Hello and welcome everybody to a special USM&T-centric episode of The Total Soccer Show.

They're all sort of USM&T-centric, but this one especially so.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, here with me this evening to discuss the USA's 2-1 friendly loss to Switzerland

is a man who is feeling anything but neutral after that performance. It's Joe Lowry. Hello, Joe. At first, I didn't pick up on the Switzerland thing, and I was like, well, Taylor, I actually am feeling kind of neutral, because I always am feeling kind of neutral about soccer games in the U.S. specifically. But, no, that's just a clever intro from you, sir. Well played. I try. I try. Actually, I do sort of want to start with that, because when we do the quick take, hot take version of this, which we're going to do when the Gold Cup comes around, it tends to be about like the basic feeling we had after the game. I try to avoid social media to the extent I can. So it's sort of going into recording. Here were my

takeaways. Here were some things I was concerned about. Here's some questions I had. And then we rewatch. Then we do the detailed review. We did not obviously do the quick take hot take this time round. So for you, Joe, sort of before the rewatch, broadly speaking, how were you feeling at the full-time whistle. I felt like this was a test for the U.S. And it was, right? When we look at the

quality of opposition that Switzerland are, they're one of the top 15, I believe, best teams in the world according to FIFA rankings, if you want to put any stock in those. But they're talent-wise on par with Mexico in terms of teams in Kanka Kaff, and they're pretty on par with the U.S. I think that's true even after watching this game.

And so I came into wise on par with Mexico in terms of teams in Kanka Kaff, and they're pretty on par with the U.S.

I think that's true even after watching this game. And so I came into this game, and I know that's not what you asked, but I came into this game thinking this was a test and I came out of this game thinking, man, I'm glad that we don't actually have to talk about this as if it was a pass-fail test because the U.S. didn't pass, but I also don't think they failed, right?

They didn't totally fail.

They didn't totally crash and burn.

There were a lot of stages of this game that weren't pretty. The second half wasn't pretty. And that always happens in Friendlies when you have six subs coming on over the course of that last 45 minutes. But it's not as fun to watch. And I left feeling slightly discouraged after that. And I think that's fair. I'm guessing a lot of folks out that are feeling the same way. But again, I'm glad this isn't past, fail, because we did learn some things. And I was really encouraged by some things I saw in possession and defensively from the U.S. in this game. And I think we're going to use the old letter grade system, or at least I am, and I'm going to give him a solid C. All right, a solid C. Yeah, that's roughly where I am, I think. I think I'm a little bit more

flummoxed than you might need just because it was such an exciting, high-pressing, high-tempo

game at time, and there were some bright moments for the U.S., but overall, there were also

almost like systemic problems, it seemed,

that made me wonder if we've moved to a new level of against stronger opposition with the U.S.

trying to play this kind of high-tempo, high-pressing, high-up-the-field style.

How do they evolve it?

How do they adjust it to be able to handle some of the things that maybe a more talented team is going to throw at them? Honduras might not. No disrespect to Honduras, but

Switzerland certainly can. So, okay, we're both kind of on the not good, but not horrible path. We'll

see where we end up at the end of this one. Let's start at the beginning.

That makes sense.

Let's get to the lineups and the approach. We had done our preview. We talked a little bit about this game with Adam Bells of the Scuff's podcast. They will obviously be doing their own episode. Be sure to check that one out too. But Joe, for this one, we did not have Tyler Adams as expected. we did not have Christian Polistic or Zach Steffen because of their Champions League commitments.

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