Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #594: Monday Review in Rome — Vince & Belz debrief after seeing Lazio-Juve in person

Episode Date: May 12, 2025

Coming to you from a 4th-floor apartment next to the Tiber River, Belz and Vince talk through their takeaways from the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday -- the intensity of the match, the scene outside, Wes's assist, a theory of what supporters groups are doing when they chant, what it's like in Rome right now, and much more. We take a handful of questions from some of the fine people traveling with us, and also run quickly through some news from the past week. 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, it's the money review. We are here in a fourth floor apartment in Trostavere, a neighborhood on the west bank of the river Tiber in Rome, Italy. I could throw a rock out the window behind me into the river, a river that's seen a lot. The Coliseum is a brisk walk, 20 minutes to the east. Vince is here with me,

and a few of the fine people that have traveled to the capital of Italy with us for soccer and food and culture. Maybe we can coax them to get in to getting on the mic here. Anyway, Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great bills. I mean, what could be better? Beer in hand, beautiful apartment villa. I don't know, whatever you want to call this thing.

Surrounded by fellow sickos in this here, great room. It's a great room, all right? Yeah, so I'm doing great. Couldn't be doing any better, man. Yeah, there's an upstairs patio here, which everybody was just up on. Yeah, it's pretty nice stuff. So we'll get to the Lazio Uve game, but I'm curious what you, this is your first time out of the country.

Yeah. What do you think of Rome? It's great, man. It took me a minute, well, not a minute, an entire day to get the feel of the place, kind of like fill out the people, the culture, you know, to where I can get out. get out of my head. You know, when you go somewhere different, you know, I have to sit back and really analyze everything, see what's going on, see what the, you know, what the culture's like, what the people are,

just so I can get acquainted and so I can immerse myself fully until the experience. And I will say, Rome isn't a place where, like, the charm jumps out and grabs you, I don't think. You got to sit in it for a little bit. and basically the football match and then getting back from the football match and then me and bells did a little a few after-hour activities last night then I was like okay I see what this place is all about and now I'm in love with it yeah we walked down the Via della Lungareta which is a little street kind of behind where we're staying and it turns it just it just comes alive at night comes alive on a Saturday night it was um

It was wonderful, actually. Close, a little close street. Lots of shops, what you might imagine when you go to Italy. Lots of gelato. Lots of gelato, baby. You know, I got to give me some gelato. There used to be a spot, like, probably like half a mile, mile from my house back home in Louisville. This is like some people that moving there from Philadelphia.

They call it like Philly water ice or something like that. But it's basically gelati gelato. Same thing. Which, Bels, I was talking to you about this yesterday, the difference between ice cream and gelato. Yeah, I'm still a little, it's the air. It's the air. It's all about air, baby. Ice cream is churned, a churning process, gets air into it, which makes it fluffy, also less resistant to melting.

Jelado packed tightly, which you get a more intense flavor, Adam Bell's. You know, you get a much more intense flavor. I love the lemon. the lemon just really truly packs a punch. But I know. I mean, we've had ice cream like 14 times in the last 24 hours. That's right. And we're going to have 14 more times.

But yeah, the fact that it's packed so tightly makes it the flavor more intense, but it melts faster. Anyway, speaking of, you heard of a ninja creamy? Mm-mm. Okay. It's an appliance that's been taking over TikTok and fitness spaces. Oh, I know about the ninja brain. You can make like a protein shake. you can make it an ice cream because it just wears the thing up anyway whatever

ninja's having a renaissance i don't know if you know about this okay appliances people love them yeah um oh also adam you know people love to hear our thoughts on we got great response from us talking about the decline of society yeah people really love people are really into it i think blah blah la la like by the people uh listen to scuff podcast so but we had some observations when we were going down the Via della Lungareta right last night. And we saw Romans and how they kick it. Tell the people about some of your takeaways out. Yeah, one of my takeaways was you didn't see a lot of people.

So, you know, in suburban Chattanooga, Tennessee, you go to a restaurant. You're going to see at least half the tables, maybe more. Everybody's looking at their phone. I don't know how common this is in the rest of the country. I presume very common across America. We didn't see any of that last night. I mean, maybe it's a little different because it's like people, friends, partying late at night.

But there was some people playing Uno at a table at a cafe. Yeah. It was like nobody was... Analog Uno, not digital Uno. Very few people on phones. A lot of people just standing around talking, you know, which is, I don't know how much you see that in America. There is a difference.

I mean, Bells, I don't know where you're acting like, wherever listeners listen to this podcast is will be too much different from suburban Chattanooga. I mean, everywhere is almost suburban Chattanooga outside of a few places. You can beg to differ, but. No, I beg not to differ. No, I was talking to the listener as well as you, Adam Bells. But, yeah, it was just people enrolled, man, they're just vibing. they seem to enjoy humans humanity you know looking at people in the eyes chatting it up you know

there was one guy that we were okay so we were outside of stadio olympico yesterday trying to get people to talk to us right we're leaving the match and we found a man um what was the bro's name georgie georgio yeah georgio um who people that were with us would know. My man attached to Adam Bell's hip, and we couldn't, we had to surgically remove him. So, but the man just loved to talk, man.

I think it's, I think it's more of just Rome. I think it's just Italian culture in general, where, like, you know, families have meals together. People gather around the table, and just talk. And it was, interesting to see, like, I mean, me and Adam damn near almost started, like, counting the amount of phones we saw out. You know, we go to different places, look around, no phones, go to somewhere else, look around, another place where people are gathered.

But, yeah, just, it was striking. I would say it was striking. I guess I would just like to say the human race hasn't lost all recipes. We haven't lost all the recipes. But also, another thing we talked about is just me and Adam talk about this a lot. haven't got into it on air as much, but like just culture in general and what is American culture and the fact that consumerism is tied so much into it that like and status is tied into the consumerism as well that like of course you would be on your phone because like first of all the

consumer's thing is like okay you got to have the iPhone everybody or a smartphone basically because everyone else has it. And then also the status is gained inside of what you do on the phone for the most part. For the most part. There's people gaining in real life status. Yeah. I was going to say analog status. Not me.

