Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #595: The Coppa Italia final

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Belz and Vince (and Goerge Quraishi) record their second episode from Rome, the morning after Bologna's 1-0 win over Milan in the Coppa Italia final, which we miraculously were able to attend. Quraishi, the founder of Howler magazine and the guy helping us navigate Rome, joins in. Pulisic had a night to forget, but we did not. 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 Thursday morning in Rome. We're back at Scuffed HQ on the Tiber River. This time we're recording on the rooftop. And we got more of the clan here this morning. It's been a busy week. But last night we attended the finale di Copa Italia at the Stadio Olimpico on the north side of Rome.

We didn't get the Christian Pulisic brace I was hoping for, but it was quite an experience. Got Vince here with me and George Qureshi, the founder of Howler Magazine, also the guy who launched the Athletics American Soccer Coverage, and also the guy who masterminds these trips for us. George, how are you doing? I'm fine. I got a cappuccino in me.

I got a glass of orange juice. It's been a while since I've done one of these, especially with a live audience. I've done a podcast before? I'm a little nervous. Yeah, yeah. But here we are. Yeah, you should be nervous

I'm nervous I see Vince over there Bro, at first I thought it was a bit But now George is really nervous I can see I'm looking in his eyes right now Vince how are you doing How are you doing?

I'm doing great man Couldn't be any better Match last night Extracurriculars after I know last match I opened it With a beer in hand This time now I have a I have, I was going to say a handle.

I don't think this is a handle, but a bottle of absolute vodka in my hand. But there's not vodka, there's just water. Okay. It's just water. Easy to get the suit confused, of course, but I'm just living life in Rome, man. Can we start with the end, though?

I want to know what happened after you peeled off last night. Oh, after I peeled off. So, I mean, okay, first of all, me and Zach. I don't think anybody knows this, what you're about to tell us. I mean, it's nothing too crazy. So me and Zach walked a very far distance. I can relate to that.

Walked a very far distance to get to a place called Club Darrier, which, if you're just looking at the name, you would think there were some activities going on over there that would be unfit for a married man and father of two. But it was just a regular speakeasy. Had some very nice drinks. I had six or seven mojitos. And we just got after it.

And then after then, after we left there, we asked the bartender for some recommendations. He told us to go to this place called REM, which is over here in Tresa Vera. Another speakeasy, which I had to sign a George Qureshi-esque form on Google Docs to get let into. I had to give them my passport number and everything. I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't I did that. But, um, yeah, I mean, you left us, it was after midnight when we were still walking home from the game.

And I'm just, you know. That's right. That's right. And I was talking to Zach about this last night. I mean, you know, bells went through great pains to tell our podcast listeners like, hey, hey, hey, hey, if you guys think this is going to be a bro trip, don't worry about it. You know, this is not a bro trip.

We are going to be enriched. to learn about Roman culture on all fronts soccer and history and such and such but I feel like I can be the

minister of a the minister of broculture bro-eatim I was like as far as I know the only person who's spewed on this trip is the woman with us Alini who got sick

it wasn't from over imbibing yeah nothing to do with alcohol I don't think but she's feeling better that's good okay well you know I do admire the way you're taking the bull by both horns and just

experience diving into Rome at every hour of the day and night it's good you're not gonna come back here soon probably yeah definitely definitely not he's on a list now because he gave him he gave him his guy

he's not allowed it's interesting though because bells and I were talking about this as far as like the night, what, two nights ago when we went out. And I turned back the clock a little bit. You know, I had a classic Vince 2011, 2012 performance when I was at my peak, you know, 19, 20 years old. And I was telling bells, I thought I had lost it, bro. I thought I lost my fastball. Now I'm at the ripe old age of 33. Turns out it's still 97 miles per hour.

It's still 97 miles per hour. And I think it has something to do with, you know, probably my damn You know, I mean, you get away from them, the anchor that seeks me to the bottom of the ocean, and then I'm free, I'm free once again. But no, I'm just playing. But, but. There's some truth to me. There's some truth to it. You know, ah, we can, we can keep going.

No, I mean, my thought was everybody wants, everybody needs to feel like they're a compelling person sometimes. You know? And it can be hard to get that in the day to day. Somebody, you know, unfortunately, Pulsick wasn't a very compelling person last night in the game, but let's talk about it. So Milan loses, 1-0 to Bologna. Let's start with the atmosphere going into the stadium. And I'd love for, you know, if anybody in the group here wants to jump in and give a thought about that, I'd love it. But, George, what was your first impression when we were?

You can tell people, we walked in on the Bologna side. Yeah. They're pretty strict about separating the fan groups, not only in the stadium, but on the way into the stadium. And they both seem to know which side of the stadium they're allowed to meet on. Yeah. One of our compatriots, Glenn, was wearing a Mousa jersey and almost got turned back at the bridge. We did get, all of us got turned back. It was going to be a long walk back to where they're like, go to the A.C. Milan fans.

