Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #596: Richards wins an FA Cup, Tillman seals another title for PSV

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Vince, Watke and Belz reconvene after the trip to Rome. Lots of celebrations from the weekend to recap, plus we talk about Rome and the football we saw there a bit, Milan's struggles, and the USMNT roster coming out tomorrow. 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, we're about two weeks away from the Friendly Against Turkey in Connecticut. Another opportunity for the boys to rejuvenate interest in the national team. A preliminary roster is, a preliminary roster has been released. The roster for the friendlies against Turkey and Switzerland will come out soon. Let's start with the roster news. Well, first of all, hey, Vince, just back from Rome two days ago. Chris, how are you doing?

I'm delighted to hear about your trip. To whatever extent you're planning on talking about the trip during the podcast. I think it'll come up. It'll probably come up. Vince, how are you doing? You all rested up now? Sure. As rested up as I can be, I guess.

But, yeah, I'm feeling good. It's crazy, though, how, like, you get back and life just hits you, boom. In the face, you're back in the thick of it. Back in the thick of it. I was very happy to see my kids. Yeah. Very happy to see my wife, my lovely wife, Kristen, who was taking care of both kids while I was away. Gallivanting, dancing at the sanctuary for five hours.

She actually, uh, Kristen actually texted me while I was in the sanctuary. She said, I see you at the sanctuary. Yeah. have a location. I was like, yeah, it's litter here, babe.

So you told it, Chris, the sanctuary is a nightclub that two Polish or three Polish people told us about at a gelato shop late one night.

And I don't know if we want to tell the whole story, but it is, it was a place where dreams are made. And we got turned away one night, but Vince went back

the next night and got in. Yeah, that's right. After I'd already left. me I was out of the project. They told me I was out of the project. But as we know, as we know, that doesn't keep, that doesn't keep us down, you know what I'm saying? The American spirit is just too strong to be told we're out of the project. We're coming back, baby. Where did you draw the courage or confidence to go back and try a second time? Well, okay, so it hurts so much

to get turned away that first time. Yeah, I can't imagine. If I was, there. Thank God it wasn't. I would have been too upset by that. I would have stopped you. It's not safe. We need to protect ourselves. So, okay, I guess I'll throw the shout out here to Zach. Who's on the trip with us? Zach, uh, Perinello? Perrello. Okay. He's the one that came up with the game plan. He actually got on the Google machine and was like, oh, I see here that they got a flyer for, uh, for the ability to you just skip the line and just enter before 1 a.m. for the next day.

So this is Friday. Okay. Let me just tell you the whole story. Okay. So Friday. Okay. We pull up. Okay.

Thank you. We have been, we had talked about, did you listen to any of the other pods? Okay. No. I know nothing. I forgot you guys were even going. I say forgot. I didn't know.

So I didn't know. I think it's because I was. so difficult trying to, when you're playing in the last one, you're like, we're not even going to mention this trip. So Friday, we have been hyping it. We mentioned it on the Thursday episode, I want to say.

They were going out. I was feeling great because that Wednesday night, I had a great night out, whatever, Thursday morning. They wake me up. Bells wakes me up like five minutes before we had to jump out here on this patio and record. I hop on there. I'm doing the thing. I'm feeling like

I just conquered something. And I'm like, we're going back out, you know what I'm saying, tonight, the next night, the next night. Listener, I'll have you know that I took an L that night, that Thursday night. I actually left dinner early. I had to go home because I was feeling bad, even to the point to where once I stepped outside from the restaurant to, like, get my Uber, I started having, like, severe, like, shivers. You know, like the cold shivers, like, you got a fever or something. I couldn't stop my body from shivering.

It was crazy. Anyway, so I go home, tuck myself in bed. I got a little measly blanket. It's not enough. It's not enough. And so I'm in bed and I'm shivering, I'm shivering, I'm shivering. And I hear the rest of the people that live in the little apartment finally come home. And I'm hearing, like, I'm upstairs.

And I'm hearing everybody rumbling around. Everyone else stays downstairs. There would be no reason for anybody to come up there at all. And so I put it in the little WhatsApp group. I'm like, somebody, please come help me. I'm in dire need. I'm very cold. And I need, like, and I can't, there's a blanket probably like five feet away from me.

But I'm too weak and frail to be able to get up and get it. And so Adam Bells comes to my rescue. He grabs the, he comes up. He says, what's going on? I said, bro, I'm cold. I'm shivering. I need somebody to tuck me in. Adam Bells tucks me in, ladies and gentlemen.

make sure they arrange the sheets properly. He straps me. I didn't know he was going. I didn't expect him to do all this, but he's traveling. He takes me down to the bare bones, takes everything off of me, and make sure he,

he arranges everything properly. Like he takes the sheets down and we're going to reset the whole thing. Reset the whole thing. It was a tuck, yeah, it was a tuck-in reset, complete. And did you say anything that led him to that or is that he kind of take control?

I took control situation. Really, I just wanted the big blanket on me. But he was like, nah, this ain't the way. It's ain't the way to do events. Let's go ahead and get this thing situated. So four layers of blanketing later, I'm as, I'm as snug as a bug and a rug. And I get a solid, I get a solid like 11 hours of sleep after that. Boom.

Okay. So that was an L, that Thursday. Which was priming me for the Friday. Right? So it was like Friday. All right, y'all, we go into the sanctuary. The Polish people I told us they was in there dancing for like six hours. I'm like, bro, I can't wait.

