#649: Leander Schaerlaeckens on the state of the USMNT, its chaotic history & miraculous growth since the 1980s

Vince is back. He and Belz welcome Leander to discuss the past window, where things stand with Poch’s project, and the chaotic history of the US Men’s National Team, which is the subject of his forthcoming book.We end up covering the major action from the weekend, including Pulisic’s gamewinner in the Derby della Madonnina, McKennie’s continued energetic & intelligent play for Juve, another shiny little cameo for Gio, Tillman’s goal and “assist” for Leverkusen, and another unconvincing performance (even in a 1-0 win!) for Noahkai Banks. Pre-order Leander’s book here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/722130/the-long-game-by-leander-schaerlaeckens/ Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffed Also, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.com And check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.