Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #686: The magic of matchday in Cologne

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

It doesn't have much to do with Kristoffer Lund and Malik Tillman. Plus Alex Freeman goes 90 and settles in at Villareal, Mathis Albert makes his Dortmund debut and much more from Belz and Vince upon their return to the New World. 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 fresh back from Europe. Vince is back in Kentucky. I'm back in Georgia. After our trip to see a bunch of games, Vince, how you doing? I'm doing good, man. Nice to get back home. Oh, man, it's good to be home. You know, it's good and bad.

You know, you're back home, you get to see your family and all that. but also it's like I'm back in this damn car driving around you know we didn't we didn't get in the car once during this entire trip I mean it was one day we're in we're in a we call that a bus yeah like a mini bus yeah a mini bus getting drove around for that one day but other than that it was it was strictly trains all the way and walking we were huffing it yeah being back in the car is it's it's not fun it's not it's not it's not it's not it's not It's not fun just driving around. Because once again, I mean, me and both talked about this a few times, but it's just, it's an isolated experience, you know, this life of commuting in cars that we do in America. You know, you don't even have to get dressed to get like, like, you know, I just took my oldest daughter to school today. And, you know, I threw my youngest daughter in the car with no shirt on, you know, she had the, she had the PSV kid on that I had bought her while we were at the PSV game. and she went to eat breakfast and so I took it off of her

and I never put it back on because there's no need to because we're just getting in the car. Right. You know? Yeah. Whereas, you know, in Europe, in different places

where you got to get out there on the street and actually walk around and be amongst a people, you got to leave your house, you got to get dressed, man. Yeah. Get dressed. And I, you know,

I think a lot of the degradation of American society goes back to cars. White flight, just our general our general descent into slaveliness Slaveliness, yeah

Our malaise, our current malaise Yeah, current, all this type Our disconnect from each other Can all be Directly tied back To cars, I think And the fact that we live this now Kind of isolated

American experience, so It's got to be a big factor And one thing that occurs to me is even a town that isn't really a tourist destination or known for its, you know, street life like Eindhoven. Right. Is just, you know, the liveliness on the street is just miles ahead of like, I don't know, basically any American city. I mean, certainly any American city of that size. Yeah, certainly that. any American city is as a stretch of course but but yes you know Andhoven would be a good

analog to like uh Chattanooga yeah something yeah something like that yeah Chattanooga a big city suburb like you know something like that and it and to be clear of course it lacks the dynamism of a place like Amsterdam but it's still just full of little streets with like cafes and people walking around and I mean it's nice down with the cars I want to I want to start the show by talking about the experience in Cologne because we were there for the Cairn Levecouzun Levecouzun match this was on Saturday Christopher London the starting lineup for the home side a lot of people were really excited about that Malie came off the bench for Leverkusen.

Didn't really do too much. But man, I got to say, this was, this was the best sports event I've ever been to in my life. Let me set the scene a little bit. Because, you know, we've all watched Kohln on TV. We, we don't, I don't think we really, as a fan, as an American USMNT fan base, we don't really care about Kohlm, like, outside of Lund being there. What? If people don't care with Lund, even being there.

I had to remind people on the trip that Christopher Lund plays for Cologne. Right. Yeah, so I was trying to be generous there, but yeah. Even with Lund there, it doesn't come to mind as an important place to see a game or anything like that. But we got a little hint. We got a little hint last Sunday from Wolfgang Heilman, the Academy guy at Bruchiumrichin-Gladbach, who told us, hey, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that 15 minutes before the match starts at Kohn is magic,

and I think they have an even better fan base than Dortmund, and we were like, huh, interesting. Maybe we should have been, maybe we should have read a little bit more before we went on this trip and figured this out. But that was a revelation to me. Oh, Kohn has kind of been like up and down, you know, going through tough times.

So, like, you know, the fact that they don't have this, they're not in the greater consciousness of the American soccer minds. Like, you know, you can understand this. Yeah. Because, you know, you've got to be a true sicko to be to be really locked in to the two Bundesliga teams. And, you know, they don't got the, I don't think they necessarily have the reputation of like a Hamburg or a St. Pauli or something like that, those teams that you kind of have a sense of, even while they were still toiling around in the, in the Waita Bundesliga. Yeah. Yeah.