Certainly not me. Yeah. I mean, yeah, we're sitting here off the strength of a podcast, basically. So maybe you're part of the problem, Madam Bell. You know what? We didn't get to that part. I may be. Yeah, I studiously avoid that part.

But anyway, yeah, it was cool. Saturday night in Rome, I had to get out and see what was going on. Like, I wouldn't have been able to settle my mind without just walking around and seeing where people were going. Yeah, I'm glad you pushed for that. We met some great Polish folks at one of the... Oh. You brought this up. One of the gelato places, yeah.

Yeah, from Jersey. They invited us to this place called the Sanctuary to go party one of these nights. So, you know. They said they were out dancing until like 6 a.m. It sounded a little heavy. It did. It did. But I'm not mad at it, man.

I mean, we basically going to have a weekend free. So, you know, I'm just putting a bug in everybody's here. Friday night. See you at the sanctuary. But yeah, those Polish people were from the aisle of Jersey that we talked about. Oh, yeah. That's my brother's name. Fossi.

Oh, yeah, Marlon Fossi. Yeah, from Jersey. And so the idea that we talked about this. And when the guy, when the man told Bells that he was from Jersey, Bells is like, oh, the cows! And he's like, yeah, yeah, he's like, yeah, we got cows, baby. We got a lot of cows. And, like, it was like a big moment.

I mean, my man's almost got up and jumped up and down with bells. But the fact that we can make that connection just off of random stuff that we talk about on this podcast. It's nice. Crazy. Yeah. Yeah, it's not a gleaming city. It's, I mean, grimy is unfair, probably, but it's somewhere closer to the grimy than the gleaming end of the spectrum. Yeah.

It kind of reminds me, I haven't been to Berlin, but just from watching a Copa 90 video about the Union Hertha Derby. And basically, I've talked about this before on the podcast, but basically the whole sentiment from, they call them Berlinians. I don't know. Berliners, I think that's what it is, yeah. That sounds like a German phrase. But yeah, the whole vibe was like, hey, there's not a lot of money here, baby. but we like the party and I was, you know,

Berlin has that whole like music scene that I'm not sure that Rome has necessarily, but I think it's the same type of vibe though. Yeah, I don't, judging by the Italian music in the coffee shops and the restaurants, I'm not a big fan of the music scene. Yeah, then.

But Brola hopped on the bus though. Oh yeah, the accordion player was, he was good. He was good. So the other thing, before we get to the Lato YuVe game, I can see everybody's getting restless in the room. So before we get to the Lazio Uve game, we went to Ostia today. Yeah. Which is the ruins of a port out west of Rome.

It was an ancient port city. First established in the 7th century BCE, BCE, which is, you know, by my math, that's 2700 years ago. And that is just mind-boggling. Anyway, it was was pretty cool. Obviously a very religious society. I don't know if we always learned that growing up,

how religious Rome was. Right. Because like the forums got the temple to, what was it? Jupiter, Minerva, and Juno on one side, and then a temple to, who was it? Who was it on the other side? Oh yeah, Zach wasn't there. And then there's a temple to Hercules.

and there was like the Via Diana, which had the restaurant on it. But anyway, real quick, before we get to the soccer, did anything strike you from visiting those ancient ruins? At first I was like, man, what these people got me out here doing? I'm not going to want to you. I was like, man, we're in. Because like when you first walk in, like, the ruins aren't that impressive, right? So I'm thinking we're going to see a whole bunch of foundations of past houses.

and I was like, well, I don't know what I'm supposed to get from that. But then, like, you get further in and you start seeing, like, they've really, like, restored some stuff and restored and preserved. A lot of pretty fleshed out buildings, theaters, former bath houses and whatnot. They still do plays at that thing. Yeah, I know. I know. When I got to that part at the end of the little thing from the guy talking to me on

the little recorder thing. I was like, wow. Somebody goes in here and sits on this stone-ass step that is, you know, it's not comfy. And people go see plays and concerts. But cool, though. Very cool. But yeah, as I got in and got immersed in it, I was like, yeah, this is a cool experience. I think, you know, I'm not a stranger to being dragged to historical. Because your wife's a history teacher. Yes, my wife's a history teacher. I mean, when we went to Kansas City to summer, She's going to be to the Cahokia mounds outside of St. Louis.

I don't know if y'all familiar, but there was a huge Indian city called Cahokia. And they built, it's incredible to see. They built these mounds of straight dirt and built them up into the sky. I mean, there's this big one that's like, I mean, at least 200 feet, I want to say, 200, 300, 300 feet of just ground that they somehow compacted to make these huge hills and whatnot, and they have different sizes. But anyway, before I get too deep in it, I'm not a stranger to be in dragging places.

You go to these kind of things sometimes. Yeah, we were just, we're talking about going to Nashville to see a Heim concert in September. And she's like, you know, we got to go see Andrew Jackson's house or estate or whatever. I'm like, okay, whatever. Because, I mean, not as she teaches history, she teaches U.S. history. Okay, okay. So all that stuff, AP, U.S. history, okay.

for any AP U.S. history teachers, put your pass fail rate on the AP test up with my wife's. I bet you, you won't play Big Big Big Big Tank, Little Bank, baby, because we're winning that. But anyway, and also we're going to New York this summer to see my sister. And I hadn't even thought of going to Ellis Island because I really don't care that much, but she's like, oh, we're going. They're going to Ellis Island and doing all that. So, yeah. Anyway. Good for her.

