USMNT Szn Kicks Off 🇺🇸🧨

It is time.

The call is out to dust off your Waldos, your Bomb Pops, your Denim Kits. Your Maverick costumes, your bald eagle masks, and your best presidential garb.

It is time once more to show your belief in this great sporting nation, as only lovably-insane football supporters can.

Yes, the USMNT is back. And playing meaningful games once more. Like Frankie Hejduk at a tailgate, it is on. Let the Wet Hot American Summer of Football begin.

Starting with Saturday’s friendly against Colombia (Saturday, 5:30 p.m. EST, TNT/Max/Peacock)  through Copa America 2024, the USMNT will play a belt-bursting five matches in 23 days … Or six matches in 28 days, if we reach the knockout round of the Copa America … Ooorrrrr better still 🤞🤞🤞 … EIGHT MATCHES in 35 or 36 days if we reach the Copa semi finals (reaching the final four would guarantee an additional appearance in either the third-place match, or the final itself).

And then there’s the little matter of the Olympic tournament, coming just 10 days after the Copa America final, with the U.S. facing host-nation France in the opening game of the competition.

But one stars-and-bars soccer bacchanalia at a time, please.

Let’s start with the Colombia and Brazil friendlies (Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST, TNT/Max/Peacock). Both games should be hotly contested affairs, with players giving their all as the matches could help decide Copa starting lineups for all three teams. For the U.S., the two friendlies should go a long way in answering questions at right back, midfield, and center back. As for the Colombia friendly itself, here’s one writer’s thoughts on who should start and who will start for the U.S. on Saturday against La Tricolor.

Naturally, Camp Gregg is well under way at this point, having kicked off in the DMV on May 28. And the latest updates from an extremely bucolic swath of the DC area? Expect Haji Wright to play on the wing; Tyler Adams has been “looking fit”; and Yunus Musah, Johnny Cardoso, and Gio Reyna are all making it tough on GGG in terms of figuring out his starting midfield three (a good problem to have).

Arguably the most headline-y moment from camp came when Yunus Musah revealed it’s still a possibility that he could be called in for the Olympic squad. Which means there may be a handful of players doing two-way Copa America-Paris Games duty this summer … which means a few of our lads could do the double this summer when WE WIN BOTH THE COPA AMERICA AND THE OLYMPICS!!! WE GONNA JOE MAX MOORE THE COMPETITION AND GO UNDEFEATED ALL THE WAY THROUGH SUMMER 2026 BABY!!! 😉🥇🏆

Or we’re going to squeak through to the Copa quarter finals after losing to Uruguay in group play, before bowing out gracefully to Brazil in the knockouts. Could see either happening, to be honest. Every cup (or copa) is a crapshoot, after all. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Americans On The Move:

It seems highly unlikely that this summer will come close to rivaling the activity seen on the transfer market last year, when Puli, Balo, Musah, Matty, and more all made moves to new clubs. But there are still a number of key U.S. players who may be on the European market this summer.

As confirmed by Tom “Tommy Scoops” Bogert at The Athletic, Tim Ream 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (36; St. Louis, MO) may be returning to MLS, as Charlotte FC are in “advanced talks” to acquire him from Fulham. If this does mark the end of Timmy’s European journey, Ream’s has been one of the best American Abroad careers of all time.

Thanks to stalled contract talks with Juventus, Weston McKennie 🇮🇹 (25; Little Elm, TX) has been linked with a return to the Premier League, as Aston Villa and Everton are reportedly interested in Juve’s Creator in Chief.

Another American midfielder in Italy who’s reportedly drawing interest from multiple clubs is Venezia’s Tanner Tessmann 🇮🇹 (22; Birmingham, AL), who’s said to be on the radars of Serie A sides Parma and Bologna.

Eighteen-year-old goalkeeper Julian Eyestone is going from Duke to West London, as the former FC Dallas academy product has signed a three-year deal with Brentford, pending work permit approval.

European Season in Review - Minutes Played Rankings:

From Christian Pulisic’s wildly successful debut campaign in Italy, to Antonee Robinson starting every Premier League match but one for Fulham, it was an outstanding season for Americans Abroad in Europe’s Big Six leagues in 2023-24. In an effort to provide some raw-data context to the season that was, here’s a statistical snapshot of all players who appeared in the top tiers of England, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, and Spain, ranked by number of minutes played in league matches only.

