Deeper Meaning

USMNT Burner Week Recap/Preview - 6/24/25 - Vol. 12

Jun 24, 2025

If watching Max Arfsten play soccer was a song.

The Curious Case of Max Arfstink, Patrick Agyeminge & Poor MLS Players

It’s that time of a USMNT window where it’s about that time where things aren’t adding up and the only logical thing to do is put the tinfoil hat on. There is something going on with the USMNT.

IT really is tough to tell if it stems from Mauricio Pochettino or if there has been a shift in the amount of influence Major League Soccer is having on this squad. At the time of writing we have watched Patrick Agyemang start four of the last five games for the USMNT and Max Arftsen start all of the last five. There is just simply no way a man with the experience and tactical prowess that Poch has can look at those two and say, “Yes, those are two starters for this USMNT squad.” We just refuse to believe this.

Granted, Haji Wright has left the Gold Cup and Damion Downs is also struggling with an injury, but up until then Patrick Agyemang has been nothing short of extremely uninspiring. Yes, he did score against Trinidad & Tobago. Yes, he had no idea what happened after Luna’s shot ricocheted off of him and rolled into the goal. Now we are stuck with him for the rest of the Gold Cup.

In the case of Max Arfsten lies an even more perplexing repeated inclusion. He has yet to show anything in his six caps yet that would make someone say, ‘yeah this guy’s decent I want to see more of him’. Against Trinidad & Tobago his two assists would sway the eyes of someone who didn’t watch the game. Both came from just pumping balls down the left hand channel to Haji Wright and Brenden Aaronson for them to both create the shot and finish themselves. Up until that point, he never really even attempted to impose himself against a Trinidad side that has probably never played worse in their careers. The Arfsten insistence over John Tolkin through the friendlies and Gold Cup so far is where we need to take a step back, evaluate things in the bigger picture, and throw on the tinfoil hat.

Even the official @USMNT X/Twitter account has seemingly only been pumping out content about the MLS players. Over the course of their social coverage of the last game, a 1-0 win over Saudi Arabia, MLS players were included in 12 of the 21 total posts from the matchday graphic to the final score graphic. Chris Richards alone made up nine of the posts that were not about MLS players. Granted there is an increase in the overall amount of MLS players in this roster as compared to previous.

Overall, there just feels as if there has been a shift to advancing the corporate agenda of Major League Soccer though the USMNT. An idea that has been floated around under the Berhalter regime and it’s an idea we thought would die with the hiring of Poch. However, it feels more prevalent than ever.

Curtains Close on the Weekend Past

Malick Sanogo has left VSG Altglienicke 🇩🇪 and joined 1. FC Magdeburg II 🇩🇪.
Benji Michel scored in the 59’ for HJK 🇫🇮against Haka. He also bagged a 72’ goal against Klubi 04 (HJK’s reserve team) in the quarterfinal of the Finnish Cup.
Alejandro Granados had a 16’ assist for Spain 🇪🇸 U19 against Montenegro U19 in the U19 European Championships.
Emmanuel Iwe has joined Waldhof Mannheim 🇩🇪 from SV Sandhausen 🇩🇪.
William Spagnolo has signed a contract with Ingolstadt 🇩🇪 after leaving Fortuna Dusseldorf 🇩🇪.
Astin Mbaye has officially joined AC Milan 🇮🇹 from New York Red Bull.
Guillermo Hunt has joined Alaves’ 🇪🇸 academy from FC Cartagena’s academy
Diego Mastrangelo joined CA Alvarado 🇦🇷 on loan from Gimnasia 🇦🇷
Luca Koleosho scored for Italy’s 🇮🇹 U21 against Germany U21 in the U21 EURO quarterfinal. Nathaniel Brown later had the winning assist in the 117’ for Germany 🇩🇪
18 year old Marvin Dills has signed his first professional contract with Eintracht Frankfurt 🇩🇪and is set to play for the U21’s this upcoming season
Marcelo Palomino scored the 37’ opener for GIF Sundsvall 🇸🇪against Trelleborgs FF
Noahkai Banks has extended his contract with FC Augsburg 🇩🇪until 2029
Ethan Kohler is joining SC Verl 🇩🇪 on loan from Werder Bremen 🇩🇪

