Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #685: Check-in from Amsterdam, Scally's goal

Episode Date: April 24, 2026

Vince and Belz discuss the Gladbach-Mainz match on Sunday, Scally's goal, and a few other things outside the hotel in Amsterdam the morning before we headed to Eindhoven for the PSV-Zwolle match. Got a couple listener questions in. 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 When we talk about U.S. soccer. Hey, everybody, we're at the Ruby Hotel just off the Amstall River in Amsterdam sitting on the patio on a crisp morning. We're going to take in PSV Einhoven versus PEC's wool this evening, but our train to Einhoven isn't for a couple hours,

so we've carved out a few minutes to record a quick show with the help of our fellow travelers. Vince, how you doing? I'm doing great, Adam Bells. You know, I'm just in Amsterdam to be able to, you know, once again explore one of the world's great cities. With my Scuff family, you know, it's an experience that cannot be replicated or duplicated. So I'm feeling great, man. I'm feeling extremely grateful, you know?

Yeah, for sure. Reverend, humbled. How about you, Adam Bells? I really, I'm really enjoying Amsterdam. I love the, I mean, it's an obvious thing, but I love the, but I love the, but I love the, bikes. I love the bike lanes. Been biking around a lot the last 24 hours. But, you know, the first thing we got to get, well, I've got to ask, how are you all doing?

How's everybody doing? We're feeling great. All right. We're going to get some listener questions and comments in. Less than enthusiastic, I would say. What? It's 10 a.m. understood, but a little less than enthusiastic. I would say that response is, I mean, we're out here in the crisp, you know, morning, you know, weather, you know, something that snaps you right up.

You know, when you walk outside your house in the morning, I get to work. You're groggy, you kind of, you know, going through your house, shuffling or whatever. But when that wind hits you, once you get outside, it usually always wakes you up. It's like everything going technical color and the Wizard of Oz. Exactly. Exactly. So I assume that phenomenon has happened for everyone in the audience, and that is all we can muster. So, I mean, it is understood, though.

I think, you know, it's an incident will do it to you. It's a beautiful city. It's a beautiful city. Let's talk first about Gladbach, because we were there on Sunday. We interviewed the head of the International Academy, and that episode has dropped already. But we also witnessed the game and a Joe Scali goal. First thing I want to talk about is your reaction to my excitement about the Scali goal. I think your exact words were Scali lads only get away.

Yeah, yeah, something like that. Get away, get out of here. Get away, get out of here. You can't do that. Yeah, man, this is far as my scally labs. Way back when, bro. What are we talking about? 21, I want to say, 22.

When Joe first came on the seat, it had to be 21. Doing his thing, and, you know, I jumped on his back. I jumped on his back, man. I've made the Scali Ladd fan group that, I mean, this was before, you know, we're up with the, oh, the season overall, we'll get to it. We're up with the troubadours, obviously. But, you know, Scali lives with the first one,

near and dear to my heart. So Joe Scali, as a player, even as boring as he's turned out to be, still near and dear to my heart, to bless my appearance in Gladbach Stadium with the goal, I mean. And you felt possessive of that experience.

Yeah. Bro. It's been a long way coming. I'm tearing up thinking about it. You know, I really feel emotions welling up inside of me. Because, you know what? You guys think I'm just, I just talk to talk. No, all these words are emotional connections that are either tearing or forming within my heart.

So when I spend time talking about somebody, you know, you spend time watching them. Yeah. Fully assessing the cut of their jib. It is, you know. Making an entire fan club for somebody, you know, you get kind of emotional. And you know what? And this is one thing that I was thinking about as far as we went to the VINCAP. Van Gogh Museum yesterday.

Stick with me. Stick with me. Went to the Van Gogh Museum. And the most beautiful thing, I think, almost cried in there, too. I did cry in there. The most beautiful thing is the fact that his sister-in-law carried on the legacy. Right?

What did she do? She became a Vincent Van Gogh stand. Okay. Now, turn it to modern times. You see staying groups, fighting it out on the internet, the people that, you know, can turn everything that can turn everything that happens, whether good, positive or negative with the person,

into something positive. What I'm saying is these are the people that we're fighting up against that are going to shape history. The stand groups are going to shape history. Vincent Van Gogh's sister-in-law was a Vincent Van Gogh stand. So what I'm saying is these things may seem trivial on the inner webs when you're fighting against these people. But whoever comes out on top will be able to write history.

