Adam Belz

Another She Believes trophy for the cabinet. Some good progress in this camp, a midfield setup that works, and we now look forward to the real beginning of the Emma Hayes era.

Hey! A giant leap forward from the soccer we watched at the W Gold Cup last month. Combinations, lots of chances, Mal Swanson back from with the NT and as dynamic as ever, very little created by Japan (a good team) outside the first 30 seconds. Full recap/celebration of a very good performance as the Olympics draw near.

Lots of European and NWSL action to catch up on, Korbin Albert's TikTok reposts and her long-range strikes for PSG, Mallory Swanson scores, Sam Coffey scores, Claire Hutton shines, and potential XIs vs Japan on Saturday.

The last Monday Review of the month, recorded on Wednesday night with Watke and Vince. Mexico's decline, our matter-of-fact demeanor in victory, Gio's shine and defending, reports from metro Dallas, more on Pulisic's outrageous touch and his tenacious off-ball movement, and the importance of winning in growing the fan base.

Greg and Belz talk through another very satisfying win over El Tri. Tyler bombazo, Gio player of the tournament, a bit of a slugfest from both teams on Sunday but it feels like we're cruising these days with regard to our biggest rival.

Greg and Belz talk through the crazy victory over Jamaica in Dallas. Lots to discuss, plenty to critique, and a boatload of opportunities for breathless descriptions of Gio Reyna.

Sanjay Sujanthakumar and Belz sat down with the 21-year-old midfielder in metro Dallas the day after the wild 3-1 win over Jamaica to talk about what goes through one's mind when one eliminates another person on the dribble, the feeling in the locker room at the half last night, his adjustment to Italian soccer, what language he dreams in, what to do in Milan, and much more.

Greg and Belz talk through the roster for the game against Jamaica and (we hope) the final next Sunday. No big surprises. We give our XIs for the Jamaica match, and Greg has a curveball.

Greg and Belz dig in on a victorious, but not very encouraging, performance from the U.S. women's national team.

Tara and Belz quickly recap the key incidents from the absurd water-logged contest in San Diego late last night. Shaw and Smith score nice goals. Mostly no soccer was played. Survive and advance!

We went direct vs Colombia in a Gold Cup knockout game, and pressed them hard. Greg and Belz break it down.

WoSo Wednesday this week is a belated but fully-loaded assessment of the reverse dos a cero in Carson. Lots to discuss. Greg, Belz, Vince and Tara go in on it.

Goal contributions from all over Europe and North America over the weekend, Wes dislocates his shoulder so that needs deciphering, lovely goal from Johnny Soccer, huge goal from Chris Richards, Paxten gets on the scoresheet, Vince changes his tune on Pefok, plus much more with Vince, Watke and Belz.

Lots to be encouraged about! Lots to work on. Twila and the team are putting the ball on the deck and trying to play through the opponent. A good test against a pretty defensively solid Argentina side. Full recap from Greg and Belz.

A soggy night in southern California, hung over by the shadow of Mia Fishel's injury, but Greg and Belz find plenty to be glad about.

Emma Hayes on the meaning of Star Wars, Gold Cup lineup discussion, Cat Macario inching back to full health, Belz stans Lily Yohannes, Sauerbrunn is back after Cook suffers a minor injury, the U17s win the Concacaf tournament, and much more with Tara and Belz.

Greg and Belz convene briefly after the Kilgore press conference on Wednesday. Morgan omitted, what are knock-on effects for selection? Does anything matter until Hayes takes over?

The Real Salt Lake live wire joined the pod to talk about how he improved between 2022 and 2023, his stint moonlighting behind the counter at Dutch Bros, his first cap for the USMNT, the gratitude he still feels for many of the veterans at the El Paso Locomotive, having a newborn son and his ambitions for the future.

Greg categorizes all the USMNT transfers from the now-closed window, special focus on Gio to Forest and Johnny to Betis, then we go down the list and briefly discuss Lindsey Horan's comments to Meg Linehan at the Athletic.

