SoccerForUSPod's Bart Keeler on SDH 10/7/24: USMNT Talk Plus Reffing Down Here

There's Bart, Hi Bart, Good morning, Bart's a Bart's a yinser today.

Picked us up down the Strip district when I was in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago.

I'm not shocked. So he's uh, he's hanging out as a yinser. Who And by the way, last night, you mug, so yeah, well there you go.

See the WV you mug. That's that's the way that it should be.

I was, I was looking at what's going on with your with your with your kneers getting the big wind blowing out Oklahoma State this past weekend. Very very h that was a big road wind for for Neil and in your knears, sir, you know I I.

Would prefer to just be happy instead of you know, starting the conference undefeated is great. Uh two wins against Kansas and Oklahoma State. Who knows if that means anything. I don't think Oklahoma State is as good as people thought they were going to be. But uh, two and I was good. You're now three and two on the season. But the problem still remains that those two losses were to rival teams, and while pitt maybe looks a little bit better than we thought and obviously pretty good, it's not.

I'm cautiously not even optimistic.

I'm just cautious, just cautious.

Yeah, dealing it is so So basically the early season start for your West Virginia is it's a it's a it's a yellow.

It's a yellow.

Plug for the most recent episode of Soccer for US podcast, where we potential locations that we would like to see the US men's national team play in the next you know, year and a half, and one of those I specifically shouted out was Pittsburgh because I do think Hinesfield would be a fantastic venue for the US men's nation team. Women's team has played there before, so I would love to see the men's team get there on the better half of the.

State lobbing grenades at rich this.

Way he started it.

Yeah, yeah, I see how this is working now on the timeline Pittsburgh, I see how this works. All right, So we do have some things to discuss involving the US M and T. We'll start there, some injury swaps and things like that. Although it was intriguing to see the casual photograph of Maricyo Pochettina watching a Los ver Dose match at Park.

Yeah.

It was like, Brud, do you not have anything else to do, like go sample the texts in the heart of downtown and I'm going he probably does.

I'm going on, man is probably very addicted to the sport and had to go watch.

I'm going to Parmer to watch me some low dose.

Hey, I get it.

You know that's his job as he's supposed to be scouting the next wave of US soccer talent and that's good.

Or maybe he's just scouting the Austin FC gig. Yeah, because if things don't work out, you know.

Yeah, well yeah, not officially over.

And I know that that Josh Wolf was talked about for the US for the Atlanta team. Yes, a vacancy and let's we shall see.

Yeah. So yesterday Pochettino was at Parmer Field watching the town take care of Los Verdes four to three and an exciting match on the last day of the regular season out West. In MLS Next Pro two o'clock tomorrow, you get to choose your opponent.

It's it's picked your partner.

No Sadie Hawkins or anything like that, but it's picked your dance partner tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock and three o'clock and we'll talk about that on Wednesday show. But the injury swaps, for those that might have missed the info that kind of drifted in and out. What happened with injury swaps getting ready for this window.

Well, let me pull it up because I got to remember I get the for the right swap. Let's just put it that way, okay. So we have the two that come in that are important, right, you have Alex and Dejas and someone who we all know and love, Brendan Vasquez.

Uh.

Those guys come in because as typical John, we have some injuries picked up in the.

Last weekend before the match.

So you have again Zendejas, Vasquez and then also Tanner Tessaman called in because Faleren Balagan, Johnny Cardozo and Tim Weya withdrawn due to injury issues. Weya, I think was a little bit of a stretch to call him and to begin with, so that's not really a surprise. Also, I think he probably has to just set out Panama for his now mental health sake, as you know what happened the last time he played Panama, and you know

Obviously, you get two matches, one.

Here at home against Panama on Saturday, and then one down in Mexico against Mexico on a week and a day from now, So that's a big, big opportunity for Vasquez. I don't necessarily think that Zendejas plays into anything, but we are light on the winger depth chart, so he probably will see some time. And then for Tanner Testament, this is big. Johnny has been the guy that's been seen as the backup to Tyler Adams. I think he

Now the other thing here, john.