That's right. That's right. And it's just not, at least for me, it just wasn't, I didn't think of them as one of the top fan bases or whatever. But let me set the scene a little bit. So the Ryan Energy Stadium where they play is directly west of downtown. Cologne's a pretty happening city, I would say. Got the big cathedral, which is, I mean, everybody knows, but what a site that is. So anyway, a straight shot tram out of the city to the west takes you to the stadium.

The line terminates at a, I would say, somewhat grim tram platform near the stadium. But you get, you go up a handful of steps and you are on a huge green lawn that is, you know, and that in America would just be a parking lot for sure, right? I mean, this is, this is like six. It's a part, it should be a parking lot, you know, by like efficiency standards. You could see that like they do play a little soccer on this. grass. They had some youth goals pushed off to the side.

There were some cleat marks in the grass. But mainly it's just like these are the grounds of the stadium. And you come up, you approach it almost like you're coming to a monument or like this is like a battlefield museum that you're headed to. And because the Leverkusen fans were coming in the exact corner that our tickets were in, we had to, that side was blocked out. So we had to walk all the way around the stadium. and all the walkways around the stadium are shaded by trees.

It's green everywhere around the stadium. And then you get in. And the stadium is, I guess it was built to prepare for the 2006 World Cup on the site of a previous stadium. It holds 50,000 people. But it's very straightforward. It's just grandstands coming up from each end line in a straight line and then grandstand coming up from each side.

have curvas in this stadium there's no it's not closed off except for in this in the corner where they away leverkusen fans which we will get to no in a second and i mean dude the tv or even the videos i took myself with my phone i couldn't stop taking videos because it was just so same it was so striking the the videos and tv do not capture the sort of like the visual depth of looking at that that home end behind the South goal and what looks like thousands of flags waving and just a sea of mostly white and red. I mean, mostly wearing white clothing, people wearing white clothing with a little bit of red on it.

Just a sea of people. I mean, they're mostly white people too. Is that what you're smiling about? I know where you was going with it, bro. Yeah, yeah, it's true. But they're just like, they're just heaving up and down. and like undulating like the ocean. Yeah.

The whole game. And just, I was over on the other end, but just looking at it, it was mesmerizing. And then, you know, Rudy Voller said the thing about the 15 minutes before the match. Unfortunately, I didn't really hear much of what happened in the first, in the 15 minutes before the match started because I was pretty much right underneath the Bayer Leverkusen fans. I'm going to guess seven, eight thousand of them, six thousand. six, seven. And they were unbelievable. I mean, we've seen, we've seen Milan ultras at the Copatalia final.

We've seen the YuVA ultras at a Lazio match. And we've seen, we've seen various away supporters. Well, I want to make sure I shot up on you as well in the Copa. Yeah, oh, they were, there were something else. But maybe it was just my proximity to them, because I was right up close to him. But this was, they just blew me out of the water. They disrupted everything they tried to do in the stadium. Everything they tried, everything cold tried to do in the stadium, the songs, the introductions of the players.

The Leverkus and ultras were just relentless in their opposition to having anything go, go well. And they were, oh, man, it was like, it was kind of hard to watch the game because they were so interesting to watch. So we weren't, we were in two different places. Me and you, Anna Bells, you closer to that corner of the stadium where the Levecues and fans were and me and our group closer kind of to like the midway line. Yeah. So kind of evenly, even though, you know, the mass of Byer Levecruz and supporters were close on our side, kind of. So I would say maybe they were like 60% and the cone would be like 40% away. Okay.

You know, if you're given a distance kind of thing. But, you know, as far as Cone in their atmosphere and they, I mean, and everything was just completely swallowed up by what Byer 11 Cues and supporters were doing in this match. Just as far as, like, I can't remember. Like, you know, Cone had a little thing that they would do. They got some little songs that they were singing and everybody stands up in the stadium and starts clapping and whatever. But as far as like Ultra versus Ultra and the theory that I posited,

last time in Italy as far as, you know, both supporter groups starting as zero and then, you know, they're singing these songs and chanting and kind of petitioning to whoever the deity is that decides these matches, to decide these matches, you know, there's a reason why Barrow Levy Cuson came out the winners in this match. Yeah, they won the, they won the prayer contest. That's for sure. They put them, they put them to absolute shame, which, and it's crazy because Cohn was out there bowling. Yeah. That's the thing. Creating chance after chance.

