Ep. 17 - USMNT 2 - Bosnia & Herzegovina 0 (Match Reaction)

Brandon and Shaun share their immediate reactions to the United States Men's National Team beating Bosnia & Herzegovina 2-0 to advance to the Round of 16. 

The USMNT is onto Belgium after another dominant performance on home soil. We talk about the referee in this match, the goals for the U.S., the red card controversy around Folarin Balogun and the performance of the back line. We wrap up the show in celebration while giving our initial prediction for the Belgium match on Monday. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Hello, friends, and welcome to another episode of the Friends on Football Podcast, a very special edition tonight. I'm one of your hosts, Brandon Johnson, and I'm here, as always, with my co-host, Mr. Sean Boyle. Sean, how are you feeling tonight? Brandon, I'm feeling great.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

It is a special episode. Like you said, it's an emergency episode. We have a big, big United States men's national team result to talk about.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Sean, I'm very excited to get into this with you. Let's just start. The USA with a huge, huge 2-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina to advance to the round of 16 in the World Cup. Sean, tonight, I guess we'll we'll we'll go through the lineup. We'll do a little play-by-play, your reaction, standout players, kind of like we usually do. But just just before we get really into it, Sean, just give me your immediate reaction. How are you feeling right now? We are 15 minutes past the final whistle. So we we are trying to bring this to you as soon as we can. Sean, how how are you feeling right now?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

I'm absolutely elated, Brandon. The the word, I've lost almost my all of my voice from screaming. We had several offside goals that I celebrated thinking they might have been good. We had a couple of actual goals, which I celebrated even louder. It was a tremendous performance on the biggest stage, hosting a World Cup. We knew we were better than Bosnia, but you just always wonder. You saw Germany go down, you saw some other games be really close for a real long time, and you just wonder how the team's gonna come out and perform with all this pressure on them. And again, just another really good, I would say great performance from the boys. I couldn't be happier. I know the round of 16 is a place we've been to before, but we don't win knockout games in the World Cup often. This is the second we've won. So we need to celebrate it. The vibes from everybody should be through the roof. How how are you doing?

SPEAKER_02 2:19

Sean, I'm I'm buzzing. Uh this was just an incredible watch. Watched it at home, and just like you said, screaming and yelling, multiple offside goals, but the real goals, of course, even louder screams. And I I think what really sent it for me, Sean, was as I was turning the TV off to get ready to film this with you, I saw Mauricio Pachatino singing Country Roads, and I'm like, we're going all the way. Like, how how how do you not love this man? We've obviously, Sean, have the history of this with this manager before, but he's bought in, and you can't you can't even pretend to love that anymore because that that's incredible. Seeing him sing that, he probably has no idea. He's probably never been to West Virginia, let's be honest. No chance. No chance. But you can point to it on a map, Brandon. But him singing that with the boys that after the final whistle, I mean, that's just that's the stuff he loves to see.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

It's fucking electric. It was amazing. I I wanted I wanna I'll watch that video a thousand times by the end of this evening, I think.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

Yes, yes, that one will be on repeat for years to come, and and you love to see it. Now, Sean, let's just take kind of kind of try to take it in a little bit. We gotta we gotta break it down properly. So, so I guess just to start, Sean, the lineup came out, Kristen Pulish is back in the team. It's the same lineup as the first game of the World Cup. Were you surprised or was that to be expected?

SPEAKER_01 3:43

No, I think this was what everybody expected, right? I mean, we knew everybody was fit in firing, we didn't have the L cards to worry about. We expected the best 11, and I think we got the best 11. Were you in the same position as me?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

Yeah, same, same boat. Uh would have been more surprised to see if something was different, to be honest. But yeah, very much to be expected.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