Emma Hayes name-checks a few young USWNT players, Tara, Vince and Belz give their ideal fully-healthy XIs for the U.S. Women's National Team, and we check in on Champions League action, including of course the remarkable case of Lily Yohannes.

The Gio transfer saga, which strikers will get the call in March for Nations League, centerback pool kinda unclear, roster projections.

Tara, Vince and Belz convene to recap a lot of things, including long-awaited returns from injury, Fishel's big goal in the FA Cup, Lily Yohannes and Korbin Albert coming along in Europe, several transfers, the NWSL draft, and several young players to watch in the upcoming season.

The first Monday Review of 2024 with Watke, Vince and Belz. We celebrate the ascendancy of the three Americans in northern Italy, talk over Chris Richards' 8-match run of starts at Crystal Palace and whether he's getting better at playing on the half-tur, Sargent and Dike are back from long injuries and scoring, January Camp is underway. It's the year of Copa America.

Best goal for country, best goal for club, player of the year, breakthrough player of the year, best offseason vacation, uncapped player of the year, best retirement, and much more. Greg, Tara, Vince and Belz talk through a year that was a tunnel, in that it sucked but there was also light at the end of it.

Greg, Vince, Watke and Belz talk through several awards, some of them voted on by Scuffed listeners. This episode dropped yesterday for patrons. Making it public today. Happy Holidays!

Gio's quarrel with Hummels, Pulisic's goal, Tillman's masterclass, Pepi's assist and Dest's nutmeg. Plus some quick discussion of the "Under Pressure" documentary, good results for Yohannes and Albert, and Hayes' Chelsea struggling a bit in Women's Champions League.

Sean Forman, who founded Baseball-Reference in 2000 and launched fbref.com in 2018, joins Belz to discuss the origin story of the company that runs several of the world's highest-traffic sports stat websites, including the one that has made soccer fandom richer in the past half-decade. Lots to discuss, we covered a lot of ground. Second half of the episode is available to patrons of Scuffed. See link below for details.

Juan Guzman reffed MLS matches, helped roll out video assistant refereeing in the league, and now is the state referee administrator for the California State Soccer Association-South, one of the nation's richest soccer regions. We talked about getting young people into reffing, why Juan did it, how ARs stay on the invisible off side line, how parents aren't as bad as they might appear in isolated social media videos and how referees prepare for pro games. Fun conversation.

The Jaedyn Shaw era is surely upon us. Also we're back to pressing with conviction. We got a good look at Coffey and Shaw, a debut for Korbin Albert, more Purce at right back, a comeback win, lots to discuss. Vince, Greg, Tara and Belz talk it through, react to a few clips from Twila Kilgore's press conference post-game.

Smith at striker, Shaw and Fishel get another good runout, Purce excellent at right back, Nighswonger and Moultrie debut. Lots to consider as the Kilgore Interregnum continues.

Natalia Astrain, the Telemundo soccer commentator who's coached youth and professional women's soccer on both sides of the Atlantic and coaxed intentional, aesthetically-pleasing soccer from the U17 women's national team in 2022, joins the pod. She has a distinct vantage point for observing the challenges and opportunities facing women's soccer in America as the national team prepares for the beginning of the Emma Hayes era. Wide-ranging conversation -- everything from Onyeka Gamero's path to the first team at Barca to the superpowers of the American player and the overemphasis on results at young ages in the States.

Vince, Tara and Belz talk through the roster, some of the comments from the Crocker/Kilgore press conference, possible XIs versus China next weekend, and much more.

Magnificent self sabotage from Sergiño derails a perfectly acceptable away Concacaf performance, and then it gets a little nervy in the second half. Greg and Belz talk through it, full timeline. We're going to the Copa.

An in-depth show about the U.S. men's national soccer team, the players who could one day make it better, and American soccer in general.

Watke, Vince and Belz on the ongoing camp in Austin, the upcoming matches against Trinidad, Berhalter's press conference setup, Gio and Malik hopefully getting to start for the fun of it, how to pronounce Malik's name, whether Paredes can have a breakout camp, and much more.