Because one of our, we're like, no, look, we don't really care. We're just here to have fun. And they're like, no, no, no, he cannot be. And so we turn back. Glenn decides to, I think, you know, they're doing it for his own safety, but people can't see Glenn. Glenn is a large man who played football at Navy. And I don't think any Bologna fans were going to step up to him.

Yeah, I mean, Mousa Jersey or no. And also, you don't step up to someone in a Mousa jersey. Because most of Milan fans will be like, you could have him, honestly. Bro, bro, you know what? And that's a, we met some, we met multiple Milan fans at, like, both bars that we went to last night. And we asked them about Pulisage. And, of course, they had glowing things to say about Christian. But then we brought out, we were like, uh, you know Soussa?

And he'd be like, ah, just, wave them away with their hands. I love Musa. I love them. But I'm just saying. I love it. He does seem to be a little bit of a meme among Milan fans, though. A little bit. A little bit.

And to your point, George, about just. Glenn size and Italian fans, Bologna in general. I went to the gym yesterday. Okay, and I got to survey some of the strongest Italians that there are, in theory, in theory. And not impressed, bro. I mean, these dudes on the bench, bro. They only ain't got 135 on there, bro. That's my bench press weight.

I am not qualified to speak here. I just want to put that out there. I looked a bunch of Italian men in their eyes. Some might say that's the ideal weight to bench press. You know, it's like for longevity. Not America, maybe. Okay. So anyway, Glenn turns a shirt around.

It's the one place where we are exceptional. Glenn turns a shirt around. We go back by the military-looking guy who had turned us away in the first place, and we're like, look, is this okay? And he's like, he gave us a face. Like, eh, okay. Yeah. And so we walked in.

And then we saw lots of guys wearing Milan jerseys over there. And so we were fine. He turned it back around. and we had some delicious fried food that made a lini throw up yeah that was great um i will say with with with glen vince and john on this trip we're we're pretty well stacked you know there's like no round up baby no fears for safety when we're walking around town they're three biggest dudes and within a hundred miles so um all right uh yeah we went in the bologna side and um had some good seats i think it's fair to say

Very different Kouravas this time, right? Bigger on both sides. Bigger, but the mood and the energy was very different. Well, how would you say it was different? The Bologna fans were excited. They were, like, psyched to be there, and waving flags and chanting, and how would you describe the Milan fans?

I mean, they were insane. They truly brought it. But the thing is, it's like, okay, I came in separate from everybody else. you know, all this talk of how I'm conquering Rome. I did have to dip out yesterday a little bit and take a nap. And so I get to the stadium at a different time from everybody else. And when I'm walking in, all I'm around is Milan fans.

It's all Milan. And they're chanting. They're just, they're going crazy all around me as I'm in this chaotic line to get into the stadium. And then once we get in there, so I'm thinking, okay, Milan's here, they're about to bring it. And then once I get in there, I mean, Bologna just totally, I mean, there was no competition between the two supporting groups, I feel like. But it felt like a stylistic choice to me, right?

The Milan fans were wearing all black. They got one flag that wasn't even waving the whole time. Right. And the main feature was their hands up in the air, which was impressive. But it was like more stoic and more reserved, it felt like. It was sort of like we've been here before, you know. Right. We got a plan.

It's not to be crazy. Yeah, that sounds right. Which, if they had listened to Scuffed episode 594, they would have known that that would not be, that would not get it done. And I could, like, during the, during the introduction, the grand show with all the fireworks and the people dancing, it was quite amazing to kick off the match. I could just tell, like, I was like, unless Milan picks this up, they're not winning the cosmic battle. they're not winning a cosmic battle

the thing that we established last match Bologna was pulling their patron saint to their side and the fortune I mean not even the fortune they just played better than Milan

and I have to think that you know the way their support is performed is about 85% well how much of it is a feedback loop like they're playing well that gives the

that gives the supporters There was more energy. They were blowing them out the water before the ball was kicked. Okay. We should say where we were sitting, some people understand. Because we were slightly closer to the Bologna fans, so they were louder, but we were also closer to them. But not that much closer.

No, yeah, we were, like, probably at the 35-yard line. Yeah, we had amazing seats. And we should thank, we should thank, you know, Syria helped us get these seats. We should thank them. Without Syria's help, we would not have made it into this game. These were incredible scenes. And we did make it into the game in,

highly enviable seats. I've never been so close to fireworks before. Like live fireworks, right in front of my face, like a curtain of fireworks. Yeah. So thanks, Andy Mitchell. We appreciate you. Yes.

But, I mean, comparing this game to last, like, how close were we to the UVA section, right? We were very far away in comparison to what a lot of the support is were. And the UVA section, which was about three sections smaller. Very true. Was able to make a huge impression. impression on me and Adam Bell specifically.