Yeah, and it kind of just signaled like, okay, here we are, let's go. You know, it's all to play for, it's all in front of us. We've seen some near scares even today. And we should tell the listeners we'll talk about the rest of these games that have happened throughout this week in the round of 32. We'll talk about them in a later episode. This one's going to be solely US MNT specific. But yeah, we saw some scares. England almost went down, Germany did go down, and we're a much better team than Bosnia, but you just never know. So having that lineup was a sense of reassurance for me. It was like, okay, we got the boys. It would take us playing poorly to not win this one. And thankfully, I would say from again from the beginning of the match, we came out with the right mentality and the right intensity.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Yeah, I I agree with you, Sean. And I think you bring up a good point when you mentioned that these other teams that have lost, the because we'll again we'll go into this in a separate episode, but there we've seen multiple penalty shootouts, we've seen 95th minute goals, we've seen red cards, we've seen late penalty kicks. I mean, we've seen it all. So for the US to come out and I I'd say put together a good solid 90-minute shift, half of it with a man down, which we'll obviously get to, uh, is something to be proud of. So I I guess Sean, just break down that that first segment of the game. You mentioned the US came out on the front foot, and I agree with you. But at the same time, we we did mention on this pod that Bosnia is going to be very dangerous from set pieces, and they looked very dangerous early. So give me your first reaction to the uh of the early part of the game.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Again, once again, we love almost conceding in the first very first minute of the game. So we had another instance where as soon as the game starts, Bosnia win a corner, and we're kind of like, what the hell? We just said they're dangerous from set pieces. We're 45 seconds in, they're already lining up to take one. That was a bit a bit scary, but and honestly, the corner was dangerous, it was a dangerous ball in, bounced in the box. I was like, oh shit, get out of the way. We did. From that moment, I think we got a lot better. There was a we we started, we clearly had all of the ball in the first half. That's gonna be a theme throughout. It wasn't always dominant with us having the ball, but it also I was never threatened by Bosnia other than a few instances, and one of them was in the ninth minute where their goalkeeper from a goal kick plays in Ed and Jekko. I don't know how he was on side. I still haven't seen an angle that confirmed he was on side. He seemed to be 15 yards ahead of our nearest defender, but he apparently was on. It leads to a chance and a save, and then from their corner on that, it almost is an Olympico. It almost is a direct goal from the corner. Freeze kind of gets caught out where he stepped to play the ball in the middle of traffic, but really the ball was coming in hot on the net, so he kind of had to react and make a save. It's one that I think would have looked really bad if it had gone in, but it also, I do think it calmed Freeze down for the rest of the evening as well. So I think it served a purpose. But yeah, those first 15 minutes, aside from those two chances I pointed out, I think the US came out, like I said, with the right mentality. We grew into the game, we had the ball, and it was just kind of figuring out, we were just prodding and trying to figure out a way of how to break them down and eventually get in on goal. What did you think those first 15-20 minutes looked like?

SPEAKER_02 7:23

I I agree with you. I think there were those those kind of scary moments. I think the commentators mentioned that you cannot be offside on a goal kick, which I did not know was a rule. I've played soccer my whole entire life. I guess no one's ever kicked it that way.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

I guess it I guess it is. I know you can't be offside in your own half, but it looked like Jacko was beyond his own half. So maybe that's just, hey, that's a rule we're not aware of.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

Yeah, which we gotta go back to the rule book, so we'll we'll confirm that. But yeah, other than that, and the the corner kicks definitely worried me. Uh just because I don't think this team had the quality to score many through the run of play. So I knew that they were gonna really take those corners and those free kicks seriously, and they did. Freeze, like you said, makes the good save on that basically Olympico attempt. I and you know, you and I, we can call Spade a spade, like he's not great on those in-betweens, and we'll go over one I'm sure later in the game where we almost get caught. But uh, like you said, getting your hands on the ball that first time in a real situation is good for him. I thought the US came out pretty well. I think early the possession was somewhere around 70-30, really had the ball. Like you said, they weren't really getting into those great spaces they want to get into, but they were exploring and getting it around and had some half chances and some decent opportunities. I felt that the US quality in that first half wasn't great in the final third, and a few times I think a better pass, a better link up may have resulted in maybe an early an earlier goal. But uh overall, yeah. I I mean you can't be upset with that first 20-30 minutes.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