I need to dance. I got all this energy. I got those pent up energy, whatever. So we hype it amongst the group. Anybody who wants to come can come. Whatever. So we meet up at some like bars behind like where we're staying at, whatever, and get the group together. All right, we're like, all right, we're doing this.

We're going to the sanctuary. Go to the sanctuary. and Bells had like put the bug in my ear before. He had primed me for this. He was like, I was on Reddit and I saw some people say they had got turned away. And I was like, ah, well, we'll see what happened. Waiting in the line for a little bit. Priding in line for about 15 minutes.

Get to the front. And in our time waiting in the queue, we see some people get turned away. We see some people get let in. It doesn't seem to really be a rhyme or reason. and et cetera, et cetera. So anyway, we get to the front. It's me and Bells, like the line isn't wide enough for our whole group to, like, stand next to each other and look like we're just one group, right?

So we get to the front, it's just me and Bells. People are, they're like, too, and body language, everything that I can, that I can assess, that I can see from the lady that's talking to us, let me know that if it was just us, too, we get let in. what she said too Bells was like nah now six

and she looks at us six guys we're like I mean yeah she's like no no not possible not possible she said that probably like 14 times

six guys not not possible not possible I was like ah and then at her last last dash attempt I was like do it too Can I shrink that back down the tooth for you, baby? And she was like, no, no, no, get on out of here.

And so we left, went to a cocktail bar that wasn't too far away from where we were at, got some drinks. Really, we really like powwowed as a group, all six of us, to really determine what had happened there. We also, me and Bells also tried to go back through again, just me and, just me and Bells just to see what would happen. And she was like, no, not possible. not possible. Not happening. Because, I mean, she, surely, she was like, yeah,

y'all trying to break it up and come back through. But at the end of the day, six dudes and six dudes, get out of here. Yeah. Yeah. Let me just add a little color here. It's like right by the Colosseum, you know, just east of the Coliseum.

I don't know. It's like in a castle or something? It's like a big garden. It's like a big garden. Yeah. I don't know. I never got in. It's like a big garden.

And it was the spot. So Vince basically, you had to find a way to lose these guys. No. Get in. Had to lose me. Had to lose me, too. So this is something, Waki, me and Bells talked about this in private, you know, with nobody around.

And I think we came to the right conclusion. Because me and Bells were kind of sick about it. We were sick about it. We were like, yo, if it was just me, it was just, me and you, baby, we would have got in. And we were discussing, did we make the right choice? Did we make the right choice? Should we just win in us two?

Or should we have made sure that we have said the six? And I think we made the right choice. I think we had no regrets from me. It was either all six of us get in or not. How cold would we have been to just on a dime just decide that there were only two of us? That would have been really, that would have been a betrayal. would have been spur of the moment. Not the plan, et cetera.

That's just walking in the sanctuary, looking back like by-suckers, walking in. Anyway, anyway, anyway. So all this happens. While we're at the cocktail bar after, Zach does the Googles and finds the little flyer for the next day.

And so I'm like, okay, I'm feeling good. That even though, okay, so the flyer was like, okay, guys getting free, or not, not free, guys get in, can skip the line and get in before one or whatever. And even on a flyer, it's like management reserves the right to not let your ass in, basically. And, but I was like, I, I wasn't going to be denied, okay? I wasn't going to be denied. The spirit of Weston McKinney was inside of me.

I just saw him play and play well in the study of Olympic call and saw him get an assist. Adam Bells couldn't say that. he didn't see the insistent person I don't know if you you didn't hear about that walking I was in the concession line getting a beer I've really taken a beating for it

And so Yeah I was just I was feeling good that everything was going to work out on Saturday And workout it did baby Workout it absolutely did How many people did you go up I went by myself

Well I The three people came with us I went in I mean we could have all three been together and we would have got in at that point no problem because we were in a different line it wasn't the

it wasn't the one line that we were in this was like the reserved line for people that already got their ticket or whatever the fuck so but yeah I was the first one to test it out

and then once I told everybody else it was good I was like y'all you all come in but anyway got there went in hit the dance floor

religious experience its bills. Like a baptism in there. It was... Wow. Yeah. You missed it, brother. Anyway.

I had a early flight the next morning, so I was... Being responsible, I guess. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot to... There's a lot we could talk about with the trip, but... Let's do some soccer first. Let's let the trip come up where it does. Let's start with the roster news. No Wes.

No waya. No Gio. on the preliminary roster, which means they won't participate in the Gold Cup. I thought they were lying about this whole time. The Geo situations... I thought they was lying about this the whole time, to be honest with you. I did, I did too.

I don't know why. They kept telling us, like, you know, they're not going to be available to us because the Club World Cup. I'm like, what is that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it's... I just don't care about the Club World Cup,

but I guess some people do. I don't know that anyone does. Yeah, I'm very interested to see these crowds in America this summer for the Clare World Cup. Clare World Cup. Well, I mean, these big clubs from Europe are going to get better crowds than the men's national team. We know that for sure. Yeah, it's probably true. It's probably.

But we don't got out of cloud. The geo situation is, yeah, we don't. The geos situation is starting to look really sad. You know, he's not, he's not going to, is he going to participate much for Dormand? What's this about? Tom Bogart said FIFA, U.S. soccer has authorized a special 10-day transfer window from June 1 to 10 ahead of the Club World Cup. And MLS will implement it only for clubs in the tournament. Okay.

Does anybody understand what this means? And is it for Gio? Is it for Gio? I don't find a new club. I mean, it seems like maybe they can theoretically load up and win. Carve out. The Giorina carve out.