The two underlying the underlying I guess narrative is now you've got Vascuaz and Zendejas playing against Mexico. Both of those guys were eligible to play for Mexico. Both of those guys play and Aliga a mekis that's kind of fine. I wouldn't mind seeing Vascas start down in Estadio Kraun and putting a goal in like he has done on occasion during his time with Monterey.

That would be really cool.

Mm hmm. And so.

The palace intrigue rolls on when it comes to the national team, I mean when it really in this window, and since we have literally a week to discuss this leading into the Mexico match coming up on the fifteen, I mean, legitimately, what are you looking at? And I may end up asking this question again this time.

Next week, after we've gone through a week of organization, getting everybody in staring at things Maricchia Pochattino wearing shorts and sampling text mex or what have you.

I do need to see a good video of him trying some like authentic text mex tacos down there in Austin, because there's a I can I can verify, testify, show photographic evidence of fantastic food truck tacos in the I think it's a BP gas station, one of the gas right next to the stadium, because right there after doing early loaded back in twenty twenty one, and we walked across the street to the gas station before heading back to the hotel.

We were saying in the.

Interstates, So I think, you know, a po Chatino visit to a taco food truck in Austin would be great content. Put that in the behind the Cress videos.

But what I'm You've got the craft breweries in the UH in the the office park, ye craw S.

Get him downtown for some live music on Fifth Street. I think you get it go.

I think now is a great timing year to take the team out and go see the bat Bat Bridge down in as well. A lot of a lot of fun excursions they could have. I don't know if they need to paddle boarding down the Buffalo, but no, no, that I think it's I only don't need to see that though.

No.

But also if they'd gotten in early, it could have been at the ACL festival yesterday.

So that was that was this weekend. It's wrapping up.

Actually the last when I went into twenty twenty one, it was the weekend that Austin City Limits was going on.

That was kind of fun. That was the town had a big vibe to it. It was nice.

Okay.

Uh so you know, looking at looking at that, obviously we'll have a week two that's.

More important than the field, right like that those this is what we're saying.

It's like, you know, it's you, it's your first it's your first excursion. And being here in the States, you got a little time. I know that you're going to be.

Spending some x's and o's time and looking at computer monitors and making sure that folks are one hundred percent healthy.

You check with your physios.

Oh, I gotta go, I gotta sample some text mes for dinner.

Absolutely dotting some brisket down there as well.

So that's yeah, and go watch the True South episode and then you'll really get some some intel when it comes to Austin, Texas. So now that uh, the U, S, M and T is getting into the rhythm of this window and MLS is you know, taking the week off for the most part. Uh, there's a lot of raffing down here that that I want to get into. And since we're mentioning Austin. Let's start there with what occurred in the lag match involving Biro and Ricky Pooge and

That was attached to this particular tackle.

I literally have watched this tackle at least two dozen times, and I've done the whole Zubruder thing, and I've slowed it down, and I wanted to seem because literally you have folks who are watching this at full speed with the with the gagermee Biro going after Ricky Poos in front of the lag bench. The lag bench is looking at instantaneous red card. They want you know, they want him taken away, you know, by the gendarme and the

Six to eight matches all these kinds of things.

How did you look at this at full speed and then have to slow it down.

Like I did.

Yeah, I think that's the best way to look at it when you look at not just obviously, I think in the moment should be a red card.

That's a serious foul play.

I think this is to leave it, leave it, and then you add I mean there's the fact that he puts his arm up to then try to grab him and pull him down. All of those are are absolutely in the realm of serious foul play.

Again because it technically is a play.

But you know that that is a red card to a t that is what needs to be policed in this league.

But I do think that there are This was not your typical Oh.

I went in hard for a challenge, but I mean, I think it just needs to be said. But I'm gonna push for a higher uh penalty. Okay, there's something that your friend and the you know, the godfather of Atlanta Soccer always molest does not do enough to protect its stars. MESSI who gets to do whatever he wants, whatever he wants, you know, automatic bids in the Club World Cup.

Despite the be able to play next year.

This is one of those opportunities to I mean, Ricky proache is now that Almadol's not here, the brightest young star in the league and arguably the most talented player I think in the league, and this tackle was definitely a tackle meant to harm him, not a bad tackle that he got out of his mind a little bit.