I support her. Because of her works, I was able to appreciate what was going on. on the osteo. I had a good time. Yeah. It's just crazy to me to think, like, you know, how old that place is and what, I don't know if it's a feeling of futility when you go out there and you see it, see it all there. Like, nothing really matters, you know? Right. It's all going to be gone and buried in dirt eventually. Exactly. We were talking about a society that could potentially die when we get into our philosophical bag with the

you know what we saw from the Romans here the current Romans and whatnot but yeah Ostea out of here see you later buddy yeah luckily people have decided to preserve and everything was going on but yeah the passage of time undefeated undefeated

all right let's do let's get to the news of the day which is the one one draw we witnessed at the stadio olympico last night lotsio one UVA won on a stoppage time equalizer from Matia Spicino. Colomouani scored the goal for Juventus. Buildup from Tim Wea, right, gets it on the left touch line, carries it inside a couple touches, plays Weston McKinney through. And who has moved off that wingback position is now playing like Attack of Midfielder.

He did it last week. Played well. Did it this week as well. He, so Weston receives the ball, turns around. He has a little bit of space. Basically, that Tim Waya pass attracted the attention of, or that Timway at Kerry at first attracted the attention of Lazio's right back, pulls him in.

And then once Tim plays a pass in, it's like just two centerbacks back there, basically. And so they can't immediately get out on West. West plays a left foot cross across to Colo Moani. I'm in the stadium. I stand up. I'm like, did y'all see my boy, West? Do y'all see that? turn around, I look at the Scott Faithful that are with us, and I don't know if the Lazio

faithful has everyone shook, but, I mean, I was shook. I've seen the stale, I saw the stalest of faces of all time. Like, I mean, you would have thought that we were Lazio fans, you know what saying? Like, looking at everybody else, everybody's just like, not a single, not an eyebrow raise anything. I'm like, I'll turn around, like, did you see that? But then when I caught it, I'm like, okay, I'll sit back down. I'll sit back down. I'll sit back down. Yeah, you were also wearing a Lazio scarf too. Well, so there's a lotzio UV, both sides, you know, a souvenir in it. Yeah.

Oh, it was a scarf that had both sides on it? Yeah, yeah, it's a game scarf. Oh, okay. My mistake. My mistake. I retract. It is your mistake, Adam Bills. Which, you want to know another mistake.

Another mistake. What other mistakes? Missing the goal, getting some damn beer, man. Yeah. I mean, you, how many beers you're not had in your life, Adam Bills? I was on a mission to get beer, not just for myself, but for my brothers. and it is interesting. Two observations from the concourse during the goal.

Because I missed the first 10, 12 minutes of the second half, in line for concessions. And I noticed that people were getting frustrated enough with the line that they were leaving the line to go back to their seats. I decided to stay the course, and then I heard a roar in the stadium. Yep. And I was sure Latsio scored.

It was so loud, which is one of my main takeaways from the game, is that Juventus away end was magnificent. I mean, the Latsio Ultris, no slouch. No slouch. But the Juventus away fans, the way they attacked that game and tried to make an influence on it was, I think, really impressive and fun to see. And one thing is,

it's not, when something good happens, it's not limbs from them. It's a bunch of people doing the same thing in unison, like a military unit. And, I mean, maybe it was limbs when they scored.

I don't know, I wasn't there. I was at the concession stand. Yeah. And I do have stuff I want to say about the ultras from both sides. But before we're getting back into that, Bells, you're not getting away with this.

That easily. Not that easily, man. I mean, bro, When you can't, so Westing gets to go, I stand up, whatever. I promptly sit back down after realizing that my brother, my brothers in arms aren't backing me up whatsoever. And sister. And sister. And sister.

I mean, gender neutral brothers. Anyway. And I looked for Adam Bells. I looked around. I looked down. I'm like, where is it? Adam's that here? Look again.

Look a third time. Because I can't believe my eyes. I'm like, oh, Adam Bell's really missed this. and when you came back three beers in tow and I was like I was like in my head bro I looked at you I was like despicable absolutely despicable

I'm like this bro came all this way like I said the first time how many beers have you had in your life how many West and compare that to how many a Baker's dozen probably how many West and McKinney potential Champions League clinching assists oh man I didn't even feel that I didn't even feel that bad about it until this

very moment. Now I'm starting to feel, I'm starting to genuinely feel bad. You should, bro. You should. Which is why I have a, I don't go to Kacostas stand during matches, particularly not soccer matches. Football, American football, you can get away with it for sure. I mean, you'll miss maybe a three and out or something. And maybe you even miss a touchdown, but it's like, you know, there's more stuff coming. And just the, the nature of the sport in general is a lot of downtime. Adam Bell, you can't lock in for two hours. You want to, you want to judge everybody else talking about their phone usage and whatnot. You can't, you can't lock in for two hours without alcohol. Yeah, bro, you got a, you got to, you got to get your drinking done before, before the match, baby. I take,

I take your criticism very well. The only thing I would add to it is I got, somebody had bought me a beer. I think it was Corey. It was John. And then, but then there was only enough beers for two of the three of us. And then, so I took, Corey gave me his beer. because he had already had one. And then, so at the second half, I'm like, I got to pay him back. I got to go. No, no, hold on, hold on. Hold on, hold on.

It was all altruism, like 100% altruism. And I was kind of, I wouldn't say dying, but I chose to, I didn't eat on the plane, only drank a little bit of water. I didn't, I don't think I really had anything to eat. Yeah, when we got here, we stopped at a, we stopped at a cafe. I got some tea. I ate my little sliver of lemon. I ate that whole thing and drank some tea.

But I hadn't had anything to eat, hadn't had anything to drink. There were people coming down at them, Bell. There were people that will bring the beer to you. Are you aware of this? They come down the steps. They come down the steps. They have a basket that's tied to, like, a strand. They don't come very often, though.

They came like three times, bro. During the match. I mean, we're talking about it. We're talking two hours. So every, you know. All right. It seems like the tide in the room is turning against me. 40 minutes, I recall.

