Scuffed

Adam Elder, the author of "New Kids in the World Cup," joins Belz to talk about the pivotal 1990 World Cup qualifying campaign and the team that went to Italia '90. We mourn the end of the Concacaf qualifying gauntlet, discuss John Harkes' photographic memory, cover the press corps' antagonism to soccer in the 1980s, the genesis of the music video on the beach, and much h more.

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.

Charlie Boehm joins Belz for a listener's digest of USMNT-related news. Have a great weekend.

Vince and Belz get back to the regular routine of the Monday Review after a relatively quiet weekend.

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.

Rico sat down with Sanjay at the team hotel in Atlanta. Discussed the potential move to Fulham, what it means representing the USA as a Mexican-American, and his favorite club and NT goals.

Poch and the boys put on a solid if unspectacular display for 40 minutes, and then, as Vince said, didn't handle business in our defensive third too many times, and paid for it. A long recap of an interesting but discouraging outing at the Benz.

Balogun helps win and scores a penalty. Pepi transfer saga sags, but Fulham interest appears real. Pulisic's ankles look good. Plus much more. Sanjay Sujanthakumar joins Vince and Belz for a traditional Monday Review.

Vince and Belz talk briefly through the roster, hear a bunch of clips from Poch's press conference, and give their XIs for next Saturday's match against Belgium.

Rico starts and struggles vs NEC Nijmegen, Balo scores another scrappy goal, Haji hurts his groin, Tessmann plays CB, Cardoso shines in Champions League, and more.

Sanjay Sujanthakumar sits down with the most influential coach in US Men's National Team history and they talk about his exciting project in San Jose, Torsten Frings, the roster that faced Trinidad in 2017, the role of college soccer in American soccer, and much more.

Vince and Charlie recap a busy weekend, heavy emphasis on Major League Soccer, as the nation emerges from a long winter.

Marcus discusses the 6 most exciting young players in this young MLS season, and what they're doing on the field. And then a bunch of other young players in MLS too.

Adri Mehmeti sets the tone with his comments after the Red Bulls second straight win at the beginning of this young MLS season. From the mouths of babes. Also, big game in Marseille, Yunus plays and scores, Balo and Haji score, Pepi still not starting, and much more.

It's been a while since the boys played. Who's in? Who's out? As the World Cup approaches, the answers to these questions are not always clear, but Greg breaks down what we DO know, and CAN say.

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.

Doug McIntyre joins to talk about his latest World Cup roster projections, Haji's hat trick in a top of the table Champo clash, Balogun's brace versus PSG, Wes's legacy-defining upcoming summer, and much more.

Vince and Belz get back at it post-Valentine's Day. Jedi looked strong in the FA Cup, Tyler's back on the bench for Bournemouth, Wes playing as well as anyone in the world, and Noahkai looking more assured week by week.

Vince and Belz do their best in the midst of some February doldrums. Wes gave us another good goal, Palace get a win for once, Super Bowl happened, World Cup tickets remain expensive.

Rojas, the host of Guarani Vision, THE English-language podcast about the Paraguay men's national team, joins us to talk about Paraguay's wildly successful qualifying campaign in Conmebol, a little about the Guarani, nights at the Defensores del Chaco, the intensity of that friendly in November, and much more.

Sanjay Sujanthakumar joins Belz and Vince to talk through Poch on Weah on World Cup ticket prices, plus a big week to recap for Malik and Wes, and much more as the countdown continues.

Bushnell, who writes for the Athletic, joined to talk about the high prices of World Cup tickets, Cindy Parlow Cone's expansive and thus far largely trouble-free tenure as USSF president, why Weston McKennie's spot on the field under Poch is such an important matter, Alex Freeman's move to Villareal, and lots more, even Richie Ledezma's switch to Mexico.

Weston McKennie's coach says he'd be a great central striker, Reyna out with a muscle strain, Tillman on the bench for a spell here, Weah assist, Big Pat scores but Vince is unpersuaded, Tanner and Johnny getting starts in the midfield, and the St. Pauli president floats boycotting the World Cup, which brings to mind Trump, which brings to mind the senseless bloodshed in Minneapolis.

Woitalla, the executive editor of Soccer America, joined the pod after going to Philadelphia for the United Soccer Coaches Convention. At the event, Matt Crocker said there's still too much yelling in youth soccer, Roberto Martinez was gobsmacked by a Barry Pauwels presentation, Tony Lepore discussed plans to grow the ranks of talent scouts, and US Soccer, for the second straight convention, made a strong effort to be present and accounted for.

Charlie Boehm joins Belz to talk about Richards and the mess at Palace, Brenden Aaronson up from the ashes, Big Pat's distinct skill-set, E.B. White on Gio Reyna, Paredes returns brightly, Cardoso unconvincing to Belz, Pellegrino Matarazzo beats Barca, and Charlie was moved by the African Cup of Nations final.

Matt Sahag, who coaches high school girls soccer in Des Moines, joins the pod to discuss a recent pitch from a big ECNL club to players and their parents, discouraging them from playing high school soccer this spring so they can focus on league ECNL play and national showcases. Sahag has responses to the claims made by the club. It's interesting. 13-yr-old's flying out for the weekend to play regular-season games, $2500 trips to Arizona for...what? And you don't get to play against that cross-town rival this season for your school, by the way. AND the pot at the end of this rainbow is probably a partial scholarship at a non-D1 college. Just another slice of the America soccer dilemma.

Vince, Greg, Sanjay and Belz duke it out to see who can craft the best team in a draft of all the players Poch has called up. Let the games begin! I'll post the lineups and some polls shortly.

We talked about what the World Cup will mean for the sport in America, how kids are introduced to and grow up in the game in Scotland, the heartbreaking end of Sacramento's USL-C season, some coaching talk, some Kenny McLean talk, and lots more. Good chat.