This seems to not stop on a rush up the right hand side.

Yeah, this was This was not just poorly aimed, not just poorly timed, but this was intentional. And I do think that this is an opportunity for the league to make a statement about protecting at stars. But also this is just an excusable play. This is not soccer and you have to tell people that this is This is not how we need this league to be.

The you know where we are not Scotland. We need to take.

I mean, when you look at this, you look at it at full speed.

And you're you're like damn.

And then when you look at it slower, and this is what I always want to recommend in these situations. We see something at full speed, and I know that seeing something at full speed in game state and navigating that in the moment is one thing. But now that the match is over and we can look at things after the fact, and then we can gauge what the gagerme.

Again this is it is so clear, whats are that? And then again he reaches up to grab It is very clear he wanted to do here.

Yeah, and then you end up with even as even as even as Ricky Pooge is trying to be you know, Dick Fosbury here.

And some people are trying to claim he was diving of some sort, and I'm like, yeah, he's diving out of the way.

He's trying to clear the lake.

When a drunk driver ends up on the sidewalk and you're trying.

To get out of the way from a car accident, like that's what was what in the world?

I mean, yeah, And so he's still as as Pooge is trying to clear Biro, Biro ends up still with his legs in the air, with all of the vert that Pooge makes he still ends up clipping him a little bit in front of the lag bench. You see all the the the anger and the waving of hands and the consternation and such. But yeah, for me, obvious

I mean, I do think you're looking at multiple games added to the normal.

Red card suspension.

Yeah, so you he will not be playing again this regular season.

No, no, I'm trying to think Austin is not.

No, they're below the bar, they're not playoff.

Contention, so he may not be playing a whole lot next season.

Yeah, so, you know, we'll we'll see what the league looks at there. Uh D Graham has something that we're probably gonna I.

Saw that I did not watch the Royals game. I'm really sorry.

Okay, well okay, so uh so then uh put that in put that in a bookmark and then if you can, if.

I can watch it, I'll answer you on Twitter.

Yeah.

So yeah, so Dan, if if the the Stainbrook incidents are readily available on on the twitters, we'll go back and take a peek at that.

What was I doing Saturday night? I wasn't even watching television Saturday night, So that's oh I was Saturday.

I was.

Yeah, the had a game, and I got home and uh went to bed because I had a referee soccer that morning, and then I refereed soccer the next day.

So I'm shocked that that that you refed and went to bed immediately after you got home.

But I don't know about immediately, but I did go to bed soon.

There were some moments in the Atlanta United match. I know that you and I were going back and forth on the two hundred and eighty character app about the moment.

Yeah, well, well and there there was Well you had well first.

And this is what I want to get into with with this particular element of it, the the takedown of Jamal inside the eighteen, and the the everybody looking at it and wanting you know, you know, grabbing and hooking and all these kinds of things. Let's walk through Jamal's moment and what you as, I know what, I know what the fan Bart saw. And that's that's why we like to differentiate here in the roughing down here segment is like, we know, we know what, we know what Bart,

Well, I think this was an easy one to separate fan from UH referee because to me, this was one of those where the player, the defender here makes it a little too obvious, if that makes any sense, he himself no room for interpretation that he was trying to

He was. Once you put your feet.

Your legs outside of your body, right, and any coach, any good coach, will teach you this. We call it diving in or something like that. Once you do that for a prolonged period of time.

Because this wasn't like he just stuck his leg out in a trip that made his legs.

Out for a.

Good second or two and TI trips over it. That's gonna leave you open for a foul. And then if you do that.

In the box, it's gonna be open for a penalty. So to me, is it soft.

It's a soft foul, But it's absolutely penalty kick because it's soft because there wasn't a whole lot of like.

You know, contact in that regard. But it's a foul.

Right. We see this all the time where you know, a guy just leaves the leg out and the attacker trips over him, and yeah, it's a foul, and you shouldn't do that in the penalty area because if you do that in the penalty area, John, that is going to be a penalty kick.