Actually has already turned against me. 45 minutes? 42.5 minutes, ever ago? Yeah. Something like that. But anyway, he missed it. Everybody else that got to see it. You're a part of an explosive room.

How did Polo Mouani put it in the goal? It was just a straight-on header because he had to adjust to it a little bit. it was going to his right and he had to get over to it headed it down I mean headed it pretty straightforward but like into the ground and

you know if it was Matt Turner I think we would subruder this pretty hard just because yeah the Latsiel Keeper got beat and it was a saveable it was a savable goal but you know he's shuffling over Colomani put it down into the ground so while he's shuffling over he would have to get down as well

try to save it but yeah it's a good finish Weston McKinney assist I saw with my own two eyes in person as it happened Adam Bells can't say that ladies and gentlemen and also

you know the fact that it's Weston McKinney you know I wouldn't be here talking to Adam Bell's in an Italian villa right now if it wasn't for Western McKinney top two of my favorite athletes of all time and number one would be my brother so

big time stuff going on Yeah, yeah, yeah. It did feel like, so we weren't in the ultra section for Lazio, but we weren't too far from it, just around the curve. And to me, especially the guy that was sitting in my seat when we first arrived, was a Lazio fan, and him and his buddy. We eventually got him out of our seat, but he was not a friendly person. And he did not, he knew that we were not. He knew that we were not from around here, you know. And I was, I was sensitive to signaling to him that I was a Juventus fan.

Yeah. Everyone was too sensitive. It was like, everybody was worried about what the Loso fan could do to us. But, but what could we do to them? As John F. Kennedy would say. Yeah, exactly. Nobody stopped to consider that. You know, when I looked around and saw these stoic faces after West McKinney assisted a goal. Oh, my God.

Yeah, I wasn't. This dude next to me weighs 160 pounds, man. Yeah, I mean, you're a little, you and me are in a little bit different situations with regard to that. Yeah, but, understood. But, okay, on the topic of the ultras, though, I gained answers to some things I've been thinking about. I would love to hear about that. For a while now. So, just the whole, we've talked about this.

Everyone's talked about this if you are in American soccer circles and whatnot. the fact that, well, just chance in general, right? Supporter sections in America, are they good, are they bad? Are the chance good? Are the chance bad? Where is it going wrong? Et cetera, et cetera. And, you know, I see people call the American ones in particular, the American supporter groups,

just groups of theater kids that are basically putting on an act or putting on a show. and I thought that was a little bit, I think that's a little harsh. I think it's a little harsh, but not totally untrue? Probably not untrue, but I think it's harsh because if you've ever been in a rocking supporter section,

I don't care where it is, if it's in America, if it's in Italy, it is the most fun you'll have at a sporting event, but it has to be rock. The people that make up that supporter section have to be engaged and participating in whatnot. And of course, it's a lot easier to criticize somebody that is doing something

versus somebody that is not doing something, you know, man in the arena and all that. 100% yeah. Yeah. Did I just invoke the man in the arena quote to talk about American supportive groups and support of culture? Yes, I did. Yes, I did, baby.

But I saw the difference. Another reason why I'm like, well, that is harsh is because they do it too, talking about they is in the countries that we look towards to having the proper soccer culture that we're striving for in America, right? But once I got in the match, and I mean, as soon as we even stepped into the stadium, I was like, okay, this is different, right? And once I started sitting there and like really taking it in, it's like there's just,

there's just something extra on it. There's just a little, it's almost, when you listen to them chant, it's almost like they're trying to conjure something. They're trying to summon a goal for their team. Like Lazio and Yuvay going back and forth. Almost like they're, both groups are appealing to a higher power or something.

To like, please, like we start off and God, if you take a line parallel all the way up in the heaven from the halfway line. You know what I'm saying? It's like God is theoretically in the middle and then both teams are chanting to bring God to their side. You know?

Yeah. And they try to drown each other out. They try to drown out each other's spells. Right. And it's almost like that, you know, the Harry Potter scene in Harry Potter and Sorcerer Stone where Professor Quarrel and Snape are doing counter spells during the Quidditch match. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you don't know this until later, right?

But Snape is actually trying to save Harry Potter. Right. And Professor, spoiler alert. Spoiler alert, Professor Quarles is, what's his name? Voldemort. Yeah, Voldemort on the back of his head, baby, and a headscarf. But yeah, it's just like, there's like an old world feel to it. There's like there's some, like, magic attached to it.

Like, M, A, G, I, C, K, like the bad stuff that people don't want you to do. It's almost like they brought something over from Osteer or something. You know? It's like there's just something. innate and different in the way that their chant sound, the way they participate. And it's like, it's not just limited to the supporter sections, right? Like the supporter section would be singing something and there would be lots of fans in our section that maybe are like more nervous, but they're just sitting down in their

seat, right? And they're almost like, you can picture them. Like, they're almost muttering it as if it's a prayer or something. Like you can see them like almost pulling out a rosary and like be shaken while they, while they mutter this prayer. I like that, yeah. So. Sort of or singing it kind of quietly, you know.

Yeah. Like almost, almost as a habit. Right. Right. And like I said, it's almost like even, yeah, it's almost like that appeal, man. It's like everyone is, wants their team to do well, obviously. But they truly do feel as if they have a part to play in it. And, you know, that's something I think can get us in trouble.

trouble. Not celebrating while you Venta scores a goal, but looking over to a lot of your fan and telling them shut the hell up. The players on the field are playing. You know what I'm saying? And whatever you say in this, in these stands right now aren't going to affect the result. You say that, bro. You might, I mean, they're carrying you, they're carrying you out of out of Rome in a body bag. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Yeah, I think a couple other things. One, the masculinity of the supporter sections

really comes through really hard. It's a bunch of just, it's a bunch of 25 to 35, you know, I'm not, I didn't do a census of the ages of everybody, but you know, it's like young men singing at the top of their lungs, both sides, you know.