Yeah, good. That's what we need. So, you know, tons of names on the preliminary roster. I guess we'll find out soon when what the actual roster is. It could be as soon as later today. I don't really know. I don't think anybody really knows. Really open to your Burrhalcher's name called.

I think that's the kick of the arm this program needs. Yeah. Sebastian is on the 60 man, right? Yeah. And so yeah, Diego's on. Diego Luna's on the 60 man. Brian Gutierrez. Gutierrez has been playing well lately.

Another little bit of scheduling news. So we're playing Turkey on the 7th of June and Switzerland on the 10th of June. So that's, like I said, a little over two weeks away. It's also been announced we're playing Korea on September 6th in New Jersey, a day before Chris's birthday. Yep. And Japan and Columbus on September 9th. So that's what's up. Some nice friendlies.

Lots. Two days after my birthday. Yeah. Yeah. What a birthday present for you. Yeah. Let's talk about Roman Milan, because you were in the stadium. That's right.

Vince Claudio Ranieri's last match. Yeah, there was a lot of problems in circumstance going on. I think I posted a video to the scuff Twitter. You know, the ultras, they had their little, they had their red and yellow placards, flipped them all over. It spelled out Claudio Ranieri on it. It was beautiful to see, beautiful sight,

adored by Roma fans. First off, and let me just talk about, You can tell Roma, as opposed to Lazio, the more cosmopolitan bunch. Roma's the more cosmopolitan bunch? Yeah, when compared to Latio, for sure. Just a lot. It's a different fraction of people. Different faction of people compared to L'O fans.

Are you saying L'Azio fans were more blue-collar or more white? Um, just different. Probably, probably white. Yeah. Um, I don't know, I don't know how to assess Italian blue collar or, uh, moneyed because all of them be dressing their ass off, you know? It, it just Italian put, Italians, man. I mean, you talk about street wear and just, the general fits that they put on daily is

incredible, honestly inspiring. But anyway, um, yeah, just a lot more women. young people, old people, then Lazio, yeah, I would say. Okay, okay. Was it sad to see Milan lose twice in four days? I'm not Milan for you, I mean, shit. Got nothing to do with me.

Yeah. But real quick, I was sitting next to a lady that looked like Claudio Ranieri. I don't, she stayed in, like, after the match, you know, they did like the full, like ceremony. His final goodbyes and everything, and she stayed for a very long time. So I don't know. She might have been a family member. Who's to say?

Who's to say? But anyway, Roma won. And then during the little, well, before they got to the part where they gave Ranieri a gift and everything, have his kids out, his grandkids, kids. I don't know who it was. Everybody's smiling down on them or whatever. They sang a song, Gratzi Roma. The entire stadium sung it.

Beautiful song. It was a great way to cap the trip for me. Because truly, truly, thank you, Rome. You know, what a place. What a city. What a city. And to get to the match, Pully, was fine.

Played a key part on the, well, first of all, first of all, another damn red card, man. Specifically, specifically. I think it's mostly our Italian teams and our boys' teammates to keep getting these ridiculous-ass red cards. I just don't, it's getting ridiculous. It's getting ridiculous.

This time it was Santiago Jimenez. You know, we've had, within the season, we've had a tear Hernandez red card, un excusable. We've had, what's the one we just had this week, Calulu, Red Car for YuVe. They just be putting our boys in terrible situations. Anyway, early red card. Milan was already down 1-0,

conceding a goal off a corner kick. And from that point on, it was, you struggled to see how Milan could, Milan could come back in the match. They actually did play kind of well with 10 men. I got, before I went down that little, that little sidetrack. Yeah, Pully had a key pass. Yeah, key pass on the Milan goal.

that I think was shot at the Roma keeper ricocheted off and then Jow Felix put it home Yeah That was probably Christians like best Best little passes to play in the match Eunice got the start I don't know if y'all are aware of this

Y'all is in person listening to a podcast Eunice got the start at basically wing back Maybe even right back I can't Anyway, he was good. I thought Eunice was actually quite good in this match. Maybe even Milan's best player.

And in the second half, he had two plus-plus moments. One was like a little stab pass around the corner first time. To Jow Felix, who was unmarked in the box, Jow Phelis collects, shoots, puts it over the crossbar. Unfortunate. And then also, there was a nice move to Eunice made where he gets the ball on the right wing. doesn't like his options.

Starts dribbling backwards. Looks like he's about to recycle it to a centerback or whatever. But no, cuts across the grain. So now he's coming across the field a little bit. Plays it over to somebody. And basically that him making that play ends up in Liao 1 v.1 against the keeper. The shot gets stopped. But Jow Felix finishes that chance or Liao finished the other chance.

It could have been different. Sounds like they were a little more lively than they were on Wednesday night. Because Wednesday night we saw them in losing the Copatalia final. And, man, Pulisic did nothing in that match, pretty much. Nothing of nothing good, really. So Eunice had those two plus plus moments. In the first half, his little is like interplay. Within the attack and third was very good.

A lot of depth layoffs. one-touch passes and whatnot to keep to keep some moves going. I was excited about Eunice's performance, I would say. Did you see anything from either these guys that in person deepened your understanding of them? Or something.

