The 2024-24 Serie A campaign will feature an additional two American players.
Tanner Tessmann and Gianluca Busio earned promotion back to Italy’s top flight after winning the Serie B promotion playoffs on Sunday. Tessmann and Busio both featured as Venezia defeated Cremonese 1-0 in second leg action.
Busio assisted on the deciding goal of the two-legged series while Tessmann logged 90 minutes in each match.
Christian Gytkjaer’s 24th-minute finish broke the deadlock between the two sides on Sunday. Busio’s pass was finished off by the Danish forward, which proved to be the deciding goal of the match.
Busio played 59 minutes in midfield while Tessmann won 11 duels and completed four tackles over 90 minutes.
Both Tessmann and Busio were crucial to Venezia’s promotion this season. The pair combined for 13 goals and seven assists this season, featuring alongside one another for majority of the season.
Venezia will join Parma and Como as the third promoted side in Serie A next season. Fellow American Nicholas Gioacchini also earned promotion this season, while Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah also remain in the league for next campaign.
Obviously, it is only a sandwich when made by Julian Green.
Congrats to the boys! I was lucky enough to watch Venezia a half dozen times on Fox Deportes this year. While very happy for TT and GB the level of play was simply terrible for the most part. I have watched much Bund 2, English Cship and La Liga B, but IMO Serie B is a step down from those comps. They will need some serious investment to stay up. TT has grown a lot and these two years have done him good. I think he can take the step up and be a solid contributor in the bottom half of Serie A somewhere. Less certain about GB.
I will be rooting hard but next year will be very telling with regards to what they both really are, and if they have a real Nat future. Good luck to both and congrats again.
Every time I’ve watched Tessmann and Busio – even early on in their careers – I’ve come away with the definite impression that both of them are going to be long-term top-division players and important players for the USMNT at some point in the future. Tessmann’s got size, skill on the ball, intensity, and a wicked shot from distance. Busio’s far more of a finesse guy – though with a killer shot from distance of his own – but while he’s no hoss like Tessmann he’s developed some defensive lead in his butt, which was my big quibble with him in MLS. But Busio’s an extraordinarily intelligent and accurate passer with an eye for the killer ball, and his movement is likewise extraordinarily intelligent. The thing that constantly jumps out at me when I watch Busio with Venezia is how, despite the fact that he’s really not particularly fast, he frequently seems to be several steps ahead of the opponent because he reads it and goes before a defenders’ brain has really registered something’s on. (That assist he made on the goal that got Venezia promoted was a very prominent example, he got himself so open and timed his run so well he looked like the first guy out to practice. Split the defense and the frantic chase was on…too late; he found a slick little pass at the top of the box and boom, GOAL. And up Venezia goes.)
Guys like Musah, Adams, and especially McKennie get it done in no small part because they’re exceptional athletes who are developing as soccer players. Tessmann and Busio aren’t horrific athletes but they’re more cerebral than athletic and my suspicion is these guys are likely going to be peaking as the “MMA” trio is starting to drop off. MMA – well, hopefully Adams, if he can get healthy – are almost certainly fixtures for this cycle; I think Tessmann and Busio could well emerge as that in the next one.
Busio will almost certainly stay in Italy, IMHO. His style and skillset are pure Serie A. Tessmann, IMHO, has the size and strength to survive and even thrive in the Prem or especially the Bundesliga and I suspect his career arc could well be a lot more like Michael Bradley’s. But either way, I think these guys have very high ceilings and I am close to 100% certain neither guy has nearly reached theirs yet. I’ll be fascinated to see how they develop over the long term.
Your comments reminded me of something from the past. Klinsmann had supported Michael Badley going to Serie A. At the time Klinsmann said that playing in Serie A would promote Bradley in learning to look ahead in a game, figuring out when and where to pass two or three passes in the future. This reading of the game is the same thing you are referring to in regards to Busio. I think the same thing is true of La Liga, where finesse and tactical sense are very important. This is one of two reasons why I think US players who are prone to injury should get into one of those leagues. They are much less physical than the Premier league as well as favoring skill and finesse over athleticism.
“my suspicion is these guys are likely going to be peaking as the “MMA” trio is starting to drop off. MMA”….you do realize that Musah is actually younger than Tessmann right? Reyna & M. Tillman are also younger than Tessmann, and Cardoso is basically the same age. McKennie & Adams aren’t exactly “Old” either…as they are just now entering the prime of their careers (they’re only 25).