But, yeah. Milan is in the Curva Sude. I think the inner Milan's Curva Nord. It just didn't bring it. Yeah. We saw the, as we were walking down along the Tiber, so south of the Vatican, because we were looking for a bus. We couldn't find one afterwards.

Couldn't get a cab for, you know, 75% of the distance home. But we saw a bunch of buses go by. that I think were supporters groups, like Milan's supporters groups, and every single one had like a kind of a grizzled-looking bald guy in the front next to the bus driver. And why is it the head of those ultra-groups are always bald? Well, it's kind of stressful, probably, to be looking after those guys. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, the flags were really cool. I've really, I said this last time, but I've really enjoyed the Stadio Olimpico, the just sort of classic stadium, especially at night. It's lovely. The game itself was a rematch of Friday's 3-1 win for Milan when Christian had a goal and an assist. He was pretty invisible in this game, unfortunately. Thoughts on that?

Thoughts on Pulisic? Pulisic's performance? Yeah, he wasn't. he wasn't good Bologna Bologna wasn't letting like Milan breathed really

I mean as far as like anything going into the Miva anything with Milan trying to play through the middle like attackers checking to the ball Bologna was just following him 1 V1 and it was up to Milan to like you know

their players to be able to receive the ball, make it stick and make something happen if you were going to play through the middle So the easy route that Bologna was kind of given him was Milan able to go outside to Liao, like, standing still 1 v1, and see if he could do something, which not much came from it. But, yeah, Christian, mostly sloppy, really didn't get into the match much at all. But, yeah, those half spaces that he occupies, he makes a killing him, they just weren't going to let him cook. Yovich came back to the ball a couple times and received it cleanly, but there weren't enough numbers coming with him to really do anything.

The thing I noticed is with two midfielers, the strategy was like, you know, let's punt it long to Liel. I said this last night. He's really good at holding the ball up with his back to goal. I just wish I didn't have to see that so often, you know. And then you got, the times I'm. I noticed Christian play were often when he was coming back and intervening and winning the ball back off someone else's foot, which I thought, I was impressed by that, right? But the work rate and the timing there, but, you know, by design, I think there's not much build-up play.

You've got, you've got Alex Jimenez on the right. And so Christian would go into the middle, drop in. This just wasn't, he wasn't going to connect with Rinders and, you know, and Fafana. It just didn't seem like that was what they wanted to do, right? And so you're dependent on service right from Liao from Jimenez and they weren't getting it. Yeah. It was like somebody was either going to do something special or they weren't going to score. It sort of felt like.

Yeah. And Bologna was leaving a lot of space in behind, right? And they tried to, Milan tried to take advantage of it quite a bit. But, I mean, for final hit probably like eight balls in behind. And I want to say maybe one of them were completed and like came to something. And that was even, I want to say that was like a dead play where like Lial. I was kind of beat to the ball and then just kind of snuck around the dude, got a toe poke to it and then was off.

But, yeah, nothing. I do think when, you know, when Kyle Walker came in toward, we're getting pretty far ahead here, but when Kyle Walker came in, they changed the shape, right? They brought on Joel Felix. They brought in another striker. You go for the back instead of five when they're defending. Remove what I considered a very high-risk strategy of playing two wingbacks with frosted tips.

it's either going to devastate the opposition or really backfired. I think it backfired tonight or last night. And I thought that was a more interesting. It might have been the game state, right? They're chasing it. They're down by a goal. Did they change the four at the back before the goal or after? It was after the goal.

Yeah. Kyle Walker came in. Okay. And then Hernandez basically stayed home a little more and it was four across. Because Tamori was having a hard time with that Swiss winger, Dan and Doi. Yeah. You guys split the goal. Yeah.

Yeah, the goal score. Bro was cooking his ass, bro. This shit was crazy. Like, you could see the, you could, from our excellent seats, thank you, Siri. You could see the stress on Tamori's face. Truly could. Like, he was not dealing with bro. Did he get his yellow card in the first half?

I want to say he did. Yeah. And it was, it was a play on, kind of an unnecessary play, I think, on. Yeah, he was a sending off risk, I think. from fence forth. Speaking of yellow cards, I missed, I'm, okay, I got a cop to missing Pulitzik's yellow card. Maybe the most exciting part of the game for Christian Pulisic.

It's okay, George, I did too. Vince missed the yellow card too. How dare you? How dare you miss that yellow card? Look, man, I made a, I made a calculator risk. He cast a stone, and now he's receiving a stone here. Yeah, I ain't going to lie. After all the chastas and I did the Bell's last episode,

I got a little hanker, I got a little hanker for some beer towards the end of the first half. And, but unlike Bills, I made sure I went through my checklist. I made a very educated guess as to when to leave. All I missed was a Christian politic yellow card. Adam Bels can't say the same. There were three bodies on the floor when we got up in fairness. Yeah, there were a lot. Three bodies.