You picked up something off of them. I'll say the one thing I saw was Eunice was doing a good job of jamming dudes off the ball on defense. when like all you know he's playing the offensive player is going to make a run he was jamming him like a db he was making sure he got contact in to knock him off the run not let him make it uh as cleanly as they want to and uh he was he was able to disrupt roma's rhythm and doing that that was that was cool to see i like that i noticed um this is something you also see on tv so i don't know how novel it is but um

watching Wes versus Lazio, he did have a good performance in that game. He's just very, he's very confident and comfortable out there. I thought that really came through in person. Like, there was one time where, so the Lazio fans would just whistle deafeningly every time Juventus got into the attacking third. And there was one time where Wes was, I think Colomwani was trying to pass it to West at the top of the box. It got deflected and went on a bounds over the end line.

But Wes just kind of, and the crowd was jeering so loud. And Wes just kind of smiled. Thumbs up to Columwani. Like, he's not troubled at all by all that noise. It was pretty intense, you know. Every time the ball comes in the attacking third, just a wall of noise. Oh, you know what? Another thing.

He wasn't He wasn't He was on the face Yeah So Well Waki if you miss both of our Rome episodes

Then you Then you miss this hypothesis I posed Where both Where the supportive sections Within a match Are both trying to petition To whoever their soccer patron saint is

To shine their favor down upon them So that they may be able to win a soccer game And this is And this truly is is what all the chance are all about. And... Incantation.

Yes. And Milan, like, there's a reason why y'all why y'all not going to Europe. You know, there's a reason.

It's because the boys don't be bringing it. They'll be bringing it. And now, I think this match was like purposely boycotted for whatever reason because they're... You're talking about the Copets?

This Roma match was boycotted or something like that. Which you can do that, understood, but just know that you're not even going to get, you're not even giving your boys a chance at that point. You know, it was over. You were going to need a lot to overcome Claudio Raniari's last match. And now look at you. You know, you got embarrassed twice in Rome in one week. And even when they did try in the Copa Italia match, Bologna's fans put them

to absolute shame. Yeah. But wasn't there some sense that the Milan ultras were doing something a little bit muted at the Coppa Italia fine? I don't care what the hell the excuse is, bro. You either bring it or you don't. You know, look at your dumb ass. You could have brought it. Instead, you wanted to be ironic and cute and do something muted.

And now your ass is going to be muted at home because there ain't going to be no anthem playing at your crib on the midweeks, no Champions League. conference league, Europa League, nothing. You don't talk about muted. Yeah, the anthem will be playing for Inter Milan when they play in championship league. It's just ridiculous. Sounds like Pulc not very happy about how the season is gone

and it's possible he won't sign an extension at AC Milan. Journalist Matteo Moreto reports the following, quote, they got to discussing the contract, figures and numbers, then Pulisic asked for some time before signing because he wants to understand the future at a sporting level. He said, I'll update you. And then the update was that Pulisic's agent has offered Pulisic in Italy and abroad.

To extend the contract with Milan, he is asking for guarantees. So his contract extension is still on hold. Also, Manian's and Teos extensions are on hold. And, yeah, Milan's going to have to rebuild next year. like yeah it might be time bro i do want to say chris that the the study olympico is a little bit like it's a different kind of soccer experience than say the most of the mLS stadiums which are very um vertical and different from the uventus stadium and the san ciro it's more like the rose bowl kind of you know kind of goes out doesn't feel like it's a gigantic stadium necessarily

necessarily. But it is, $72,000. And, man, especially at night when the lights came on, it's a very, very lovely place to see a game. Or three, as the case may be. Because that's where all the games we went to were. Let's move to England. Chris Richards and Matt Turner have won the F.A. Cup.

I believe they are the fourth ever, the third and fourth ever Americans to win the FAA Cup. Who was the first tool? Did you guys know that? Well, one of them was Tim Howard with Manchester United in 2004. And the other was a man named Julian Sturgis. This is Waki Territory here. Julian Sturgis in 1873.

He became the first American-born player to win the F.A. Cup playing for Wanderers FC in 1873. You just don't hear as much about him as you used to. Sturgis Yeah Yeah he's really fallen out of favor Hasn't he Good player Good player

Yeah really creative I'm just kidding I don't know Yeah he was just in an era They didn't quite appreciate Ahead of his time As a player is what I've always Kind of Sturgis

But yeah this is a big deal Chris and Chris played really well I thought very strong in the air Especially against against Erling Holland hits a 50-yard ball in the air to Mattetta's feet right to his feet

keying the move for the goal by Ezee. Did you guys see how Mattara copied Eze's celebration too? He does this every time. He just goes and copies the celebration. He's a funny dude. Because Eze did like the praying hands like this

and Matta Teta did just like a really exaggerated version of it. It made me smile. Remember, he also did the Dion Sanders. Yeah. Dance. What's that called again? Prime shuffle.

Something shuffle. Prime time? Prime time shuffle. Yeah, everyone copies Matta's celebration when he scores as well. Everyone goes and kicks the corner flag. Okay. Mattetta's nice, man. Seems like a fun locker room.

Man, it's nice. That's my favorite non-U.S. soccer player in Europe, I want to say. Probably. Yeah. Really? It's a baller. In general, I thought Richards dealt with the Man City pressure real well. He had a nice step and find a feat in Man City's defensive third.

