Yanks Abroad Flavors of the Week: 2022-2023 Thread

Ya, Man U and PSV. Just stay with PSV. Half of MLS is supposedly monitored by MU. Not even mentioning MLS Next.

 

Well, Malik Tillman scored two goals.

 

On some sub USL team.

 

Not a single person on BS even suggested Timothy Tillman for the WC roster. It had probably been a few years since he had been mentioned in any capacity other than "Malik Tillman's lesser-skilled older brother".

 

Why would anyone suggest a player for the WC who was never even called in when he was a lock starter and playing well for a BuLi team?

Of course in '21 - '22 when Tim was playing well in the BuLi, i and others frequently called for his inclusion in the program. It is also worth noting that when Malik made his switch in early '22 he specifically said in interviews that Tim was also very interested in switching to the USMNT.

You have been around here longer than I. Can you remember a time when a lock BuLi starter did not get even a cursory look with the squad?

 

I watched Celtic beat some awful SPL shrapnel again today.
CCV without much to do.
Its so hard to evaluate him. Ross County did put up more of a fight (at home) than some teams I've seen against Celtic this year. Took a penalty and a wondergoal to beat them.

Next week is the big one. Celtic versus Rangers. CCV versus Tillman.

 

Sebastian Soto sighting. Came off the bench for mid-table Austrian team.

🇦🇹 Bundesliga

🧐🇺🇸 Sebastian Soto 🔁 pic.twitter.com/cR0ZtSmB9x

— 🇺🇸 ⚽ east (@eastdeflection) April 2, 2023

 

And you were wrong then (as you frequently are) because 1) he wasn't playing well and 2) he was only playing in the BuLi because the club he was on was one of the worst BuLi sides in recent history and completely out of their depth at that level.

 

Not going to wade thru the insufferable debate about MLS versus foreign league callups to see if anybody posted Zendejas' assist from last night for Club America. So here it is.

Zend🅰️jas 👀

🎥 » @ClubAmerica
pic.twitter.com/rCQtcfIQH1

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) April 2, 2023

 

Pepi scores again:

(6) ' Burak | Dutch League #Eredivisie on Twitter: "GOALLLLL! Ricardo Pepi Fortuna Sittard: 2-1 :FC Groningen #FORGRO #USMNT https://t.co/VNY7rcqeNQ" / Twitter


4 goals in his last 7 matches while his team sinks around him. Nice little come back after that 1 goal in 7 games stretch on either side of the world cup/new year. Got a reasonable chance of wrapping up the season around 15 total goals in all competitions but if I predicted, I'd say he finishes on 13 or 14 w/only the 7 games left. 11 goals for right now, despite missing the first month of the season plus labor day weekends match.

 

Don‘t forget. That team only started playing even semi respectably, and started picking up some points in the second half of the season when a completely out of his depth player (I wonder who?) was finally benched. Your being kind about saying th poster is frequently wrong.
Frequently manipulative and lies is more accurate.

 

Nicely weighted pass.

 

Good stuff.

 

LDLT had a so so outing today playing LW in a 4-4-2. I caught most of the first half of the match.

Currently watching John Brooks looking like JAB of old, manning the center of a 3CB backline for Hoffenheim up 2-0.

 

Pepi

El Tren is FULL STEAM AHEAD 🚂 https://t.co/JRolIi0kes

— U.S. Soccer Men's National Team (@USMNT) April 2, 2023

Ricardo Pepi 🇺🇸 has 10 goals and 3 assists in the Eredivisie, for a total of 13 goal contributions.
Groningen has scored 26 goals total, which means Pepi was directly involved in 50% of their goals.

Pepi missed only 1 match for the entire season, they didn’t score that match.

— Tactical Manager (@ManagerTactical) April 2, 2023

average age...

5 Americans Scoring or Assisting in 5 different European leagues this weekend #USMNT🇺🇸

Pepi (20) - ⚽️ in 🇳🇱
Balogun (21) - 🅰️ in 🇫🇷
Tillman (20) - ⚽️⚽️ in 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
Paredes (19) - 🅰️ in 🇩🇪
Fossey (24) - ⚽️ in 🇧🇪 pic.twitter.com/wAGUDvBh5V

— US Soccer's Bot (@USSoccersBot) April 2, 2023

 

Interestingly that's only the 3rd assist for Balogun this year.

 

One note slightly off from Tactical Manager: Pepi's missed 5 games, not 1. I think the key angle there is he wasn't available till the loan paperwork came through at which point he played for the first time on September 11th. He missed the 5 games that took place in August, and the September 4th match hosting Vitesse when he was still technically rostered and/or playing with Augsburg.

Interesting stats that illustrate both how bad Groningen are this year and how essential Pepi has been to them accomplishing much of anything at all since September.

 

gotta figure Pepi makes a move this summer, No?

 

It's as near a certainty as could be that he won't be back with Groningen next season.

 

Pepi should move to PSV this summer and use 2-3 years to develop. Then next step at 22-23 to move to big club. Either becoming a starter in big club or 1-2 years of struggle to settle on a mid table EPL teams.

 

It's basically Augsburg, or a loan move. I vote for the latter. I'd love for him to be sold on, but considering how much he was purchased for, I'm not anticipating that happening for now, I imagine if he does similar business w/a big 5 move next year, then he gets sold on. I hope anyway.

 

What's the relevance? No one here was a coach a scout or any other decision maker for the US.

 

I don't believe he ever filed a one time switch. His last international match was five years ago as a teenager. Like? I'd get on it, if I were us and he actually is interested, it's not like he has a hope in hell of ever playing for Germany, but I get the sense that at best, for now, he'd be like Cupcake, off year Gold Cup material pending how he performs this season. 2 goals and an assist in 350 MLS minutes so far is pretty good though, no question of that. Curious how his season plays out.

 

Yeah, the question is whether Augsburg wants to retain him and can mend the relationship. Maybe. They're likely safe in the Bundesliga relegation battle. One can imagine they want to recoup some of the money they spent on him. But PSV ain't spending 20 million on him right now. So do they loan him out another year and hope that the transfer value increases even more? [Part of that transfer fee does go to FCD.]

I am glad that the old trope about Eredevisie goals not meaning anything hasn't entered yet into the public debate. That only applies to players we don't like (such as Bradley and Altidore). Cuz I do watch some of those Pepi goals and think "are defense and goalkeeping optional in this league?" If that was MLS, there would howls of derision from the Euro-snob crowd.

[I think one of the most underappreciated Euro seasons was 20 year old Michael Bradley scoring 15 goals from midfield for Heerenveen in 2007/2008. What is the highest scoring season for a USMNT midfielder in Europe? I have no idea, but that seems like a good guess. I'll never forget Bradley scoring a beautiful long distance goal against Ajax and then giving a post-match press conference in near-fluent Dutch. Everybody was like................what???]

 

You're right. So why do you think Tim Tillman was "the big miss"? And why are you qualified to determine, in April 2023, that Tim Tillman should have been on the WC roster?