Greg and Belz talk through the roster, who may step up in the absence of Pulisic and Weah, whether Gio works as a winger in Berhalter's system, and react to a handful of clips from Berhalter's press conference.

Greg, Vince, Tara and Belz talk through the surprise of the weekend, first reported by Joe Lowery at Backheeled, that Chelsea manager and arguably the best coach in women's soccer Emma Hayes has agreed to terms with the USSF to coach the women's national team. We talk about her background, her ideas about American soccer development, the ways she is likely to manage the WNT and the as yet unclear transition for her from Chelsea to USA.

Bob Morocco joins Watke and Belz to talk through ten of MB90's most memorable moments, what kind of player he really was, how much responsibility he bears for the failure in Couva, whether the 2014 team would beat the 2023 team, the chip at the Azteca, jawing with Suarez at the U20 World Cup, the Slovenia goal, the Confederations Cup run, and much more. This is the first 20 minutes or so. The rest of the episode is available only to patrons.

Vince, Tara and Belz talk through the 3-0 win on Sunday, finally, another status quo lineup from Kilgore redeemed by Mia Fishel and Jaedyn Shaw's second half showings. Full timeline, lots of takeaways.

A 0-0 draw, nothing happening, nothing changing. Is purgatory worse than hell? No, but it’s not fun!

Pickup culture? Better rec soccer coaching? Who will do it? How? Filippo Silva, the Brazilian-American who started Tactical Manager TV on YouTube, joins the pod to discuss this stuff with Belz after we had a small disagreement on Twitter a few weeks back. We get into much more in the patron-only portion of the episode. Link below.

Tara and Belz soldier on without Vince, who was sick this morning (get better soon). We walk through some of interim coach Twila Kilgore's comments, give XIs for the Colombia friendly in Salt Lake City, discuss how our two players at clubs in France are thriving, Mal's back in training of some kind, Cat's "integrating" at Chelsea, and NWSL playoffs are underway.

It's a novel idea that started in Tampa and is now spreading to St. Louis and south Florida, with coaches in several other places considering starting one. When it comes to growing our country's soccer culture from the ground up, it checks a lot of the boxes -- free, local, merit-based, and plugged into something that already exists and resonates in America: high school rivalries. We talk with Jim Harte, the guy who started this off in Tampa. We get into a lot, including U6 soccer, of course. Check it out.

An in-depth show about the U.S. men's national soccer team, the players who could one day make it better, and American soccer in general.

A fun first half including an outrageous Pulisic goal, a second half full of hard medicine, and a bunch of unanswered questions about our midfield.

Belz is joined by Kirk Kinsey, director of Flagstaff Revolution, a grassroots club in Arizona, and Jesse Howe, the director of coaching at the Calvert Soccer Association, a grassroots soccer program in Maryland. All three of us are working in the trenches of rec soccer, trying to help more kids learn to love the ball and the game. Jesse just got back from a national symposium on grassroots soccer in Minneapolis, and he gives a brief report on that, and then we just talk through a lot of the challenges and some solutions that work in coaching U6 and U8 rec soccer. It's a long conversation and we cover a lot of topics, but I bet you'll enjoy it, find things to disagree with, and maybe even find a few things to agree with!

Vince, Tara and Belz talk through Mia Fishel's excellent debut at striker for Chelsea, continue to bemoan the purgatory of the Twila Kilgore era, Trinity scored and toyed with the opponent over the weekend, Alyssa been a bit too quite for Vince's liking, much more from across the waterfront.

A very quick recap of some of the action from Sunday from Greg and Belz as Rapinoe rode off into the sunset, Rodman kept staking her claim as the team's best healthy attacker, and Jaedyn Shaw kept sitting on the bench.

The full Monday Review with Watke and Vince. Rundown of the weekend's action abroad, a detente reported between Gregg and Gio, plus much more.

Greg and Belz break down the 3-0 win over South Africa. Great team goal for the second, a couple set pieces, and quite a lot more of the same from the USWNT after a disappointing World Cup.