On the counterpress led to a chance. Very nice block of a shot from a cutting in winger in the dying moments. And he nearly hit just a mythical through ball for Mateta from really deep. It died on the turf as it was just before it could crawl around the last defender into Mateta's path. And I also appreciated that he was angry with Doku for diving earlier in the match. You know, he got a double yellow a few weeks ago. for like a midfield tug and so he knows he knows what's uh what's possible and when doku went down at like very limited contact he was pretty mad he's pretty mad at him so i like to see that

he was telling him to get up stop being nice chris be mean out there and uh matt turner didn't play but he sure did celebrate was he too happy do you think Turner yeah i mean he made the most of it It feels like he is a little unseemly. There's a picture of him like sleeping on the trophy with a beer. Yeah. It seems related to how he kind of talks too much about him. I just have worry. I continue to have worries about him as the number one like everyone.

I mean, imagine being my turn ago, you know. When he was 19, you was on the sports center and not top 10. Now look at him. Yeah. Just like a little. little more discretion. I think discretion probably is the way here. But, you know, on the other hand, he's trying to...

No, no, hold on. Discretion is not the way. How many times you're going to win something in your life? Okay. Right, but I mean, the point is he didn't really... Who cares? Who cares, buddy? You telling me the man shouldn't celebrate.

That's crazy to me. No. Discretion. With some restraint. With some discretion he should celebrate. We don't need you sleeping on the truck. We don't need you posing. Brother, he played three, he played three matches in the FA Cup.

That's his, that's his trophy. That's true. That's true. Yeah. But I do think, yeah, I don't want to die on this hill. I do think it's a little, a little unseemly. But, I mean, we've celebrated other players making sure they're getting in that celebration. I can't do this.

Maybe we're being unfair to math. Because you know what? Vince is. Vince is being fair. me and Bell's been talking this whole time we've been in Rome about the differences between Roman society and the society that we inhabit here in the United States and the fact that they just live life more than us

and how that's something that should be admired the fact that they wear their heart on the sleeves and whatnot and leave it to Adam Bells as soon as he gets back to Chickamauga, Georgia for him to turn for him to turn back into Adam Bell's note No longer at Donald Balazzi. He's back to Adam Bells. And now he's saying, you know,

shut up and save a goal. No. And that could, it sounds, I could have, maybe it, because I didn't have that, I didn't learn that there. And so then Adam, he's talking to me. He was really just feeding off what I said. It went with that.

So it's my fault. And maybe also we just need a little more convict. from Adam if I because I didn't know you had learned that and had shifted how you're thinking and I'm with Vince now kind of disappointed in you yeah I mean I was going to say on the other hand there's a self there's a selflessness in losing yourself in a celebration of a team victory that you maybe didn't have a huge role in yeah he played three of the f a cup games I'm just saying he didn't have a huge role so I like that he he's setting you know setting his ego aside. Just celebrating. I like that part. That's my on the other hand. But yeah, the sleeping

on the trophy thing. I don't know. It's a little much for me. I'm sorry, Adamo Bilazzi. I'm sorry. He also stepped in when Pep was getting on to Dean Henderson after the game. There's a video on the BBC. You need a VPN to watch it. But yeah, he, you know, he said, hey, Pep, chill out, buddy. Go to your tunnel. All right. Dean Henderson was wearing a baseball cap and John with Guardiola. But, I mean, it's a huge, huge, huge thing for Crystal Palace. We should try to get Jack Pierce, shouldn't we?

You text me that, Vince, a couple days ago. He hit us up on the scuffed account. He was like, let me know if I go. Okay, let's get him. ASAP, maybe Monday. I'll work on that. Also, PSV. won the Air Divisi.

They got Malik Tillman back in the lineup, got him back from injury, and all of a sudden, right to the top. Iax fell apart. Destin Tillman both started in this game at Sparta, Rotterdam, a game they had to win. Malik scored, as you all probably know. Let me play the clip of it, because it's pretty remarkable. Got Till in the center. It was 2-1 at this point. Tillman!

Surely that's it. Jubilation for PSV is going to stay in Einhoven. That roar is from the away fans for PSV in a little 11,000 seat stadium. It's a big moment. sealing the second straight title for PSV. I know he's not been very good for. for the U.S., but when it comes to fun and sort of transcendence per minute for their club this season, I think the winner is Malik.

He's doing these highlight videos where he does kind of a dramatic voiceover. His own voice? Yeah. Nice. Yeah. Did it one put one out where he's talking about how everything can change in a minute. It's true. usually things don't change like that but yeah got evidence of that man

what we just talked about I thought I thought we had read some type of epiphany Adam Bells but he changed right back on me just because I think the Matt Turner picture was too much well the Matt yeah I hate to have switched completely on this Adam but him laying down with the trophy is I think that sounds exactly like what the Romans would living loving living life would do. So I don't think that I think that's where you should see that

and think, oh, I got to disagree with... You would think. Chris on this. Yeah. My apologies, I guess. Malik was flying around, flying around on the ball, flying around against the ball,

playing really good defense. He was asked if PSV missed him during their difficult part of the season. He said, quote, I guess. If you say so, then yes. But we are one team. I'm just one player.

It's nice to have the team and it's time to celebrate. Is it time to make a bold prediction that this U.S. camp is going to be the time? It's got a lot. And he has at least a passable. We need it so bad. He looks like he can be on the field with us. Yeah. We need Malik to play well this summer for the national team so badly.

It will be cool. it's really important. That's the main thing we need. I mean, there's some other stuff we need to work out, but there's a couple other things, yeah. That's what we're looking for. Yeah, just give me, I think it's going to be like, he'll give us a goal from outside the box,

and then it'll start from there. Like, I think the choppy Malik play continues, and then you get a nice goal from outside the box, and it opens it up. Floodgates. Man, that would be beautiful. He was named Football International's

Player of the Season in the Air Divisi I think he is like sort of he's the consensus MVP of the league and that's really something he's right in the center

of the picture that PSV put out with their with their title victory right above Bosch he's ready for us now he just need to really

figure it all out on his own before he could perform with a national team. Yeah. It's part of his personality. He had to find his own way. That's right. Let's pray that he found it.