The I think it was uh right around the yeah, the 30th minute we had a flow goal, a Florent Balgan goal, which was called back for offside. It was a great play by Wes to win the ball back and make that pass in quickly to him. I think Flo honestly has to do a better job of being onside there. I know it's tough because you're you're winning the ball back high up the pitch, but you kind of have to have to expect to win the ball back there. And he was just a half step late getting back on side. Before that, I thought he also had a chance where it was cut back to him and he kind of tried to take it first time near post. Wasn't his best attempt on goal. And then in the 38th minute, I think at this point we really are humming, we're prodding, we're trying to figure out ways to break them down, we're getting more quality chances. We had a cutback where Balogun ran into the half space and he tried to cut it back for Christian, and I thought it was actually a really good opportunity, and Christian made the wrong run. He went to the back post when I thought he just kind of had to flash across the face of the center back there, and because the angle that Balogun was operating in was only conducive to a cutback, and I thought that I thought CP could have done a better job of reading that, but ultimately it was complete domination, I would say, by the end of that half. And we just in my head, I'm just thinking we need to get one on the board here. You don't want to give them a second life going to halftime with a lifeline and it being 0-0. And then Brandon, 45th minute, we get that moment. A Balogun goal. It comes from a goal kick, which we win. Tim Reim wins a header, plays it on to Tyler, who does this awesome flick. Yeah, and keeps it moving on to Malik. Malik tries a through ball of sorts, it gets deflected, it's not pretty, it's a bit fortunate that it falls right to Balogun, but then it's a tidy, tidy finish.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yeah, and Sean, I thought it was weird for the for Bosnia wanting to get so high off of their goal kicks and really take them down the field. The US, I really feel like did a great job of winning those 50-50s out of the air. The one that you're referring to in the goal, Tim Raymond is actually unmarked. I think he actually may have taken it down with his foot and just did like a one-touch pass to Yeah, it was quick. Yeah. To Tyler, who flicks it onto Malik and then Malik plays the through ball. And it's weird that Bosnia went through that strat, played that strategy. I get it, they're big. They want to get the ball in the air, they want to get the ball higher, but they weren't really pressuring a lot of those goal kicks. So to me that was odd. But to score the goal and and to score it in that manner right on halftime, that's all you can ask for. Uh, the US definitely deserved to be up, in my opinion, at the half. And to score that goal right on halftime changes the team talk a little bit. There's a little bit of extra mojo, there's a little extra pep in the step as the boys go into the locker room, and you love that.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

Yeah, I thought it was really tough for Bosnia to play out. Anytime they tried playing it on the ground through our press, they struggled and it would lead to a turnover. Then, like you mentioned, they would play the ball deep and then they weren't in a position to win the second balls, or they weren't quick enough to react to those. So, really, I thought we had a stranglehold on the game and we're deserving of a goal. Really glad we got it. And then right after the goal, you pick your head up from celebrating, and you're wondering, is Tyler Adams dead? That's what I wrote down in my notes. Did Tyler die? Uh, I don't know how that wasn't a foul or yellow card. Ed and Jekko was just playing rugby. He didn't even try to, he wasn't even near the ball. He was just setting a screen on Tyler Adams in the middle of the park, and he just almost broke his jaw. So that was a bit that was a bit nuts, but it showed, in my opinion, that we had them rattled. When your 40-year-old captain is making decisions like that just before halftime. I thought we were in a good spot. And then again, Brandon, we weren't done. We were in the 53rd minute of the first half. And how did this ball not go in? It's a ball from Tyler over the top to Serge. It's a beautiful little diagonal-ish ball. Surge heads it square and flow just tumbles over it in the box. It hits the it hits the crossbar and goes over. I don't know how that stayed out.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Neither do I, Sean. And I, for me, you know, just to zoom out just a little bit, the reaction after the Tyler injury to me was fantastic. That showed to me that these boys were all in it. I think you see a play like that happen sometimes, and you get your emotions get the best of you, and you either switch off or you then focus on retaliation rather than the game. And I think the US was extremely professional, and they were like, you know what? Yeah, you did that, and we don't like that, but hey, we're gonna go score on you again rather than a late foul or a silly yellow card. So I think that uh I think that was really important to them to end the half. Of course, you want that second chance on Balogun to go in. That's a that's a tough, it's a tough miss. He didn't do his best. I think he would he would tell you that as well, but that momentum going to halftime was was very important to me. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

My first half takeaways, I will I had just jotted down. The ref forgot his yellow cards, just didn't bring them. Absolute clown show from him the whole evening, which we'll get to more in the second half. And then we should be up to, and it was just kind of need to get that second goal soon to start the second half. So, overall, though, really no complaints with how we came out in the first half. It was a again under Pachetino, we've seen a professional performance. And you can say what you want about the competition that we've played so far, but in the three matches that have mattered, the United States have been the better team by far. You could even say the more dominant team, and they've looked professional throughout almost the entire match. So I don't really know what more we could ask for from Pachuccino and this group.

