have seen recently, so that that will also kind of play into lake. I mean, personally, I want Emma, I want Emily SAMs to start again, and I think if you see her and Germa, because Gurma won San Diego Wave that has been eliminated from playoff contention, thanks Landon Donovan.
Well at least they don't have to play on that surface anymore.
Really, Oh my good lord, John, No, grass surface is always better than everything, John, don't you know that?
Well? Yeah, and then then San grass is just better, yes, and Sandy there's no flaws with grass ever, none, and sand is worse than grass, which is what the San Diego State got to play on this That wasn't ugly, It was FuG Well.
That surface looked like the opening scene of City of God. You've ever seen that?
That was just man, that was awful.
Yeah, not great. But anyway, I think I think you're looking at possibly some very heavy line of rotation on Wednesday, just because of the schedule. But I do think we might see Sam's and Germa start together, and I personally would love to see that because I think they might be a really fun center back pairing, both very strong but still very competent on the ball.
Sg's are getting their emails, it's been put was posted out on social media about the upper Tank being available. It's still so upper Tank is officially available for Messy and friends when they come here on the weekend. Turning the page to reffing down here. I know that Jared Jared had a couple of moments. I know that there was one in particular, Jared. I think they had a couple of them. Okay, sorry you had in your brain, sir,
for repping down here. You had a couple that probably could be here for a review.
Oh well, okay, when I complained about most was actually American football, and I'm not don't waste.
Sparts time on that, No, but I thought that Charlotte.
Yeah, let's well, there's really just one there. And Bart, I don't know if you saw the Pet beeal Pet Biell quote kick out.
Okay, here's my problem, Jared, I didn't see other than all what's on Twitter, and what's on Twitter is not a great replay.
Yeah, because I saw it in the moment and they played on it. So he gets tackled, he's kind of down and kind of rolling around on that. The defenders kind of like he's kind of stepping over him, but I'm not. It's one of those where like judging intent It's tricky because I don't know if he's stepping over him like AI stepping over TYLERU, or if he's stepping over him like A. If I don't make this step over him, I might step on him, and I don't want to cause.
Problems, right, I couldn't quite tell.
It's weird. And then yeah, Biel's leg goes out. But but like I know, Jason and I talked about it and his concern. He was, you know, is bl sticking his leg out there to keep the guy from falling on him or from stepping on him? Or is it.
Almost looked like his got cat in the shoelace, to be quite honest, Yeah, that's another.
Thing about it, is like that I was I saw in the moment. I thought it was a kick out in the moment because I saw his legs snap out. Yes, and I we were we were messaging about it, and I'm like, oh, Biella just kicked out and then they kept playing. And I think the AR saw it because he I think, because the rest kind of looked to the AR then pulls out the red I was surprised
they didn't go to the monitor. I know every call is checked by var I was surprised they didn't go to the monitor because I wondered, it's like sometimes y'all can just go to the monitor just to reassure people it's it's not gonna hurt anythink that game was cooked. I would have done. I could have done with another couple of looks.
Man, I think, I agree, and I think just to make sure that we said all the things are true, right, it looked bad. It may not have been bad. It looked like he did this, but it also looked like he did this. I think at the end of the day when you when you see it maybe live action. That's the problem that I you know, if you watch it live and I never saw a video replay of that. That's the other issue is I only got to see
because as you mentioned, it wasn't like video reviews. We didn't get to see it other than the slow motion that you're seeing on Apple TV because and that might be the problem with var there is because it's so far off the ball that they may not have great angles of it, and it's not clear cut like someone throwing in a punch type of thing, which is something that you probably get a better actual footage of. I mean,
a punch is a punch is punch. I think that that that's easier to tell than you know, a kick
out where you're playing in sport with your feet. I don't have an issue necessarily with it being a red card because I think when you look at it, if what the communication was between the AR and the center referee, we don't know what that is, and it very well could have been the center said, oh, yeah, he kicked them, you know, oh he kicked out at him, and he may have seen the excessive force that it wires for
that red card, you know. And again we don't have the luxury of just looking at that right now, which is a problem in.
Top end ninety. The Charlotte account shared an alternate look at and to Andrew Weeby shared as well over the yeah ship for mlssent like, and the more I looked at that one, the shoelace thing kind of yeah, maybe because the way, because it's funny you say that, I went back and looked at it, and as you're talking, I'm like, his foot's moving with his foot as if it's like a gruptural marks mirror.
