Soccer Starts Here | Sunset Soccer Club Ep.01

All right, welcome to the very first episode of the Sunset Soccer Club.
I am Tyler Kern.
I'm joined by my incredible amazing producer who makes all of this stuff happen, producer
Ivan.
Thanks for being here, man.
Thank you for getting all this done.
Yeah, for sure, man, excited to start this new journey.
This isn't a new journey.
So before we go too far, we are 226 days out from the 2026 World Cup that is taking place
notably here in the DFW area, if you're outside of DFW, the tournament is taking place across
all of North America.
And so with that on the horizon, it felt like a great idea to start a soccer show and
I'm so grateful to Mike Reiner and to the folks here at Stolenwater Media for taking
a chance on this, this show for giving us some mic time, some air time, we're really excited
to bring you a lot of incredible soccer talks.
So what's the goal of this show?
What are we trying to do here?
First and foremost, we want to give people a place where they can learn about soccer, where
we can talk about soccer and it doesn't matter how much or how little you already know
about the sport, right?
People are going to come in with all different levels of knowledge into the game, levels
of interest in the game.
But when there's something as huge as a World Cup going on on your own soil, it only comes
around every four years and it pops around the globe, right?
It was in Qatar in 2022, it was in Russia in 2018, if you can believe that, Brazil in 2014,
it goes all over the place.
The last time it was here was 1994 and so when there's something that notable that's
taking place on our shores, you want to be able to engage with it in any and every
way that you can, given like your time constraints and where you are in your life and how interested
you are in the game of soccer, but our goal here is to help you feel as prepared as you
want to be.
So if you're coming into this and you're like, Tyler, I have absolutely no knowledge of
soccer.
I don't know what the heck's going on, but I would really love to watch soccer in 2026.
I would love to watch the World Cup.
Then great, you're in the right place.
We're going to help you get ready for that.
If you are a soccer fanatic and you watch the Premier League every weekend and you're
like, Tyler, this better not be like dumb down or anything like that, the more it's going
to be a great place for you to, we want everybody to come in and engage with the game and
have a great time doing it and have a lot of fun.
So we're going to have incredible guests.
We are going to be preparing you by introducing you to different members of the US men's national
team.
We're going to do a lot of amazing things like that.
And so that's the goal and the mission of what this show is and why we are here and
why we are doing it and we're really, really excited to be doing that.
Coming up on the show today for our very, very first episode.
We are going to look at a US men's national team player profile.
So each episode going to introduce you to a new member of the US men's national team.
We're going to start off today with Christian Polisik.
He is probably the biggest star on the US men's national team.
The player that you might be most familiar with feels like he's been around for a long
time, but he's only 27 years old and so we're going to dive in and look a little bit
at who he is and what his career has been up to this point.
We're also going to take a look around the world of soccer and look at news.
We're going to get you ready for next weekend with a little weekend.
Look ahead at the end of the show.
And today we're going to be talking to John Arnold.
John is an incredible journalist who covers this region of the world of soccer like nobody
else.
Right?
So the region that the US is located in is called Kanka Kaff and it involves North America,
involves the islands, Central America as well.
And so it's a really vast region with a lot of incredible stories that are going on in
this area of the world.
And John's going to be here to break it down to tell us everything about world cup qualifying
that's going on.
He also covers Mexico like nobody else.
So he has a newsletter called getting Kanka Kafft that you should subscribe to.
You can subscribe for free.
He does an incredible job.
And so John is going to be our guest on the show today.
We're going to have a great time talking to him.
I cannot recommend his work highly enough.
And he's a good bud.
No one better to have on the show for episode number one of the Sunset Soccer Club.
So welcome into the Sunset Soccer Club.
You're in the right place.
This is the place for you.
If you want to know anything about soccer, if you would like to just increase your knowledge
just a little bit, you are in the right spot.
So we are happy to be bringing this show to you coming up.
We're going to talk news.
All right, let's talk a little news here in the Sunset Soccer Club.
What's been going on in the world of soccer?
Where did you miss over the previous weekend?
Let's start off at Liverpool, the defending Premier League champions.
They're losing a lot.
They've lost their last four matches in the Premier League.
And things just aren't looking good for Ernest Lot and the defending champs there on
Mersey side.
So like I mentioned, four straight losses in the Premier League.
There were some indications early on in the season that they were heading this direction.
They won a lot of their initial games with last minute goals, just pulling rabbits out
of hats.
And the underlying statistics really weren't great for Liverpool in some of those matches.