And so, as someone that felt passionate enough about that to carry this legacy on, for somebody who's an interloper, for someone who only comes in when there are good times, and then what's to party with us? You didn't build this, brother. You didn't build it. No, I didn't. You didn't build it. You were on the moat.

We've already sent a couple of arrows your way because we don't know you. You've been long gone. Long gone. You've banished yourself. The ultimate betrayal. It'd be different if it was, if I had. If I was Waddling, and I was like, you know what, this is a good point for me to accept you back into the fold because I, you know, didn't give you a fair shake and I just kicked you out. No, you left yourself, and now you want to come back in once you see the man received the ball on his left foot, take it, beat the defender on the receipt, gets it on his left foot and puts it on the far left corner.

I'm sorry. No, I mean. I know that was a long way to go about it, bro, but I really had to get all this out. You misunderstand when I turned to you and I said, what a finish. That was not me asking to be let in. That was, I'm still out and happy to be out on Joe Scali. But I can enjoy, I can enjoy a nice finish in a Bundes League of game. Should have been a game winner.

But this is how the weakest stand groups get rooted out of history. They allow, they allow sleeper cells inside their group. I think they can fraternize with you. Read a book. You heard about the Black Panthers, brother? I mean, what? What are we talking about? We need ideological purity.

You need ideological purity. I need to stay with the people that have started with. Okay. You know what I'm saying? So that's why I did that way. But, Belle, you weren't very impressed by the goal sequence, though, right? I was. I loved it, yeah.

But I am very also impressed with my ability to stay out of the Joe Scali fan club. You know? I'm really, I'm happy about that, too. But let me describe the goal because it happened really early. Well, before we get to the goal, just a little bit on the scene, the stadium. The stadium is on the western outskirts of Munchengladbach, which is not one of the more dynamic places we visited on this trip. I don't know.

I got some heads nodding. We got stuck there when a train got delayed out of Germany. Not a nice place to get stuck. And we've, you know, Dusseldorf was, I love Dusseldorf. And of course, Amsterdam is a world-class city. But man, Munch and Glabbach, out in the outskirts, the club kind of has its own sector out there and a bunch of like beautiful

youth academy fields before we go it's kind of an actual American suburban stadium right? Right yeah it is I mean there are people riding their bikes there which is cool and there's more trees than you might see around and say Arrowhead Stadium they're trying to like they're trying to live with nature instead of against it a little bit

but basically it is it's a suburban sports stadium surrounded by parking lots mostly full yeah outside of the away section yeah mines couldn't fill it

but mines mine's came the mines away section came up big at the end we're going to get to that uh they did a t-fo of a clockwork orange

which confuses me a little bit the guy the Stanley Kubrick movie the guy had uh you know it's the sort of I guess you'd call him

what do you call him the protagonist of the movie yeah he's he's not a good guy but he is the protagonist he gets he's it's a it's a picture of him with his eyes like you know clamped open which is kind of a famous image from the movie i don't understand what it meant uh drew drew drew drew from nashville thinks he might know what it meant yeah so i do have a thought i think so the whole thing struck me as a meta-analysis because they had a big really bad time uh pulling the thing down so it was like we were having our eyes like we forced to watch this. So everyone suffered with the main character.

So it brought everybody in. It was just there were levels to it. Yeah. That was my interpretation. Also, I think them having to watch the team this season. Maybe that was the subtle jab. What a, not even a subtle jab. I mean, that's a jab jab, you know, if that's what it meant.

But, yeah, it took them forever to get the bottom right corner of that thing down. Let me take up for the Gladbach supporters real quick, man. Because before it was T-5. unveiling part of the pregame, they also did like the placard thing where they had black and green stripes going through the, going through like the ultra-section, right? So, and they did this right before they pulled the T-4 down. So what I'm saying is, and while they were pulling the T-Fo down, they never broke. Like the placard, the design was still going on. So what I'm saying is, of course it was slow, because you have people with one hand holding up a placard

and the other hand trying to pull down a T-fo. Now they got it going. They got it going. It took, you know, it was slow. It was 1%, 2%, 3. Once we got to about 10%, then it started, let's say, moving by 5s or something. Yeah. They got it down.

But what I'm saying is, it's a tough logistical problem, but in the end they got it done. They did. They did get it done. There was a moment where, like a long moment, where it was basically all you could see was the mouth. It was just the mouth and kind of some eyes above it. And it was kind of unsettling.