I mean, I think ended up with like 3xG to like Cone. I mean, to Leverkusen's like 1.3 or something and, you know, half of that was on a pin. Like, Cone came out and they played and they played the ball. But it was all about it. And that's why the theory is going to continue to hold water for me is, you know, Leverkusen brought it and you saw who the favor rested upon. Yeah, yeah. rested upon it was it was levercusing man lots of hijinks between the colm fans around me and the and the

and the levercruzum fans behind the barrier the they were distressed as the game progressed the colin fans were like visibly distressed by having to have these levercousin fans yelling in their ear all the time and levercruzan fans were glorying in their distress and um you know the whole nine yards flares the hand motions is what really gets me you know but they're singing at the top of their lungs the whole time but the unity of the hand motions something a little unsettling about that in germany watch out for germany man watch out yeah yeah but it was extremely sick i mean just overall couldn't be more impressed by the by the bundesleyka just in general yeah and german people in general just german people way more cool than i thought they would be

um their culture um the way they are their humor they're they're their friendliness. All the, you know, it's all above what I expected. And I'll, maybe, maybe we just got it mixed up.

Maybe the reputation that, that we had about the Germans should be, should be probably saved for the Dutch. I'm thinking. A little colder, a little more efficient than the Germans. A little, a little bit more colder,

a little bit more efficient. Yeah. A little less fun-loving, I would say, I would say. But, because you know I mean you know

whatever you think about Amsterdam as far as like you know I don't know prostitution being legal or whatever smoking weed being legal all different type of stuff

I don't know if it's because they're just that enlightened of people or maybe they just weighed the cost benefit analysis of like trying to regulate these things versus making them legal you know what I'm saying it might just be a lot more cold calculating decision than

than you would hope or something like that after after being amongst them. But yeah, I think the, and you can see it, I guess my greater point by the Bundesliga, you can see it, right? You mean, watch the games, you see that, you see the atmosphere and stuff. But it's, it's just much different to feel it, to be there and actually feel it. It, it's truly, it's truly striking. And yeah, their traditions, they're like, they're pregame rituals, pregame environments, you know, because I, I came in a different way than

you did. Adam, I wrote a train from downtown and the train drops you off like probably like a mile or half from the stadium. So I just walked with a whole bunch of cone fans through the stadium through these streets, through a whole bunch of bars that were packed with a colon fans getting pints before the game or whatever. And yeah, man, they just like to let loose and have a good time. It's the one time, it's the one game we've been to on these trips where I came out of it

thinking like, man, I have got to bring my kids to see a game at this stadium, you know? I also have to mention, just to give you an idea of the, how precious these seats were. You know, we pushed, we pushed with the Bundesliga. They got us 10 seats to this game and said, like, that is the absolute maximum you guys are going to get. They didn't give them to us. We bought seats, but we were just asking for the privilege of buying the seats. Yeah. And they were like absolutely no more than 10.

So then we had to get three more seats on the secondary market later. And that's why you and I sat in different places. But we were at a place called House Toller in Cologne for dinner after the game. And I was waiting for my Schweineershneitzel mit brat, cartofel, and salad. And I had an interesting conversation with... We were all waiting for our food. A swine of schnitzel mit, broadcotechafel. Quite good, actually.

You got to eat. The secret of a schnitzel for me is you got to have, you got to have not just a quarter of a lemon to squeeze on it. You need a whole lemon. You need a whole lemon. Anyway. Especially if it's that size. Yeah, dude, it was like a half an acre of schnitzel.

There was a cold season ticket. Holder sitting next to us at the table next to us. And he kind of leaned over in sort of an investigatory way and said, so you went to the game. And I said, yeah, we all went to the game. And he was like, I, how, how did you? He pointed at his friend across the table from him, a man who was missing one of his legs.