In terms of needing late winners to beat teams that they should be beating.
And so the writing was somewhat on the wall here for them to perhaps have some struggles.
And they've come, but I think stronger than a lot of people expected.
Now, they overturned a lot of their roster for a team that won the team.
On the league last year, bringing in a lot of new faces, notably Florian Vertz from
BioLabor Cousin in Germany.
Also, Jeremy Frimpong came from BioLabor Cousin as well.
They brought in a lot of new faces.
And so it can be hard to integrate those guys into the team in an effective way, right?
So Hugo Agatique as well, who's kind of a striker who likes to drop into the midfield.
And then finally, at the very end of the transfer window, they finally made the move for Alexander
Isaac from Newcastle.
And that was a big highly controversial move, a very, very expensive striker, but you bring
in all of these pieces.
You can be challenging to make that puzzle fit right off the bat, right?
And they've struggled to do that.
And it's showing now in the field.
There's some rumors.
There's some discontent around Muhammad Salah as well, the Egyptian who had one of the
best seasons in Premier League history last year in a contract year.
They signed him to an extension and already think there might be some buyers remorse on
the side of Liverpool.
And maybe also on the on most all the side as well as he doesn't seem incredibly happy
to still be there at Liverpool and the situation seems to be souring just a little bit.
And so it's rocky times right now at Liverpool.
We're going to see if they can turn it around.
I want to talk a little bit about Florian Vertz because this is an interesting case.
We've seen a number of times when players come from Germany into the Premier League.
These guys that can be kind of tweeners between positions, right?
Florian Vertz often played as like a number 10 creative playmaker for buyer Leberkusen
and really succeeded in that role was the whole team kind of ran through him.
Now Liverpool didn't play with somebody in that exact same role last year and in fact
haven't really had a number 10 creative playmaker kind of of that mold since they sold Philippe
continue to Barcelona back a few years ago.
So it's interesting to try to put him into a role in this current Liverpool side because
they really didn't have anybody playing what they're asking him to do last season.
So he's kind of been starting over on the left at times sliding inside but it's not
meshing and it's not matching because other players are also operating in that space.
That's also where Alexander Ezek likes to play.
These plays as a striker but drops into that half space where Florian Vertz likes to
also occupy and so it's going to be tricky to find that balance for Liverpool.
So we're going to see if they can figure that out in upcoming games.
Let's also talk about El Classico.
We had that on Sunday as Real Madrid and Barcelona tied things up between one another.
This is one of the best rivalries in the entire world, right?
It's Barça, it's Real Madrid, it's El Classico, right?
It has that name for a reason.
These teams traditionally don't like each other very much.
They are the two, I mean, the two biggest clubs in the world, honestly, if you just look
at like jerseys that you see while you're walking down the street, these clubs are massive,
they're huge.
And in the past, this was Messi V Ronaldo, right?
The biggest names in the sport, always coming through Real Madrid, Barcelona.
So this rivalry is absolutely electric and it's massive and it's huge.
It had felt like in recent years that some of the animosity had gone out of the rivalry,
but it just didn't have that same spark that it did when it was Barça winning the league,
but Real Madrid winning the Champions League and all of these different things.
This year felt different, though.
It really felt like these teams didn't like each other.
Llamin Yamal, the 18-year-old superstar for Barcelona, made some comments on a podcast
before the game that riled up some Real Madrid players.
Eventually, there's a little scuffle towards the end of this match when a red card is given
out to Pedri and they finished the match with police officers separating, you know, security
separating the two benches.
So that's what we love to see in an Alclasico.
At the end of the day, Real Madrid wins two to one goals from Embape, Jude Bellingham.
Real Madrid had a good playing coming into this game.
They clogged up the midfield against Barcelona and didn't really allow Barcelona as much
time on the ball or the ability to ping passes through the middle of the field.
And so Real Madrid come out on top.
It was a fantastic match.
If you've never watched the Alclasico, I highly recommend it.
It is just a ton of fun to keep an eye on.
Finally, let's talk a little bit of MLS.
So MLS playoffs took place this past, the first round kind of took place this past weekend.
Notably, if you're local here to the DFW area, FC Dallas lost three to nothing in their
opening match of their best of three series against the Vancouver White Caps.
And so they'll play again on Saturday.
We'll talk a little bit about that at the end of the show when we look ahead to the weekend.
FC Dallas falling in their opening round match to Vancouver.
MLS playoffs are going on.
We're going to talk a little bit more about the scoreboard and what they expect coming
up from MLS in future episodes as well.