So that's, that brings like an edge to it and a, um, power to it, I think. I mean, female voice is very powerful too, but there's something about the unity of all those male voices singing together. The other thing is the way that Latsio fans were jeering, I love this part of the game. The way the Latsio fans would jeer, I mean, just a wall of jeer, a deafening wall of jeer.

Whistling. Anytime somebody from Juventus got anywhere near the attacking third. Yeah. Which I love, I mean, that's, talk about casting a spell, you know? Bro, yeah, and this is what I'm saying. Any set piece in the attacking, any set piece in the attacking. Any set piece in the attacking third, any corner kick. Yeah, yeah, the Lhazio fans are like, God, you left us.

You left us. Please come back hastily. We need you in front of our goal right now. But yeah, like literally, any move that even looked like it was approaching the final third. Just, I'm not going to whistle into the mic right now, but just imagine, I mean. 72,000 in the stadium? Yeah, yeah, 10,000 easy. Whistling simultaneously.

And they were going towards the Latsio supporter section. in that first half and they were just yeah they weren't having it yeah that's a is a beautiful venue too by the way which i didn't necessarily expect you know it's one of those with the track around the field yeah but um didn't mind that at all and it's kind of a little bit like the rose bowl in that you feel like it's not that big because it doesn't rise that high right right but it's the 72,000 seat stadium it's quite big and um and then as those lights came on as night fell and uh you know there's a seagull that kept coming over and checking on what was going on and going back. It was nice.

It was real nice. But we're going to be back on Wednesday. And I'm not going to go get a beer at halftime. I promise you this, Vince Irvin. Now, that brings to my mind a lot of questions as to what's going on. Why you would do that for Christian Policic when you wouldn't do that for Tim Way and Weston McKinney. But we'll get to that at another time, possibly off air.

But another thing, just real quick, before we leave this match, security getting into the match was kind of crazy. Two checkpoints, ladies and gentlemen, two checkpoints to get into the perimeter at first and then also when going to your gate, you have to go through a gate to get to your section of the stadium. Foolishness. And both times you have to have your ID and ticket out. They check it twice. we also saw some people,

and well, first of all, it truly, I mean, we left, we met up at 520. Me and Bells were doing some stuff outside the stadium trying to get some UVA fans to talk to. Everyone met back up at 520, and then we got in line to get into the stadium. And we didn't get to our seats until 555. Yeah.

Something like that, because, yeah, it's just, it's that serious. And the fact, well, that brings up another thing. is how they section the fans off, because me and Bells were standing outside what we thought was, you know, or what is the main interest to the Stadeo Olimpico. And we couldn't find UVA fans.

There was maybe, you know, there would be a couple, or there were a couple in that little square area. None of them wanted to talk to us. And then all the other UVA fans, we could tell, like, the current of them, of the UVA fans that I observed, were just taking them past this main entrance. I'm like, I'm like, hmm, they're probably going somewhere else, which you can tell what the culture of Italian soccer is here

when we noticed that on the Airbnb listing for the villa that we're sitting in right now, they were like, no football fans? Shh. We're not like the kind of football fans they're thinking of, to be fair. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, we have nothing to worry about. But the reason why they say no football fans is because they didn't want them ready-outes boys in here. But so I saw the tide.

I'm like, okay, Bell's when asked the cop. I didn't want to do that. He asked the cop with the Uvei fans where he said, yeah, just walk down like four blocks over and take a right. They're all over there. And then we found them. But, yeah, just to the security point, just the fact that, you know, the reason why they have those two gates or whatever is just because, and we also saw people getting turned away at our gate as well. Yeah. Yeah.

They're not playing around. mix and no matchin. The Stadio Olimpico, they kept two sections empty between the Uvei section and where the Lazio supporters started again. And this is not the Lacio Ultras either. This is just regular Latsio supporters. Yeah, regular L'O people. They felt the need to have a whole section in between them.

The plexiglass up in between every section, which makes ticketing very confusing in the sections within the stadium very confusing, like how you traverse the stadium, whereas, you know, you go to American Stadium, you just can freely walk around. If you're on the south end of the stadium, you can just walk around to the north or whatever. But you had to come in specific gates because there's no way else. There's no other way you're getting into that section if you're not coming in that gate. But anyway, excellent match. Excellent match to watch.

Excellent match to be at. Do you got anything to say about the play that we saw? Yeah. So I thought it was obviously a very cagey game. It was not a lot of chances for either side. but that's some you know they both want they both neither wants to lose

but I guess the one thing I noticed which I guess if you'd asked me if I'd seen this before in a soccer game I would say of course but it seemed like it was very clear in this game is each team when they attacked and Juventus did this more than Lazio they had to draw the other team out with a little bit of

a rondo in that sort of no man's land where you're not just passing around behind you know in the back you're not kicking it. You know, it's in the amoeba. You're trying to get into the amoeba, into the middle third, do some combination to draw them out, and then you can go forward. And so it's those little moments where somebody plays it like a little bit between the lines,

and then there's like a chance for some combination that are like, you're just riding a knife's edge, man. I mean, the player is, the player who has the ball. Because if they make a mistake there, it's going the other way and it's a counterattack. You can't get ahead without making some risk, taking some risk. And I guess that little dynamic was pretty apparent in the game to me for both sides. But Juventus got more gone in that respect than Latsio did. Yeah, like you said, KG, but just because of what you're talking about, right, when the countertacks happened,

I mean, it's 1v-1 attacker versus centerback. And the centerbacks were coming up as winners. most of the times, but it's like, you know, you can say they weren't a lot of chances to create it, but they're, you know, margins are small in it. Yeah. Yeah, you know, there's somebody mistimes a, miss times a tackle, doesn't, comes up with air or whatever, then that person's one v1 with the keeper. But yeah, it was.