It just sort of added to the sadness of it for me. That's why I mentioned it. He's missing one of his legs. And then his other friend, at the table so there were three of them and he said these two are lifetime cologne fans lifetime colm fans they would do anything to go to this game there is no chance of them getting a ticket and um he said there are 200 000 people that want to go to this game 50,000 people get to go how did you get tickets and it's almost like i'm almost worried he's going to like

like open an investigation himself you know like he was he was he was he was he's going to He was not trying to be hard on us for going to the game, but he was obviously disappointed that his friends couldn't go, but a bunch of people who just rolled into town could go to the game. And I don't know. I don't know. I showed him live football tickets.com, which is where George bought the three tickets on the secondary market.

But anyway, it just gives you a sense of how precious those games are in Cologne. And how much of honestly a privilege. it was for us to be there. Yeah. Like it was way better. It was way better atmosphere than Bruchamuch in Glabok, way better than PSB. I know which we'll get to.

This one being a derby, you know, is like kind of new, no matter what, this was going to deliver, no matter the positions in the tables or anything like that, you know. You know the old saying, bells. You can throw the records out the window when these two teams get together.

That's right. And, I mean, that's really what it looked like, though. You know, like, Levercues and despite, despite their fans doing whatever they did, I mean, you know, they, uh, Cohn took it to that ass, man. Cone took it to him for good, good portions of the game, but like, you know, just Patrick Schick. I mean, that goal, you were on the other end, so I don't know how good of a angle you really had to see it, but the goal that he scored, you know, the live play goal. Yeah, that wasn't the pin.

I mean, just cold. After Cone has like a huge chance to score. Yeah. Counterattack, Leverkusen goes to the other end. Patrick's shake just one touch, boom, back of the net. Just. That's football. That's football, baby.

We got it. We do have to mention the Khrush beer because you may have said this on the podcast before you definitely told me, but you and your friends, what was this in college, in high school? College. College. College. Called yourself, the Kulsh boys. Yeah, man. We went, for people that may be familiar that are from, you know, Michigan area or something like that.

There was an establishment called Hopcat. I think I started up in Michigan. Maybe Lansing or something. It came down. There was one in Lexington, one in Louisville, whatever. So I went to one with one of my boys, and they got a lot of beer there. And, you know, we're just trying different beers out. Once I took my first sip of a culture brother, my life was forever changed.

And so me, my boy Gabe, and then his brother, Austin, as well. They both played football with me in college. And we're still like real tight to this day. Yeah, we start calling myself the Colch boys, man. And so the fact that I got to rub it in their faces that I'm in Cologne, drinking authentic Coulch, you know, it meant a lot to me. Which is crazy. It's everywhere in Cologne.

And it's a light, it's a light beer, but with a little bit of, I don't know, there's a little bit of something. It's just light beer that tastes good. It's just like the best light beer that, like anywhere, you know. Just imagine Bud Light, middle of light. but elevated dramatically Yeah Elevated dramatically

Yeah And they serve it mostly in little I don't know 8 ounce glasses And a lady carries a The waiter It didn't mean to genderize Who the waiters are

But our waiters at both of these restaurants We're ladies Carrying they carry like a They carry a tray That holds a bunch of these little cups These little glasses in it And they it's got a big hook on it That they hold

And then they carry it around And replace everybody's beers Really fast So You know, this colch boy over here looking at me on this computer screen right now, he got to drink a lot of, got to drink a lot of the local. I was in heaven. You order a colch listener, and they keep bringing them out until you put your coaster over your cup.

Yeah, that's right. And you can't really, you might, you can get a colch at any restaurant in Cologne. You go up to Dusseldorf. They don't got them. They don't have them. It's like 20 minutes away. They don't got them, man. They do not have them.

So, yeah, it was, and, you know, the Colch-Schnitzel, you know, we did that back-to-back nights. Yeah, we did two of them in a row. Both nights at Cologne, you know, Colch-Schnitzel dinner. That's probably a tough diet to subside on. The number one best thing about getting home for me, obviously, was seeing my wife and children. But the number two thing is, like, all of a sudden I'm eating a little bit healthier, like immediately a little bit healthier, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I mean.