Yeah, I wish I'm with you, Jared. I wish they would have said, hey, we're giving you a red card because we saw this, and then immediately start that video check. Is it clear and obvious? I don't know, and that's obviously the standard we have to have, but I think this is the time we're again using the tool of video assistant referee that extra eye to say, I think it's worth looking at right to let the referee on the field make the fullest The.
Thing was like, the thing that got me was I felt like there wasn't much protest from Biel as he went off to that, and I kind of was like, why is there not more protest here? Yeap, just because like if if like if you had if you got I feel like if you had gotten tangled up and you were trying to untangle yourself correct, your protest would have been very demonstrated, because yeah, this game is cooked.
But now Charlotte's have seen their number ten for a return leg ye against a team that kind of like rolled them down the field for most.
Of that game.
I don't know how much of that game you saw, but like Charlotte had a couple of moments. Otherwise, like Orlando.
Was, I didn't get to watch watch but what I was watching in the car, it was like, oh yeah, Orlando's kind of taken it to him, and yeah.
Like Charlotte almost didn't seem up for getting punch around a bit.
You just hate to see it. I had this existent Jared I have, and people can shine up in the comments. I had this existential debate with myself and the others in the car coming home because obviously Atlanta United fans don't like Orlando. Yeah, but I'm kind of more annoyed with Charlotte fans thinking they're.
Like, oh, well, Charlotte. When the owner for Charlotte out of the blocks says Atlanta's our arrival and he starts running smacking his opening press conference about Atlanta, and then I could understand that.
I'm just at this point where I'm like, okay, well, Orlando has their trophy. I don't want them to get any more. But I certainly don't want Charlotte thinking that they're better than they are because they're like, oh, we did better than at Lanting night of the season. Okay, well one, we were shipped this season two.
And we still w and bet Charlotte in their building.
Yeah. Yeah, It's not like y'all had a fantastic season. Congratulations on finishing what six.
I part of the want a Charlotte Atlanta playoff because nobody can win a home game in this series to save their lives.
That's true. Uh yeah, I don't know whatever y'all think in the comments, but I was just like.
You can, you can grab a few of my church because I've been in the camp of Charlotte. Nashville annoyed me much more.
Orlando feels like proper soccer fans to an extent. They need to collectively as a group because they like to fight too much.
Yeah yeah, but I don't.
I don't care about I s C And how their fans are friendlier to us. Screw them. The rest of their fans are terrible, arrogant Charlotte freaks. I don't like them. I don't like the city.
He was careful. I could see another word formulating, I don't.
Like the city of Charlotte. Go put on your dand fleece fest and go crunch. Some numbers find it bro like, I don't need you to talk to me about soccer.
That's the thing about it is, like, remember when they were coming in the league. You still had a lot of you.
Still you will.
I think you will always have like the the Charlotte Atlanta rivalry as like the the smaller sister city. It's like the little brother city.
It's it's Atlanta New Orleans, but Charlotte is the little the youngest brother, and you're like, who the hell are you.
I'm still actively begging them to put an MLS team in New Orleans and you will see what a rivalry looks like.
I mean, that's that's hate.
Hate all the MLS mothership people up in New York. Put a team in New Orleans. They I'll show you what a rivalry is.
Well, rivalries don't exist outside of the northeast, Jarrett, So that's.
Problem in the Callie Glasgow.
That's true.
Yeah, yeah, anyway, that was the And then like also being in Nashville kind of field and I hate of like who the hell are yo? Are you all trying to talk smack at us? Like Nashville fans love to pretend like they're they're like, oh, we have this great say all these things. Look both of y'all are just in the cities that have an I P A and named after them. That that's all you are Wow.
I feel like Nashville's coming back down to earth a bit. And I think this year kind of.
Like they learned that just playing defense and hoping that Honey Muktar is good isn't the way to.
Defense, and send Hannivert basically that's it.
They also just signed They also just signed hired coach though, who has like a little Philadelphia and so like Nashville might get some of that dark magic too, and which will only fuel this rivalry becausej was in the film at one point and if he starts bringing some of that like Jim Curtin, like he old ship House. Yeah, and everything's all kick off.
To Andy's uh Andy's question wondering about Tom Bogert. Since we're discussing Charlotte, it appears that Phoenix Rising are gonna name Charlotte assistant manager palmadou Ka is their next head coach. Co's gonna remain with Charlotte for the playoff run. Phoenix is in the playoffs, and so it looks like uh palmadu Ka is going to be the new head coach for the Phoenix Rising at the corner of thirty eighth in Washington.
So good for him.