SPEAKER_02 14:41

No, and with a team that's not typically used to being on the front foot and used to having to be ahead and and sort of dominate the game, it's great to see that they can do it over 90 minutes. We've seen some of these other knockout games, Sean's, where teams have dominated for for 80 and they lose in the last 10. I mean, two two games, two the other two games today. Uh, you saw teams that were winning and then ended up losing it in the last 10 minutes of the game. So I think that's a credit to Pachatino and his staff and and just the mentality that these boys are playing with. Now, switching into the second half, Sean, early, I think it was kind of a little bit back and forth. The US was getting some chances, they were kind of playing with the ball, nothing really too significant. And then it was it was ugly.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

It was like ugly and cagey. Yeah. You know, neither team could really get a foothold in it. And yeah, then Bosnia made changes. Yes. And they then tried to get on the front foot more. It was noticeable the difference that their subs made. Esmir Bajrak Tterevich came on, the American from Wisconsin, not sure how he but he comes on and he immediately gets on the ball and and provides a bit of quality that we hadn't seen from Bosnia, in my opinion. And at that point in the game, I was like, okay, well, we really they're gonna be more open now. We really need to go get that second goal because they're gonna offer a little bit more, I think, going forward, but they're also gonna open themselves up at the back. And that's not what happened exactly. I'll let you I'll let you talk about the next big event.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Yeah, so we hit the uh 60th minute, and we see a play, and the the ball gets passed up to Florian Balogun and sort of a 50-50, if you will. He doesn't really get much of the ball, actually gets the back of the the ankle of the uh Bosnian player. Ball goes out of bounds, no foul on the play called. Both players are down injured due to the contact. I mean, it just looked like your classic coming together, nothing malicious. Maybe it should have been a free kick Bosnia. Like you said, the referee just didn't want to blow the whistle for most of the game. However, I think because both players were down, that gave the referees and VAR a long time to look at this. VAR decides, hey, Mr. Referee, come have a look. He goes and has a look, and turns out that Balogin sort of cleats the back of the guy's leg and then steps on his ankle. Again, this is in full speed. I don't think there's anything in it. I don't think it's malicious at all, but when you slow anything down, Sean, I mean it looks terrible. But it I think these these guys don't understand the speed at which these players are playing, and it's just a coming together. Unfortunately, the referee comes back out, says it was, you know, violent conduct play and sends Falorian Balogun off. Now, Sean, give me your just immediate thoughts on the foul, foul red card, foul yellow card, no foul, and then sort of what you're going back to the game after that. What sort of change in your game plan in your mind with the team?

SPEAKER_01 17:42

Well, I think, yeah, we do need to spend a bit of time on this red card because it was the thing that was aside from the two goals for the United States, it was the biggest moment in the match. It completely changed everything. And what I I think you made a great point of how there was nothing in it live. The ref did not give a foul. And then, of course, when you see it on replay, it's like, oh, that was pretty gruesome, actually. That's a bad tackle. But Balogun didn't know anything about it really. He was it was his blind side, he's trying to shield, and he comes down, and I think it's a bit reckless. You're in control of your body if you're full-on Balogun, so you do need to not when you feel you're coming down on someone, you need to try to not put any more pressure there. It's easier said than done, of course, but the step on his ankle, it looks bad on the ground. I never think it's a right card. I need to be clear on that. And I hate that VAR intervenes and interjects itself and makes themselves the story in this one when the ref didn't have a problem with it. I wouldn't even say there was loud protests from the Bosnians at that point. It was kind of just like, oh, he got hurt on the play. But it was a coming together. It wasn't really something that was malicious or ill-intended or with a ton of force. So it's like, how are you giving a red for something that isn't intentional and isn't forceful, you know? So I I don't understand how that's serious foul play on, I never will. We could talk about later how that's going to really hurt the US in the next game. But what this did in the game was it shifted it. We we just had to play a completely different type of football for the last half hour or so. And it was unfortunate, but it also, you know what? It it galvanized the group in a way. And it made us watching at home, and we had squeaky bump time for a few minutes. Of course, we were sitting there like, oh, damn it. This was supposed to be easy. Instead of getting the second goal, we were playing with 10 men, but I think it in a weird way brought the group even closer together, and it showed that they could handle some adversity too, because we really haven't had that in a meaningful moment yet in this tournament.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