Not saying that Tessmann & Busio don’t have a chance to break into the A-Team of the USMNT, but they still have a tough road ahead of them as the CM is one position where the USMNT has a good amount of young talent. And another crop already nipping at their heels with talent emerging at the U-20 level (Vargas, Pukstas, Edelman, Cremaschi, etc…).
Tessmann, Busio, Giaocchini, Musah, Weah, McKennie, and Pulisic. Over/under 4.5 are with the same club at the end of the summer transfer window? My feeling is under. And no I’m not advocating moves I just think they will be likely to happen.
you’re forgetting lund (B), novakovic (B), and devries (B/C). plus some kids i left off because they are in C. i included devries because he’s technically venezia.
pulisic stays. i think the venezia guys stay put perhaps reduced role if they stock up for first division. other side of the ledger, nico goes, he can’t even play regularly in B. i’d lean mckennie stays. weah and musah in trouble.
we have to separate out 2 things. if the team doesn’t want you, leaving is good sense. reyna and his team just botched the “where.” my beef is more with the unforced error of a player-driven transfer — team is happy and you are productive — that backfires. which to me is often ego or greed driven.
i thought athletic, tactical, physical americans would be a good fit for italy but was surprised for years there weren’t many after bradley. people should sign there or germany. outside FFC and guys who are almost more english than american, england doesn’t treat us well right now.
Only listed the Serie A players because that’s what the article was about. I expect Lund and Nova to stay in Serie B, at least not move up to Serie A. DeVries seems 99.9% unlikely to be with Venezia next year. He wasn’t good enough for Venezia last year and two relatively unproductive loans since.
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I don’t see a lot of guys who could move to Serie A right now. Pefok actually could fit in there with someone. Balogun, but with Ben Yeder out I think Flo might find success playing off Embolo at Monaco. I don’t see Aaronson doing well there. Nor do I see the undersized attackers like Paxten, Luna, or Ferreira succeeding there.
I think Thiago Motta will actually like Weah. He might play as a FB though as he did at Lille. Perhaps Fonseca will try to bring him over to AC Milan if he gets hired as rumored. I think Musah will stay because for ACM he’s relatively cheap and can play multiple positions so he’s a good guy to keep on the roster. Allegri was always Weston’s biggest supporter so he’s one I think moves because of his contract struggles. I think Tessmann probably also moves and maybe Nico. If you’re Nico though why would you leave, no pressure to perform and you live in a beautiful place.
nico was barely playing for a B league team. he may be “pushed” as opposed to “jump.”
he’s also watched his NT chances evaporating, and might want to make a move to see if they can be revived. i would be highly skeptical as the forward positions have evolved since he was getting time. i think the better term is “evaporated” — past tense. kind of like i think the team evolved past sargent and other 2017-21 era contemporaries. pepi happened, balogun happened, wright emerged. heck, i think vazquez and ferreira are better than most of the 17-21 bunch.
he was good in switzerland, i don’t know what happened since — some of it was he got overrated for helping provide what little offense that gold cup team could muster — and it might be wise trying to go back. italy doesn’t make a ton of sense. italy fools people, it’s physical and organized, but then in bursts you’re expected to execute high skills. like real madrid who has an italian coach.
re “that’s what the article was about,” 3 of the players were B only now being promoted to A. plus devries defaults back to venezia. at that point it’s weird to me to exclude the other B people, including the quite capable lund and the forgotten novakovic.
lund in particular, the 2 halves of the jedi critique are never melded into a single consistent assessment and so i get to watch him lose US games then revive himself by club form then maybe help win a US game then lose us some games, and around in the circle.
“Venezia will join Parma and Como as the third promoted side in Serie A next season. Fellow American Nicholas Gioacchini also earned promotion this season, while Christian Pulisic, Yunus Musah, Weston McKennie, and Tim Weah also remain in the league for next campaign.” I literally just went through Larry’s list at the end of the article. Yes, I accidentally omitted DeVries my mistake, I think as I stated it’s highly unlikely he plays for Venezia next season though. Do you see him playing for them? You seem to be looking for an argument here.
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I think perhaps Nico is just looking at what’s best for him not worrying about NT. If he wanted to impress Gregg staying in St Louis would have made sense. 10g last season.
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Lund we shall see, I think you’ll change your mind on him as you see him play more. I’m not saying he’ll never be in Serie A, I think he’ll just stay with Palermo at least until January.
I’m looking for an argument; what do want to argue about?
Tele: is a hot dog a sandwich? Because obviously it’s meat between bread.