Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #490: An American soccer fan backpacking in Europe

Episode Date: May 16, 2024

A quick chat with Otis Lyons, a young guy from the Bay Area who has been traveling in Europe and North Africa, watching USMNT players at their home clubs, for the past two months. He visited Gaga Slonina's home club for a home game, saw Balogun at Monaco, Juve-Milan in Turin, Johnny at Osasuna in Pamplona and many more games in various places. Meanwhile he ran a marathon in Tunisia and ran into a snag in Belgium. We met him on the Scuffed Italy trip and thought it'd be fun to catch up a couple weeks later.———Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon! Patrons get a private feed for the Monday Review, which is, among other things, a run-down of club action for national team players every week with Watke and Vince. We have recently added patron-only content that’s available every Friday. Patrons also 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 OTHER LINKSScuffed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAoundrEkZUgZ13IE5XIqrg We’ve streamlined and revamped the merch we’re selling. Check it out: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Scuffed on Discord: https://discord.gg/X6tfzkM8XU 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/scuffedAlso, 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.comAnd 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.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, got a special guest today, Otis Lyons, who graduated from college in 2023 and has been traveling Europe since the beginning of April, Europe and North Africa, as I understand it, going to soccer stadiums, seeing Americans play at their home clubs, seeing the world. We met him in Turin on the Italy trip a couple weeks ago, and I thought it would be cool to talk with him for a few minutes about the places he's been and the things he's seen because he's seen a lot. Otis, welcome to scuffed. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

You're welcome. Thanks for your time. So can you just give us the rough itinerary that you have executed so far? Yeah. Originally, there wasn't really much of an itinerary, but my goal is just to see as many Americans and as many grounds as possible. I've been traveling for almost two months now, and I started in Italy with a quick stint in Tunisia for some non-s Soccer-related things.

And I've been to Monaco to see Florin-Beligan play. I saw you in Turin with the Yuvai Milan game. I was over in Spain, saw Johnny Cardoso. You saw him in Pamplona, right? Yeah, yeah. I saw Osasuna v. Betis in Pamplona. And then I've been here in Belgium now. I saw Gagaslonina play for Open.

I don't know if that's how you pronounce it. But yeah, been to these countries. And on the back end of my trip, I'm going to hope to get to England, see some of the guys there. And maybe Croatia, see. Pookstas or however. That would be so cool. Yeah.

So, yeah. Seen other games as well without Americans, but it's definitely a treat to see those. Well, what are the, tell us what the other games are you've seen without Americans. Because that's one thing I took away from the trip that I was just on, which is that it's cool to see Americans play in Europe. It's also cool to see games where Americans aren't playing, you know? It's like, it's more about the, you know, it's more about the stadium and the, and the, fans and yeah oftentimes when i when i just see the americans play i feel like i'm watching one player instead of 22 um like uh last it would be monday i saw club bruges play against uh usg it was

kind of a title decider in belg um it was a really cool atmosphere uh two two big game uh it was at bruges so for i don't even know 40 50 000 people it was really excited did they go to penalties No, it's just a league match. Okay. Actually, Bruges now top of the table tied with Underlect and they play this weekend. So, yeah, that'll be exciting. I watched a game in Tunisia as well, which was really cool. Probably the craziest ultras I've ever seen in Tunis, which is the capital.

Just for anybody who's a lot of people will know this, but. Tunisia is just directly south of Sicily. Like there's a pretty narrow part of the Mediterranean between the two. Right. So I actually took a ferry from Palermo. Wow. And it was like a 12-hour journey with just this huge ferry. Like people brought their trucks on.

Yeah. And so I met some local guys and wound up going to a match with them, which was pretty special. It was nil-nil-nil, but just a crazy environment. And yeah, people are so cool to see how, you know, people throughout the world, you know, express their cultures through football. It was really cool. What was the name of the club? What were the clubs you saw in Tunis? Club Afrikaan.

They're kind of the second biggest club in Tunisia. They were hosting Stad Tunisian. So it was basically African club versus Tunisian Stadium, which I thought was fantastic. Definitely some French influence, I guess, there. Yeah. So of all the games you've seen so far, what was the best one? Was it that Bruges-Union Song-Gi-Waz game? Best as far as atmosphere or?

Yeah, best atmosphere, best fan experience. Yeah, that Bruges game was pretty good. It was a title decider or an important game for the title. And just really, you know, Club Bruges is a really good team. Saw some really good players. So I would say that that game or, you know, watching Osasuna Betis was good as well. And I would put Juventus Milan up there. Just unfortunately, the away fans weren't there.