I think you're nailing it, Sean, and honestly, the reaction after the red card to me, again, similar to what happened to Tyler in the first half, I thought we got stronger. I was a little bit surprised Pachatino didn't immediately go to the bench. However, he had a plan, and and that's that's totally fine. Though we we did have the hydration break very shortly after, so he could have used that as sort of his his time out to restructure the boys. But for the next 10-15 minutes, I mean if we if we were the Mexican national team, there would be Olays, there was passing Tiki Taka. We're passing around these guys, and you would have never guessed, Sean, that we were down a man. I mean, Bosnia, I don't know if they got tired or they were frustrated or what it was, but the USA was passing around them like it was nothing. And you know, we get to the 78th minute, and Christian Pulis scores a goal offside, called back. It was a tough, tough play. But just that reaction between, I guess, what was that about the 65th to the 78th, and and honestly, through the rest of the match was was incredible to see. And I think that's the style and the spirit they're gonna have to play with next week because now you're playing an even better team.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

But Sean, you want to go through real quickly, I just wanted to touch on you're completely right about how we responded, and it's a championship mentality, which is huge. And I don't think that's something we've seen from the United States before, before Pacetino arrived. So it's it's a huge compliment to him, it's a huge compliment to how they responded. And in terms of not making subs, typically you do see an immediate tweak of the lineup. Now, typically it's not your striker who gets sent off, so oftentimes the striker is the one who sacrificed. I'm glad that he kept that unit because sometimes when you're in such a heated war with so much at stake, it's hard for a sub to understand that and get into the rhythm of the game so quickly when every single kick matters. And I kind of like that he waited. And you know, he got that hydration break where he got to talk to them, and he was probably checking and making sure everybody's good fitness wise, and they still had some minutes to run in them. But I like that because all those guys are up to speed with exactly what that game entailed. And it's hard when you're a sub coming into something where you think you know what the intensity looks like. Looks like, but then when you're in it, it's completely different. I'm very happy that he waited basically until we scored the second goal before making any changes. Because it showed me that he believed that those boys that were out there were ready to win that war, even if he didn't have to sub. And the fact that we did have people on the bench in case of emergency, I'm glad that Potch made that decision. It was a little bit of a risky one though.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Yeah, yeah, I I see what you're saying, and then and I don't disagree with you. The next, I guess, big moment, Sean, is I mentioned Christian scoring, but being offside very shortly after that. I believe it was honestly the next minute. Uh Sergio Desk gets a ball coming from the flank. I believe it was Anthony Robinson, uh, played it into him and gets pulled down at the top of the box. Now, Sean, we we gave a red card 15 minutes ago. I mean, we're gonna be loose with the red cards. Why not, you know, continue it? The referee gives a yellow on the field, it stays as a yellow card, no no red card. But before what happens after, did you think that could possibly get escalated into a red card just based on where it was on the field?

SPEAKER_01 23:04

Based on where it was, I could see that. But honestly, Brandon, I don't know. For me, I was like, I didn't even know if that was a foul because of how he called nothing in the first half. So it was such an inconsistent refereeing performance that how are we to know? Like, if it was up to this ref, we wouldn't have had a red card. We wouldn't have had a foul there. We could have had a broken ankle and no red card, no yellow card, nothing. You know, so for me it was kind of surprising because I don't know if Sir Sergino actually fell. He might have, but I don't think he went to ground. It was kind of just like he got held when he spun off and peeled off a guy, and he was in a dangerous chance, dangerous area. So I completely see where you're coming from where, yeah, with a normal ref, and if we had a normal ref throughout the game, I think for sure that's a that's a challenge where it's at least like a quick yell and it's under consideration if there's not another defender nearby. But really, my first thought was oh, this is a really good area for a free kick. Who's gonna take it?

