Hello,

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Total Soccer show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell, and on today's episode, we're going to be breaking down the U.S. senior men's teams' four-to-one friendly win over Jamaica, as well as the U.S.U. 23s lost to Mexico in their final group stage game of Olympic

qualifying. To help me do so is a man whose passing is never errant, especially when building

out of the back. It's Joe Lowry. Hello, Joe. I only wish that was true, Taylor. I really do.

You've seen me play soccer. We both know that's a lie, but I'm still going to take it as a very

gracious introduction. Now, do you roll the dice then? Do you back yourself to be able to play through the middle? Or would you usually look out wide so that you're not caught in possession? You're not giving the ball away and conceding cheap opportunities. I'm going to put that, the burden of responsibility on my midfielder. So if they're dropping it in good spots, I can play on the ball. as long as they're open. But if they're in a congested space, I'm probably not going to be able to thread that needle. All right. See, that's wisdom. That's common sense. That's why we have Joe here. We will get to that, the one no loss to Mexico later on in the show. but right now we're going to spend a good chunk of time reviewing the USA's 4-1 win over Jamaica,

which happened not too long ago. in the show. But right now, we're going to spend a good chunk of time reviewing the USA's 4-1 win over

Jamaica, which happened not too long ago.

We're recording this Thursday afternoon.

Joe, let's start with the lineups and approach for both teams, which I think we did a pretty

good job of previewing Jamaica.

I think we got almost every starter correct.

So I'm pretty happy with that.

But why don't you tell us about the U.S. and how they chose to set up? Absolutely. Yeah, we were almost spot on with Jamaica. Way to go us. But with the U.S. in this game, it's Zach Steffen in goal. No surprise there. From right to left along the back line, it was Reggie Kahnit and right back. Aaron Long as the right-sided centerback. John Brooks next to him and Serginio

Dest at left back. Then at midfield three, Kalan Acosta played as the number six, which is something that you and I had talked about earlier this week, Taylor, as well. Sebastian Leggett and Eunice Musa were to his left and right, respectively in that midfield three. And then along the front line, it was Josh Sargent up top with Gio Raina to his right and Christian Polisic to his left. Overall, Taylor, a pretty chalky lineup. A lot of guys that we expected to see maybe one or two sort of surprises or things that we weren't entirely sure what was going to happen with. But overall, something that I think we largely expected.

Forgive me, what is a chalky lineup? Does it need, like, does it need lotion? What's going on? No, like, like if something's, if something's all chalk, it's all expected. It's going according to plan. It's what we thought was going to happen. All right. And that's, as we said, pretty much what Jamaica were with white and gold and they had a four two three one from right to left.

They did go with Marriapa at right back, Moore and Pinnock in the middle, Bell on the left. Then we had Hector stepping out of the centerback roll into midfield for that 4-2-3-1. He was one of the holding midfielder's alongside Isaacs, Morris, Palmer, and Lowe, and then Andre Gray ahead. And they did cause some problems for the U.S.

Obviously, they get the goal.

They do have some other chances.

But for the most part, it's weird because the first half I would say was an A for the U.S.

The second half I would say was like an A minus to an A.

...