you could have a go in a big gravel carpark and slamming on many many times to invoke the ABS, then seeing if you can bleed any more air out, but using vagcom is much simpler, it does all the work for you. After i bled mine with vagcom there was definitely no air in the system but the pedal was still spongy, this was with braided hoses too, disconnecting the rear light harness from the NS light in the boot (so that the brake lights arent permanently shining and flattening the battery, remember to re connect after!) and leaving a wedge holding the brake pedal down for a day and night then ham