What yeah, I know, strange, all right, So, but there were there were others that were looking at the incident and they were wondering about the notion of let's say the foul is outside the eighteen like it's beyond the in line, and then the foul occurs off the field of play, separating the idea of possession. Say say Jamal turn the corner ball goes over the in line, or Jamal goes out of play the grab from from is look, happens off the field of play beyond the in line.

Called uh no, the the.

If you commit a foul off the field of play, right up one of our direct free kick fouls, which are charging, jumping, kicking or attempting to kick, pushing, striking, tripping, right if you do any of those outside of the field of play. The restart is whatever that correlating free kicks, in this case direct free kick at the closest point on the field of play right so the line basically

Lines do still extend.

If that's you know, the closest point out is inside the penalty area, well, then that's the penalty kick. So if you are off the field of play in the you know you you're you're outside. Say you're a defender and yes, you've managed to get your attacker outside the field to play and you punch somebody, Well, the restarter is a direct free kick from the closest point on the field of play, And if you're inside the boundary of the penalty area, that's penalty gay.

So yeah, now that's two players.

Now, if there's a outside agent or a substitution involved, that's different. But for this particular instance, yeah, two players going in for a challenge. If there's a foul off the field to play, then you take that and of that closest point is inside the penalty area, then it is a penalty.

Kick, okay, because there were folks that were saying that because that because Ilah's having the foulla cur off the field of play, that that was not impacting any kind of a call in the gal I mean.

I'm sure those some of those were the three guys who got yellow cards for this.

Yeah.

Well, and then the subsequent coming together of multiple individuals and trying to discuss things with Ismir Pek Midge.

I didn't think peck Midge had a great game, but I thought he handled anyone. There was another one I think Elay, I don't know how to pronounce. Yeah, I had another one later in the match where he just immediately ran up and like said something and he got a yellow card immediately.

So I thought, I thought that was handled.

Well.

You're a and I had this discussion with a coach yesterday. You're allowed to have a conversation to ask questions, right, needs to be in a respectful manner. And running up to the referee with three four ten of your friends not respectful and is not in the spirit of getting of understanding.

What the call was. Does that make sense?

And sometimes you have to ask do you want to yell at me or do you want to do you want an explanation? Because only one of those isn't allowed. The other one's going to get you a yellow card. And that's what happened here. You know, you had even the captain can still get a yellow card when again the referee. While we're you know, we should be a little bit understanding of emotions of the players. The players

Kick does not give you the right to get up in a referee's face and yell at him.

And again that this did not look to me like they're genuinely asking a question.

About why that was a penalty kick. There seemed to be no.

True intentions of finding information here. They were just mad and yelling and they really only have themselves to blame because you gave up a stupid red card. Dog So it was a little soft, but it was it was a foul and it was dog.

So okay, So let's walk through Niels and Mosquita and that moment with dog so ball over the top, calf, Yeah, ball over the top. Mosquita is in hot pursuit. He gets there first, niless in trying to defend. That's the word that I'll use, defend against musketa trying to gain possession in his follow through of trying to make contact with the ball or whatever the situation is, whatever you want to phrase. It makes contact with Mosquita's right hamstring

Yeah?

So it's it's dog though, right, especially in this instance, he is definitely going through the d's direction headed toward goals.

Right, he is headed toward goal distance.

I mean what I think it was a yard outside the penalty area. Maybe I forget exactly where, but I mean, look, that's close right defenders right, there may have been a defender close ish by, I think maybe the I think it was the left center back.

Maybe he possibly was close.

But then we talk about distance not just to the goal, but distance from mosquetto to the ball, and he was very much still in control of the ball at that point in time. He gets kicked, which is a foul. We just went through the direct free kick fouls to kicking is one of them. And at that point it's

The law here walking walking through it. As I'm sitting here and watching, and Nielus is the first person to sit there and wave his finger and oh I didn't do it. So literally it comes over the top as I sit in like I said, I'm playing. I'm playing it right now as we're talking about it. But it was over the top. Moskeita gets there first. Neelas on the follow through once again just basically ends up kicking Mosquita,

Contact is still contact correct.

