Journeyman Captain America’s big day, Pochettino and Slot’s pointed comments

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Hello! It’s time to laud Europe’s premier giant-killers — and their very own American dreamer.

On the way:

🐶 Germany’s underdog story

🥊 Poch pulls no punches

🗣️ Slot upbraids TAA

💥 Knee-slide gone wrong

Final fairytale: American captain Corboz goes from obscurity to prime time in German cup

A birds-eye view of Arminia Bielefeld does not give the impression of a small-fry club. Their stadium is substantial and can take a crowd of 27,000, like several others in Germany’s 3. Liga.

The 3. Liga, though, is where they are; down in the belly of the German pyramid, two rungs beneath the Bundesliga. Yet tomorrow, Arminia will try to win the DFB-Pokal, the national cup, after a purple patch in which they have giant-killed like Jack and the Beanstalk. It’s non-fiction fantasy — with a U.S. native in the thick of the plot.

Mael Corboz, a 30-year-old midfielder, rings very few bells, or he didn’t until Arminia started cutting all and sundry in the Pokal down to size. Close followers of the New York Red Bulls might recall him on the fringes of the MLS franchise a decade ago but since then, he’s grafted in obscurity. The son of French parents, he was born in the States, in Alabama, before moving to New Jersey as a boy.

Corboz’s career has been nomadic, taking him into Germany’s lower leagues and the Dutch second division. He canned Ivy League college ambitions to try his luck in Europe, launching a firm offering sustainability consultancy as he went. Often, he has been at the mercy of coaches willing to punt on a name they knew next to nothing about. One, at SG Wattenscheid, gave him a go simply because he knew Corboz’s agent.

But the Pokal is made for the likes of him. Seb Stafford-Bloor, who interviewed Corboz ahead of tomorrow’s final against Stuttgart in Berlin, described the competition to me as “egalitarian”, where upsets happen and people delight in them. A total of three third-tier teams have reached the final before. None have won it or scored, but Arminia can buck the trend.

“We’ve got one shot at this,” Corboz, Arminia’s captain, told Seb. “If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then the underdog is supposed to lose”. It’s the very philosophy which renders them so dangerous.

‘The greatest season’

In the Pokal, Arminia — situated north east of Dortmund — have had Bundesliga opponents on their toes. They knocked out Union Berlin, Freiburg and Werden Bremen before taking down holders Bayer Leverkusen in the semi-final. Corboz explained how Arminia’s analysts studied 16 Leverkusen matches in an effort to dig up weaknesses but “couldn’t find any”. Leverkusen lost 2-1 and ended up whinging about the pitch.

Corboz and his team-mates have nothing to lose this weekend. After a spell of rapid decay — they dropped from the Bundesliga to the verge of relegation to the regional, semi-pro fourth tier last year — Arminia were promoted to the 2. Bundesliga as 3. Liga champions a week ago. Corboz, who joined them in January 2024, is rubbing his eyes at the thought of this being “the greatest season the club has ever had”.

Alabama won’t be tuning in tomorrow. Neither will much, if any, of New Jersey. And competition for cup-hungry viewers is rife beyond belief this weekend. In the next 36 hours alone, the fixture list is loaded with the finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League, the Coupe de France and the Championship play-offs in England. But Berlin and the Pokal is where it’s at; last season’s Bundesliga runner-ups against upstarts who are upwardly, optimistically and menacingly mobile.

News round-up

• Trent Alexander-Arnold will take his leave of Liverpool with some punchy quotes from Arne Slot ringing in his ears. Speaking about the defender’s early-season training, Slot said: “I wasn’t completely happy with every single minute. In my opinion in certain moments he could do a bit more, to say it mildly.” What a messy separation.

• It’s the end of an era at Real Madrid, and adios to the majestic Luka Modric, who pulled off trivela assists, like the above, for fun. His deal is up and he’s bowing out at 39, with an incredible 26 trophies. He wanted to stay but terms couldn’t be agreed. All the talk is about Saudi Arabia or MLS next.
• Another Madrid legend, Raul, is to leave his job as their B team coach at the end of the season. He’s held that job since 2019 and he’s been linked with various clubs over the years. It’ll be interesting to see where the 47-year-old pitches up.
• Ivan Toney banging in the goals in the Saudi Pro League has pulled him back into the England frame. He’s part of Thomas Tuchel’s squad for two games next month.
• If Hansi Flick was the coach in Europe most deserving of a new contract, Raphinha was the man at the front of the players’ queue. Within hours of Flick renewing at Barcelona, their Brazilian winger has done the same.
• Yesterday’s Premier League 2 final — an academy match between Manchester City and Southampton — sparked a row after City breached the rules by choosing not to stage it at the Etihad Stadium. The game, which City won 2-0, took place in a smaller venue at their training ground instead.
• Having sorted their name out, Boston Legacy are lining up Benfica Women’s Filipa Patao to be head coach for their inaugural NWSL season.

