The Daily Bee: The Transfer Deadline Approaches, and the USMNT Faceplants in Ontario

The January transfer deadline approaches

The January transfer window can be quiet some years, but this year was has not been one of them. There was a flurry of transfer activity over the weekend, both in the Bundesliga and throughout Europe, with a few teams making some big moves. The biggest move within the Bundesliga came not from one of the big clubs, but from Wolfsburg, who made a pair of very surprising moves:

To the surprise of many, Wolfsburg have been an absolute train wreck this season. Their biggest weakness, among many others, has been their sheer inability to score goals no matter what. That’s why their decision to sell Wout Weghorst, who has converted more than a third of the club’s total goals, was so shocking when the rumor first emerged earlier in the weekend. But things only got crazier from there, when it was announced yesterday that Wolfsburg would re-sign Max Kruse, more than five years after he left the club:

It’s not often that you see a player leave a team fighting for the top four to one fighting relegation, but that’s what you have hear. Max Kruse has been a very effective player for Union Berlin, and he should really help Wolfsburg to stay up, but it’s surprising to see him surrender an opportunity to stay with a team that could possibly play in the Champions League next season. His contract was going to expire so it’s possible that he was always going to transfer away, but it’s still a shocking move.

BVB was directly involved in one transfer this weekend: Tobias Raschl, the U-23 player who never quite found a spot in the senior squad, will join Greuther Fürth permanently for a small fee of a few hundred thousand euros.

USMNT faceplants against Canada

Another day, another embarrassing CONCACAF defeat for the U.S. Men’s National Team:

The U.S. surrendered an early goal to the Canadians, and despite controlling the ball for the vast majority of the game, failed to create more than one or two decent scoring chances, and never broke through for 90 minutes. Although the squad featured some of America’s brightest players, including Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie, they looked absolutely lost in the final third. Gregg Berhalter decided to start Gyasi Zardes instead of Ricardo Pepi, a decision that yielded about 70 minutes of mistimed runs and heavy touches from Zardes, and nothing else.

Luckily, Mexico drew Costa Rica, so the US is still in second in the group and a point above Panama in fourth place. The USMNT has one more big game in this window, against Honduras on Thursday.

The Daily Buzz

Should Berhalter be fired? It obviously won’t happen in the middle of qualifiers, but in a just world, should it happen?