Yep, good good, good pick up for them. I will looking for looking for his first looking for his first head coaching giggle. See how it is in the USA USL Championships are there? Uh? Okay? Uh? What other? I know that there's one I know that we need to get into when it comes to var And it is going to be the delict challenge on Danny Ings, where everyone associated with Manchester United was waving their hands frantically
in the air like they did care after the fact. Uh. It ended up by the end of it all costing Eric tin Hog his gig and so yes. So it ends up as a penalty scored by Jared Bowen. It was contact with Matista leaked and Danny Ings. Eighty seventh minute. You're tied at one. It's out there for folks to stare at. What did you think?
Well, one, I love a good al Sakkaco, so you know that was what this It feels like love. Peggy kept his job in ten Hog lost it because of us. So congratulations to the referees for deciding the future of two very rich men. Yeah. I thought this was a foul, I'll be honest. But the problem is everyone thinks that you know when you're in the penalty area that you need to have like committed murder for it to be a penalty kick. And commit a foul in the penalty area.
It's a penalty kick. That is the law of the game. And I thought it was a foul for tripping and that's just what it is.
Sorry, no, And so by the time they look at it and Dale Johnson and this is Dale is one of our reference points for this segment every week, and uh Dale goes through the whole gamut of the deal and he says the Premier League has been determined to get the term referees call quotes into the lexicon this season and this would be a perfect example. If Russell Coote gave the penalty, you could see a reason, but it doesn't reach the clear and obvious threshold in English
football to send the referee to the monitor. Bowen's penalty led to the two undefeat. PGMOL has been talking up how much faster var reviews have gotten the season, down from an average of seventy seconds per game to twenty five seconds. But this took two and a half minutes from the foul to coot pointing to the penalty spot and another two and a half minutes until Bowen struck the ball. And so a secondary question about the use of the monitor, why is it there if we always
see the referee change his decision. The answer is simple, Johnson right through the otters, though the waters are muddled by a mud By protocol. The screen is supposed to be a safety net on subjective decisions, to give the referee the chance to spot an air by VAR. That's the idea, but it doesn't really work. This is Johnson of op adding here. Last season there were five incorrect VAR interventions where the ref went to the screen still
changed his decision. Refs go to the monitor knowing they're being told that they have made a clear and obvious error, not just to have a second look. Limitations of this var process condition referees to think they've screwed up, so the failsafe is in itself flawed. We'd all like referees to have more conviction and stick by their own call
a few times, but it seldom happens. Two referees rejected an overturned last season, yet only one was deemed correct, Michael Oliver turning down a review to rule out an arsenal goal against Everton, so Johnson said this was an incorrect var intervention. Oliver had won recorded error as VR last season when he did an award the penalty in the Brentford Forest, and so this will go down as a mistake with David kot what about that?
I mean, I think I understand what his reasoning is. Right in the moment, you're looking at what the referee call. Was it a clear and obvious error? Now again, I still think it was a foul for tripping in the box. But was it clear and obvious? I think that's the debatable term, right, And just because I personally may have
called it doesn't mean it's clear and obvious. I mean, I have this anytime I'm an AR, right, I center a lot, and this is you know, this happens a lot of the youth level, where we're all taking all the responsibilities. You get the pro level, you have center referees, you have ars. But for me, you know, I'll go from refereeing center being the center for two games to an AR for two games. And I have to remember that if I'm looking for fouls, my standard isn't the
same as their standard. The guy in the middle, and so that is something that I think when with this situation specifically, is did the var use a different standard for judging? Was it clear and obvious error? And again, I think it was a foul. That's my part, That's how I interpreted the situation. But I also agree with the line of saying, oh, hey, I think you made
a mistake right, puts it in their head mirror. And I do think that, like kind of going back to the red card we talked about earlier, is hey, let's make sure we got this right is a better way to frame it than got this wrong. And I think that's kind of a better way to kind of flip that narrative in our heads when we're referring as like, hey, let's make sure we get it right, because again, with
the red card, we're validating. It's almost like validating the call, which I think is the difference between how do I say this, let's go to foot American football where you have a coach's challenge versus an under two minute review or a scoring play review. Right, we check scoring plays in American football because we want to make sure we get the call correct, right. That is a monumental thing in this game. We want to make sure that we got the scoring play correct. That's not to say we're
you know, scrutinizing the referees on the field. We're saying, let's make sure that the ball crossed the goal line. Let's make sure he got two feed or one foot in bounce. Let's make sure all these criteria were met. Okay, yeah, we're good, right, And that is a review process that involves studio and everything, and sometimes it does we say, hey, I think you need to check this again. Tell me, you know, let's make sure you think that he got
the two feet in or whatever it is right. That is different than a coach saying you got this wrong right now. Obviously, I think as a referee, if a coach says, ah, I'm challenging this, you got it wrong, I'm going to be more like, no, I don't see.