After the game, he immediately started drinking champagne straight from the bottle. This does seem to be, after a celebration, he's going to get a little bit drunk. Yeah. I mean, probably a little bit. Too drunk too quickly. But I'm not worried about that.

You exert yourself like that for 90 minutes and jump straight into champagne. You can be stumbling around. You need to get a meal in him. They call him a tequila Tillman. They do. Forget about that. Yeah, he's kind of a legend now. He was like pulling from a champagne bottle during an on-field interview.

He saw that the camera was on him and then he ducked out of the frame, you know. Lots of celebrations at the stadium Then a day later in front of Einhoven City Hall Like kind of look like a rave I mean there's like a four-hour video of it on YouTube That you can watch if you know If you want And another American

Ricardo Pepe Made an appearance at that one He's wearing a t-shirt with a picture of Bosch Smoking a cigar on it A wrap-around Wrap-around black sunglasses like the kind you wear When you're weed-whacking the yard a scarf tied over his head like a kerchief.

And this is what he said. Family, family, family. Unfortunately, my season came to an end at an early stage. I will promise you guys one thing, though. I will be back next year. And we're going to go for the third one. Three in a row. Let's fucking go.

Let's go! Oh, yeah. Ricardo. Maybe Malik shared a little tequila with him. I hope. He's feeling good. He's giving speeches. Yeah.

Wonderful. Is he on a preliminary? Good question. Let me look. Really? Damn. He's not. Yeah.

Damn. Jack McGlynn is. Yeah, I don't want to see it. Guess what? Quinn Sullivan's middle name is. Oh, hold on, hold on. You'll never guess, unless you don't already know it.

Is it Brendan? It's probably like a city. Yeah, it's like a, is it tell you ride or something? It's, you're in the right ballpark. It's K-R-I-P-E-N-D-O-R-F. It's probably like a castle in Germany or something. That's a very silly name. Yeah.

Malik's middle name is Leon. Lion in Spanish. Leone. Anyway. That's good to know. I could work itself into a nickname. Yeah. At some point, the lion.

Once he's a stalwart. My only other thought about PSV, other than congratulations to them, congratulations to Ernie, congratulations to Richie Ledesma, is that Desl looks, I think you mentioned this in a past episode, but he does look like he,

He's spent some time in the weight room. That's the one thing we know him to do. He's a little more solid, a little more stocky. Celtic won the Scottish premiership for the 55th time. Fifty-fifth time. Congrats to trustee and CCV. Giorina and Dortmund beat John Tolkien and Holstein-Keel three to zero. Raina was on for the last 11 minutes.

It's a stretch to say that he helped them beat. I mean, with my apologies to Adamo Balazzi and everyone else, he didn't really play that much of a role in this game. But Reh Alsociadad is supposedly interested in Gio. Go to San Sebastian, you know. That's according to Patrick Berger, Sky Sports Reporter. And I don't know, it just seems kind of sad. apparently he was seen crying,

leaving the field for Dorman. He was crying, bro. Hard. End of an era. What was he? What is he? Yeah.

He's leaving Dorman, bro. It's a wrap. Yeah. He has to leave. They don't want him anymore, right? They've said as much. Bro was worth $45 million on the transfer market. What, two years ago?

I'm not, I'm excited about this. We're looking forward, man. We're looking forward. That's right. Solo Palante. That's right. All right. No, I was just saying that's right.

Juventus beat Udinez at Home 2-0 after that one-one draw last week that we witnessed. Weston's contract renewal is also on hold. Vince and I went around the stadium before that game and interviewed people. you know, Juventus fans about Wes, and I just put that video up on Twitter if anybody wants to check it out. It's good. It's fun. There's a little kid at the end who says,

people say he's useless, that he should be sold. He says this in Italian, that he should be sold, but he has always only been respected by a few players, even if just a few, but those with a true heart. No, but those who believe in him

and have a true heart. That's right. A kid was spitting. I had no clue what he was saying at the time. I know. And he smiled right. He smiled right after he said the true heart thing. Boy was spinning.

He was a cute kid. Did he seem like he was a real West supporter? Oh, no. He was a real West supporter. Yeah, he seemed like. He even came up to us. There were some people we talked. He even came up to us after, like, we got done talking to him.

It was like, do y'all know him? Like, you know what I'm saying? Can y'all get him over here? I'm trying to meet my. I'm trying to meet the man. No, unfortunately. You don't got those type of connects. He was a nice kid.

There were some people we talked to who were like, Weston is a good player, but maybe they didn't believe it completely. But not him. He believed it. Bournemouth lost 3-1 to Man City. Baligan, not in the, so that would be Tyler Adams relevant.

And then Baligan was not in the squad for Monaco. I say we go straight to MLS. Well, hold on real quick before we get out of here. Well, before we get out of Europe, West did come off injured for UVA, but they're saying there's just a bone bruise, which that's what it looked like to me. It didn't look like something crazy serious.