SPEAKER_02 23:56

It's it's funny you say that because I had a similar thought, but then I was kind of like, like, this is going over the bar. I don't like the free kicks. I'm not a free kick guy when it's super close like that. I'm always because I always get so upset when the guy hits it into like the 10th row, and I'm like, seriously, it's 10th row wall almost every time. It's like yeah, yeah, exactly. And then you see Tillman and Jedi are are talking over the ball, and I'm like, all right, who's gonna hit this? It's kind of in a good space where you could go right footed or left footed. Uh, I honestly thought it was gonna be Jedi, and then whistle blows, and Malik Tillman steps up and and hits the free kick over the wall. Goalie gets a hand on it, but still goes into the net. Sean immediate reaction for me was how in the world did that go in? And all respect to Malik because hey, at the end of the day, all he did was kick the ball and he did his best. But you gotta ask questions of the goalkeeper there. I mean, he had his whole fist on the ball and couldn't get it out. Uh, unfortunately for them, that's the second goal for the US and really kind of sealed the deal on this game. What were your thoughts on the on the free kick?

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Oh, I started singing Country Roads. I was so happy. I was I was absolutely jumping for joy, screaming, celebrating. It w I mean, it was awesome. We don't see goals like that from the US often. That was just it was so clutch in such a big moment to put the game to bed. It was a sick free kick, in my opinion. Like, it's tough to get that one up over the wall and then down in time, and to do it with enough force where it sneaks by his hand, and his run-up was so nonchalant, and the way he struck the ball was kind of nonchalant that I don't know how, like you said, I don't know how it had enough pace to beat the keeper, but it did. And my my next, you know, Brandon, I was like, wow, we we fucking we won the game in the coolest way because it wasn't how we thought it was good, it wasn't smooth sailing, it wasn't dominant in the second half because of the red card, but we showed something and just showed a different thing, and I think it's all building towards a really special run with this group, and I can't help but be excited.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Sean, it is hard to not get really excited, and I think we have every right to because besides 2002, this is the furthest I believe we've ever been. So making the round of 16, I I know there's still 16, there's still what? So 16, 8, there's still four games you'd have to win to win it all. But to be this close and you're on home soil, you have a we'll we'll get into it. We have a decently favorable matchup, not not the hardest match in the world, but also not the easiest with Belgium coming up. But yeah, I I think you know the text rolling from from your friends who who aren't really watching, and all of a sudden they're involved. And I'm getting text from you know my brother-in-law who we took to the World Cup last week, so that was really his first exposure to this, and now he's locked in, and I'm like, I love this. Like, this is what it's about. And everyone around you is really hyping this team up. And I think you and I have that sort of hesitation. Of course, we want to be all in. Like, we we want to be all in. We we want this team to go all the way, but we also do know the reality that there are some teams left in this bracket, Sean, that uh are are are lethal. So it's like I'm scared of Spain, mate. Come on, think I'm scared of Spain, come on. No, Spain has no Malik Tillman. So that's right. They don't have Malik, they don't have Christian Polisic, Hershey's finest.

SPEAKER_01 27:30

No, I mean, yeah, obviously it's a long shot for us to think about winning the World Cup, but also it's like I've never seen a United States team as good as this, and I'm not gonna put a ceiling on it. And you know what? I love our chances to win the next one, too. So let's keep this train rolling. Would I hate to see Spain get upset so we could avoid them in the quarter? Sure. I mean, yeah, I'd love to see them go down. You know, there's certain things that could happen, but there's a lot of games still to be played, and you know how it goes in knockout tournaments. It's survive and advance.

SPEAKER_00 28:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

And tonight we survived, advanced, and once again dominated. Aside from, I guess we should get to the last 15 minutes where it was desperate city for Bosnia and they had to throw everything at us. There wasn't even really that many scary moments. You know, a few half chances from the set piece and the goal kick and things like that, but there was never a time where they carved through us and created an opportunity. And even when we went down to 10 men, they got some more chances late, but it was still not smooth sailing for them. We fought hard. We had the Matt Freeze, should he stay or should he go? I I believe that's a Ramon song. It's like, if I if I go, there will be trouble, if I stay, there will be double, and he just keeps he keeps making the wrong choice, you know. So we gotta figure that out.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

