Hello, hello everybody and welcome to the totalcer show. My name is Taylor Rockwell. I'm back in

Virginia in front of a proper microphone. Joining me today is a gentleman who knows better than

to kick a ball at an angry Christian Pulisic. It's Joe Lowry. Joe, this is your fourth show

talking about the U.S. in about 16 hours.

How are you feeling about the U.S.? Are you burnt out, or could you talk about them some more? Oh, no. Taylor, I've got lots of miles and lots of gas to burn on this particular topic. And to go back to that Christian Polisic thing, it wasn't even him who got hit with the ball. It was Luca De La Torre, and Policic just was pretty upset about that.

I guess, you know, protector teammates all that good stuff. But on first watch, I thought, oh, that thing hits Policic and that's why he's so angry. But no, it just hit his central midfield look alike. And who was also his like enforcer bouncer on the day. I noticed that one a couple different times. So yeah, I like the bond they've got there. But, Joe, I have a controversial question to start this episode. Would you prefer if the U.S. just scored five goals every game? You know, Taylor, I've thought long and hard about it. I was rolling over that question over and over in my head throughout the night. I think yes. Hot take, but I think yes. Hot take indeed. All right. So to recap, the U.S. got an emphatic 5-1 victory at home

to Panama, all but ensuring qualification for the World Cup, even if their banner at the end

had the players maybe thinking they had actually confirmed qualification. Joe, we went over

our initial thoughts last night.

We're going to go deeper into the game today.

But I would encourage people to check that one out just to get more of like the instant take from a lot of it being like my sort of match day experience and some of Joe's observations and conversations with Graham Ruffman that he had in the live broadcasts.

Allocation Disorder also has their recap out. Paul and Sam were seated next to me. I know that Sam was very, very excited about Christian Polisic and had some very nice things to say in his article. So I'm guessing that features prominently in their show. But for purposes of today, Joe, you asked me last night in the BR show if this was their most impressive

performance. I said I thought it was under Greg Burhalter. I thought it was especially so for the

first half. It was probably their strongest performance. What I had forgotten is that the away game

in Panama, the one no loss, was probably their worst performance under Greg Burhalter. I went back,

watched the low lights of that one, read my notes through it. The difference really is night and day. And I had a lot

of, I'm still waiting to see what this team's identity is in my notes in various ways. And it was a lot

of getting knocked off the ball, being overwhelmed by the intensity of Panama's pressing, lots of long

balls, lots of

giveaways cheaply in possession. And I'm really happy reading those notes again to see that

we have a clear picture of the United States now. But, and this is where I am sort of taking

us in a negative direction to begin, the numbers were not wholly great. The U.S. was outpossessed.

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