I mean, magnificent central defense from both sides in this game, I would say. Yeah, I mean, watching Vega. Yeah. Vega and, man's nice. I mean, even Kalululu had some really nice. defensive plays before he had the mistake and got sent off. Yeah. Those centerbacks for Latsio were really good, too.

I can't say their names off the top of my head. West didn't have a great first half. He had a few pretty bad giveaways. Although I did notice after one of them. So giveaways in those moments where you've got to take on a little risk to get any reward. Right. On one of those, he passed it, you know, launched a counterattack. And man, he ran all the way back, 40 yards probably, crunching tackle, sends the ball out of bounds.

So it's a throw-in for Lazio. But he did that right in front of the Uvei away fans, you know. And you can, you know why they respect him. Because he, even when he messes up, he gets after it to make amends. Yeah, and the thing about a few of those mistakes, which is becoming like a common theme in, like, West's play for Yuva. The man just does not want to shoot the ball. It's like there was one time

I think Tim's coming up. You know, West is receiving the ball, left corner above like the left corner of the box, right outside the box. Left top corner. And Tim is coming through reinforcing them, you know, providing him the overlap. So in that moment when Lazio was sorting it out, West sees he has

the space because he was going to just play it to Tim. Seizzi has the space, turns on it, starts carrying it towards the top of the box and he's like he's open to shoot the ball it's like bro just play it just shoot it I mean Wes isn't

I think he's hesitant because he's not really a natural shooter he's not the best shooter and he just it might have been the exact play you're talking about but he just plays like a square pass to the to the the D at the top of the box

Oh I know the play you're talking about and it was a little behind the guy and it left he was off yeah it's like bro just shoot the ball man he got the assist. So, yeah.

Everything ended up all right. He was gutted, man. He was gassed, for one thing. He was gasped, for one thing. and then by the time the game ended, and then, man, that stoppage time goal. And, Latsio's, you know, Uve's a man down, Latsio's just playing it outside, lumping it in, over and over and over again. And finally, they get a goal. And, man, West just fell on his back in front of the goal and laid down there and looked at the, looked at that straight. line that runs perpendicular right up into the sky to God. God was right in the middle, baby. God was right in the middle.

God was right back in the middle. He was like, ah, yeah. But, oh, yeah, West started, he started reaching for his knee, like around the 60th minute. Oh, man, don't say that. I want to say, I mean, reaching for a knee and you continue to run, that's not the biggest thing in the world. It might just need a, you know, Patelotendantin band. across his knee, he'll be all right.

But also, one more thing before we get off this match, right behind us. So we had two rows, two rows of Scuff fans, but the second row that was above me were like a little bit more inland, I guess you would say, but the people next to them

that made up the outside of that row towards the aisle, they were Panamanians. Did you know this? No. Yeah, there's a family of four with a Panama flag. Huh. Is there a Panamanian player in the game?

I don't know, but they were Latsio fans. Okay. For sure. I turned around and talked to the grandma of the bunch. It was a grandma, a kid, maybe the kid's brother who's, like, older, and then a dad. And, yeah, I talked to the grandma. I was like, yeah, you're from Panama? And she's like, well, she couldn't speak English, I don't think.

But she was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm an American. I relayed that to her. She understood what I was saying. And then she said, Dande, like, you know, where I'm from. I was like Kentucky. And she's like, oh, okay, Kentucky. So I think they might have been Panamini Americans. I'm not sure.

But interesting that, I mean, we can't even escape Panama, even in Rome. Oh, man, we can't get away from. I guess the other, the one other thing I wanted to say about it is this was a big match. It felt like a big match. We went to Yuvre, Milan in Turin last year. and it was two big clubs, obviously, mostly full stadium. No Milan away fans for that one, but it was a dead rubber. You know, there were no stakes to that game, and this man, this felt different.

And it was intense. It was intense, man. The Latio fans, yeah, they were on pins and needles. And then when they finally scored the release, you know, just everyone around us standing up because the Stadio-Olympical does have a pretty wide walkway as far as, like, the stairs to, like, get down to, you know, to the ninth row where we were. But anyway, but the stairs just, the stairs to traverse the section or whatever to walk down. It's very wide. And, yeah, lots of your fans filled that little section as when they scored and everything.

I hated that they score, but, yeah, just an experience. I'm not going to forget any time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I hate that they scored, too. I just wasn't willing to show that in the stadium. Does anybody here, we got a few people here? Does anybody have an observation from the game they want to add? Drew, pick up, there's a mic right there.

I've got something, not necessarily from the game, but this event, I know earlier we were talking about Italy in general a little bit. I don't know if there's any Italian scuff listeners, but in my head I could see like when there's political debates, you have that little meter that kind of goes up and down with the hear. They like what they hear. It goes up. You can draw it to what I'm talking about.

When you kind of said they, Italy, Rome, past the jib check, I could see it kind of going up. When you said that Jolato was the same as Philadelphia ice water, I could see it just like the radio shutting off or whatever. They're just done. What do you think? What you're talking about like if a Roman were to hear me say that?

Yes. Yeah. Yes. Understood. They probably would not take kindly to it. But, I mean, look, it's the same thing. It's the same thing. Tightly compacted deliciousness.

But, yeah, I probably wouldn't say that to them in person. I mean, maybe I would, though. Because, you know, these people... Somebody's got to them. Yeah, yeah, somebody's got it. And, I mean, we took the inspiration from them, of course. So it's not... It's an homage to them.

They should be proud. Yeah, we took inspiration for so much from them, didn't we? For sure. Anybody else on the game or whatever? Anything. Yeah, so when you were talking about, this is Tom from Austin, by the way. Thank you.

No problem. You were talking about the atmosphere in the stadium. Do you think, and it kind of made me think of the Nation's League, the last two USA Nation's League, how much do you think that has an impact on the game itself? like the outcome of the game, the atmosphere, and the way you guys were seeing. Huge.