I had some chicken noodle soup for lunch, some leftover chicken noodle soup. I was like, damn, this is nourishing and healthy. Yeah, because, I mean, I'd say we were eating, like, reasonably healthy. Like, most of the trip, and there's, like, cologne is kind of just where it's just. Just blew it up, blew everybody up. Yeah. Fried food and beer and- Really nothing else. Sausage from the game or something, if you got one of those, you know.

Yeah. Which I did. By the way, delicious. Oh, man. Delicious. They put the glizzy in a... They don't got hot dog buns over there. They just put it in a, like, in a dinner roll, basically, right?

Yeah, yeah. That's crazy. I'm not for that. Let's talk about Einhoven a little bit. Because we saw them beat PEC's wool 6 to 1. A lot of grumbling from the scuffed travelers about the lack of intensity in this game. And not only the travelers, I caught some stuff on the Discord. too, you know.

Because obviously, you know, Rico scores a brace. And, you know, on the discord, they're having the whole conversation of what does this mean? This defendant is terrible, et cetera. So, you know, it was all around. Yeah, I mean, yeah. Which I can understand, by the way, to be clear. Was the defending terrible on either of his goals?

There were just, like, extremely high variance chances whipped in by Barack Terevich, and then he manages to head him in. I don't know. whatever. I think the defending probably is not as good as what we saw in either Gladbach or Kohln. But we did get to see a peppy brace and a bit of a celebration from Einhoven, since it was their first home game since they clinched the title. But it was a walk in the park. First half actually was pretty even, but then it was a walk in the park. And Esmir Barakterovich was far and away the player of the game. He was like he created everything for them.

and then I had two goals and two assists. So that was a little bittersweet for me. But I guess, you know, that's the American development, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Oh, and also, I forgot. I mean, we left the, we left the Leverkus in game without even talking about, you know, Malik Tillman got in the match. Yeah, I said that he came in off the bench.

He didn't really do a lot. And I wasn't going to try to cheer for him even if he did, not where I was sitting. Those people around me were suffering enough. didn't need a some happy go lucky american hey i was i was all i was all in on columburg when they scored i mean i rose with the with my fist in the oh yeah i was i was like yelling f yeah f yeah um jumping around montreal was on the pitch oh yeah as well as well it's this is something i had to i had to put people on as well my montrell colbrae on the pitch german american um once

again, one of the members of Vince's secret association of, you know what I'm saying? Come home. Come play for America. They cannot love you in the way that I can love you. I can love you here in America. Mr. Montrell. Playing what, right ringback

for Levecukeson. We got some Yan Kong, Yank crime, him versus Christopher Lund, a few times. There were a couple balls in behind with Montrell would kind of have a step on Chris. Chris would make it up. You know, enough to make a little defense. offensive play or whatever.

Yeah, it wasn't too much from Monterey on this game to be super impressed about or anything like that. But still, we need him. He's starting in the Bundes League. And another thing from watching these Bundes League, hey man. Bundes League ain't sweet, man. You know, it's a constant thing of conversation where, you know, we have the, we've kind of accepted these top five leagues, right?

but every league that seems to be that's not the Premier League and even the Premier League might be up for it seems to be up for a little critique

a little critique a little look under the magnifying glass but yeah the other ones always always are critiqued it's like La Liga no athletes whatever Bundesliga

all athletes are all just you know passion and heart and desire over there not a lot of quality etc it's the big It's the big leagues, man.

It's the big leagues. It's the damn big leagues, bro. It's not the Premier League. Like, fair. I'll accept that. But, man, you watch these games, you watch the speed of what decisions are happening. You watch some of these touches that these players make. Like, p.

Yeah. Come on, man. It's something else. Okay, let's take a little break, and we'll get into the weekend action. All right, we're back. So a lot of action on the field this week, this past weekend, though not a lot of goals. since Pepe's brace. Biggest news, I think, is Alex Freeman went to full 90

and a 2-1 win for Villarreal over Vela Vela. A little unsteady in possession, especially early. But, you know, he put in a good shift defensively, and he did settle in on the ball. Started to work those triangles with his teammates. I think this was a good sort of betting-in performance from him and at exactly the right time. the right time.