And I was with the other two guys who were not part of the trip, the American guys. And we were right next to the, where the Milan fans were supposed to be, and they weren't there. So that was too bad. But that probably would have been a pretty unreal atmosphere as well.

Yeah, that was disappointing that there weren't any Milan fans, or not many Milan fans there for that. But I guess I get it. You know, their season is basically, was basically over. Yeah. Yeah.

I've ran into a few, upset fan bases too. I was trying, in Belgium, I was trying to do four, four games in four cities and four days. And on Friday, I was, I was going to Standard Leage to watch them play Westerlo, catch a few Americans. And the bus, the,

the ultras didn't let their own players get off the bus because they were upset about the club performance. So that was pretty wild. So that game was canceled, unfortunately. You saw, were you there when the bus was getting stopped, or you just heard about it? So it's a funny story. I was on a bus, just public transportation to the stadium. And usually when I go to these games, you know, I'm just going alone, but I usually meet some people.

And I met these three British guys and we were just, you know, having a good time. We're walking to the stadium and, you know, we're getting there about for kickoff and we see people leaving the stadium. And so we wound up asking this security woman what was going on. And she just had French. She didn't have much English. And she was trying to explain in the best English she could. And she said, yeah, you know, the players, they got kidnapped. We had to look it up.

And yeah. So unfortunately, no game that night. It's too bad. No Brian Reynolds, no Griffin, Yao for you that day. No Marlon Fosse. Oh, yeah, that's right. So what was the, you know, the Monaco, seeing a game in Monaco has always been sort of intriguing to me because it's such a weird setting. Like the stadium looks funny a little bit and there's often not a lot of fans there. What was that like? Yeah. I'd first off say that Monaco is definitely not my city.

It's kind of, you know, Hollywood times 100. you know, Hollywood, Vegas combination. But yeah, it was really interesting exploring. Obviously, it's very beautiful. But the level of soccer compared to the amount of people who are interested is really shocking. And I think really unique in Europe. The ultras seem like they're all like 18-year-old kids. It's like trying to figure it out as they went.

There's very few of them, too. I was sitting, you know, there's a track in that stadium, and I was sitting kind of one or two sections over from the ultras, but it's completely detached. Where the stands are is really weird and convoluted. But I got front row seats for about 20 euro, so that was pretty great. Crazy. I was sitting next to a bunch of these little kids. They all love balligans, so that was really cool. He had a pretty average performance.

Didn't do too much, but the kids loved him. So that was fun. That's awesome. So would you stand in a hostel in Monaco? Do they have hostels for under 300 euros a night there? Yeah, I'm definitely budget traveling. So I wound up staying in Nice and just made that. I went for three or four days and then I made Monaco a day trip.

I got it. And I actually had to leave the match a couple minutes early to get the last train back. Okay. Yeah, it's too bad. But Balligan was subbed off in, you know, 65th, 70th minute. So, yeah, as much as you're comfortable with, could you tell us for anybody else who's thinking about doing this kind of thing? Like, what is your daily budget? And how do you keep it?

Yeah, absolutely. I found most cities have hostels in Europe for you can get as low as 20 euro a night. I try to keep it below 30 euro a night. I like to try to get hostels that have a kitchen so you can save money with food. Obviously, you know, you want to eat, eat out and experience the local culture as much as possible. But so a lot of pesto pasta. And I'm not much of a museum guy. So, like, usually, like, just exploring cities for me is free, essentially, because I just like to walk around and see the exterior.

I look at the stadiums, you know, the museums for me is the football matches, right? So you're not spending 20 bucks to go to the, like, Louvre or whatever? Exactly, yeah. Yeah, and then you can get, you know, try. Transportation in Europe is amazing. I've done mostly trains. You can get a pass. I just went for the as much, you know, unlimited two month, just full on. So I mean, in Belgium, I've been able to just essentially every day is free travel, whether I want to go an hour or two hours or, you know, even 10 minutes. You can just hop on a train and it's super stress-free.

So when you, going back to Palermo real quick, you didn't go to a game there, did you? No, unfortunately not. They played on April 6th. They were hosting. And that was the day my ferry was going to Tunisia. I was, yeah, I had to be in Tunisia by the seventh, because I don't know if you've heard of Russ Cook, the hardest geyser. No. He's the guy who ran the length of Africa.

Okay, okay. And so I have interest in soccer and running as well. And so I went with a bunch of other crazy people to Tunisia to run the last marathon with him. Oh. That's what I was doing. Yeah, it was my first day in Tunisia. And then I spent a week traveling there afterwards. So you went to Tunisia, ran a marathon with this guy who just was finishing.