And that's that's the thing here, is that there was a foul committed and then we do because of the situation, we have to go through the dog the deeds of dogs, and I think most of them are met. Again, the only one that's a little if he is defenders. But I think in this case the defenders weren't going to be able to stop the obvious goal scoring opportunity. And so I think, again, this is this is a pretty straightforward red card when you look, once the deeds of dogs are applied.

You have one fellow center back for Red Bulls who is seven yards further away, so like seven yards away from the point of contact and behind.

So I don't think that that player could catch it.

Yeah, I don't think so either.

Again, that's the only one that I see that like possibly maybe you could talk about, but it's like, I don't think he's again, I don't think he's stopping Musketta in his attempt on goal.

There, you know, So those were I think that was the Let me ask you this before we get into Mark Geiger in the interview from Soccer America and specifically the var element that he talks about.

When it comes to a player.

And whether you know captain can come up to you, players come together, they try to influence and all these kinds of things. When it comes to magic words for you and whether I mean there, I'm because, like I said, there were some umps in Major League Baseball that's sat there, and it's like, I know, if a manager is hot, I'm gonna let him talk. But the second you start talking about my family or you say a magic word,

So my similarly, my my whole thing is you don't get to talk about me personally. You can't call me an idiot, you can't call you know, you can't curse at me. Now you can say that's explicit warning, you can say that's bullshit, and I'll go, well, right, because I understand again, I'm understanding that people are going to be an emotional and I personally like to use colorful language as well. But as soon as you talk about

The what do you you know?

What are you doing?

You know.

Any anything of that line, you know, like do your job? Stuff like that does does send me a little bit over too, because I'm like, well, one, I know what I'm doing, because I've been doing this for twenty plus years of my life. I've also played the sport just as long as you coaches have, in some cases a lot longer than the coaches have, despite what they want to believe, because apparently any coach with a British accent, you know, there's more the sport than anyone who's ever existed.

They don't like to hear that.

You know, There's only been two coaches that I've actually coached, that I've actually had on the sideline that I can definitively say have a better playing experience than I did.

And both of those guys played in a World Cup, so I concede.

That to them, right, But most of the coaches, I'm like, okay, great, you've played in college.

Well I got news for you. But you know.

There are just levels that Again, when you start talking about me and questioning my credentials and ability to call the match is when we're getting get into a problem. You know, some coaches just like to yell. I had one of those this weekend where I just know they like to yell, and I know that I tuned them out, and I know it probably doesn't help necessarily the situation all the time. But if I were to go ask him to be quiet after every time he yells something about ref, you know.

Ref that's that's about.

We wouldn't be playing soccer. I'd have to add twenty minutes of extra time.

Right. So at some point, I.

Fear if he doesn't cross the line of talking about me directly or saying bad things about players themselves, that's the other thing that I'll get into. But you know, as long as you're not talking about me, I can let you, you know, yell a little bit cursing though I do you know I I will allow players to say a curse word out of frustration, but again, once that comes into the actual conversation we're having, that's gonna

How do you do that?

And I'm like, this isn't this. This isn't again fact finding missions. This is a form of scent when it's after every single time, you know, And and I would even try to I tried to explain calls to him, and he still was arguing, and I said, okay, well, if you're not going to listen to the explanation that I gave you, then here's your yellow card. Because this is you are more than welcome to ask me about

You're just here to argue.

And Dan, yeah, captains can talk to the referees, they cannot do what I think.

Cornell was the captain at that time. I don't remember.

Well, one of the three guys who got a yellow card and that thing against Red Bulls, one of them was the captain and you cannot run up to a referee. Oh it wasn't Fordsburg, Okay, I cannot remember.

It is Cornell.

Cornell was a part of it. It was Cornell.

I couldn't remember who was the captain in the referees face and point a finger at him. Even if you're the captain, that's not that's not because, for one thing, we expect the captains to be the responsible leaders, to have a sense of decorum on the field.

Right.

If you don't act like that, then you're no better than any of the other players. You're supposed to be the responsible one, right and once you stop acting like that, then you're going to get a yellow card too. So yeah, the captains have the right to talk to the referees to ask questions in a respectful manner.

All right.

