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Learn more at vertexinck.com. Hello, Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and this week it's the return of our Americans in Action Report.

And what a roundup we've got, checking my notes.

We've got an underperforming goalkeeper, a second torn Achilles for an American striker,

29 minutes in the Premier League. Joe Lowry, are we sure things are going well? Man, man, you warned me we're going to sandbag, and I still got depressed in that introduction. To be honest, no, I'm not sure things are going well, but that's one of the main reasons I think why we're doing this show. So it's been a while since we've done a full in-depth Americans abroad roundup, and we're not going to hit

everybody here.

And part of the reason for that and for the fact that it's been a while since we've done it is leading into the 2022 World Cup, there were a lot of questions, right? Are the young guys, at that point, Polisic, Adams, McKinney, Musa, Rana, like, who are they going to be? Like, are they going to develop into good starting caliber players for the U.S. men's national team that can lead this group out of a group stage? The answer was yes. Like, we mostly know what those guys are right now. Not that their games aren't evolving and improving in different ways. And not that it's worth, you know, it is still worth checking in on those players from time to time. but to me, Taylor, I'm guessing to you as well, the core feels mostly set, right?

The intro. worth, you know, it is still worth checking in on those players from time to time. But to me, Taylor, I'm guessing to you as well, the core feels mostly set, right? The interesting things as we nearer Nations League next month and Cop America this summer and the World Cup in 2026, the interesting things are, you know, one, is a wild card starter going to emerge from somewhere. And that is something that we're always watching for. And the other part of this, number two, is what does the depth look like?

There was a huge drop-off from the starting group in 2022 to the backups.

You know, can that gap be narrowed by the time 2026 rolls around?

And those are some of the things, along with transfer settings and all those other, you know,

situational things.

Those are some of the things that we're watching, especially close on. And I think that we're going to talk about some today. I think also for me, in terms of why we haven't done this episode, this particular type of episode in a while, I think that was just a little bit of burnout. And I feel like that is maybe the case for a lot of USM&T supporters. but I think after the 2022 World Cup and everything that happens with GEO and with Burrhalter and we have this sort of delay in who's going to be the next coach, that certainly doesn't help. I do also think it being a winter world cup that sort of, we normally have this period to reset. There's a couple weeks off. Then we get the Premier League starting back up and you're sort of back into a new season that we go straight into the rest of that season. Then there's a

break of sorts. Like it just, it felt a little bit discombobulated, a little bit tiring. And I just

think with the way we were talking about the US, the intensity of like micro-analizing players,

I just, there's no point to doing that at this point in the cycle leading

up to 2026. Now as we get closer to Copa America kicking off, obviously we're going to be looking

increasingly intensely, I would say, at the player pool. And that's why we're starting to do it now.

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