Well, that was disappointing. I'm not mad, I should emphasize. I'm just disappointed. I'm going the parental route for this one, Joe. Welcome to the Total Soccer Show, Quick Take, Hot Take of the USA Start to Walk Up qualifying by drawing nil-nil with El Salvador with me this evening, which means he is committed to a full rewatch of this game. Is Joe Lowry. Joe, thank you for making that commitment. Taylor, never

have I been happier with my past actions. I watched like 15 minutes of this back at half time. So that's 15 minutes that I don't have to watch again after we're done with this. I'm proud of my past self, Taylor. You sold me on it, man, because I was like, oh, did you learn something? Is it better? And then it was just like, oh, no, you just got it out of the way? I see. Well done.

Expertly well done, my friend. For folks who are, I was like, oh, did you learn something? Is it better? And then it was just like, oh, no, you just got it out of the way? I see.

Well done. Expertly well done, my friend. For folks who are new to the show, this is as bizarre as people who are used to it, probably, because with the quick take, we just get right to it. No music. We kind of talk out our basic thoughts, our basic takeaways from the game that was. then we do the full rewatch and we sort of figure out if those thoughts are still there or if they've changed. This time round, we're going to adjust it

even more. Basically, I think I have a sort of narrative on this game. I am going to give my narrative.

And then Joe, from the more tactical side, will will say if that vibes with what he saw

tactically. If it does, then we'll kind of get into that. If it doesn't, then we'll figure

out why we're at odds because we're already at odds about where Giorana would start, Joe. And

I think I guess I was right in the actual lineup and maybe you were right in maybe what should have happened.

Yeah. Honestly, that might be true. It felt like this game was crying out for Giorina to get on the ball more and be in spaces to win more 50-50 battles as opposed to Brendan Aronson being in that midfield spot. But, Taylor, you were right. Don't sell yourself short. You were right. I was wrong. That's the way it goes. All right. Well, let's see if I continue to be right.

Because my basic feeling on this game was that in the opening, I'm not even sure, maybe 15 minutes or so, it seemed like there was that confident U.S. team that we've seen that we should see because of all the successes they've had this summer and where a lot of these players are professionally. I think we saw them enjoying themselves.

And it was just a game, it was just another game that you could see. I tweeted this that, like, Miles Robertson has that header over and he jogs back and he's kind of friendly chatting with Tim Ream. Tyler Adams goes in pretty hard in a challenge, and Weston McKinney is over there immediately to defend. And there was just a lot of moments like that that made me feel like, okay, this team has kind of got really good chemistry.

They're up for it. And then I think they lost the momentum a little bit. And I think El Salvador started playing their game more. The U.S. got knocked around a bit and struggled to recover. I thought maybe they'd get more out of it at halftime. And I didn't see a ton. And so then my feeling was that when we had those substitutions in like, what, the 64th minute thereabouts, I thought we see Calana Costa come on. We see like more veteran figures come on. And it seemed to me like maybe that's where the system comes back into place. There's a calmness in the familiarity with things, and they would end up getting the result. I still believed, even till there, Joe. But then in the end, it didn't seem like it made a huge difference. And the U.S., I think from about the 15th minute or so on, looked kind of discombobulated and a little bit out of sorts. And I feel like that's roughly how they finished. So that's my overall understanding of this game, Joe. How do you feel about that? I largely agree, Taylor. I think the first 10, 15 minutes for the U.S. were genuinely good. They were moving the ball into that right half space into the box. They targeted kind of that right-sided Manchester City Zone, just the space on the right side of the box. And Giorena got in that space. Josh Sargent got in that space. The U.S. was moving the ball well. They were pressing well. So everything was okay at the start of the game. And the first half, I thought, finished all right as well. But the middle part in, I guess, most of the first half. And then almost all of the second half i thought was poor el salvador credit to them

they came in and played their game yeah the u.s pressed them and forced their goalkeeper into

some uncomfortable situations but they were good man and they gave the u.s a lot of trouble they

targeted sergenio desks they won a lot of 50 50 balls in that space their right the u.s is left

with dest at left back it was not it was not a very good performance from the U.S. They struggled to pass the ball in any sort of competent way in long stretches of this game. The first few minutes of the second half were good and we saw some dangerous moments, but just not enough and not often enough for the U.S. in this game. So let's talk about a few of those things, Joe. And again, this is the quick take. So, like, we're going off of our gut off of what you remember off your notes might say. When you say they were targeting Sergenio Dest, what do you mean there? Yeah, that might be even a bit of an exaggeration. It just was the desk was that bad. man, so do you know Dest at left back? And Taylor, maybe you have a different view on him. But it felt to me like every time he stepped forward to sort of half-heartedly try to win a ball from left back, it didn't work or he never actually engaged in that 50-50 battle. And so it was never a 50-50. It was just a 100-0 for El Salvador.

There were moments after moments after moments. The fourth minute, desk gets forward, doesn't really do anything defensively. He's not even getting forward offensively in this moment. He's just stepping forward and leaves Ream isolated and nothing bad really happens, but that happens in the fourth minute. That happens in the 12th minute. Something similar happens and the 14. I mean, the list goes on and on of these moments. And credit to Tim Ream, because I thought he was excellent. I thought he was very good. I don't know what the right word is there. But he was solid next to Sergino Desk on a side where Dest really wasn't doing him any favors. And so the idea then I would assume is that that is sort of built into the gameplay.

That dust is going to be more attacking and maybe that is grounded in a game plan of we think we're

going to have a lot of possession and a lot of sort of attacking opportunities so we don't

need him to be as defensive. If we're reading it that way and maybe being charitable,

what do you think then prevented Dest from having more of an impact in the attack? It felt to me like the left side and how that was structured was a bit weird, right? Because the first thing that comes to my mind when I think of Sergenio Dest and Conrad de la Fuente is the exact same thing, Taylor. It's dribbling, it's holding onto the ball for maybe a little bit too long,

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