But how do you think the last stretch of the game went? I think it went exactly how you'd expect it to go. Like you said, there's no goal differential mess now. There's nobody, it's like, oh, we only lose by this much, and this can happen. It's a winner-go home, and so Bosnia is gonna throw everything forward, and I thought the US did well. I I'm I'm not a fan, and I've probably gone on record, and if I haven't, I'm going on record now. I don't love when teams just sit and hold and protect what they have, but for the US, they had to do that for the last 15 minutes. You're up 2-0. They're literally attacking eight, nine guys. You have to sit back, you have to sit behind the ball. And and I don't think the US played a super low block. Uh, I thought they still did confront Bosnia pretty high up. They were letting them kind of cross the ball in early, which I thought was interesting because it's very hard to score off of that weird angle, uh, rather than letting them get to the almost the touchline or the the byline and and crossing it in. So yeah, I think it was to be expected. I thought the US handled it well. Freeze had, of course, that little half moment, but recovered well. And you know, you keep a clean sheet and you went to nil, and like you said, survive in advance. And I think that's the most important thing going into a big game on Monday night against Belgium.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Absolutely. I think, yeah, that's to be expected. It would be shocking if Bosnia didn't throw everything at us and make us sweat a little bit those last few minutes. I will say it was gross how they behave too. They really tried mucking it up. The Jekko in the first half was disgusting, and then Domirovich, he was gross with Tim Reem. This young guy came on, started picking a fight with Tim Reim too. Just off your pop, you farmers. Okay, you stunk the gaff out. Uh I'll see you in a bit. I I never if if we could one thing about the 48 Team World Cup, I have no problems with Cape Verde, Curso. I have a problem with Bosnia. And I'm not sure how they made it out of the group. They they were they were disgusting, and and they lost without any dignity as well.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

Yeah, yeah. Not not the best showing from them at the end of the game. I was a little bit worried, honestly, that tensions were gonna you know boil to a point where something happens, and of course Bosnia, they don't care, they don't have nothing to play for. The game's over. But how about their coach, too? How about their coach? Yeah, that's our guy, Sergey. Sergey, the the poker player. He he didn't have his poker face on at the end of the match.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Acting up but held the ball hostage for a good two minutes on the touchline. What are we doing? Send him a card and send him on his way. It should have been a red there. Like this is your rep. Like, bro, you're losing. I think that was the first yellow of the game, Brandon. I think it was the first yellow of the game was on the coach. I think it was. After rugby ensued in the first half, and he he finally cards the coach for holding the ball hostage. Unreal.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Also, coach holding the ball. What kind of strategy is that? You're losing. You need the ball to play.

SPEAKER_01 31:32

So a total clown show from the Bosnians, let's be honest. Yeah. I'm so happy to so happy to have you in the States. Hope you had a good time. Fuck off back to Bosnia. Jeez. Sorry, I you know that might be a bit much. I you we try to win with Grace and lose with Grace, except we're not losing often. But I I do I do think they really, really, the last 20 minutes, it was disgusting what I saw from them, so I'm not in a good place with the Bosnians at this point. But let's shift the focus back. Just closing thoughts, Brandon. Who who were some standout stars for you in this match? I thought really the whole back line put in a proper shift.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

Yeah, I I know we have uh given Tim Reim some stick on this pod, but he held his own. He played well. Thought Chris Richards was well. Alex Freeman, to me, just continues, continues to take another step, another step, another step. And I, you know, I don't know what the ceiling is for this kid, and I I love it, Sean. Like it's really, really exciting, and he's 21, so he'll be back at least twice two more of these. So I absolutely love that. I think for me, this besides the back line, the standouts, I would give Weston McKinney a standout. He just I I know he didn't play the last whatever five minutes, but 85 minutes of just dirty running. And he's one of those guys where unfortunately, like, it's not gonna be in the box score, it's not gonna be in the highlights, but he's tracking a runner, he's making that secondary run so that Balogun gets only one guy on him rather than two, and he's just doing everything you want to see as a coach to help your team win. And it won't show up to probably the the quote unquote untrained eye, but he's a guy that I'll always be high on, and I think for me, maybe not the man of the match, but but has to be mentioned in in outstanding performers.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

Completely with you. I I I always will say that about Wes. I I love him, I love everything he does for the club, and he he's just a great guy to have in the locker room. I thought Tyler Adams was outstanding too, just gritty, the Tyler of old, in the right spots, breaking up play, got the nice flick on for the first goal. Thought he had a couple other good moments where he played some long balls into channels for guys to run on to. He was just really good, disruptive, looked like his old self. Honestly, you know, Pulisic still has that juice about him when he gets the ball. He's still fresh as a daisy. I love seeing that. And it's gonna result in a big goal for us at some point. You know, hopefully that's in the next match. Maybe maybe we could save it even. Maybe we'll put it with flyer and save it for the quarterfinals. But no, just an outstanding team performance. I think everybody should be happy. United States fans should celebrate. We have the 4th of July weekend, 250 years of this country. We're the best football team in the world now, too. So celebrate that. You know what I mean? Like, why not dream big? We'll preview the Belgium game in full, I'm sure, on the next episode. We're not gonna do that tonight. This is more just a good let's celebrate good times. Come on, people, you know what I mean? It's that sort of episode. Brandon, just tell me, gut feeling. How do you feel about us against Belgium?