There was a lot of time to work with there. Yeah, he got a yellow card late in the first half for jockeying for a ball. It kind of looked like maybe he was fouled, and then he was pretty upset. I still don't. Does anybody know if he got the yellow for? dissent or for simulation? Let's see what Fatmop says. It seemed like dissent, but I don't know.

It didn't really have that much impact on the game. Bologna now has won the Copa Italia for the first time in 51 years. Pretty cool for them. And yeah, like you said, their fans were excited. So good on them. Milan's been there before. Fabrizio Romano confirmed Conce Sávezawa's out. at the end of the season. Felix has already confirmed to go back to Chelsea. Kyle

Walker also expected to leave so a lot of you know question marks for A.C. Milan heading into the next season. A quote from Feralani the CEO, we can't deny that this season has been a failure despite the Super Copa which in which they beat Milan if you remember in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. We are far from where we wanted to be. I share the disappointment of our fans. As a fan myself, but above all as a club executive, I recognize the various mistakes have been made. There are still two matches to go. We need to finish as best we can. The quotes from Conce'sauer a little more interesting. Do I feel like the only one responsible? It's not important to go looking

for who is most to blame. I'm the coach of the team. I'm here in front of you. I have to talk about this, not anything else. When I arrived, I tried to do the best I could. In the end, we'll need to understand what went well and what didn't. One more. Could the team and club have done more, I know that at the end of the day I gave everything. There are serious people working at Milan, and like everyone else, we are judged. If I made it here, it means the path wasn't easy. The pressure is strong on everyone. Go ahead. Another little note from the game last night is David de Calabria was on the field for half of the second half for Bologna. You know, used to be the captain at A.C. Milan. He was going around, giving everybody hugs after the game.

One person who wasn't interested in that, con ce sao. He was having none of it. There's a video out there of him. He not only doesn't do any handshake or anything, he mutters something that looks pretty unpleasant under his breath. Might have been a word that starts with P. I'm not a liberal year. Which language do we think it was in?

Spanish, Portuguese. Is Puto a bad word in Portuguese? Portuguese too. Ah. Okay. That's what it sounded like. It's a two-letter word? Yeah.

It's a bad word in Italian too. The Milan fans I was talking to yesterday. The same thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think everyone knows. Yeah. Okay. I don't know what he's got against Calabria, but something.

I was about say was he even there? But speaking to mistakes, Milan made. I mean, I think number one, number one has to be letting go of, Who was the manager last year? Fonseca? No, before Fonseca. Oh, brother. Why are you doing this to us?

Who's a dude that cooked last year, bro? For Milan, they let them go. They were like, ah, we could do better. Then they brought in Fonseca. Fonseca was asked, brought in. We can edit this, right? Hold on, hold on, hold on. All these Italians be running together.

Arrigo Saki? They should never have gotten rid of Arrigo Saki, in my opinion. All right, all right, let me run it back. 2024. Peoli. Pioli. Pioli. It's rough. Pioli.

Piole had the boys cooking. He did. Milan thought they could do better for whatever reason. Which, Paulo Fonseca is now my boy because he plays Tana Testman. But he's, that was a step down. Going from Piole to Fonseca. Pioly's also the one who had no time for Sugenio Desk. right?

Yes, but... That doesn't mean... That doesn't mean... Yeah, that doesn't mean... Yeah. Milan are eighth in Syria, four points away from YuVe, who are in fourth.

I mean, as Vince would say, I think it's a rap. It's a wrap for them. But, man, that was a great... A great experience to see that game, even if the result was a little disappointing. What a...

What a scene more... Even more intense than the league match we saw on Saturday, obviously. Any of you want to say anything about the game last night? Yeah, Tom. Hi, Austin. Austin, Tom from Austin. There we go, got it right. Yeah, I wanted to color in the experience of the game experience

because that was unlike anything I've ever seen. I've been to a few World Cup games, some Gold Cup games. Austin FC, season ticket holder, nothing, nothing compared to that last night. That was unbelievable. When I came in to the stadium where you can start to see the field and the crowd that was already there, I think we were there an hour before game time, and there was just already electric. Something weird happened inside my body when I saw that and felt that. I think vertigo is the closest thing I can describe.

My stomach kind of did a bit of a flip. just from just the power of that scene. And then, yeah, getting in our seats, which were unbelievable. I did not expect that to be that close. And we were basically 50-yard line, 14 rows up. When I finally recovered from that, that's when they started doing the pyrotechnics. And we were just getting showered with gunpowder. I mean, hot just stinging, you're like, yes.

bring this. So incredible, incredible. So whoever you guys said did arrange that, I mean, we were out a couple nights before the game. Met some guys from northern Italy, Italy. And we told him we were going to the game. And the look on this man's face, he said what? I don't know about 50 times. Really? Yeah. He was incredulous that we had, us, 13 dudes, oh, 12 dudes, one female from America, got tickets to this game. He was, yeah. And then the other thing, too, the Milan supporters with their arms, like the black shirt and the arms, from where we were sitting, that just looked, it looked strange in off-putting in a way.