But that that is someone from the outside of the discussion. That it's not a peer identifier, right, And I think.
That's the problem is when a peer says, hey, I think you got it wrong, You're going to look at that with a well maybe I did type of thing. And that's not a good or bad thing. It's just a matter of phrasing it a little bit better, like, hey, let's make sure we got it right versus I think you got it wrong. And again, it's because we want to make sure we get the right call more often than not. That's the goal here. We want to be as consistent and correct as possible.
All Right, what else is going on in the world of soccer for US POD other than you visiting us on Friday morning? Bet and lead off to talk about this, going to try to record Oh yes.
Tonight or tomorrow. It will be not specific to anything going on right now. Necessarily we might talk about the MLS schedule change. That is probably Yeah, I mean, that's a great point. Let's take another look at that. Again, it's about making sure we get it right, not making sure that we correct necessarily you know you're wrong. Episode one hundred are probably going to look at bigger picture
discussion points within US soccer. Again. One of those might be a timely thing of the MLS proposed schedule change, which, by the way, I think again is vastly overblown. Yes, it gets cold in Minnesota, it also gets really damn hot in Houston, Texas, and no one complains about that.
Whatever you can do it on a cold, rainy night in Minnesota. The same thame question I asked from Miami.
Came in, Yeah, can you do it on one hundred and ten degree day in Kansas City? You know, no one cares about that. They answered that question can you do.
It at a foty like who some old English center back whom he was Brian shack Cross did Miami sign year one?
Yes?
And he's like he did it on a cold rainy night. And still from the end I was like, yeah, now he's got to play four pm in Miami.
A yeah, yeah, which, by the way, is a solution if you think it's going to be too cold in Minnesota, Toronto or Montreal play at four pm, play at three pm, all of a sudden.
Well to your point, they are you do this if you go go look at the schedule, Go look at like Montreal schedule. They always start all around because you can't play in March in Montreal.
Correct, and yeah, and the umbrella and the umbrella at the Big O is broken, so you can't question.
Question question is it broken or did it ever work?
Well? It it's well it never a it never worked. But right, but when if you looked at Mike's photograph as they were flying into montrealf for the card game. The fabric is gone. So the fabric is gone from the umbrella at the Big O. So I was like, well, why why can't they? And then I look at Mike's photograph and you see the fabric has disappeared, and you're like, okay, now I know why. So yeah, it ain't even fit for it ain't even fit for doing something in the
you know, short center field. Now, uh so let us know of the hundred because we have to do the appropriate huzzahs and trumpets and celebrations and things like.
I'm looking through Mike's uh oh good, he's got.
Over.
Oh my god, it is I didn't see that.
Yeah, this is my this is my stop, John. But I do want to tell you as we're as we're leaving that Ted Ruff has been fired and yeah that's.
Pot okay, all right, So we'll see you, all right, We'll see Jared tomorrow, and we'll see Bart tomorrow, Bart once again at soccer for us PO D. Huzzahs, hurrahs and trumpets for getting episode.
Take it like three years, but we got there.
Yeah, it's all right, it's all good, all right, So we'll see you on Friday, my friend. Thanks for dropping by as always, for roughing down here and for letting us know what's going on your mind when it comes to the national teams. Be safe and go get more caffeine.
I might need a nap at lunch.
Well then then then get Oh what's the mug by the way?
Well, we're on brand today. WU. So we got the w read college and media right here here it is here Cuz I'll cheer on the Mountaineers when they win. Congrat you got us a win. So you're still gone at the end of the year.
Yeah, I'm with you. I'm with you. A winner tie exactly, all right, we'll have.
You coach lending attitudes.
We need a new coach there, right, I haven't heard anything.
Oh I thought thought that maybe that was another coach in the system.
I haven't know all. I mean, we do have a we have a new director of methodology.
That's what it is. Thank you.
We have a new director of methodology. And if you haven't, you haven't seen or heard that interview with how your pet is, I would recommend it. We need a new coach for a good, good twenty minutes there as well, So good stuff'll see.
You'll be happy Halloween week. Enjoy your circuit treats. Remember that you do need to screen your children's candy to make sure that they don't get all the good stuff.
Yes, like the Reese's pieces. They go to me and there goes Bart. All right, so here's our here's the stuff. What's going on for the rest of the deal.