Last topic for this week is VAR and there was it was ish discussion was there from Dale Johnson and his column this week specifically about impact of a particular activity and how it applies to VAR, specifically the virgil Van Dijk moment with Mark Gahey compared to Everton and sandro Tonali. But Mark gave an interview to Soccer America and it discusses VAR and what it is, what it is I guess, and what it isn't. And this I thought was the key passage here with Mark Geiger quote

And I think that is valid.

I think that's probably the issue we get into a lot of times with a certain league across the pond that things they know how to do, everything is they are looking at for them. It almost feels like a meat measuring contest who to see which one we can get it more? And the reality is we're all team referee, whce we put on that uniform, and we need to be doing the best we can to support the guy in the middle, who, by the way, is making a

Again, it's clear and obvious.

Error has always been the term used for var not clear and obviously not correct, clear and obvious error. And so, for example, VAR looking at the dog so on Nilus in the Atlanta United game, the referee gave the red card on the field, right, that was the on field

Is in the play. No, that's that is subjective.

But I mean we're talking like you need to be a couple of yards away, you know, within reasonable ability to play, to be involved in active play. And so that's a good I think Geiger is spot on. That is the issue as we're looking at to say, oh, well was he wrong, instead of well, let's almost validate that he was right.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, And that's why I think that looking at it, there are too many I think we have too many instances specifically, Like I said, we talk about here on Mondays, where it ends up being looked at from that beginning. Yeah, instead of the one eighty that Geiger is asking that var need.

To look at the situation.

Now, let's be clear, there is one rule that we talk about a lot that is cut and dry, black and white, and that is the off side.

Now.

I think Atlanta got pailed out I won this past weekend. I think he was offside, but you know, maybe Brad just stain his goal on occasion.

He's not twenty five anymore.

He's a little slower than he thinks. But that was a good example of well, let's offside, as he's either offside or he's not right. But he is either in an offside position or he is not in an offside position. Similar to the ball either crossed the goal line or it did not right. There's no black and white about that.

Does that make sense? Because again we've talked about fowls are.

Not necessarily subjective, but they are, you know, a little squishy, right. Sometimes you could have a fact and you go, I don't really think that was a foul.

Well, but I mean, what is it that doctor Joe says when he when he gives his speeches, It's like he comes out with a rule book and he sits there and he says.

Fortunately, ghen, they're not bendable anymore. True because they're all digital, but yes, the rules used to be written on paper, and paper is bendable, right, And and again, you know, for example, I this weekend had a U fourteen girls game and a U nineteen girls game. Well, obviously my standard of fouls for a U fourteen and a U nineteen girls game is going to be different, right, it

Well, that's probably going to cause.

The player to not be able to play soccer in a safe manner, and so now we're gonna have to call a foul.

So that's the part that's an example.

And then you look at end games where well, sometimes you know, a little shove is not really a shove. I mean, how many times do we see that happen in the penalty area where guys pulling a shirt or kind of pushing each other and then nothing happens, Because why are we going to call every single foul that happens in a penalty area when it results in absolutely nothing?

And so that's the thing is you're not you're not here to re referee the game, and a lot of times we do get into that, you know.

All right, So to the Premier League in var for the last point. Dale Johnson this this week says one of our's biggest problems has been managing expectations. A lot of that comes down to the lack of information given the fans who've been treated abysmally of the past six seasons. The drip of information is improving, but it's nowhere near enough. One of the issues those who run the game have had to grapple with is how to get the message across.

And not in.

Passages about offenses. Yet today it's absolutely crucial in determining when VAR sends the referee to the monitor. Impact is important for the referee on the field too, but it defines the role of VAR in pretty much every subjective situation has holding impacted an attacker from challenging the ball as a player in an offside position impacted an opponent. Yet impact on the play and actions of a player

It, it's hard because you know, in my understanding and the only other experience I have truly of like studying to be a referee is in volleyball. And I can tell you that the volleyball rule book, the USAV rule book, is a lot longer than the laws of the game because they have a lot more things that they are mechanically looking for, whereas in you know, I just read the list of fouls, that's all it says, just as these.

Are the fouls.

Mm hmm, yeah, visus fouls. There you go.

That's it.

