Welcome everyone to a special edition of the Total Soccer Show. No music, no ads, just some

roster analysis. My name is Taylor Rockwell, here with me to break down Greg Burhalter's

27-player roster is a gentleman who we can only assume was on Burr Alters' list of

alternates. We saw the list bandied about. We don't know for sure. It's Joe Lowry. Hi, Joe. It was close. You missed out. But it sounds like if you have a solid preseason, you might still get a chance. Do, do, do, do, do. Okay, I couldn't do it without that, Taylor. Like, the no music was really throwing me off. I think it was throwing the listeners off too. I just had to get that last

little beat leading in. Fair, fair. Yeah, I couldn't do it without that, Taylor. Like, no music was really throwing me off. I think it was throwing the listeners off, too.

I just had to get that last little beat leading in.

Fair, fair, fair.

Yeah, I think I was close. That piece of paper, I was really curious about what it was, and thankfully, somebody asked a follow-up question about it as we were on the USM&T's press conference earlier today. I think I was close. It sounds like Brandon Vasquez and John Tolkien were close, among others.

It's a pretty good group to be in, I suppose.

If we're going to miss the roster, I might as well do it with those guys. That's fair. That's fair. That's a very magnanimous way to begin, Joe Lowry. We'll talk about the players that didn't make it and some players who were just on the outside a little bit later. But first off, let's start with this roster. The U.S. will face Morocco and

Uruguay and friendlies on June 1st and June 5th, respectively. Then they've got Concaf Nations

League games against Granada in Austin on June 10th, away to El Salvador four days later. So four

games in a pretty short turnaround time, players will start reporting to training camp in Cincinnati

this weekend.

And we're going to get three goalkeepers in this camp. It's going to be Ethan Horvath,

Zach Stephan, and Matt Turner, no Gabrios-Lanina. He did declare for the United States,

so that's very exciting in your face, Poland. But Berhalter mentioned that his form

just wasn't good enough to get him on this roster. We had a long conversation about who the third choice goalkeeper would be for this one. Joe, I think you were leaning towards Sean Johnson. Graham and I both leaned towards Stefan Fry, not Sebastian Fry. Instead, it's Ethan Horvath. Are you surprised to see him there? Are you okay with it?

Not really. I'm okay with it, Taylor. I think he is a logical choice. Has he been playing much in England? No, not really, but has he been pretty good for the U.S. when he's been involved over the last year or so? Yeah, I think so. I think it sounded like it was a difficult conversation for Greg Berlter to tell Sean Johnson, hey, you're not going to be a part of this

particular camp. That doesn't mean the door is closed for the World Cup. But it seems like from what Berlter said that between Horvath and Johnson, it was fairly close. And that squares with my reasoning on these players, right? It squares. There's not a whole lot separating a couple of these guys in goal. I do think, Taylor, and you mentioned it, the biggest storyline about the goalkeeper position right now is Gaga-Slonina choosing the U.S. Poland is the U.S. is real dual national rival, not Mexico. I think that's huge, right? And it also shows, I think, a healthy behind-the-scenes environment that Baraltar could go to Gagas Al-Llanina and say, hey, you're not playing well right now with the fire, which is true and ill-timed after I wrote a piece of the athletic about how good he is. But anyway, I won't take it personally, Gaga. But it shows a level of maturity from Gaga-Slonina. And it also shows, I think, a really healthy and beneficial environment where someone can go and tell a young player, hey, you're not going to be involved right now, but we still really believe in you and would love for you to be involved down the road.

It sounds like this situation was really well handled by Greg Beralta and by U.S. soccer.

And it's exciting, of course, to see somebody as talented as Gaga-Salina be a part of this national team.

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