Yeah, man. I thought he was very good, especially after those first, like you said, the bed-in-end period probably lasted about 12 to 15 minutes where he, I think he might have one bad pass, lost the ball, like twice, got dispossessed or whatever, also lost his, I don't know if y'all, you've been seeing Bell's there, there's some, some comps out there that are leaving the good, the bad stuff out? No, no, no, no. No, specifically there's a clip that Villa Realte tweeted out.

of Alex Freeman making that a like goal saving tackle. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like the whole reason the goal saving tackle had to be made was he lost his mark in the first place. So that all happened in the first 15 minutes, you know, potentially, but disaster was avoided. You know, we've seen these debuts where like, you know, that one thing goes wrong and then. Basically your career is over. Yeah. Yeah, whatever.

You know, like the narrative gets going and all different types of stuff. You kind of have a deficit to fight out of all that different types of stuff. But the God smiled kindly upon Alex Freeman in the first 15 minutes. And then after that, bro, he turned it the hell up. I mean, hey, that's a good soccer player, bro. Yeah. Playing mostly in that, you know, reserved right back role. Yeah, he wasn't getting up and down that much.

Wasn't getting up and down. He would occasionally get up, though, as far as like, not up, but kind of in buildup, he would go up the line a little bit. you know, he wasn't always stapled to being a, in that center back line necessarily. And, you know, his ability to work in tight spaces and Villarreal got some ballers around him that make him, I struggled. I don't want to say make him look better because he is the one playing these passes. But the people that he's playing them to are just so nice on the reception. Yeah.

and just their ability to hold players off and different type of stuff. I mean, number seven, I think it's Moreno for Villarreal. I mean, tough. Tough. But, yeah, just Alex is, first of all, he can, like, receive the ball and get a pass off in tight space with his right and left foot

pretty efficiently, accurate with his passes, and be people off the carry too. Oh, I mean, he can beat people off the carry. so effortless, so effortlessly. Yeah. When he's getting closed down and all the different types of, I mean, this is stuff that once again, you know, we still waiting on Joe Scali to do it consistently. And, yeah, for Alex Freeman to get this start and look like this, this is why, you know, even as I was admonishing Adam Bells for not being a part of the Scali Lazz early enough and all the different type of stuff, I still said, Alex Freeman is in front of Joe Scali on the death chart for me.

and he still remains there. Also, defensively, very alert in the back post for the most part. Yeah. Winning like everything in the air, the last touch of the game, was Alex Freeman winning a header in the air? You know, it's just, there's a lot of tools there, and he continues to just get better, better and better. Like every time we see him play. He's ahead of Scali in Pottes' depth chart, too, I believe it's fair to say. So, yeah, everything's working in his favor.

And so physically, I mean, you know, just physically dominant. Like, if he, if you try to go by him, you're not going to, basically. You know, you can't, these guys can't dribble past him. He's too strong, too quick, too alert. Yeah. Yeah, it's a really encouraging performance. Yeah, it was good, very good, very good. Put together.

And I think, I mean, the reason why he even got to start in the first place, think is because the man who was starting in front of him, whose last name was, yeah, Marino. Right back, Santiago Marino, 24-year-old from Uruguay. He got injured. Okay. And so that's why Alex is in the starting line up now. And let me see how long this man is supposed to be out.

So he was just doubtful for this match. So we'll see if he's back. I mean, because he's the one that's had Alex kind of stable. to the bench ever since Alex has made his transfer or whatever but um you know with this performance maybe they say take a little bit more time uh mr marino or not maybe be doubtful be doubtful for another week or two yeah yeah so matisse albert made his debut for dormant making him the youngest american debutante in bundesliga history ahead of christian pulisic and gio reina and he's the third youngest for Dortmund of all time behind only brother Yusuf Makoko and uh neree