Yeah, it was like there's something in terms. intimidating about it. Yeah. Yeah. Right. It was... Yeah. Yeah. But that's all I got. Or from like Blade Runner or something. Yeah. This is Drew from Nashville. I got three quick points. So number one, water bottles are not allowed at the Copa Italia.

That is a rule that I did not know. They are allowed at league games, same stadium, Copatalia, RIP water bottle. So the second point... I'm sorry about your water bottle. It's okay. It's okay. It was like one game. down. We were in a hurry. It probably wasn't there anymore. They probably like, oh, that one looks nice. We'll take it home with us. And there you go. Second point. So Blania's chairman is actually the same chairman as

Montreal Impact. I don't know what they're called now. Sorry. Is that Joey Saputo? CF Montreal. Yeah, there you go. Yeah. So basically just MLS continues to rise in a status in the world game. I think that's proven by the result last night. Just continue to rise in MLS. and I don't remember third, so it wasn't that good.

Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Glenn. Glenn from Baltimore, one of the three, I guess, bodyguards of the group. Speaking of security, did you guys feel more secure in the stadium with a number of checkpoints that we had to go through to get to our seats? No. It is silly how many times they check your tickets.

Given all the checkpoints, I will say I did get a glass water bottle in to the stadium and probably threw it away because I didn't want to get caught holding a glass container. That's the thing. It's like when you put you put so many checkpoints in, it's like, and so you have like a queue at like every different little stop and, you know, they fill up, right? And you can tell the people that are managing these checkpoints are just like, bro, we, we. We just got to get people through. You know, you've lost in the video of all the dude doing the security, where he's not doing another thing.

He's not even patting down. He's given the illusion of a pat, you know, hands vertical, hands horizontal come through. I mean, that's essentially what it comes down to. When you get to a point? Right, exactly. I will say, this doesn't relate to the checkpoints, but it's related.

When we got on the tram, over by the Spanish steps to go to the stadium. There were a bunch of Milan supporters who would not let the train doors close because they wanted to keep pushing people into the tram. And there was like, it started to feel a little close, and it started to feel like when are these guys going to stop? And there was like one lady who was coming home from work, who was just like yelling at them a lot.

I didn't understand most of it, but that was like, that was the only like, slightly unsettling thing, and it wasn't that unsettling, but just like they're going to keep cramming people in until, I don't know, until whenever. And, I mean, the only other unsettling thing is the genuflections of the Milan supporters. But, yeah, you got something, Colin? I ruined the moment. Sorry. I was just say, one thing I thought was really cool is right after the final whistle, as all the Milan players are just on the ground. All the Bologna players beeline to the Bologna supporters immediately.

No hesitation, no celebrating. They just sprinted to the Bologna supporters. They know. They know who won on the game, bro. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, anything else on the Milan game? On the Copa Italia?

I feel lucky to have been there. I mean, a lot of chances. A lot more chances than the first match. You know, it was, in my opinion, it was, just felt a little more like anything could happen here. Yeah. Which, you know, I don't know. You don't normally get that in a cup final, it seems like.

And so I think that was nice. Were there a lot of chances? I mean, I guess, yeah. Maybe I'm waiting early in the game when it felt a little bit more ping-pongy. Colin's nodding his head, so, yeah. So if you think about it, there's just kind of two sort of goal-mouth scrambles,

one one went in, second half, one from Milan did not go in. That's right. Did not have a great visual on how it did not go in. It looked like it might have been on the line. I was like, check your watch ref, but it probably did not go in. That was after Jimenez won it in the counterpress, right? And then fizzed it across. Yeah, it bounced around some.

There's some good defense. Jimenez is only 20, right? 20, 21? He's a pretty young guy. I mean, I guess we should take this. Well, let's take a little break. We'll come back in a minute. If you want to get the podcast ad-free, join the Patreon.

Link is in the show notes. Can I say, join the Patreon? Adam and Vince do amazing work. I'm a third party here. I'm biased. I love you guys, but I just want to say, you know, you don't give it a hard sell ever. Someone needs to give it a hard sell. As somebody who, for many years, did independent soccer media, it's really hard.

It's hard to make a living. It's hard to do good work if you can't make a living. So if $5 a month or whatever it is now doesn't matter, mattered that much to you and you listen to this podcast on a weekly basis, drop $5 a month for these guys. They do really good work. So that's my pitch. People made that pitch for me on my behalf once in a while.