Drive required: Pochettino says Gold Cup is not a golf camp for USMNT

Pochettino’s squad is short of stars (John Dorton/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

More light has been shed on Christian Pulisic’s omission from the USMNT’s Gold Cup squad. As we suspected, he’s trying to avoid burn-out. U.S. Soccer sporting director Matt Crocker said it was Pulisic who instigated conversations with Mauricio Pochettino about “stepping back this summer”.

Pochettino is a man of the world, and I reckon he’ll sympathise, irrespective of Pulisic’s absence compromising him. FIFA’s calendar is faintly absurd. Pulisic has to find time to breathe somewhere. Realistically, more and more players are going to protect themselves and cut their cloth like him.

What Pochettino isn’t conceding ground on is making call-ups based on merit. The USMNT have bumbled through his first six months as head coach and this quote from yesterday’s press conference was, I thought, a direct challenge to certain individuals; his way of saying “this ain’t no holiday camp”:

“You asked: is (this squad meant) to punish or say ‘pay attention’ to some players? What we want to create in our national team is people desperate to come, but desperate to come to perform. If you arrive to the camp and you want to spend a nice time, play golf, go for dinner, visit my family, visit my friend. Is that the culture that we want to create? No, no, no, no, no.”

No more Mr Nice Guy, then. I’d love to know who he’s aiming that comment at.

Too close to call: Five clubs fight for three Champions League spots on Premier League’s final day

After reading Danny Taylor’s backgrounder on him this morning, I’ll be disappointed if Nottingham Forest don’t finish in the top five on Sunday and Nuno Espirito Santo doesn’t do ‘The Worm’. TAFC demands the GIF material.

He’d be justified in giving it the big one: A) because the Premier League’s Champions League goldrush is an unprecedented stampede and B) because predictions at the start of the season had Forest nowhere near it. They’ve gone above and beyond like none of the other five clubs who are trying to nail the three remaining qualifying spots.

It’s so tight that we leaned on Opta to give us a best guess. Its final top-five prediction? Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Chelsea, in that order. And here’s an astonishing stat. At the start of April, Forest had a 50 per cent chance of third. They’ve now got less than a 15 per cent chance of finishing higher than sixth (see above). Sadly for them, the worm turned.

Around TAFC

Quiz question

Season 33 of the Premier League is just about a wrap. So, for our weekly quiz question: over the years, which player has scored the most goals on the competition’s final day?

The answer will be here later today, and in Monday’s TAFC.

Catch a match

(Selected games, times ET/UK)

Friday: Serie A (both 2.45pm/7.45pm): Como vs Inter — Paramount+/OneFootball; Napoli vs Cagliari — Paramount+, Fubo/OneFootball.

Saturday: UEFA Women’s Champions League final: Arsenal vs Barcelona, 12pm/5pm — DAZN/TNT Sports; Championship play-off final: Sheffield United vs Sunderland, 10.01am/3.01pm — Paramount+/Sky Sports; Coupe de France final: Paris Saint-Germain vs Reims, 3pm/8pm — Fox, Fubo/Amazon Prime; German Pokal final: Arminia Bielefeld vs Stuttgart, 2pm/7pm – ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.

MLS: San Diego vs LA Galaxy, 4.45pm/9.45pm — Fox, Fubo, MLS Season Pass/Apple TV; Philadelphia Union vs Inter Miami, 7.30pm/12.30am — MLS Season Pass/Apple TV.

Sunday: Premier League (all 11pm/4pm): Fulham vs Manchester City, Newcastle United vs Everton — both Peacock Premium (U.S. only); Manchester United vs Aston Villa — CNBC, Peacock Premium, Fubo/TNT Sports; Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea — USA Network, Fubo/Sky Sports; La Liga: Athletic Club vs Barcelona, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.

And finally…

Southend United FC

Down in England’s National League, Southend United inched through to the play-off final by navigating their way through a penalty shoot-out against Forest Green Rovers. Full-back Gus Scott-Morriss stuck away the winner, only to get scudded by a fan who met him in a mutual knee-slide. Updates on the damage as we get them…

(Top picture: Arminia Bielefeld’s US midfielder #06 Mael Corboz. Credit: UWE KRAFT/AFP via Getty Images)

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