Player (Club) Starts/Appearances, MINUTES PLAYED, Goals, Assists:

1. Antonee Robinson (Fulham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 37/37, 3265, 0, 6

2. Christian Pulisic (AC Milan 🇮🇹) 32/36, 2602, 12, 8

3. Weston McKennie (Juventus 🇮🇹) 29/34, 2594, 0, 7

4. Auston Trusty (Sheffield United 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 28/32, 2572, 0, 0

5. Lennard Maloney (FC Heidenheim 🇩🇪) 27/29, 2284, 1, 1

6. Joe Scally (Borussia Mönchengladbach 🇩🇪) 25/31, 2236, 1, 4

7. Sergiño Dest (PSV 🇳🇱) 25/25, 2118, 2, 6

8. Chris Richards (Crystal Palace 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 23/26, 2094, 1, 1

9. Luca de la Torre (Celta Vigo 🇪🇸) 22/31, 1956, 1, 4

10. Folarin Balogun (AS Monaco 🇫🇷) 19/29, 1692, 7, 5

11. Jordan Pefok (Borussia Mönchengladbach 🇩🇪) 20/29, 1624, 7, 3

12. Malik Tillman (PSV 🇳🇱) 17/28, 1594, 9, 10

13. Emmanuel Sabbi (Le Havre 🇫🇷) 18/30, 1584, 5, 1

14. Zach Booth (FC Volendam 🇳🇱) 16/27, 1558, 2, 2

15. John Brooks (Hoffenheim 🇩🇪) 18/21, 1539, 2, 0

16. Matt Turner (Nottingham Forest 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 17/18, 1530, 0, 0

17. Tim Ream (Fulham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 17/18, 1503, 1, 0

18. Yunus Musah (AC Milan 🇮🇹) 13/30, 1478, 0, 2

19. Kevin Paredes (Wolfsburg 🇩🇪) 15/28, 1432, 3, 0

20. Paxten Aaronson* (Frankfurt, Vitesse) 15/21, 1354, 4, 1

21. Johnny Cardoso (Real Betis 🇪🇸) 15/17, 1328, 1, 2

22. Brenden Aaronson (Union Berlin 🇩🇪) 14/30, 1267, 2, 2

23. Timothy Weah (Juventus 🇮🇹) 12/30, 1258, 0, 1

24. Taylor Booth (FC Utrecht 🇳🇱)15/19, 995, 5, 0

25. Gio Reyna* (Dortmund/Nott. Forest) 3/20, 515, 0, 1

26. Ricardo Pepi (PSV 🇳🇱) 1/27, 484, 7, 2

27. Damion Downs (FC Köln 🇩🇪) 0/10, 181, 2, 0

28. Tyler Adams (Bournemouth 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿) 1/3, 121, 0, 0

(* - Statistics combined for both clubs player appeared for during 2023-24 season.)

News and Notes:

• For Love of the Beautiful Game … American Soccer Twitter is abuzz over the possibility that Christian Pulisic 🇮🇹 (25; Hershey, PA) may have started dating professional golfer Alexa Melton. Pulisic appeared in a recent Instagram post from Melton, on which fellow golfer Briana Chacon left a comment saying, “Hard launch”, to which Melton replied, “I’m classifying this as a soft launch.” Emojis used in the comment thread: 🙈👀💅🥹❤️🖤

• Massive congratulations to Gio Reyna 🇩🇪 (21; Bedford, NY) and Chloe Ortolano, as the couple recently announced their engagement on Instagram. Ortolano is also an accomplished footballer, having played for the Providence Friars. ❤️

• Good Read Alert: The Athletic sat down with Antonee Robinson 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (26; Liverpool, ENG) for an excellent “Fulham player of the season” feature. Jedi talks about everything from his relationship with Marco Silva, to what it’s like to defend Mo Salah. As for what the future holds for the USMNT left back? “I want to add goals to my game as well.” 💪

• Props to Tim Weah 🇮🇹 (24; Rosedale, NY) for investing in American lower-league soccer, and joining the Brooklyn FC ownership group. The men’s team will start play in the USL Championship in 2025, while the women’s team will participate in this year’s upcoming USL Super League season. Weah will join (checks notes) Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos as minority owners in the club. Time to book Timmy on Live With Kelly and Mark, you cowards!

Parting Shots:

Serie US-A just got 40.0% more American, as Venezia beat Cremonese 1-0 on Sunday to win the Serie B Playoff Promotion Final and return to the Italian top flight. Which means that Tanner Tessmann and Gianluca Busio 🇮🇹 (22; Greensboro, NC) — both fresh off of what looked like a ridiculously fun boat parade on the canals of Venice — will join Puli, Wes (assuming he doesn’t ship off to England), Yunus, Timmy, and newly promoted Niko Gioacchini (with Como) in the Italian top flight. What a time to be alive! 🤌