Yeah. And I really appreciate it. So I hope I can pass this on and get a few more, get a few more patrons for you guys. Colin said rest in peace, holler. Yeah. Thank you, George. See, George, we needed that. Because the one thing that I've noticed about Adam Bells is like when I ask him,

like, so sometimes, Before the show, I'd be like, all right, bells, make sure you plug the YouTube, the Patreon, the merch store, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, he just doesn't want to do it, bro. It's not in his blood. It's not his blood. I don't know. We haven't necessarily. That's why people love them, too, right?

But it's a high calorie count of content on this show. You're not getting a lot of ads. You're not getting the first 20 minutes. Mark Marion's not, you know, he's not Mark Marion reading ads at you for. Yeah, vacuums and. Cushions. Yeah. But, you know, we'll get there.

We'll do it eventually. Yeah, good. We'll know you've made it. Subscribe, everybody. Subscribe. All right. Thank you, George. We'll be back in a second.

All right, we're back from the rooftop. Trasta Vere. Quick updates from the rest of the player pool who did not play in the Copa Italia final last night. Paxon Aronson got a goal against Sparta Rotterdam. They tied 1-1. I don't have much to say about that. Don't really rate him that much.

Crazy. Tillman, Malik, had two goals and an assist, and Dest had an assist in PSV's 4-1 win over Heracles. Now, one of Tillman's goals was an absolute delight, like a curler from 20 yards, upper 90. He's back. He ran over to the sideline laughing his head off. and he also scored on a deflected goal.

He got an assist on some counter-pressing and a pretty simple pass. Dest also had an assist. But the crazy thing is, Iax conceded a late equalizer to Groningen in a game happening about the same time. And you can see the video of all the PSV supporters checking out on their phones

and the fans in the stadium just going nuts because that draw for IACs puts PSV in first place, by one point with only one game left in the season. So Ernie and the boys about to win another trophy. And that's pretty cool. Yeah. To be honest, I had no clue this was even possible. I checked out on PSV.

Sick, though. I just checked. PSV plays Sparta Rodderdam. Iax plays 20. So who's better? I have no clue. But, uh, I mean, these are both matches that they should be able to. So, so Twente's better, it seems this season. Rotterdam's in 11th place. Twente's in sixth. Yeah, Twente just drew Utrecht, right? Or beat them maybe? No, no, no. Rotterdam just drew.

Yeah, Rotterdam just, but Twente beat them a couple days ago, a couple of games ago. I'm pretty sure. Anyway, who cares? Who cares about that? Who cares about that? This is a crazy collapse from I-X. Let me see those. Haven't won since April 13th.

Yeah. I mean, and two draws. So four matches, two draws. Got beat by Utrecht 4-0. Got beat by Nimigin. 3-0. tied with Rotterdam, tie McGarren again?

Haji and Coventry tied the second leg of their promo playoff game with Sunderland. That means they lose on aggregate, so Hodgy's not going to the bigs. He's not going to the bigs. A dramatic late winning goal from Sunderland.

I think it was like in the... It went to extra time. I want to say it was like in the 120 second minute like 120 plus 2 um get a goal from like one of their centerbacks yeah i don't know i don't know i feel like sunderland hasn't gained the love and admiration that you know other clubs that i've done like american tv shows have but uh i feel like they still got a little bit of a faction that'll be happy to see them in the premier league if they if they do make it i know uh show Buffalo United is kind of like a buzz saw.

Like they were, them Burnley and Leeds were by far the best three teams in the championship. So they'll be up against it a little bit, but we'll see. Also, Haji played Stryker in this match end wasn't good. Yeah, no surprise there, I guess. Sunderland's a big club, man. What, the Stadium of Light holds like $60,000 or something? Yeah. So they deserve to be in the championship.

I mean, not in the championship, they're in the championship. They deserve to be up there. A couple of their notes, Brandon Vasquez had a nice free kick goal in a tie with Austin, and I'm going to talk with Atlanta. I'm sorry. And Alex Zendias had a brace in Club America's campaign to win the title in Mexico. They beat Pacuca 2-0 in the second leg of a Klausura play. off semifinal.

I'm sorry, quarter final, and that sends them to the semifinals. He's just lurking on that left wing all game. Gets one goal with a nice touch, like up by his ear, which isn't that high up, really.

He's a shortcut. Yeah, it's not. But brings it down, slots at home far post, and then another one where he's like, it's like a sliding volley that tings off the inside of the post goes in. I mean, he's a hero down there for the biggest club in Mexico.

Yeah. And I mean, at this point, well, we're getting the Gold Cup roster next week. According to, I forgot who I saw. I want to say it was Doug. It might have been Doug McIntyre. I want to say. Rostler's coming out. Tim Wea, probably not there, right?