Also, I don't know. You got to remember, it's the people that we saw at Munchin Glowbach Station that are doing this unveiling of the T-Fo as well. Yeah, man. They got hard lives, hard lives. Hard lives. No, man, most of the people out of Glowbock, those people were coming from the surrounding areas. A lot of nice cars. Oh, yeah.

I feel like. But very, like, you know, singing those sort of Europe, that kind of European, music, you know, before the games. It seems like that's a thing that you're going to find at every soccer stadium. Anyway, Scali scored. It was a good sequence from the foals, long ball pinged

from deep left at that big striker, Topukovic. He knocks it down, and then the young swede, Hugo Bolin, does really well to ride a challenge across the top of the box over to the corner, turns, finds Scali within a little pocket of

space, and yes, it was a good touch. with his left foot, open it up, pin the defender on his back as he received it, and then just buries it bottom corner with that left foot of his. I'm not, you know, overall, not that impressed with the player, but it's a nice moment. Yeah, for sure. And I just want to, you know, I came for you a little bit. I want to make sure I get everybody in the audience to it on the trip with me as well, because there were a lot of things that I heard that were, there were a, ton of slights to Scali. You know what I'm saying? I mean, Joe Scali's name in the anticipation

of this game, you know, in the day and a half that we had already been together, had only been benching in jest. You know what I'm saying? They were taking it, they were taking it in vain. While taking the possibility of Gio Arena starting very seriously. Who is taking that seriously? Nobody was taking that seriously. So somehow it's all inverted. Joe Scali's a joke. Gio is the, you know, I mean, Colin, I mean, shots out calling. I love call. But he holds off the phone and says he isn't in the lineup. Because I'm trying to, I don't have the glad

it about the lineup yet. He isn't in the lineup is what he said. I'm like, oh, Joe, John on the lineup. That's not what I said. It's Jill. I said Joe's in the lineup. Oh, no, no. This is some revisionist history right here. I'm good. Yeah.

I heard it. Hopefully we could heard. So there's a disagreement. Lucas gave us that moment. But that's all I'm saying. Yeah. Okay, so mine's threatened more throughout the rest of the game. Had a goal call back on a narrow offside call, I think,

and then got the equalizer on a penalty at the death. Just a dumb, dumb penalty guy dribbling away from the goal. He gets fouled as he's leaving the box. Didn't need to happen. And they bury a bottom corner. And then this is maybe my favorite moment from the night, even though I didn't even hear it. But Vince, you heard what was the mind?

lines away section saying at that point so all right penalty happens penalty's taken penalty scored I don't think it happens immediately I want to say well it was the last kick of the game okay but the very last kick of the game not a metaphorical one and an actual last kick of the game final whistle was blown after um minds go celebrates goes and celebrates and I start to hear like the chin from like a very small but loud section of people. And I kind of clue in on it a little bit and it's the minds fans and they're just going Mainza,

Maitza! Yeah. In like this sing-songy way and it's, I assume it's just one of their chance in general, but to draw a game in that way, a draw that truly feels like a loss to the GLOPHSA. In like every way. And for that to happen and to be tormented by that, You know, just them, like, basically you can almost feel them, like, with their pointer finger in your, like, right at your nose.

Saying, mine's on, it's like, yeah. I was a glad back, but I'd be so heated. I was a little heated because I wanted to witness a Joe Scali game winner, but I don't got that much on it, you know. To be a Gladbach fan. No, the cruelty and the mockery of that are, we're really, is really nice. Delightful. It was beautiful, it was beautiful though. I mean, I might, I'm going to have to get to a Mike's game off,

just off the strength of that, that in and in and of itself. I think it was interesting, it's been interesting being around German culture. It's, it's, they have a lot more fun than I thought they did. A lot more fun, a lot less responsibility, a lot less responsible. Maybe it's the Dutch people that would be more responsible for what I've been seeing. around Amsterdam, I'm on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. They're a very responsible bunch of people. Yeah, people in bed by 11 mostly.

Without a doubt. So that part, their selection of rock music, either around walking around Dusseldorf or at the games as well, they have a, they have a cool about them that I wasn't necessarily expected, I guess. I guess I'll put it that way. Shout out Germany, but not the people running the trains. So, Gio came on.

