Add The New York Post on Google Long Island native Joe Scally is playing in his second World Cup for Team USA — in an American homecoming for the Bundesliga star that his family says they wouldn’t miss for the world.
Siblings Drew and Anna Scally are ready to cheer on their brother and his teammates at home after heading across the pond to see the star defender during German league games.
“Whenever we’re at one of his games, he knows where we’re sitting each time. He’ll look up and wave to us,” Drew Scally, 26, told The Post of watching the beloved Borussia Mönchengladbach player.
“He always smiles. I would say he would maybe focus more; it’s definitely a lot of excitement for him.”
The Lake Grove siblings were sidelined from seeing their 23-year-old middle brother when he debuted for America at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar because of COVID travel restrictions — but they’re making up for lost time now that the games are stateside.
Anna Scally, 21, has been at each game, including when her famous brother made his World Cup playing debut when team USA shellacked Australia 2-0 in Seattle Friday, and Drew Scally will be in sunny Los Angeles for the team’s match against Turkiye Thursday.
The family will also be going to the round of 32 now that America clinched a spot in the knockout stage.
“When we played soccer together, we would always watch the World Cup, talk about the World Cup,” said Drew Scally, now an accountant.
“The fact that he’s on the team is just those things that don’t feel real for all of us,” he added of his brother, the youngest non-German to play 150 games in the Bundesliga.
Joe Scally left to follow his dreams and play in the league at age 18 during the height of the pandemic. It again kept him isolated from his family, who were also supposed to fly over to help him settle in during the first weeks.
“It was a very, very hard time for him. He adjusted very easily. I don’t know how,” his mom and former youth coach Margaret Scally said.
“He told us he was OK. He’s like, ‘I’m where I’m supposed to be, I’m focused,'” she added.
The Scally family now goes to Europe to see him play a good four times a year.
“When we tell him that we’re coming to visit him in Germany, his face lights up,” Drew Scally said.
“It means obviously so much to all of us when we get to spend that time together.”
Being separated in the past has made this World Cup homecoming that much more special for the Scally clan.
Drew, Anna, Margaret, and their dad, John, were able to steal some family time with Joe when he returned from Europe for the Team USA roster announcement in Lower Manhattan last month.
“We all enjoyed it. Everyone was happy. My mom had some balloons, and everything. We had a nice dinner for friends and family to come over,” Joe Scally told The Post at the time.
Afterward, they played games at home, ate big breakfasts, watched their beloved Knicks march to the NBA title, laughed about Joe Scally’s pregame ritual of listening to Justin Bieber, and still took in the special moment after he left for the cup.
“I’ve talked to him pretty much every day, and he feels good. He’s confident, he’s excited,” Drew Scally said of his “best friend” known as the jokester for Team America.
The oldest Scally rallied the troops close to home before making his trip out west.
He hosted a huge watch party at Napper Tandy’s in Smithtown, where the family patriarch used to bartend, with Joe Scally’s face plastered all over signs and flyers for the USA’s dominant 4-1 win over Paraguay.
“We like to make fun of each other, so I’d send him pictures of the posters and make fun of him, but it’s definitely a cool moment,” Drew Scally said.
The brotherly love and playful jousting extend beyond routine calls and daily texts as Drew Scally also became part of the Team USA family — so much so that he’d hop on Call of Duty seasons with his brother and fellow talent like New Jersey native forward Brenden Aaronson.
“We all just like messing with each other when we’re playing,” Drew Scally said.
“Some of those guys it was my first time talking to, but we would also talk smack, and then just feel like we all knew each other.”
It’s those little things that bring the larger-than-life moments back down to Earth in the best of ways.
“It was all in great fun,” he said. “I always am the older brother to him, and he knows that.”