SPEAKER_02 34:31

Sean, I feel good. I I feel really good. Belgium today squeaked by Cynegal. You know, they scored two goals late in the last 10 minutes of the game. I think they were only about three minutes apart, and then they get a penalty kick call and extra time, which you know, we can debate till the cows come home if that should have been a penalty kick or not. Uh I'm they haven't they haven't had that killer instinct that you typically see from a Belgian team. And I know you've mentioned it. The generations are definitely in in transition, and I think that old that age is starting to show a little bit, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

De Bruin has been horrible. De Bruyne has been awful.

SPEAKER_02 35:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:10

He could carve us up on Monday, but he has been so bad so far.

SPEAKER_02 35:14

Exactly. And and I they don't they don't I I know we can't take it lightly, but they don't put fear in me as if we were to play Argentina, France, Spain, Brazil, even. I I really think we're at that level. You know, listeners will know that we did play Belgium in March. We've played like every team in this World Cup like three months ago, but uh we played them in March in a friendly, and we got cooked. Uh, I think it was five to two in Atlanta.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

But again, it wasn't as bad as the score show.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

No, no, and it's a friendly, and guys are playing that don't maybe don't play, and Pachacino's trying different things. So you don't want to read into that too much. Um but I think with the the confidence they're coming in on, whereas Belgium comes in just kind of squeaking by, if you will, 120 minutes that's heavy legs as well. I I'm confident Seattle, I mean Seattle always shows up. Uh it will be loud, it it'll be electric. Sean, we gotta find a way to get like a college college football uh band in there or something, and and just get some of these college get these the music up and and play during the game. Can you imagine like you get the the fight song before a big corner kick or right after a goal?

SPEAKER_01 36:24

Um we we need singing, we need we need a band director out there, somebody choreographing these fans because they're passionate but they don't have a clue sometimes, you know. So I really would like that. There's there's a good floor in Balogun song going on that I hope we get to use at some point in this tournament. It's the Saminamina, Waka Waka, hey, hey, Balogun, he scores again. We stole him from England. Ah, I love it. It's great, it's class, it's a good song, but we we need to find a way to get him back on the pitch. So please win this next one for Flo. I think that's the messaging. Bring Flo back for the quarters. But no, I'm excited. I thought the performance against Bosnia was exceptional. It was gritty, it had everything we needed to see, and I think I love our chances going into the round of 16.

SPEAKER_02 37:13

Awesome, awesome. Thank you, Sean. Well, listeners, we just wanted to drop this little surprise pod. We we we heard the feedback. Oh, you're taking too long in between USMNT games, Monera, especially you.

SPEAKER_01 37:25

Yeah, Mark Monera, yeah. It's disgusting for him to say such a thing. But he did he did ask who you get a surprise friends on football pod to recap the game. Yeah, on your on your demand. Anything else, Mark? Yeah. While you're living in Florence.

SPEAKER_02 37:37

Rough life, but uh no, Mark, hey Mark, we got you. We heard your feedback, we appreciate it. Sean, as always, this has been great. Let's just ride this into the weekend. It's gonna be a good weekend, like you said. 250, 4th of July. Shoot the fireworks off, drink the beers, eat the hot dogs, and we'll be back at it on Monday for uh Belgium.

SPEAKER_01 37:58

And you know what, Brandon? We'll promise listeners if we keep winning World Cup knockout games, you'll get an emergency pot every time. Absolutely. How about that?

SPEAKER_02 38:05

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

If we lose, you won't hear from us for a week or two.

SPEAKER_02 38:09

You know, that might be a shutdown situation. Yeah, we'll be in mourning for a little bit. Let us have a little bereavement time before we come back. But listeners, as always, tell a friend to tell a friend, like, subscribe, comment, send us your ideas, send us your messages, and until next time, take care.