Shaheen so that's pretty that's something and he looked like a credible player like a credible bundesliga player i mean only it was a it was a garbage time cameo up four zero which i think is the right time to bring a 16 year old into a bundes league a match um but he had i clocked two quite positive bits of combination in the final third from the 16 year old one was a cheeky little croif pass to lay it into the path

of somebody who was striding into the final third you know let's see if he gets on again this season yeah and I was I mean I was telling people at the game I mean not of the game but on the trip like you know because it was it was a debate right whether we go to Cologne and go to Cologne Levicuzin

or we go to this Dortmund match and we ended up We ended up deciding on Cole and Levercueson Right And we were kind of like talking about that a little bit Like the fact that you know Made that decision I was like look It was going to be time to come back to Dortmund

And actually see an American play You know Matisse Albert is on his way I didn't know he would actually make his debut In the very match that we were We were talking about But yeah Everything's going The way it was kind of supposed to

go, I guess, from Matisse. And so he got his debut. He's been on the bench of the first team a few times now. It seems like he's done everything he's needed to do in the region of Liga. Yeah. And these next few weeks of the season, these last few weeks of the season, are often the time when somebody builds the platform from which they, you know, become a regular in the fall.

Right, right. You don't got to worry about going to no World Cup or nothing. So, you know, like full preseason with Bundesliga, I mean, with Bundesliga, with Dortmund. Yeah. And so, I mean, it looks like we're going to hit the ground running, I think, I would hope, in the 26-27 Bundesliga season in the, man. What's the opposite of the work runda? Henrunda. The Henrunda.

Hinrunda. That's right. Oh, man. Airport is... Schweine Schnitzel. The airport is what? I can't even say it. Flukhaven.

Yeah, the Flukhaven. The Flukhaven. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'll be excited. If we can go back to it, if we can go back Germany, Phenessa way to go back Germany, watch Dortmund play? I mean, obviously we got the stadium tour.

Yeah, we took a tour of the Signal Aduna Park, which was awesome. But, you know, it's different to see a game there, of course. Yeah. Just mentioning while we're talking about Matisse, Kevin Sullivan, I checked in on him a little bit over the weekend. Philadelphia lost 2-0 to somebody, Columbus, I think. And he started. And he kind of just running around looking like a middle linebacker out there.

That's a Philly style. He is, does not look small for his age. No, he doesn't look. small compared to the other players on the field. He looks like he's running around looking for people to hit, honestly, which I think is more or less a positive thing, but he still hasn't really done anything in an MLS game this season that goes on the score sheet that is traditionally tallied on a sheet,

you know, like a goal or an assist. So. What about that one? He didn't have an assist? I mean, he had a bunch in championships. Champions League, but... No, he had that one against... Am I trip?

Oh, Charlotte. You're Charlotte FC. Okay, you're right. You're right. You're right. Okay, let me say that over again. He still had the one assist against Charlotte, but outside

of that, it's been kind of quiet from him. Johnny Cardoso came in off the bench for Athletico's win over Athletic Bilbao. So he's back to health. Haji started for Coventry and their 3-1 win over a Wrexham. Didn't score, but that's okay. Coventry is 12 points clear at the top of the championship table,

which is really something they're running away with it. Yeah, so they're promoted. I don't know if we cover that on the show or not, but. I feel like we did, but... They'll be in the Premier League. Haji with them. I would think that we'd keep, like, a lot of this team as far as, like, I don't know if they, I mean, we'll see.

But Haji's going to be a part of their bid to stay up for sure. Also, staying with, you know, staying in England. I was going to come up with a better segue than that. But anyway, Brendan Aronson missed a, you see the chance, Brendan Aronson missed? I did not. Tell me about it. Okay, so he kind of gets played in with the through ball. They're playing Chelsea.

Yeah, which is that game. They lost 1-0. They lost 1-0 in the F-A Cup. He gets played through, and he's 1-V-1 against the keeper. In on goal, he's kind of in the... Kind of gets the ball at the top of the right side of the...

Not the right side of the... Right center of the box. I think he actually does well. You know, he doesn't... He doesn't rush the chance and, like, kind of just... like jerk at it and like pull it, you know, and it goes like comically far wide. You know, he took his chance. He got his eyes up.