What I'm saying is, if Zendaya, doesn't get this call up. It's cooked. No, no 2026 in his future, especially with the form he's been in everything. And now, I don't know how much I really rate the form. You watch these Emacki's goals, bro. I mean, if you put an MLS filter on it, what would we say about it? Not over the airwaves, just to myself in my head, because I would never denigrate our great league in a public forum. But the Emiki stuff, man I mean, it does get quite basketball-y. And but, but I'm going to stop there.

He's doing the business. And so. Yeah, you don't see Bologna's style rotations on defense in League of Mekies. Man, that's another thing. I forgot to talk about it. But yeah, with Bologna,

you're falling everybody into those pockets, like just the way they would, the way they would rotate so seamlessly, so smoothly. It was just a masterclass. George, what's on the, what's on the schedule for the rest of the day? What are we doing? We're going to go have some pasta. Then we're going to go and climb down in some catacombs, catacombie di Priscilla. Okay. Do you like that? We went to Callisto earlier in the week. Now we're going to see Priscilla. That's right. We're going to go see Palazzo Massimo, one of the national museums here.

My understanding is they have some frescoes from Livia's Villa preserved there, which sounds old and beautiful. Then we're going to walk around this section of northern Rome called Cortire de Coppede, which just has some crazy architecture. We have an architect on the trip, Corey, who I assigned some homework. So he could explain what we're looking at. So I don't know if you, have you done that? I've not done my homework yet. I'm sorry. Okay, well, you got some Wikipedia time on the way to lunch.

And we're going to have some time to read a book, maybe have a little aperitivo, get back on the metro, go down and have some more pasta. Today was a pasta day. So we're going to have a little bit of walking. We did a lot of walking yesterday, some walking today. And we're earning our pasta. I need it, bro. I need to recover. That's right.

I need the carbs, I need all that. But then after, you know, all this stuff, George's talking about, we're hitting the pavement once again tonight, baby. We, it might just be me, but. Bring your turkeys. We're back up. You drained that absolute bottle, so you're, you're, you're, uh... I'm well on my way, George.

I'm well on my way. You know, the great thing about being, uh, experience now. you know, seasoned as a drinker. Just a social drinker, ladies and gentlemen. No, no advertisements for alcoholism over here. But it's easy to, I don't know how everybody else feels, but it's quite easy to avoid a hangover if you're conscious about what you're doing.

Just make sure you stay hydrated, get your water with every drink, and you'll be ready to bounce back the next day. Spoken like a man in his early to mid-30s. Vince, just wait until he hit the wall of 40. Yeah, it's a wall. It's a wall, all right. Not for Colin. Not for Colin.

All right. Hey, anybody else want to say one more thing before we go? Colin. Colin, last word? Well, I always get the last word. I blame Drew for not getting his water bottle in because in front of us there was a giant, ass trophy that someone had somehow snuck into the stadium and was holding up. So I feel like if

that can get in, Drew can get in his water bottle. Drew maybe a little too transparent with the, was that what it was? No, that's fair. No, that's fair. So they did bag checks on, I guess, random people. I don't know. I was like, I have no idea what she's telling me I can't take in. This is the most, like, benign possible contents of a backpack. I don't understand. I'm going to say one thing I've noticed about Drew on this trip is that he, he externalizes his inner monologue. I've said this already to him, so he knows that, and so I'm imagining that as he went through the ticketing booth, he was saying, like,

got my water bottle, oh, got my bottle bottle in, nope, here's my , oh, I'm going to drink some water. And then they were like, oh, that guy's got a water bottle. Like, let's get it. I was being so, like, secret agent level, like, just complete perfect stealth. There's no chance. They had no idea what's in there. They were shocked to find

it. Yeah. Did not zero telegraphing of that situation, so. All right. All right. You know, but nope. But hey, got to interrupt it one more time, Bill. I'm sorry.

But I do want to say, when we went out last night, it was me and Zach, and I got a shout out Zach because we talked to a couple Milan supporters. Well, he talked to a couple Milan supporters that could not speak English. And he held it down. A full Italian conversation. My man's been putting in that work on the duo lingo. And I was quite impressed. I was quite late.

These dudes did not really speak English whatsoever. And we were able to communicate through translators at. He's doing like, well, when he's in line, he'll pull up his phone and practice phrases. You know? Because we are spending some time in line, as you might imagine. And I have to say, that was like the first few days here. I was very in my head about, not even. I don't know about in my head, but it's just like, maybe I wasn't my head.

About what? About not being able to speak Italian? Not being able to speak Italian, but just like, sounding like a man who was trying to speak Italian, but speak it very badly. And, but there's vulnerability in that, right? When you don't, first of all, you don't know what's going on. You're with a whole, you're immersed in a whole new culture. and you're trying to figure out what's going on,

keep your bearings around you, and self-conscious about people not thinking you're an idiot. But, Zach, no shame in his game. You put it all out there, and he put it on a masterclass performance, bro. I mean... Well done, Zach. Like we talked about the other day. It's easier to do something that it is to not do something.

