Welcome to Allocation Disorder. I am Sam Stayschool joined as always by Paul Tnoreo, my colleague at the Athletic.

Paul, the US-Mens national team returned to the field for the first time in I think like 34 years today.

We are recording on Thursday evening. They drew Wales 0-0 and if a 0-0 friendly draw against Wales is, I don't know, was that their B team?

If that could count as like a World Cup victory in a final on Twitter, then I think that was achieved today.

Let's just dive right into it. How are you doing? What did you think of that game? What were your main takeaways?

Were you over the moon? Is some people were on the internet?

Yeah, I mean, first of all, I'm going to try to make this a little bit different. I know Taylor and Joe have done a whole show on this.

Thank you for doing my job for me here.

But I just finished writing about it. Obviously, it's top of mind for me.

Yeah, I think I kind of joked with you. I sent you a message saying that you were going to hate my story.

I sent it to my buddy Dylan Hernandez as well. Just because I always like to run any optimistic opinion I have about the national team.

I passed you two before I write it. It's really making me reevaluate just like my whole approach to life.

But I just like it's like, oh, Sam's going to really hate this story because it's positive.

I'm like, oh, all right.

Yeah, that's pretty much how it was. But you actually said you also were feeling positive.

Look, it was a good performance. You know, I'm of the I'm a believer in the idea that results and

friendlies don't matter. It's about how you play. It's about what you're trying to accomplish and did you.

Did you make progress in those areas? And I think for me, when I looked at this performance, there were two things that really were going to matter to me.

The first was what the midfield looked like with Tyler Adams and Wes McKinney.

Great. It was the best part of the game for the US.

Wes McKinney had his best game. I thought in a US uniform turns out playing for you.

Ventus might make you a better and more confident player who would have figured.

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