You know, there are a lot more things in the earlier the the you know, earlier laws of the game, like laws one through like seven that talk about a lot of duties, specifically outlining the field and the duties of the referee and the var the assistant referees and all the players and substitutions like those get a little bit more minute, but like.

A lot of them.

I mean there's seventeen laws, that's it, and a lot of them are pretty short. You know, the throw in law is very short, explains what a throwing is and what the offenses are, the corner kick, the goal kick. Those are all pretty cut and dry laws. But then when you get into the ones about.

Fouls, they just listens. Yeah, they just listen. You know.

Thousand this conduct are our one whole law of the game, Lot twelve, and that's.

You know it is it is hard to.

Explain to people who may not be working this, living this studying this week in and week out, why this foul may not be called and this does. But I think that does kind of go back to the point Geiger was talking about, is when we're looking to change the call versus looking to maybe uphold the call or confirm the call. We're going to have these these issues where there's going to be some inconsistent.

And there's always going to be inconsistency.

We see this obviously in the NFL rule book that is pretty for my knowledge, pretty darn detailed and pretty extensive, and especially at the NFL level, they are very clear in writing an explanation of little things they are looking for, right, So that is in an effort to mitigate, right, the inconsistencies. The problem was is with soccer because of the nature

Right.

Again, going back to volleyball, you have multiple people out there who have very different position duties. I mean setters, liberos. They have specific rules written just about them, specifically liberos.

Right, we don't.

We have goalkeepers, but it's pretty cut and dry what a goalkeeper is in cannot do right. No one else on the field has special rules written about them, and that is.

It's just soccer. It just is what it.

Is, all right. So what's going on with soccer for us PO d.

Well, we are recording tonight about the upcoming friendlies against Panama and Mexico.

You're getting close to a magic number, now, aren't you.

We are.

We're going to be at ninety nine after this. After we record this episode, the next episode of ninety nine and the one after that will be one hundred.

That'll be fun.

You're have a party.

Well, probably not joined US for a few years and we're only at one hundred, but yeah, we'll have coverage of.

The men's friendlies coming up and then the women's friendlies, the first friendlies after the Olympics. You know that'll be fun. Obviously we have the first friendlies for Pochettino. We will talk about the fact. This is the discussion point of the podcast US tonight, as the roster doesn't feel that much different now with some of the players that got called into injury. Maybe, but like we all understand, that is injury thing, and it doesn't feel that much different.

And also Caleb is nursing a knee injury according to Liam Russ and your and.

He's twenty one. How are you getting injured? Man?

Well, I have this national team. Y'all are supposed to be young and spry and fit. Why y'all get injured all the time.

Well, and that's why he didn't play this past weekend or Strasbourg was because.

He was out with a knee injury.

And how did I know this because of finanates FNTZ dot slash soccer down here where I could watch Lee Gun on all the b ns and keeping on. Literally, I am watching Strasburg every single opportunity that I have during the weekend.

So I know, yeah, uh, exactly what's going on.

Yeah, But I mean, John, you look at it and you see I mean, look, even if Caliber were healthy, I doubt he's probably in this camp because you got Jedi back and you have Christopher Lund, who, by the way, looked pretty darn okay in a very bad window in September. So uh, you know, sorry, Abby, he's nineteen. My bad even better, even better, he shouln't be getting hurt. What are you getting hurt for? You're nineteen, You're joint.

Asking about Geo getting injured and being always injured.

Yeah, yeah, these guys have made a glass, John.

Yeah, uh glass Joe.

Oh, by the way, bart, uh, did you know that those of us that all of us here at the SDH network up for an.

Award I have heard we are at for award apparently Football Content Awards has nominated us for some sort of media rights the Holder Award.

Yeah, one of ten organizations on this planet that are in the finalists, and so that we are trying to encourage as many votes to be stuffed between now and the thirteenth is humanly possible.

You absolutely, because it is now Pride weekend in Atlanta. You should go to Footballcontentawards dot com slash voting because I said, so.

See there you go. Stuff the ballot box. What the man says.

So, enjoy the beverage out of your West Virginia University mug and we will catch up with you, soume, my friend. Don't be a stranger looking forward to EP. All right, y'all, enjoy EOD all right, be good,