Episode 31: The new USMNT starts to coalesce, and maybe finds a formation! Also, don't miss: Sounders academy chief Marc Nicholls joins the pod

Greg and I wrap up the last USMNT camp and what we learned --
it's quite a bit more positive than our reactions to the games
themselves. Then we’ve got an interview with Marc Nicholls,
director of player development and academy director for the
Seattle Sounders, and we come back with Short Corners at the end.


0:30 takeaways from the recent USMNT friendlies and camp: 1)
the 4-2-3-1 deserves further experimentation, 2) gotta find
McKennie’s role, 3) we’ve got a core of 7-8 near-lock starters
now, 4) let's use the next two camps to test new players against
the floor, which is set by another 7-8 players we saw in the last
two friendlies.

46:05 Marc Nicholls, director of player development and
academy director for the Seattle Sounders. Their U17 boys won the
DA championship last year, they’ve given at least 9 teenagers a
USL debut this season and at least 6 Sounders players have been
called up to youth national teams in the past few months. We
talked about his work, the Sounders’ style of play, the
development academy, how they scout out-of-state players and the
type of kids they’re looking for. Covered lots of ground.

1:34:15 Short Corners: Champions League, MLS East
homestretch, U20 Concacaf Championship draw



Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private ad-free
feed for all episodes that go out on the public feed, plus the
Monday Review every week with Watke and Vince. Patrons also get
access to some video of clips we discuss on the show, our private
Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of
historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed