Updates on the big names left off the last USMNT roster, including Pulisic, Cardoso, and more! | USMNT Weekly

Ryan Bailey (0:20)

Welcome to the Total Soccer Show USMNT Weekly. It's our regular foray into all things men's national team. Today, we're checking in on the senior players we didn't see in the last window. We're breaking down Alex Freeman's latest Spanish exploits. We're revisiting an old USMNT friend who's making a big impact in France. And so much more. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today, Taylor Ockhouse had a haircut. If you're watching on YouTube, you'll see how dashing he looks right now. Hello, Taylor.

Taylor Rockwell (0:47)

Hello. I have, and then I did not style it today. So my forehead looks 12 times the size that it normally does, I think, but either way, happy to be here. Happy to have had my first haircut in four months. Not everyone can have a staining appointment like Graham Ruffin.

Ryan Bailey (1:00)

No, that's true.

Graham Ruffin (1:00)

I honestly can't relate. Every Friday, 10.30.

Taylor Rockwell (1:03)

Every Friday, 10.30?

Ryan Bailey (1:06)

Wow.

Taylor Rockwell (1:06)

Wow.

Graham Ruffin (1:07)

My boy Scott, he's paying his mortgage on the back of my business.

Ryan Bailey (1:12)

He is. He's probably got your name tattooed somewhere, Graham, I imagine. Graham Ruffins here. Hello, Graham. Would it shock you to learn I get my haircut every three months?

Graham Ruffin (1:19)

We've had this discussion before it, so that doesn't shock me, but four months says, Joe, I feel like you might be even more than four months, actually.

Joseph Lowery (1:27)

It's sporadic. There's plenty of length on the back, but the problem is the sides eventually start slopping over my ears, and then that means it's time.

I just look in the mirror one day and think to myself, yeah, this week probably, we should get that done. There's no cadence to it really beyond that.

Taylor Rockwell (1:41)

I assume that Joe is like Ron Dunn from Parks and Rec, and that his hair just decides to cut itself when it's time to cut itself. That's Joe Lowry, a man of the West.

Joseph Lowery (1:50)

Is that a Swanson reference, or who's Ron Dunn?

Taylor Rockwell (1:53)

Ron Dunn is Sam Elliott when he makes an appearance in that one. Oh yeah, that's right, the other Ron. Yeah, the other Ron.

I no longer like Ron.

Ryan Bailey (2:03)

At this point, listen, we're very excited to announce our new spin-off show, Total Grooming Show. Check out that when it comes to the feed later on. But in the meantime, we also have a Patreon, patreon.com/totalsoccershow. It's where you get our bonus features. Maybe some grooming in there too. Let's see how the move takes us. There's not. Probably not. But soccer, plenty of that, Joe. Plenty of that on the bonus feed. And access to our Discord server where all the cool kids are hanging out talking about soccer, ranking national aquariums. I was very much in that conversation this week. And so much more. Join us there, patreon.com/totalsoccershow.

All right, plenty of USMNT to get to today, Taylor. But we've got some USWNT to catch up on as well. We had a doubleheader with Spain over the past week. On Tuesday night, we had a 2-2 draw with the Spanish. Coming back from 2-0 down did USWNT, Ashley Sanchez and Mallory Swanson, leveling it up. This is kind of a big yardstick for next summer's World Cup, top two teams in action.

Learnings? Any?

Taylor Rockwell (3:08)

Yeah, I think so. I will admit that I watched this game very late at night after playing a full 11v11 game with a lot of heat pads on my back. So I think I have a good read on this one, but maybe I just hallucinated this whole game. What I will say is once again, it's the US going down early to a Spanish team that looked very good, our number one in the world for a reason. Then in this game, had the fight back in the second half. I think over the course of these two friendlies, the thing I have enjoyed the most is seeing how the US responds to being battled because it hasn't really been a thing that they've had to deal with until you get to major tournaments and usually the knockout rounds of those tournaments.

To my memory, I feel like when those games happen, when the US starts to look shaky, when the other team has plans for how to nullify what the US is doing but then kind of play into their vulnerabilities at the same time, the US tends to run out of answers and not really look very sharp and look a little bit panicky. I think we saw that in the first game against Spain once they re two-nulled down, so in this one, not that it was a comprehensively good performance, but to kind of have the second half fight back to get the two goals for it to be Sanchez and Swanson, who haven't played in so long for the US. Getting the goals also feels very poignant at the same time. To me, it's just good practice for what happens when you get punched in a knockout round and how do you respond?