He even tried to play through it. And for me, if you try to play through it, you're probably going to be all right. It's not a muscle thing if you try to play through it. So anyway, Wes is good. Also, it's important to note. He keeps finding his way back into the midfield. Even with this new manager that started him off as a wingback,

he's really started playing well for, was it, Tudor? Once the bros started to put him in the midfield, I mean, and shout out to all that to tell you, because it seemed like they knew ball too. It was like his best position is in the midfield. So anyway. Also, I just want to throw it out there. we were talking about this while walking back from

Stadeo Olimpico after Roman Boulin I was talking to Jeff about this and once I really got to talking it became obvious to me next trip needs to be England I'm thinking this is what I'm thinking got to figure out we got to figure out tickets

that's the key that's the key component well if we can just just theoretically you know if we can get us a born mid-fullam Crystal Palace Europa League midweek Oh man, beautiful.

Anyway, that's for That's for the board reading. The fire. So Speaking of a team where it's not hard to get tickets. Chicago Fire. Not yet. Not yet.

It's not. It will be. Yeah. Well, they're coming. They're coming on strong. They beat Charlotte on the road, four to one. Gooty scored twice.

One really nice one. and another on a penalty. He was also the fulcrum in the middle of the pitch and the build-up to both of Chicago's other goals. Five goals, one assist in nine matches. He also missed a big chance, a very big chance. Kind of chance that if he missed one like that for the national team, people would never forgive him.

But he just took a touch when he should have bundled it in. But that's okay. Ajumang also looked, I think, dangerous in this game and scored a nice goal. Any thoughts? some Burrhalter? Well, he's put together

just a terror of a road team. Yeah. I think it was smart to kind of get that going first before figuring out a home. Home performances. Yeah, kind of the opposite

of his national team. Yeah. Record. Jack McGlynn had another bombazzo. Dude is just lethal from 25 yards and got the game winner I think it was against Dallas.

Is he on your roster? But I wouldn't be mad if he was on it. I think that's pretty much it from us today. We got new kits. What did you guys think of the kits? Look fine to me. Kind of like dark blue. They seemed fine.

Alexi Lawless didn't like him. I don't like Alexi Lawless, so let's look out of here. How about that? You know that Alexi? Care about Alexie Lollos. We don't care what you think about these jurisdictions. Bro, I truly can't believe. You don't talk about somebody that embarrass itself on the national stage

while representing the U.S. MES national team. Alexi Lawless. I mean, that video of him on the bench and that, we played Idan, right, in that World Cup, where we were already eliminated. He's on the bench smiling. Yeah. How did he come back from that? Well, I know how he came back from that, but, you know.

Confidence. That's right. Yeah. Confidence. Fair skin. He's tweeting a lot about politics. Way more than... Time and... Content.

He's the number of it. He's a number of them. We just need to do fewer. Just make, like, one really good one a day about politics. Hey, man, speaking of politics, you all see... You don't need six. You don't need threats. He was at a...

No. I want to say he was at the rodeo or something. Okay, it's a picture. He says PBR 2025 and six exclamation points. And he's posted up with U.S. Border Patrol. He's taking a pick with two Border Patrol agents. And John has a cowboy hat on and a shirt that says, come and take it. It's great.

It's great. I love all of that. I think what is the so I know I'm going to get left out for this but what is the picture underneath where it says come and take it I don't know what that is that like a cruise missile or something that's bro you have to ask yeah okay it doesn't make any sense to me I don't know what that is it is it like is it a cruise missile is it a joint it's not a gun yeah it's not a gun doesn't look like I think it could be some type of military ammunition something but I've seen people like, for instance, this post was posted in bad vibes only on the scuff Discord. And I would like to say it is not bad vibes. And let me tell you why. Because it's the Border Patrol. Now, if you took this pick with ICE, we'd have some issues.

But the Border Patrol, Border Patrol has been there for a long time. You know what I'm saying? We'd have it be an even funnier picture, though, if he... It would be a funny picture, but we'd also have some reckoning. to do with with our podcast patron site, John McKinney. But with Border Patrol,

it's a very, John McKinney controlling the situation here. It's very adept, what he did, very deaf touch. Because Border Patrol, like I said, been there the whole time, okay?

This isn't, this isn't some new thing that, uh, that we're now weaponizing because of a change of, uh, administration or whatever.

No, Border Patrol has been border patrolling for as long as... Is he down at the border? Is he in Texas? He's in Texas. He's in Texas. You know. But Border Patrol

been patrolling that border for as long as we had a border. And, you know, you could... Migrants and Border Patrol been going at it for a long time. Similar to Wiley Coyote and the Roadrunner. You know what I'm saying? It's like, well, each one's trying to outfox the one another.

And I can't say maybe you'll be able to pull up some articles on me. But I can't necessarily say that Border Patrol just by in itself, by existing, is an evil organization. Nations have borders. Newsflash, buddy. They have borders. They have people guarding them. And they have soccer dads. We're going to take pictures with them.

We're not going to apologize for me. And you know what? Another thing. Another thing. You know, people, I told some people I was going to Rome, right? I told a lot of people I was going to Rome. And they would be like, well, make sure you're telling me you're not American. You know, make sure you're going abroad later this month. And I told my family to make sure that we have Canadian shirts on and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Let me tell somebody. The American brand is so strong. I don't give a fuck what's going on. the brand is strong, bro.

And no matter what's happening, there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff happening that I do not agree with. But the idea that we should run and hide and put our tails between our legs and, you know, not look people in the eyes because we're all so embarrassed to be American. You tell people you're American, people's eyes be like, crazy talk.

They're like, damn. You're from the land of opportunity. And we can debate. We can debate how much opportunity there really is here, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All I'm saying is the brand is strong. The actuality can be something different or whatever. And I'm sure that Bob being the Pope has helped tremendously. Man, what a great turn for us there.