It's not even, I don't know what the word for it. It's not transcontinental. I mean, he went from the bottom of the continent. the top of it, right? Yeah, South Africa to Tunisia. It's beyond comprehension. And he's fast. Like, he dropped most of us. Yeah, it was nuts. Did you like get to shake his hand or like say hi to him or? Yeah, I got to talk to him briefly. You know, when, you know, there's hundreds of people who wanted to run with him and everyone is trying to jostle to be right up with him, you know, in the first few miles. And so I just kind of hung back and, you know,

did my thing and waited for some people to fall back. And at one of the rest stops, I went up to him and said, you know, hey, how you doing? Big fan from San Francisco. Yeah. It was an incredible way to start my trip because now I'm a part of a group chat of like three or four hundred people who all have shared interests. You know, half of them are British. They're all soccer crazy.

So you have some built-in friends in England now? Yeah, exactly. already did. Yeah. Yeah, I got a shout out a guy who's from Casablanca, from Morocco. I wound up rooming with him in Project Africa, and his name's Taha, great guy. He's studying in Milan, so when I went to Milan, I stayed with him for a week as well. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, super cool.

How does Milan compare it to Tiran as a city? It's definitely more touristy and bigger, you know, and I was only in. entering for a day or two, so I didn't get the, I don't think I got the full thing, but, and also, it was, it was pretty rainy in Turin, wasn't it? Yeah, it was. Milan, I like Milan. You know, it's also close to some, some mountains, which was, which was nice to run, to scratch the running inch. And obviously, you know, the soccer culture is just incredible with those two huge clubs. Yeah. If I was going to go back to one, I'd probably go back to Milan. But again, I think I saw Turin at its sleepiest, you know?

Yeah, like a rainy Sunday. Rainy Sunday, I think, is what? Yeah. The day that you were walking around, right? We all got like pastries or whatever. And then you were like, you guys can go to the museum. You suckers can go to the museum. I'm going to go walk around.

Right. You know, my highlight of being in Turin was, you know, hanging out with a bunch of Americans, right? So it's, I guess my highlight in Milan was, you know, more Italian, more authentic. But, you know, the Turin travel was incredible because I got to see you guys and, you know, talk American soccer for once. Yeah. That was a fun night at the, at that little beer spot with the board games. Yeah. I forget the name of it.

Yeah. So let's talk about Osasuna a little bit. So when I hear Pomplona, I'm thinking, like, did you go trout fishing? Did you see any bulls? Yeah. Like, is that just me living in the early 20th century or something? No, Pomplona is really, really nice. The reason I went there, I was staying with this guy who I actually met in Palermo.

I was staying at a hostel with him. He's just a Spanish guy from Pompherada, now, you know, small, small city. But now living in Pamplona. Yeah, Pompulana's cool. We, you know, he showed me the local culture, right? We had top us and we walked the root of the bowls. That's in June or July. He's trying to get me to go back.

but he was showing me videos of yeah that the running of the bowls looks looks crazy but you can tell it's a place with a lot of history and the stadium itself is really nice it's it seems modern yeah it seems it seems like it could be like a new MLS stadium like how those like the new ones are being built yeah it's really nice like the Uvei Stadium a little bit yeah it's a lot small I think it's 20 or so, but they really care about their club there, which is, you know, which is really nice. But Betis was just a better team. Yeah. I'm looking up where Osasuna is in the table.

Yeah, I think they're like mid-table. I know Betis is, you know, sixth or seventh. At least at the time, they were seventh. Yep. I'm sure it's right. Betis is sixth and Osasana is 13th at the moment. that game was interesting because one of the one of the osasuna guys he's not the captain but he's been he's been around for five or six years he got a red card in the first half for he was he was looking there was a cross into the box and he was he went up with his foot and high kicked the defender uh knocked him in his head and got a red card for it which i've never seen before uh you know as an attacker in the box but uh that totally changed the game and then that that he's got a couple goals. I think it was

2-0-0. Johnny's so good. It was really fun to watch him. I bet. Yeah. I'm a Johnny believer. I mean, who isn't at this point, I guess? Did you go to any other games in Spain? I guess not. No.

I was in Madrid for almost a week. So I was there when they were playing their semi-final at Munich. So, you know, it was cool to have a bunch of locals, you know, being around that scene. But I didn't get to see any of the Madrid teams play.