Vince and Belz return to the Monday Review desk, with Brenden Aaronson getting a spot on A1, some Christmas reflection, a stout defense of Cole Campbell's luxury watch and handbag, and a rundown of all the key USMNT player pool developments since before the holiday.

The JPEG That Changed Everything, the True Blue Tussle Award, Commentator of the Year. This is a dramatically abbreviated version of the full show. If you want the full version, including NT Goal of the Year, Club Goal of the Year, Breakout Player of the Year and Player of the Year, to name a few, join the Patreon.

The host of long-running former ESPN podcast Caught Offside joins Vince and Belz to discuss what Poch has been up to, whether it's working, Banner the mascot, and where several players probably stand in the depth chart.

We talk through the quite encouraging events of the first half of the week -- Pulisic's big man on campus brace off the bench, Wes's lovely gamewinner in CL, Balo's gamewinner and Pepi's continued propensity to put the ball in the back of the net. Then we get into Poch's media tour after the World Cup draw a little bit, what will happen if we beat Paraguay in that first game, and the MLS championship game a bit too.

Sanjay joins Vince and Belz to wrap up World Cup draw coverage (patrons got our call-in show right after the draw already) by listening to several of the most interesting audio clips from Poch and the players, and reacting to them. Limited weekend action to review, and our review was, well, extremely limited.

Vince brings back "El Loco" for Poch, but in a good way. Four players who weren't even involved in the last window had a great past week in Europe. Pepi's back in the XI for Eindhoven. The World Cup draw is coming up in four days and we talk through the options. Things are looking good, folks. Although there is some sad news from Thanksgiving dinner.

Vince is back. He and Belz welcome Leander to discuss the past window, where things stand with Poch’s project, and the chaotic history of the US Men’s National Team, which is the subject of his forthcoming book.We end up covering the major action from the weekend, including Pulisic’s gamewinner in the Derby della Madonnina, McKennie’s continued energetic & intelligent play for Juve, another shiny little cameo for Gio, Tillman’s goal and “assist” for Leverkusen, and another unconvincing performance (even in a 1-0 win!) for Noahkai Banks.

We wiped out a historically-good national team, coached by Marcelo Bielsa, in Tampa! Greg Velasquez and Belz talk it through. Gio's return, a caution against certainty, a tetchy performance from Poch in the post-game press conference, and, you guessed it, some classic Velasquez wet-blanketism.

Sanjay sits down with Joe at the team hotel in Tampa on Monday afternoon, to discuss his nearly 10,000 Bundesliga minutes of experience, how things have changed under Poch, who from the team he would trust the least to run the family business in Lake Grove, and much more. It's a fast but substantive interview.

Charlie Boehm and Belz celebrate a credible victory in greater Philadelphia on Saturday night! Gio is back in the national team mix, emphatically. Arfsten keeps on performing. Our defense has to answer some questions about that equalizer. A fracas in stoppage time. What more could we want.

Matt Hartman joins Belz to talk about our two blue chip 16-year-olds and their eye-catching performances at the U17 World Cup after the USA beat Czechia on Tuesday to round out a 9-point window. We do a timeline of the game and then look briefly ahead to Morocco on Friday, mostly talk about Cavan Sullivan and Mathis Albert.

Charlie Boehm joins Belz to discuss Tyler's head injury, Tim Tillman's mysterious inclusion, a rough weekend in France for our guys, the MLS playoffs, Dest's return to camp, Big Pat's big goal, and much more.

Marcus joins Belz to talk about the messy 1-0 win over Burkina Faso at the U17 World Cup, what's promising about the team (Albert, Sullivan) and where it will probably continue to struggle. We also briefly hit on the big Champions League goals from Balo and Pepi.

Sanjay Sujanthakumar joins Vince and Belz for the Monday Review. Sanjay rushes to Gio's defense. And we discuss who's gonna get the magic phone call with all these injuries piled up.

Full rundown of the action and inaction from the middle of the week, including Balo's goal and Wes's good performance against Udinese, Gio Reyna's quote to the AP, and Charlie gives us an update on where MLS playoffs stand right now.

Vince, Belz and Marcus on the mics. Also, is Diego Luna actually cool? Not just soccer cool but universally? An in-depth discussion of his photo with Lil Yachty, Quavo and Yeat, which MEANS SOMETHING to Vince. And then we talk about a small part of the weekend action.

The Fox Sports reporter joins the pod, again, to talk through the past window, a little about Champions League, and mostly to discuss who he thinks will be on the World Cup roster. There's a big surprise in there! And lots of good discussion of the state of the pool.

Belz and Vince talk through a few more things about the international window, including the Roldanaissance, Balo's supremacy at striker, Tessmann coming good and the problems at centerback, plus Banks's second start in a row for Augsburg, Gio gets minutes for a relegation-bound Gladbach, and Chris takes his struggles with him back to Palace.

Greg and Vince wrap up a pretty good window for the boys. Full treatment of the 2-1 win over Australia in Commerce City.

Tanner Tessmann, the midfield anchor for Olympique Lyonnais who started for the USA against Ecuador on Friday, joined Sanjay Sujanthakumar for a half-hour long chat in Colorado on Monday. The Alabama native talked about, among other things, Nemanja Matic's impact on him, how long of a field goal he can kick with his left foot, his love for Venice and what he thinks he needs to do to start at the World Cup next summer.

Vince and Charlie Boehm carry the flag and get into the 1-1 draw with Ecuador. Balo and Tillman have a great night in Austin, they zapruder the Ecuador goal, lots to discuss.

Vince and Belz sit back and relax a bit -- youth sports, the meaning of Landon's hairpiece, and some other minor digressions. the weekend action starts at the 43:00 mark if you want to go straight to that.