Last week Tanner Tessmann helped Venezia earn a crucial three points in Serie B play and today marked Gianluca Busio’s time to shine.
Busio delivered the winning goal for Venezia in a 2-1 road victory over Lecco, keeping them in the promotion fight. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder logged 90 minutes alongside Tessmann as Venezia stayed three points back of second-place Como in the hunt for automatic promotion back to Serie A.
Venezia fell down 1-0 in the first half but rallied back in the second half to flip the match in its favor. After Joel Pohjanpalo tied the match in the 58th minute, Busio’s right-footed finish two minutes later boosted the visitors in front 2-1.
Venezia would hang on for its 19th league win of the campaign, moving them to 64 points on the season. With four matches left to play, Venezia will certainly remain the promotion race if they continue to deliver performances like Saturday’s.
Both Busio and Tessmann have been crucial to Venezia this season and will need to continue delivering important minutes.
Up next for Venezia is an April 26 date with Cremonese.
Durn. Those fellows are tearing up Serie B. Which is a pretty strong indicator they’re likely ready to at least survive in Serie A.
Those two are also very talented. Tessmann strikes me as sort of a cross between Michael Bradley and Walker Zimmerman and with the same savage competitor’s nature, but with better skill on the ball than either. Busio’s just…I dunno, Italian. Classy, slick passing, sophisticated in the way he reads the game. Both of them have howitzers and can hit from distance better than any of our present starters. And they’re both audacious. They try the hard stuff. Last week Tessmann scored with a half volley from just inside the 18 that almost blew out the back of the net, and that was very alert movement from Busio on that goal.
I like the incremental way the two have ground their way up. That usually sets players up for more success later than just throwing them into the deep end and seeing if they can swim.
This is how the pool continues to grow. I definitely do not think we’ve heard the last of these guys.
Hopefully Parma or Como stumble. It will be a much shorter road if they finish top 2. Right now the difference is an added time goal
in Como’s match with Venezia on Mar. 3. If that match had ended a draw Venezia would hold the automatic spot by goal difference. Shows how tight promotion can be. I think both Tanner and Gianluca will be in a top 6 Euro league next year even if it’s not with Venezia. It might actually be better if they’re not with Venezia who would likely be in a relegation fight all season again.
JR,
It will be nice if Tanner and Busio can establish themselves long term at some Euro club.
Unfortunately for them, barring in jury or something unlikely, at this time they don’t figure to be in the 2026 WC team. Too much competition. Nice to have potential depth though.
But maybe a lot of things can change between now and then.
V: the sooner hope is that they are released and can gain experience with the Olympic team. “Unfortunately for them, barring injury or something unlikely,” have we ever had a WC without that? The more depth the better.
“the sooner hope is that they are released and can gain experience with the Olympic team.”
It’s more important, for the upcoming season, that they get with a Top division team, in Italy or elsewhere, where they can continue to progress.
If they are not released it tells you the teams who know them best think that they are better than Olympic level.
I don’t think it has anything to do with that. It will be because they realize they pay the bills and want them fit and healthy for the season. Venezia has released them for all these U23 camps, U23 is their level. However, if Venezia go up I’d understand if they said “no we’ve got to be ready for Serie A.” If they don’t I expect them to want to showcase them for sale at the Olympics. Busio in 13 NT caps has 1g (TnT) 3a (2 St.Kitts, 1 Martinique) so he hasn’t really established himself at the top level. In his 6 U23 matches he’s only got 1g 1a so he’s not clearly above that level either. Tessmann only has 67 mins with NT (55 in Sept when he looked a little sketchy) he’s captained the U23s in 3 of 6 matches with an assist vs France.
“It will be because they realize they pay the bills and want them fit and healthy for the season.”
Agreed. I’m assuming the dynamic duo likely won’t play out their careers at Venezia so what is best for ownership would be that Busio and Tessman become the most valuable assets possible.
If the ownership decides that keeping a player fit and healthy is of greater benefit to their career than anything the player might gain from going to the Olympics then, unless they make a statement in depth about it, we won’t know whether they agree more with you or with me.
And it’s irrelevant since the end result is the same.
I agree that depth never hurts but honestly Busio would be depth for Pulisic or Gio while Tessman probably is depth for Weston. And if they need to use the cover for those three, the USMNT will be in deep trouble.
“If they don’t I expect them to want to showcase them for sale at the Olympics.”
Barring the “special circumstances” around a Neymar or an Mbappe, I believe you agree that the big clubs tend to not release their best players for the Olympics. That would tend to reduce the value of the Olympics as a “showcase”.