He had one really nice outside of the boot pass over the centerbacks that his attacking teammate didn't really have a good read on, so he kind of flubbed it. Other than that, I don't know, man. Nothing to write home about, nothing to talk home about. Well, and he helped see out the dropping of two points, you know, big picture. I don't know, man. Yes, that did happen.

And it also killed me. The G. O.R. Rana comes on the pitch. He could substitute it. Whoever's next to me. It's like, oh, is that number 13? I think it was calling. I think it was that number 13 right there? Oh, look down.

It is him. Deerunay is sobbed on by the fourth official. Once again, I look to my right. I looked to my right. I had deja vu. I'm like, where's that? them bells at? Not in the stands, man.

So I'm like, I'm like, ah, Adam done, did it again. If, if Geo were to do something in that first minute that he was on, I would have missed it. You would have missed it, brother. It's a dangerous game you're playing. Yeah, it's a game I can't stop playing.

I can't stop. I got to go, if I got to go to the bathroom, I'm going to the bathroom. You're incontinent, brother? What? You incontinent? Maybe. I don't know.

We'll see. So I want to see if anybody, does anybody have any thoughts on the game or the experience they want to say or get us to talk about something. Josh Arfin, who's here, he wanted me to say that he thinks the penalty rule should be fixed

so this doesn't happen. A penalty awarded to an attacker who's leaving the box on the end line, he thinks should be a direct free kick. You know, I don't know if we're going to make that happen anytime soon. But Tom, what do you got on your mind?

Just a vibe. check between the last trip, Italy Italian games versus first German game we've seen. I think Italy's got that. Italy won, Germany, zero. Just the vibe environment.

Like when you walk into the stadium, just the energy of it. It's just, the Italian one just blew me away. I don't know if I just have this high expectations now of every stadium that I go to in Europe. But

we got PSC tonight, so I'm hopefully I don't know, they've already They've already clinched it. They're playing a pretty weak team. Yeah. Yeah. But are they going to be in full party mode? Because there's nothing to be stressed about.

Hopefully that, yeah, tonight makes some good vibes. Yeah, I think Lazio Yuve, maybe that's just a, I mean, we went to a Copa Italia final last year. So that's kind of a category of its own. But even the Latsio YuVe game, I would agree had more,

big game energy than Gladbach versus mines. Maybe that's because it's two big clubs, you know? I don't know. Go ahead, Drew. And the Glabag fan is we're putting out the clockwork orange Tifo. If we'd take, like, read

into that, they probably weren't that juice for the game, like being tortured to watch it, but. I mean, what a horrible thing, I mean, what a tough thing to say to your team, if that's really what they meant by it. But I guess, what else could they have meant? Yeah, that's the only thing I think. I can't.

They started off extremely assily to start the season, if y'all remember. Yeah. I mean, you know, there's a new manager than the one that they started season with. But, uh,

oh, real quick, before we get off this game totally, I do agree with you about the fact of, uh, this performance, not raising my estimate of Joe Scali

as far as the USMNT right back pecking order. You know? Oh, after all that. Yeah. Hey, look, I can have my stand.

but also call it like I see it in this game and he's been playing like this for a good chunk of the year not even in their attacking phase and their build-out phase like phase one from the goalkeeper build-out he is up with the up with the forward line completely abdicated of all build-out responsibilities it's and so you know with Potch we know he's gonna have to he's gonna have to build off from the back whether he's that stay at home right back in the back three or even if not you know fullback still stays back and helps our first phase and so without him doing that right now and we know he's not good at it you know I would still have

somebody like out extreme in front of him who I mean especially showed a lot in that Portugal match you know his ability to come in come in field carry the ball run away from people cause trouble that way just guy not doing that brother yeah well glad we mostly agree let's let's cover a few little bits of news and um you know if anybody wants to raise their hand and they have a a wrench they want to throw in our gears here that'd be great but uh pellegrino moderato won the copa del Rey we haven't acknowledged that yet on the show congratulations pelegrino um I saw he was speaking some bask at a some ornate city hall That's tough.

