JamieZ

I was going to post that Robin Gosens has been excellent on the evening and he assists on Germany's third goal. Massive threat on the left.

Port Vale. I like it a lot.

I don't miss much about the Cold War era, but a Czechoslovakia and united Yugoslavia would make the Euros a lot more interesting.

I've watched quite a bit of Red Bull Salzburg since last winter to see Brenden Aaronson and Daka is excellent. I kind of figured he'd go to RB Leipzig because Salzburg are within the Red Bull system and Leipzig have the need for a top striker, but I think he'll be a success pretty much wherever he goes.

Coming in 2022 to a TJMaxx near you.

I'm not a big fan of the "Waldo shirts" as they're a bit...on the nose? But they have a big cult following in the States. Personally, I like a primarily white home shirt (sash or stripe or whatever is fine) and blue or white shorts (see Centennial kit above). Away, we can mix it up a bit, but...not, not like this. One idea I saw someone express that I think would actually be super rad is a "Statue of Liberty patina" green with gold and black trim. Holy cow, that would be fantastic. Almost like Germany's iconic away kits from the "Germany is awesome" era in the '90s. On a side note, I really like Wales' away kit for the Euros. Proper Australia kit.

It's almost enough to make me want to renounce my citizenship. You know, that and everything else that's transpired in America over the past five or six years. I wish we could keep it simple and classy like the Centennial kit. And then if we want to go bonkers on a third kit, great. But that doesn't even get "go bonkers" right. It almost looks okay on Puli, though.

Oh, man. I kind of want to send him a nice card in the mail and let him know I'm still his friend.

I was thinking the same thing about the Mornflake slogan: Mighty oats. Like, "Eat oats and you, too, will become strong." Mmm...oats.

I'd honestly be more excited about Weah than Sargent, but that's my personal preference. From a scouting perspective, I think the same question mark hangs over both of them: do they have the killer instinct required to be a goalscorer at the highest level? I think thus far the answer is, "They both have so much to offer elsewhere that we've got to wait and see how they develop." And they're both so young, I think that's fair and earnestly hope they find that last remaining piece. If you watched Weah with the USA team against Costa Rica, he was at times just electric with his pace, energy, and incisive runs. He's shown that for Lille, too, when he can get onto the pitch. I think the next six months are big for him. Doe he stay at Lille and find himself playing week in and week out, or does he have to look for greener pastures into the build up to World Cup 2022?

That's a fair assessment, and for what it's worth, I'm not sure anybody is quite sure about him yet. His workrate led to Florian Kohfeldt (Werder Bremen) saying he was too important to the team to drop, and while it's also clear that Gregg Berhalter (USA) rates him very highly in that respect, it kind of seems we're reaching the point that we can't wait on him to enter a purple patch instead of blooding other options (especially with Daryl Dike's recent run of form). I like his attributes and would love to see him come good, but I think he's got to get out of Bremen and then get Bremen out of his head before we really see what he can offer. I'm just as curious about Matthew Hoppe (Schalke), who is a different sort of player but seems to have a knack for finding the right spaces and finishing his chances—that killer instinct you spoke of. I think both are decent options with Bundesliga experience who might benefit from an environment where they can mature and gain experience without the pressure of being their club's main goalscorer. Hoppe already exploded onto the scene with some huge goals earlier this year and I think Sargent could do the same given the right opportunity—but both suffer from playing for teams that are just awful. Sargent reportedly has a lot of interest from Top 4-chasing sides in the Bundesliga (Mönchengladbach, Frankfurt, Leverkusen, Stuttgart, that I can think of), but I could see us being a good place for him to develop. But if Dean Smith is looking for sure things, I just don't know.

And get a load of the shorts!

I think that kit would be really sharp with plain black shorts.

I feel it's like when a perfectly decent looking man and a perfectly acceptable looking woman have a child and that child comes out looking the the worst combination of the both of them. And then they slap a Wien Energie sticker on its forehead. It's a bit like that.

Ew.

Well, the Red Bull clubs are pretty good at keeping players in their system when they can, not to mention the Jesse Marsch connection. My hunch is that it was suggested even before Aaronson signed for Salzburg that, "Look, we'll give you a year, year and a half to settle in here at Salzburg, get used to the pace of European football, learn the system like the back of your hand, and we'll move you along to Leipzig as soon as you're ready." But with Marsch going to RB Leipzig and the way Aarnson has adapted to European football, I wouldn't be surprised if he moves sooner than later. He's not going to inspire a feeding frenzy among the top clubs in the world like Håland or Daka, but he's Leipzig quality in my opinion, and that means more than it did even a couple of years ago.

I'm sure he'll be Leipzig bound eventually, but I sure would like to have an American at Villa again. I suppose the bright side is that some of our best up-and-comers are probably out of our range.

That's a rather extreme way of putting it. Instead, I'd probably say that he has decidedly penis-like attributes.

Thanks for sharing that. The fact that it seems to hard to detect (i.e. that a negative test doesn't mean you don't have it) is quite worrisome. As a distance runner, moments like this give me a certain amount of pause, but I'm pretty sure that the risks shouldn't discourage me from pursuing an active lifestyle. In my case, the risks of being sedentary far outweigh the risks of being active.

How was it detected in you, if you don't mind my asking?

It would be awful if something to that effect were borne out by hindsight. As others have pointed out, though many players have pulled through after receiving world-class medical care on the spot, Abdelhak Nouri wasn't so lucky and will suffer from permanent brain damage. While the Ajax connection is scary, I really hope it proves to be a terrible coincidence.

How scary that someone in superb fitness under regular monitoring by world-class medical professionals can suddenly collapse doing something they've done literally hundreds of times. I still don't feel quite right after watching that yesterday and hope I never have to see something like it again. I would love to see Eriksen play again, but it's hard to imagine how that could happen. I'd much rather see him live a long and healthy life with his family.

Class. Pure class.

Stick your thumb over the branding and all of a sudden you're looking at one of the best kits we've had in years.