Yeah, Spain was a lot less soccer focused, you know. But Belgium has been a lot more soccer focused. Italy was, I saw a lot of games in Italy as well. Yeah. So where's your next move? Where are you going next? Where are you going next? So right now I'm in Brussels.

I'm dealing with some fallout. I got robbed in liege, and so I'm dealing with, I lost my passport, so I'm back here dealing with the embassy. So that's unfortunate. But while I'm here, yeah, I'm scouring to see where I can go. What was really cool is... Just to be clear, you weren't robbed at knife point or gunpoint.

You, like, somebody, like, snagged your backpack when you weren't looking, right? Right, right. I set it down. And it was on my back for all night and then 10 minutes. And it was gone. Dude, I'm sorry. It's all good. Yeah, it was definitely a shock at the time.

But the embassy has actually been really, really good, surprisingly. I thought it would be pretty bureaucratic and, like, the DMV on steroids. But it's been great. I already have a temporary passport so I can somewhat move around. But I'm looking to get a... get your, when do you get your, uh, permanent one? Uh, within, so that's, that's, that's, that's a good question. Uh, it's within a few weeks. And I've got some travel plans in June. I'm trying to go to central Asia. Um, and I, I need a full validity passport. Sure. I can fly through Istanbul and, um,

but in the meantime, while I'm stuck, I might as well, you know, see some more games. Um, there's this club called S.K. Lomo. They're a second division Belgian team. They're actually part of city football group. Right. I've heard that. Yeah. Yeah. So I met some of their ultras when I was in Milan. I watched Monza. Monza is pretty close to Milan. And just some more guys I met. And they're, yeah, they're from Lomel, which is just a small town near the Dutch border. And these guys We got on pretty well, and I told them I'd come visit them for a game. And so last weekend on Sunday, I watched Lomel play in their second leg of their semi-final of promotion, and they won it.

So on this Sunday, I'm going to go to Lomel for a home game for the first leg of the final. You're going to stand with the ultras? Yeah, yeah, I did actually for the away game, too. I was in the away end. they handed me a jersey it was a lot of fun dude those Belgian games you know the footage I see of Belgian games

they always look pretty intense like even you know I guess I haven't watched any second division footage but like even like Westerlo which I think is a pretty mediocre

club right now you know the fans are the fans are wild is that is that your has that been your experience at these games yeah yeah

Well, Uipin, I don't know how you pronounce that club. We say Yupin on our podcast, but there's no guarantee that's correct. I'll go with Yupin then. They were already relegated for that game, so their fans were protesting. So there was like no atmosphere. Okay. But yeah, no, Lomel, they, you know, the two supporters groups are going back and forth. They were actually at the same end, like behind the same goal.

just like, you know, there's just a gate in between. It was pretty wild, though, like, you know, the fans are super into it. Obviously, less fans than, you know, a Bruges or antoirp or whatever. But, yeah, and then the club Bruges fans were really good. And the whole stadium gets into it. It's a really exciting atmosphere. So I'm excited to see Lomel at the home. To tune in for Lomel, Cortreich, this Sunday.

Cork, yeah. I think didn't Brian Reynolds play at Cortreck for a little bit? Maybe. Is that west of Brussels or? I mean, Lommel, or is it east of? Lommel. Yeah. It's east.

It's right on the border with the Netherlands. Okay, okay. You did say that. I'm curious what that part of the world is like because, you know, Einhoven is just like a little, like a hop, skipping a jump away. Dortmund is over to the east a little, you know, maybe an island. hour and a half. Do you, what is that part of the world like? Because I've been to Amsterdam and Rotterdam and I've been to Antwerp, but I haven't been to like the interior of Belgium or the

Netherlands. It's pretty, like you don't really know which part of Belgium speaks what until you're there. Yeah. Apparently, UPen is the capital of the German speaking part. I see, I didn't even know there was a German speaking part of Belgium. Yeah, it's very small. But I hopped off the train and everyone was speaking German around me. And, yeah, Yupin is like 15,000 people. It's a really small place in the middle of nowhere. But Brussels is very French-influenced, French-speaking.

And then, you know, there's a Flemish up north. So I'd assume Lommel would be French. But I could be wrong. Don't quote me on that. Yeah, I'm looking at a map. Gank, where Mark McKenzie plays, is just south of Lommel. And then Yupin is south and a little east of Gank. Okay.

Yeah, Dorman is just right over there. So, you know, we're scuffed to, we're thinking about doing a trip in the fall to that part of the world to see some games. So anybody you have, what's your favorite stadium you've been to? in Belgium. I guess it's got to be that Lama game, right? That was really fun just for the personal experience, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's what it comes down to, right?