That's pretty cool. From New Jersey to speak in basketball. I know. That's tough. Basque, like, that's a language from another planet. Haji scored a scrappy header off a corner kick. Over the weekend, that's 17 league goals and 18 in all comps for the man. His would-be competitor, Darrell D.K. has two goals in his last two appearances,

so he scored, he's just been bundling. in basically bundles one in off a cut back bundles one in off a corner kick yeah uh but he's quietly been playing more in the past two months that's good for him he's not you're not you're not i've never been a big derr dk guy um and he hasn't stayed on the field long enough since to take me off that initial position basically yeah fair enough look if it makes me reconsider i reconsidered but and i mean i just don't think he'll factor into this cycle so it's just not if he goes crazy from here on now uh you know maybe got five games left championship something like that yeah it would 10 goals it would be a miracle it would be a miracle

we can come to the bargain at table uh matt crocker's out at u.s soccer he's saudi now he's a saudi asset yeah Does it matter? It doesn't matter at all. But it does make me wonder if he was always a Saudi asset, though. Because you notice that they say that, you know, what's that? Live golf. All this different, the Saudis pulling back on some of their investments in sports that they've made over here

because of what's going on in the Middle East right now. And so in the same way that Saudis pulling back money from live golf, I assume they pulled back Matt Crocker from U.S. soccer. soccer. You know what I'm saying? That's what makes sense to me? Because in what other position would the Soccer Federation be hiring right now? Right now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, Agent Crocker, you got to come home, bro. Yeah, they called him back before he gets compromised. I think. I think. I think. And he's just bland enough to be that type of guy, I feel like, because we never saw any personality from him. I don't even know necessarily what he did. The only thing I can see that's concrete is he has our youth system has more age groups now.

It's like more robust. We have all different types of U. I think we have U13 through 23 now. Or 14 through 23 on both sides. I'd like to see the list of his accomplishments. It's not a lot, brother. Well, yeah, it might be more than we realize, but it might be not a lot too. Hired Emma Hayes, hired Pach.

Yeah. Maybe did the youth... But the whole U.S. way, the pathways to professional excellence and stuff, it's all too much of a PowerPoint presentation for me. I can't really get my head around it. Yeah. And, you know, as they say, policy downstream of culture, we need culture. We need culture to be better.

We need grassroots growth. I don't think there is a top-down solution for getting us to winning a men's world cup in our lifetime. It has to be bubble up from the bottom, you know? That's my take on it. Anything else? Anything else, what, with regards to MacRocker? Well, nah, I mean, if you want, but anything else in general? No.

Okay. Hey, we got, like I said, PSV. We're going to see the PSV-Zool game tonight. And then we're going to go to Kohln-Levikuzen, which I think is going to be a real treat because Wolfgang Heilman told us that the 15 minutes before the match in Koln is the best 15 minutes in German football.

Yeah. So we're looking forward to that. Trips more than halfway over. Yeah, yeah. I'm excited to get to I don't know. See, this game, it's been, it's been a long time without soccer. I will say. It has been a long time without soccer. Amsterdam was beautiful, lovely. But it's time to get back to it, brother.

Yeah. Game day. It's game day. Thanks everybody for listening. Well, you guys, anything from you? Tyler. Tyler Adams got an assist. You know what? He did. Tom says, Tom from Austin. I appreciate that. You know what? I've actually already clipped it. It's on my computer right now. It's a good play from Tyler. Okay.

He kind of advances. He finds itself in an attacking half space, really like not even a half space. It was a very large part of the space he found itself in, probably about 24 yards from goal. I want to say, Prime Tyler Adams, he did not turn. He did not turn with the ball. He just knocked it back to that right back.

back but continued his run. Continued his run probably got right outside the right side of the box, received a back and placed a cross end on the ground. That the borderman attacker scored with his right foot slotted it, kind of like left corner. It was like a bouncing ball tied to him and he caught it off the half volley. It was nice. Nice. Andy.

Andy, what do you got, man? I just want to say I've been inspired by Giorana, actually. He put in a real shift with the sort of the Gio hands. Yeah. In 20 minutes, I think he did more than the entire minds did. It crossed the whole game. And we were in the Van Gogh Museum, and there's this doorway kind of going into the next exhibit, and this older couple kind of stopped and figured that that was the right point

to make a decision about where we go next. And I may be inadvertently hit him with the Geo Hands. So thank you, Geo. Yeah, I saw a little, that's, yeah, the Geo Hands are alive. I saw a little Geo Hans incident with two bikers this morning. younger man and an older man kind of collided. Oh, man. And then, you know, so I was just glad I wasn't part of it.

All right. Thanks, everybody for listening. We'll see ya.