I think. I mean, because, number one, I think Western McKinney in particular is somebody that is a, I mean, we know this about Western. He's very much externally motivated. He's not so much an internally motivated type of guy. And I was this same exact way.

Like, you know, there's a big basketball, football, game, whatever, and I walk out, I see the stanza full, you're getting the best events that day. You're getting the best events. I'm gathering the emotion from the, kind of like a spirit bomb from my Dragon Ball Z heads out there, where I'm taking that, the emotion, the energy from the people there, and I'm parlaying that into my, you know, that's part of my, how I perform. You know, if I go to, because obviously I played NAA football in college, right? It's like you go to some, I mean, we had good crowds at home, but you go to Jackson, Mississippi on a Saturday to play Bell Haven College.

And there's 10 people in the stands. I'm going to be ass. I'm telling you right now, I'm going to be terrible because I'm just not, well, first of all, I don't like to play football that much anyway. But that's a whole different story. But that is the definition of an extrovert, right, that you get you. your energy from other people, from being with other people. And that's what Wes is. Right. And yeah, I can just see, I mean, we've seen it all the time, right? Just as far as his club career and his national team career, it's like, okay, when he's threatened, when his

parking spot is taken away, you know, he's ready to go. When there's, when there's 200 people and so far, when, especially because, like, that's what I was going to say. That's, like, that's So-Fi crowd for Nations League was, I mean, we talk about how the players don't play with heart or whatever. People talk about it at least. They're not playing hard. They're not dying for the crest. How do you die for anything when there's only like 400 people in the stadium? It's tough, man.

It's got to be really difficult. So you think that the outcome of that game, Panama, USA could have been quite different if we have. We could have still lost if the stadium was full, but I think it doesn't help. It doesn't help us. It doesn't help, man. When Waterman lines up that shot and he takes it and it goes in the back of the net, the USA crowd had done nothing to sway God our way. You know what I'm talking about?

One shot on target, one goal. And that's because of the work that the crowd did not do in that match. You know, if we imported the Latsiani, the Juvitinos or whatever, I would say we have a different result for sure, no doubt about it. So you think the reason Greg was fired was the fans, is what you're saying? I mean, it didn't help him not having the support of anyone, except for me ironically, you know, jumping on the Greg bandwagon just because nobody else was on it. But yeah, it definitely does not help.

You would hope, and ideally the players would be internally motivated, and we would have a leader or whatever that could get the troops up and run it. But it just doesn't work that way. It doesn't. And I'm not making excuses for anybody. We should have handled business or whatever. And I'm not necessarily saying, at this point, I can't ever assume that we're going to be Panama.

So I'm not saying that we would win necessarily, but there just would have been more spice to the proceedings to everything that was going on. The whole thing was sleepy, right? Nobody's going to play without heart in a stadium like the one we were at last night. You know, I mean, do people make mistakes? The left back, Pellegrini for Lazio, the fans were mad at him, man.

He had a rough night, like, just a couple, like, bad mistakes. But, I mean, everybody in that, everybody on that field was locked in, you know. Let's take a little break. Come back in a minute. We'll just cover, not the usual really deep rundown. We'll just cover a few things from the weekend. And then we'll be done. If you want to get the episode ad-free, join the Patreon.

Links in the show notes. All right, we're back. We got one more question from John before we get to the MLS and other news updates. John from Fort Wayne, Indiana. Yep. Hey, I just had one question. I just wanted to know if you thought the Lottio fans or maybe praying to someone different to God, maybe the guy whose monument was in front of the stadium.

Yeah, I would say, that's very likely for those who don't know that there is a very large monument right outside that main interest of the Stadio Olimpico to Mussolini which Adam Bells had no clue that that was going on and also

I didn't know until one of our scuff mates Colin let me know he was like oh Vince you're a big Mussolini guy huh while I was sitting on the standing on the thing and I'm like I'm like huh what's going on I turn around look up and it just I mean his name is engraved in this

monument. It's kind of like a Washington monument-looking thing. It's the Obelisco Mussolini, so the Mussolini obelisk. Did he build the Olympico? I don't know. But anyway,

that's very much, that very much could be the case. And that brings up another thing that I saw while we were outside of the stadium, which is a group of Scottish people. I could tell by their accent the way they were talking. And the kilt that one of them was wearing.

No, no, not him. Not him. different group of Scottish people. These are dudes probably like between 25 and 30. About four of them. And one dude lined up for a picture

with the monument. And this before I knew it was a Mussolini monument. Lined up for a picture with it. Hit the salute. Hit the salute. He was standing in front of it. And I'm like, and I'm like, okay. I knew it was a Lazio match. So I'm like, this salute can't be nothing good. But then once I realized that was a

you metamusulina, I'm like, oh, right, yeah. Yeah. That was. That was a spicy. He's just joking around her. Surely he's just joking around. All right. Yeah.

Great question, John. Thank you. And by the way, Drew's from Nashville. I don't think he said that. All right. First of all, it was recording on Sunday, so not all the action is over with. But Ballo's hurt. Got hurt in training after an excellent performance.

last weekend. That's quite a bummer. Do we know anything about severity? I have no clue about severity. Adam Bells, I've been trying to figure out. I was going to make a severity joke with regards to Rome, the severity of, I don't know, the graffiti epidemic in Rome. But anyway, no, no.

I say all that to say no. Yeah, there is a lot of graffiti. There is. Yeah. Let's see. John Tolkien, he played and Holstein-Keel, their situation is no longer a situation. They have been relegated mathematically. They're four points back of Heidenheim, thanks to Heidenheim.

Beating Union Berlin 3-0. So I guess we'll see what happens with Tolkien before next season. He's had a good, I think he's had a good spell there. Yeah, he's had a good spell. People are very hopeful that he'll get snapped up by somebody that has stayed. up in the Bundesliga. I have to say I am not, I'm just not hopeful in general,

just because you don't see these, you know, these life rafts thrown out too often, not like immediately. Like he just got there, they're going down. The idea to me that Freiberg,

Glabach, Augsburg or somebody would save him, I'm not sure. I'm not totally sure. I would put the likelihood I don't know, 15% maybe. But I don't know. Maybe they proved me wrong.