It's like... Right. And that's why you travel in the end, you know? Like, the Bruges game was incredible just for the spectacle of it, but, you know, I'm sitting by myself and just hanging out watching great soccer, which is awesome. But, yeah, when you're with people. Yeah, bouncing up and down, learning the chance is pretty great. And the winning goal was in like the 85th minute right in front of us.

And the guy went and celebrated with us. So that was a really cool moment. And it's a relatively small club. Like usually they say they bring one or two buses to away games. But like 10 buses came. And they had, you know, about 5, 600 away fans for like a three hour trip. So I think that's pretty cool for second tier Belgium, you know. Yeah, very cool.

Good luck to Lommel this weekend. Yes. Nice. So once you get your passport sorted out, you get, you're going to go to Central Asia. And then you're going to go back to Europe after that? Because I think you told me you weren't going to come back to the U.S. until the fall, right? Yeah. So I'm a, I coach soccer back home in California.

I coach my JV soccer team. Shout out Archie Williams High School. And that season starts around Halloween. So I want to be back a few weeks before. to coach again. So up until then, the way it works, like, within the kind of Europe, mainland, you can only be in there for 90 days within like 180 day period. I see.

And it doesn't have to be like contiguous, but I'm just trying to balance that, make sure I'm not inadvertently breaking any rules. So I came across Central Asia as a fun destination where I could, you know, have some more adventure. And so I'm going to try to come back into Europe, maybe in August. I could also go to England, which wouldn't really count because it's not part of the zone that I've got to stay out of. I see.

Definitely want to take off, I want to see, assuming they're all still at these clubs next season, I want to see, you know, Josh Sargent. I would love to see, you know, Crystal Palace and. Coventry. And full of course, that would be pretty amazing. Yeah, I always wanted to see a game at Craven Cottage. Yeah. Maybe someday.

So what's, you know, when you go on a trip, people ask you about it, you sort of learn what, after a few tries, like what stories actually people are interested in, you know? Because it's not everything that was cool to experience is easy to explain. Right. So as you're telling people back home, talking to people back home, if you are, like, what's the story that people seem to be interested in besides the passport getting stolen? You know, because everybody's going to be interested in that. Right. I think the Project Africa stuff, you know, it's such a, because a lot of people caught onto that story or at least saw it on their socials. And they were just like, wow, you were there.

and they want to hear everything about it. So that one's just such a unique one that I'll never forget. But for my soccer fan friends, the guys who are really into it, they love hearing about all the grounds I've been to. They'll listen to it forever. But, you know, just for the average story, I think there's some good stories. through Madrid and then, you know, as well as the Lomel story as well.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people like to hear that. Even if you're not a soccer fan, I think you can relate to just the goofy travel story of, you know, meeting these guys and showing up. Yeah, you said you met them in Manza? Were they, why were they there? Yeah, they, so one of those guys is a huge AC Milan fan. And it was the weekend of the derby.

And unfortunately, I didn't get tickets. That would have been the dream. But they were kind of doing the similar thing that I was doing. They saw a Verona game the first day. Then they saw the Monsa game with me. And then the next day was the Molan Derby. Okay. So they were doing some soccer tourism just from not as far away, basically.

Exactly. Like a weekend trip. It's amazing. You can do that here. Yeah. Yeah, it's really cool. I feel like I've met so many soccer tourists, just groundhoppers. And it's been so fun to meet these people.

And it's also, I always get a surprised look when I can speak from some, some knowledge as an American. With this accent, they're not used to that, I think. You mean about the game itself kind of? Yeah, about the, yeah. Just about the ecosystem as well. They always want to hear my take on the MLS and American soccer and all that. Yeah, they're all about learning about it more. So it's pretty cool.

Very cool. All right. Well, anything I should, you wish I had asked you? Not that I can think of. Yeah, it's been a pretty amazing trip, and I'm super thankful that you guys let me come hang out. Yeah, that was fun. You're at Turen. Yeah.

We got some great pictures of you playing pickup, too. Yeah. I mean, good pictures of all of us, but I think one of the coolest ones is you kind of like posed over the ball with the like basketball hoop behind you where it says hello Taryn. Yeah. That's a pretty sweet picture. I think you sent that on Twitter. I'm going to have to change some profile photos now.

All right. Well, thanks, Otis. Safe travels to you. Good luck getting your passport as quickly as possible. Yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. And thanks for coming on the podcast. Yeah, of course.

Thank you. All right. Everybody, we'll see you.