In the past, the American soccer argument for Olympic participation was the incredible popularity the Olympics as a sporting event to the average American sports fan. Any exposure featuring US soccer product was seen as vital in promoting the “game” and MLS.
I think exposure for soccer is doing just fine in the USA thanks mostly to the women, for whom the Olympics are a major tournament.
While the minimal exposure that men’s soccer gets from the Olympics doesn’t hurt, the Olympics are NOT a significant platform for the men.
The US men have not qualified for the Olympics since 2008 meaning this latest “golden generation” of US players in Europe, allegedly our best ever, happened, without any “input” from the Olympics.
I’ve never watched a Olympic men’s soccer game in real time or in replay. Watching the men’s attempts to qualify permanently turned me off to the whole thing in general.
V: I get you don’t care about the Olympics. When are Busio and Tessmann supposed to get time if you don’t want anyone to go to that? Busio (backup for Gio not Pulisic he hasn’t played as a winger in years) and Tessmann aren’t going to beat out Wes, Tyler, Musah, Gio, or Tillman anytime soon. So you can rest them this summer that’s fine but if you need them say in the WC because someone blows an Achilles and another guy blows up his hamstring they’ll have very little international experience outside Concacaf. We’ve seen even a regular in a top 3 league like Scally struggle when jumping to international play.
“: I get you don’t care about the Olympics…. if you need them say in the WC because someone blows an Achilles…they’ll have very little international experience outside Concacaf. ”
?? One really big reason for that is the USMNT, to this point, plays very few competitive games worth a fuck outside CONCACAF.
World Cup, 4 games that’s it.
That’s why Copa America is such a big deal in terms of competitive testing. It gives the USMNT some of that 2-year cycle euro rotation.
For the likes of fringe USMNT guys like our Venezians, they WON’T get international experience with the USMNT outside of CONCACAF barring injury. very unlikely to happen.
Besides, right now Busio and Tessman are more C or D guys as opposed to B guys so injury to the A guys is only going help those two so much.
The reality is their chances with the USMNT for 2026 are close to non existent.
Their only realistic path to a 2026 slot is the usual one.
1. Get to the highest level you can
2. Make the most amount of noise you possibly can
3. Force Gregg’s hand.
Exhibit A- Mr. Wright
Exhibit B- Mr. B. Aaronson
Exhibit C- Mr. Pepi
Exhibit D- Mr. M. Tillman
Those guys did not go to the Olympics.
None of them excelled at a Top 5 club.
None of them had significant international experience outside CONCACAF. ( Wright and Brenden made their push before Qatar and were rewarded w/a spot) .
“We’ve seen even a regular in a top 3 league like Scally struggle when jumping to international play.”
Scally doesn’t count. He doesn’t prove anything. At this point Gregg and Joe have some weird shit going on, that I don’t even want to get into. I would point out that JAB plays in the same league as Joe, does very well just like Joe and even has a vital World Cup goal( just like Julian Green) but that does not seem to be enough to make him an important part of the USMNT.
If you want to be a part of the 2026 USMNT World Cup team, it seems to me you need to win over Uncle Gregg.
I’m not convinced anyone here knows exactly how a player does that.
“Tessmann strikes me as sort of a cross between Michael Bradley and Walker Zimmerman and with the same savage competitor’s nature, but with better skill on the ball than either.”
Tessman with better technical skill than Michael Bradley? C’mon, are you serious?
Quozzel,
“Tessmann strikes me as sort of a cross between Michael Bradley and Walker Zimmerman and with the same savage competitor’s nature, but with better skill on the ball than either.”
Tanner Tessman with better technical skill than Michael Bradley? C’mon, are you serious?
“Tessmann strikes me as sort of a cross between Michael Bradley and Walker Zimmerman and with the same savage competitor’s nature, but with better skill on the ball than either. ”
I should preface this by saying I’ve always regarded Michael as a just slightly above average international.
I followed Bradley from his early USMNT years until his long semi retirement at TFC. Comparing a guy like Tessman to Michael doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Michael was all around skilled on the ball enough so that it was never an issue anywhere he played.
Michael was a team player, almost to a fault. He was never the “star” but instead was a supporting player. He wasn’t flashy but he was skilled enough to do whatever his manager felt he needed to do. He could always able and willing to shoot from Tyler Adams golazo distance and he was always capable of a hollywood pass, but he was judicious about that. So he did not do that very often . And in his later years he did both very infrequently.
I’ve seen far less of Tessman but if you took , for example, a 2010 version of Bradley and stuck him on Venezia, I’m pretty sure Bradley would do as well as Tessman has done.
The difference is Tessman has a chance to develop into someone better than slightly above average.