But Keel themselves lost to Freiburg. Freiburg? 2.1. Yeah, they took the lead. Keel took the lead, 1-0. And then John Tolkien was at the scene of the crime for both goals. The first one was a long throw into the box from Fireberg that the keel keeper should have caught. It leaves his hands, he spills it, and then that's when John Tolkien comes into the play.

There's a scramble in front of goal. He ends up on his butttocks, and Freiburg puts it in. There's a goal there, and then the second goal comes off of a Freiburg cross that comes in from their left. So John Tolkien's on the far post. There's somebody, there is a player outside of, and there's a player inside a Tolkien in between that third centerback and John Tolkien that they have bracketed. The cross comes in. The centerback that is bracketing the other side of the player thinks the ball is coming to the striker that is next to him.

That's kind of next to him. That striker is taken care of by another centerback. This man tries to make a hero play and totally misjudges the ball. the ball comes to the player that him and Tolkien were kind of marking, and he scores. If you watch it back, it looks like it's John Tolkien's fault. Not necessarily. Just because, I mean, the centerback made such a crazy play and such a misread of the cross that really put John into a bad spot,

which that really shouldn't be his responsibility. You should be worried about the guy that's outside of him. But anyway, I don't know. I'm sure Bob Morocco coming here with some, you're supposed to, guard the goal and into out. Yeah. Shut the hell up. You're not in Rome.

I'm not taking anybody's opinion for somebody who's not in Rome. No, I'm just messing around. But yeah, that was John Tolkien. Other than that, appreciate you, Bob. He did well. Tanner and Leon had a big chance, big opportunity,

to make up some ground in their situation, but they didn't. They did not. Playing Monaco, essentially a six-pointer and everyone else lost. Strasbourg lost. Leal lost.

And one other team. I want to say Neese maybe. No, Leal. Did I say Leal? No, you did. Yeah, Leal. I just think of it. Okay, anyway, three other teams lost

that are in that race for a Champions League spot in league, which gave Leon a big chance to, to make up some ground, obviously. And yeah, they lost two-knit. They lost two-neill to Monaco. Tanner, the second Monaco goal was off a set piece. Tanner directly marking the dude that scored. He scores on a header.

Tanner really didn't even make it much of a contest. And, yeah, so that's it, man. It's probably going to be no Europe for Leon next season. And they need money, if you're aware of their financial situation. I know League Austin was saying they were going to get relegated if they didn't fix their books prior to the end of this season. So, you know, we got to get to our appertif. You know, we've got to get the cocktail hour.

So let's just do the MLS stuff real fast and then get out of here. So Kevin started, Kevin Sullivan started a game. I feel like that bears mentioning in the Open Cup. versus Indy 11. I have to be honest, I haven't seen it yet. What's that? Once a P-KIS. Yeah, okay.

And apparently he played okay. He played well. Standout performance is, I think, what goal.com said. You can't trust anything journalists to say, though, you know? I'm kidding. I'm kidding about that. Diego Luna scored a really nice goal, dancing on the ball at the top of the box,

then kisses it off the post from about 20 yards with his left foot. Who were they playing again? They were playing I don't forget. They tied, though. Yeah, it was a one-one draw. Brandon Vasquez scored a brace.

Good for him, for Austin. And Jack McGlynn had a big banger in the middle of the week versus Phoenix, ultimately the game winner in that game. Only other thing I wanted to bring up was Dest, saying he hadn't got a call from Pachian. You got any thoughts about this? So, I really don't have that many thoughts.

My main thought is just the fact that this isn't something that it's interesting that he said it, but then like once you really think about it, this is something we could have deduced just because Paschino has already said that he's not talking to any of these dudes until they can, he wants to feel him. He wants to feel him in person. Yeah. He's always talking about touch and feel the player and all that, and he won't talk to him before. I don't know.

Maybe he's just aware that our guys are just too smooth, too charming. He can't talk to him on the phone. You might be swooped off your feet. Don't let them send you some flowery emails, man. You get the wrong idea. So ultimately, yeah, it's not that surprising, but it is interesting. I mean, maybe they would hop in there and see how his recovery is going, something. but yeah

this is what it is you can feel someone on the phone I think that's a good way to feel someone actually it's not it's not as good as in person but

I guess he's been talking to the staff so like staff members of Pachitino's a little bit so that's good but I don't know it feels to me like he should be calling Dest whatever if we do fine at the World Cup next summer I don't care about anything

we got stuff to get to we got dinner and other things to do. You could be here, listener. Yeah, you could. I mean, you can't. You can't now. Now, yeah, but you had the opportunity.

Yeah. We're having a good time. And hey. Whoa. All right, all right. I heard the hey. I heard the hey. I knew it was coming.

And this time I didn't have to say, whoa, whoa, whoa. To interrupt bells, I could just hold my hand up. This is the first time we've ever recorded in person. Yeah, very first time. first time, which it's going great, I feel like. But anyway, real quick, just before we get out of here, we got to mention Christian Policic goal assist against Bologna.

Oh, yeah, of course. Right before they play each other again in the Copa Taya final. Once again, Christian Policic keeps getting it done. You know, when we asked, when we asked Uve fans what was going on with Weston and Tim, we'd ask them that first and then follow up with what do you think Weston's best position is. On Wednesday, baby, it's all about it's Christian Polistic world class. I want to see if I can get the people riled up with that. Yeah, that's a good one.

That's a good question. Let's see if we can get some passionate answers from the yes and no side. We'll see. But anyway, yeah, that's it. Okay. Hey, yeah, we're going to be at the game on Wednesday. Try to record the next day after that, another show. And, hey, thanks everybody for listening.

We'll see you.