I mean, it's harder to do something that is not to do something. You love Theodore Roosevelt. Zach was the man in the arena, bro. Exactly was the man in the arena for sure Putting on for us People respect it You know I mean they respect it if you try

It's the most fun language to speak It is I think I'm yeah I'm seeing that as a As I spend more time You just gotta go for it I listen to listen to people talking and whatnot I'm like They know something

They got they got something special With their language I do get a little hop in my step Every time I say Per favor Yeah Just got to go for it Yeah. Yeah, and now I'm getting comfortable putting the, the, the, the, the, the, the, I was just, I was just, because now that, you know, the gratia.

Now I'm throwing, I'm throwing a little flourish on the end. Yeah, man, Vincenzo. Most, the most ardor. Yeah. Which, oh, oh, one more thing. My, uh, my grandpa was really excited about me coming here because, uh, uh, my grandpa, was really excited about me coming here. because we're Italian, allegedly. Ah. I don't know. My mom's maiden name is Gradigo.

And my grandpa, Cajun man from Houston, says that his dad's side of the family originated from Florence, Italy. Really? Yeah. And his sister's done some research on it. Apparently, it's true. But, yeah.

I'm feeling at home. Yeah. Good. Except for the time, listener, when the... Oh, we got to tell people about this. Yes. When our Italian tour guy told me I looked like Alfonso Davies and Thomas Party. I was waiting for a third, and I was dreading...

You know, well, let's go ahead and go through this list. I've been building it in my head. This is a great time to share this listener. So just the checklist of Italian moments, things you want to see, or things that you expect to see. when I came to Italy. So, number one, as soon as we got off the plane, grabbed our bags, got a cab.

It was a man with a van, and it was like, I think there were six of us, five of us. And so the van was perfect for us to get into town from the airport. And as he was picking up my bag, which I had to pay a $200 fee because I didn't weigh the thing before I left. But anyway, as he's picking up, he gave me a Mamma Mia, which instantly, fresh off the plane, I'm like, all right, I'm here, baby. So, yeah, we got the Mamma Mia first.

Number two, when we go biking, I get my first taste of that good old Italian racism, baby. Artur guy, the Renzo, who, overall, I'm not mad at him. I'm not mad at him. You know how it goes. famously, Syria had the anti-racism campaign with different colors of guerrillas. I don't know if y'all remember that.

From Chimper. Oh, Colin, correct. Chimpanzees, I think. But I think 2021, 2022. Sorry, the tour guide for our little bike trip was going around telling everybody who they look like. And he was like, you,

at Thomas Party. You know Thomas Party? I'm like, yeah, I'm a Arsenal fan. He's like, you kind of look like him. And I was like, ah, here we go. And then he came back around. He was like, Alfonso Davies, too. And I'm like, ah, okay.

But then, so saving grace for Lorenzo. I brought up Western McKinney later. He did not tell me I look like Western McKinney. So two out of three, he's not out. You know what I'm saying? He's still fighting. He's still at the at-bat, still fighting, man. So, can we, can I jump me here?

Because I know something funny about Lorenzo. Yeah. Do you remember last year we went climbing and Colin got to the top and Colin, it was a real achievement. You were worried you wouldn't make it. And can you do it for us? Yeah, Davide, our climbing guides, when Colin got to the top of the mountain and laid down in the grass, it was a moment of triumph of glory and redemption, all of those things. David goes

One small step for the man One big step for the mankind Yes And this year Alini unfortunately Alini didn't make it On the bike trip with us But at the moment

When we lost her Lorenzo came up with Just a equally memorable line Which I'll let you He said We lost one soldier But the battle goes on But the battle continues

But the battle goes on Yeah yeah So anyway, we're now two for two on... Yeah, he's a young man. He's only like 20... I think he said he was 23. 23. But, you know, Vince doesn't look like Alfonso Davies at all.

That's crazy. You know what? But he was a nice kid. You guys might be related. You and Lorenzo. May Lorenzo? Yeah. Maybe.

Maybe, bro. That might surprise him. He took us on e-bikes around, up to the catacombs, Callisto, and... Saw some aqueducts and stuff. Yeah, great, great tour guide, I want to say. It was really good. You may listen to this episode, and so we want to say thank you, Lorenzo, for the excellent tour. Yeah, he was a likable person.

All right, Drew. Just a shout out to Lorenzo for finishing the Giro de Italia that we did with a flat tire, and having to kind of manually power through that because he was devastated after the end of it. He's a guy that does these bike tours, so you know it had to suck. He was done, though. That was his last action of the day. All right, hey, we got to get out of here. Thanks, everybody for listening.

Thanks everybody for being up on this rooftop with us. It makes it more fun for sure. We'll see you.