The Rumor Mill

Fulham 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 are weighing up a move for Ricardo Pepi. The Cottagers join the list of Italian and Spanish clubs who admire the striker (🗞 Fabrizio Romano)
Napoli 🇮🇹 and Yunus Musah are still working on ironing out details for their transfer (🗞 Matte Moretto)
Jack McGlynn has developed an interest from Alaves 🇪🇸 and Parma 🇮🇹. Anderlecht 🇧🇪 remain interested but are somewhat put off by his asking price of €5 million.
Per Sky Sports Germany, Bayer Leverkusen 🇩🇪 have opened talks to sign Malik Tillman by activating his release clause. No agreements yet, but talks are scheduled. Tillman is currently contracted with PSV 🇳🇱 until 2028.
Joshua Swanzy is currently on trial with Como 🇮🇹. Formerly of Inter Miami, Swanzy currently plays for Nashville SC’s U18’s (🗞 @johnjky7 /X)
Nottingham Forest 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿are in discussions with Juventus 🇮🇹 over the transfer of Tim Weah (🗞 Fabrizio Romano)
Jeremy Kelly is finalizing a move away from Crawley Town 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 to join the Charleston Battery (🗞 Tom Bogert)
EFL Championship 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 clubs and KRC Genk 🇧🇪 have held serious discussions with Charlotte FC over the transfer of Patrick Agyemang (🗞 GIVEMESPORT)
George Campbell is attracting interest from FC Malmo 🇸🇪

Lore Moment of the Week

This week, burner staff was lucky enough to catch up with American-Belgian dual nat Devon De Corte of RSC Anderlecht! Here’s how the conversation went:

Burner: Good morning Devon; let’s get things started. At one point you were committed to Stanford to play collegiate soccer. What drew you to Stanford and what other schools were you interested in?

De Corte: The combination of top level academics and athletics drew me to Stanford. Watching them win three consecutive national championships when I was a kid, combined with its prestige as an academic institution made it a clear choice. I was also interested in a number of Ivy League schools!

Burner: When you went to Belgium, was Anderlecht the only offer you had or were there other offers elsewhere in Europe? What attracted you to Anderlecht?

De Corte: I had early conversations with a few other Belgian clubs and had offers from two Bundesliga academies. I trained with Anderlecht for two weeks in the summer of 2023 and had a great feeling there. My original commitment to Anderlecht was one year under a youth contract, as I was still planning to attend Stanford. After the new year, I broke into the second team and it became clear that they wanted to offer me a professional contract. I felt an excitement on their end, was on board with their pathway for me, and was confident that it would be a good place for me to begin this journey and grow.

Burner: What are the conversations like with the Belgian FA? What kinds of feedback or guidance are you getting with their national teams?

De Corte: I was first selected for the Belgium U18 team in March 2024. After a good one week camp I received positive feedback and understood that performance at the club level would dictate the decisions made for the U19s. I had a positive few months in the summer, gaining experience with the first team of Anderlecht during preseason and captaining our second team for the first games of the competition, so this resulted in me being called in to the first two camps for the U19s. I wasn’t involved in the most recent two camps, I believe due to lack of game minutes during what was a difficult winter for me individually. My goal is to prove myself even more this season and to get into the U21 squad.

Burner: Academy Director Mikkel Hemmersam cited your mentality as being ‘special’ - what technical aspects of your game have you identified that you want to improve going into the 2025-2026 season?

De Corte: I want to add more goal involvements in this next season and be more decisive in the final third. This past season I think I consistently found good pockets of space and often performed very well between the two boxes, but I can make big steps in the final third with my last pass and getting into goal scoring positions and being able to provide goals and assists for my team.

Burner: You’ve said your goal is first team involvement next season, and with Anderlecht playing in the Europa League qualifying rounds, do you or the club see that competition as an opportunity for involvement? Is there a plan in place already for getting those first team opportunities with the club playing in multiple competitions?

De Corte: This past season the club definitely did some rotating between the two competitions, with some younger guys getting opportunities in the European matches. I don’t know how it will look for the coming season, but my main focus is to perform with the Futures and put myself in a position to receive those chances. I’m confident that if I play at my best with the Futures those opportunities will come.

Burner: Do you still keep up with anyone from the Philadelphia Union academy teams?

De Corte: I keep up with a few of the guys from my time in Philly. Of the ones still at the Union, CJ Olney, Sal Olivas, and Eddy Davis are a few of the guys I’m still in touch with. Last summer I was in town for the YSC Academy graduation so I got to see all of my teammates and friends then. From playing soccer and going to school with these guys, they became some of my close friends, so it’s always great to see them when I can.

Massive thank you to Devon for taking the time to answer some of our questions! If you want to keep up with Devon, give him a follow on Instagram.

Devon is now officially a part of our lore! Subscribe NOW so you can be the first to hear from these American Abroad prospects or leave a comment with any kind of questions you want us to ask.

Burner staff is looking to continue this as a content segment moving forward and already have another exciting prospect for next week’s lore moment!

Red Lights, Stop Signs, I Still See Your Face in the White Cars

One canon event in every man’s life is sitting around a table drunkenly naming random sports players. Trying to one up your friends as you take turn yelling random player names. This is a burner favorite but we often do this with forgotten USYNT players.