But that's part of it, though. It's like, bro, the brand is never going to. It's just never going to die. our semi-racist Italian bike tour guy he couldn't shut up about his favorite Pixar pictures. You know what I'm saying? Like, we are entrenched

and... He told Vince he looked like... First he told Vince he looked like Thomas Party. The... Arsenal Newfielder. And then he told Vince that he looks like Alfonso Davies. Like, he doesn't look like Alfonso Davies at all.

What do you talk about, dude? He was, I mean, he felt like he was going to keep going down the list if we hadn't sort of changed the subject. Well, Chris, let me tell you the saving grace. I brought up Weston McKinney. He did not say that I looked like West McKinney. He just kept going to listed a lot of. He wriggled out of there. So I'm glad he.

He also took us, he also took us like 20 yards past this mausoleum on the, this doesn't have anything to do with racism. It just made me talking about Lorenzo, it made me think of it. 20 yards past this mausoleum on the Appian way. And then we stopped, and we turned around and he said, he pointed, he talked about the mausoleum we were right next to, and then he pointed back at the one that was 20, 30 yards away. And he goes, that's Seneca's mausoleum,

Seneca's tomb. And we were like, well, why didn't we stop there? Why don't we stop by the tomb? I mean, Seneca seems like a big deal. But he was fun. He was very informative guy. I want to say this about Vince in Italy. He was a big hit.

So there's some black people in Italy, but not very many, right? Is that fair to say? That's fair to say, buddy. You know, there are like a lot of African guys selling bracelets and stuff. Every time we went by one of those bracelet guys, they were like, they saw Vince and, man, their eyes lit up. That's right. They wanted to talk to him. They wanted to commune.

And literally every time, bro. It was beautiful. I mean, in the sanctuary, if I, there's some black people in the sanctuary, every single one of them. This is held a certain, her to, held a certain kinship. I mean, even like, okay, so I got, got matter one bracelet dude, right? I had ended up giving them, or John, actually, I'd end up giving them like three euros for the bracelet he put on my wrist.

And then we were on our way. But all the other ones, once I got hip to the game, and I was like, no, I don't got no money. Don't put this bracelet on my wrist, sir. But I was just like, man, take it, take it, man. There's things that matter more than money. It would be like, yeah, yep, it was great. The kinship between me and my African brothers in Italy, this thing to behold. Yeah, it was.

All right, we'll have more to say about the trip. Go ahead. Well, my sister went to Rome like three years ago, just by herself. And I asked her what her experience was. I asked her where her experience was, and it was like total opposite of mine. She said people were just making medicine stares at her. And one dude tried to not let her off the train at one point, et cetera. Yeah.

Oh, you know what? Some more racism. These dudes are so casually racist. Let me tell you. Okay, we went to get breakfast. Sunday morning. So we had to leave the Airbnbs. Everybody was staying for Roman Milan.

We had to leave our Airbnbs and meet up. Store our bags somewhere until we could check into the new B&B, right? And so we store our bags. We go get some breakfast somewhere. And this dude and the chef, like the dude, dude that's like been taking an order or whatever. He comes up to us and he was like, yo, he knew we were tourists, obviously. But he was like, hey, guys, just in case he get on the metro or anything, make sure you,

make sure you watch your pockets. You know, people will be pickpocketing out there in the metro. He said, they'll come up to you. They'll have their hand wrapped up in a jacket and they'll try to like rub it, rep against your arm and then they'll try and get into your pockets or whatever. We're like, oh, okay, okay, thanks, man, thanks, man. etc. So he leaves that.

I think that, I thought that was it. He comes back like five minutes later. He was like, it's the Latinos and the gypsies. He was like, it's because you laugh. I forgot to tell them which races. He was like, if you see Latinos or gypsies,

be on high alert. Be on high alert in the metro, man. They're going to try and get. to. Not a lot of Latinos in Italy. I mean like zero. Yeah. I saw some Peruvian guys at one of the pizza places we went to.

But I would that's one thing that really struck me coming back to the airport in Atlanta going through customs is I had just come from a nation that is not a nation of immigrants. Italy. You know, it's beautiful and there's wonderful to visit. But it is striking when you come back to America and you stand in customs and you got every kind of person in line with you. It's not like that in Italy, not by and large. I don't know. We have a lot of problems in our country that I do not want to minimize in the least. But it's pretty cool.

It was pretty cool for me to come back and see. you know, just like we've somehow figured out how to make it work to some extent. People from all over the world live in here in the former Confederacy, Atlanta, Georgia. I don't have anything else to say.

And we'll end on that? I'm also, I'm not totally sure, but I think one of the dudes at the gate at Roma Milan might have called me a gorilla. I'm not totally sure. He was speaking of, Italian. But I think the dude this came my ticket. Maybe, maybe. I, I don't

speak Italian. Yeah. I don't know. It hit me after. That's not. That's not good. With all this being said. Shout out Italy, though, bro. I ain't going to like to. Fuck with the place, man. Yeah. It's amazing country. I think, I think just keep going back to his.

That's kind of what I'm feeling like. But England, be cool. England be cool. All right, let's get out of here. Thanks everybody for listening. We'll do another show maybe where we get organized about what we want to say about Rome at some point. But we'll see how that goes. And we've got Leander Shirelockins coming next week.

I think a lot of you know who he is. And then we've got these games coming up. So stay tuned. Stick with us. We'll see you.