He looked at the keeper. Took a strike. And the Chelsea keeper just saved it with his right foot. Unfortunate. He had a lot of the goal to shoot at. The keeper hadn't necessarily like come out and like closed down the angle or anything like that. He had a lot of the goal to shoot at. I'm giving him a little bit of praise just for the fact that he did take his time.

He didn't look odd by the moment or anything like that. But yeah, he didn't take it, unfortunately. How are Leeds fans taking this, miss? I have no clue. I have no clue. But I saw that they interviewed Brennan about it. He was like, I've already watched a chance back on my phone twice. He was like, I don't know.

Yeah, you get that moment comes and goes pretty fast. Geo, who didn't do much for us when we went to see him in Munchin-Glaubach, did play again over the weekend. This time he nearly scored. Did you see this? I did see it. A desperate kind of looping header on a ball that took him by surprise. And he just manages to send it loop.

Keepers dead to rights, no chance of stopping it. And it hits the post. It hits the inside of the post and tings towards the middle of the goal area. What a difference a couple inches would have made in the narrative. I mean, there'd be like 17 new podcast episodes about it, not from us. People be waiting for that. People be waiting for that G.O. to hit, you know, the G.O. to hit the streets again. You know, it's like the McRib.

You know, everybody was waiting for it to drop. You know what I'm saying? But even still, you know, this header that, I'm not sure he knew much about. It didn't seem like he knew that much about it. No. But he almost scored. He almost scored. It would have been a game winner.

But, man, he is not like, he comes on the pitch. And it's not like, let me get on here and really show him what they've been missing. Uh-uh. Not at all. You know what he missed is touching the ball. That's what Gio missed. You know what I'm saying? I don't know how pressed he is to score or not score, man.

He doesn't seem pressed at all. Let me get a little feel for it. Yeah. I almost admire his placidness out there. Anyway, yeah. It's tough, man. Everybody has their views on Gio. Just insert the new facts.

into your model and continue as you have always. Damn, bro. I mean, it would be nice to see the man just come on the pitch and like take the game by the scruff of the neck or something. At least try to or something. Do something, bro. You know? Yeah, yeah.

Milan Yuvay was a zero-zero-dra draw. Pusik has now gone 16 matches without a goal. Which is a career high. allegedly from what I've seen which I guess it shouldn't be surprising that Allegri has led him to this point you know when you really think about it I love a man but his teams don't rain down goals they don't they don't

yeah we would love to see Christian ballistic get him a goal here soon you know we I mean we need we need some bro we need give me give me two at the end of the season you know what I'm Yeah. We are strong, too, because we go look, the World Cup going to rest and going live or die or whatever the hell you want to say based on Christian Bliss's performance once again, similar to 2022, where he was involved in every goal he scored. I think it's probably going to end up being a similar situation for the U.S. Miss national team in this World Cup. So I don't know if it matters to me that much if he turns it around for A.C. Milan.

because it's we're still going to be in the same situation no matter what. I guess maybe it would be nice to see him put some goals in, obviously. I mean, it's never not nice for our players to score some goals. It's always nice, and you'd like to see him finish the season with a little bit of a boost. Because, you know, those players, they think about it too when they're not scoring. Josh Sargent had a goal over the weekend. Or wait, was it in middle of the last week? It doesn't matter.

Off the field. Serginio says he's almost back and he now has eight weeks to build up his fitness for the World Cup. We did not see him in Aynhoven anywhere. Didn't really look for him either. But U.S. Soccer just dropped a video like two days ago from Aynhoven

with him talking about his recovery. You know, I was... Well, just real quick, it was kind of weird how, like, I didn't see him anywhere as far as, like, promotional materials. Within the stadium, within the team store, whatever. I mean, you can get his name and number on the back of a jersey if you want.

Of course, of course. I don't know. I just felt like I would see. It's not like we saw Rico everywhere either, I don't think. Yeah. You would have thought you saw one of these two, man. One of them promotional posters with the kids, you know what I'm saying? They're still thinking about Luke DeYoung.

That's all they care about. Yeah. Didn't see him either. All right. Hey, I think that's enough for today. Thanks to everybody who went on the trip with us, and thanks for, you know, listen to us talk about it. If you want to skip all the ads, join the Patreon.

Link is in the show notes. We'll see you.