But last but not least, Leo Messi signed a contract extension with Inter Miami through
the 2028 season.
Like it's a massive deal for Major League Soccer, keeping the greatest player of all time
here playing in the United States with Inter Miami.
Interesting to see how that project continues to go, whether or not they start collecting
some trophies or not.
It does seem quite a bit like it's been messy with his old bandmates kind of reuniting
there at Inter Miami.
Be interesting to see what happens now that Busquets is leaving.
Jordi Alba's retiring.
It'll kind of just be Leo Messi there.
So we'll see kind of what that team looks like in the future and what it looks like post-World
Cup.
Messi reiterated recently.
He has a desire to play in the 2026 World Cup, which is good for everybody.
But we'll see what happens with Inter Miami down the road.
It'll be exciting to watch there also in the MLS playoffs.
So lots going on in Major League Soccer.
Like I said, we'll cover more of that down the road.
And later on in this episode as well.
All right.
Next up, we're talking Christian policy here in our US men's national team player profile.
So we'll be right back.
All right, our US men's national team player profile of the week is going to be Christian
policy.
Now, you might know his name.
You may have heard that name before.
He is probably the biggest star that is currently playing for the US men's national team.
And there's a reason for that.
He's their most talented player.
I think that there's a pretty good argument to be made that he is the most the most talented
attacking player to ever play for the US.
You can make cases for Lyndon Donovan for Clint Dempsey, a lot of Clint Dempsey fans
here in Dallas Fort Worth.
So you can certainly make that case.
I think when it comes to just raw ability on a soccer field, policy is the is the best
thing that the US has has produced up to this point.
Let's just say that just a little bit about who he is 27 years old.
He plays as an attacking midfielder or a winger, uh, generally over on the wing with
the club side, the US is used them in a few different spots, which you can see a little
bit at the national team level with these, these players who are a really good player on
their club team, maybe not the best player on their club team.
But when they get to playing with their country, they are the best player.
And so they're used in a different way.
And we're going to talk a little bit more about that coming up here in his player profile
because I think there is something to be said about the different ways that the US has
utilized him and what that's done to how he sees himself as a member of the US men's national
team.
So, um, Christian Policic is 27 years old, like I mentioned, plays for AC Milan in Italy.
He had played at Borussia Dortmund in Germany, that's really where he got his European
start. They moved to Chelsea.
That Chelsea move was up and down.
They were a club that was really in a lot of disarray.
He had a lot of different managers during his time at Chelsea.
There's one brief spell during the summer of 2020 when everybody was locked down as a
pandemic.
It was empty stadiums, but he just went on this absolute tear where he was for a couple
of weeks, maybe a month, the best attacking player in the Premier League.
I mean, he was unplayable, unstoppable.
No one could, uh, could shut down what he was doing.
And there was a time Chelsea was playing Liverpool and Policic scored this ridiculous goal
on the box.
We took the sick touch, spun on, you know, 180 degrees and just fired it into the upper
90 of the goal.
It was an incredible goal.
And Jürgen Klopp was the manager of Liverpool at that time.
And incidentally, he also gave Christian Policic his first start as a member of Borussia
Dortmund when, when Policic was just 16 years old.
And so, uh, there were a lot of rumors when Klopp went to Liverpool that, uh, that eventually
maybe, maybe that's where Policic would end up.
It's not what happened, but the shots and the quotes from Jürgen Klopp afterwards were
just glowing, right?
He remembered why as a 16 year old, he brought Policic up to play for the first team with
Borussia Dortmund at that time.
And I think a lot of people know Policic's name because of the previous World Cup, but
also he's just been on our radar as soccer fans here in the US for a really long time.
I mean, really, since he was 16, 17 years old, first burst onto the scene for me at the
U-17 World Cup, um, back when he was a 16 year old, he was in the Borussia Dortmund Academy.
And he ran that tournament for the US.
He was awesome to watch.
And ever since then, we've been expecting great things.
Well, now it's, here we are 10 years later, he's 27 years old.
And he's the star of the US men's national team.
And one of the best attackers, if not, eh, it's not one of, let's say one of the best
attackers in Italy.
I don't want to go overboard.
I think there are times when he's on his game, he's the most unstoppable attacker in Italy.
And it's amazing to watch.
It's amazing to watch a player like this come to fruition and kind of bring about all
of their talents that you knew that they had that we've gotten to see over the years.
He's developed into just an incredibly dangerous attacking player for AC Milan.
Now already in his US men's national team career, he has 32 goals, 21 assists in 82 matches.
It's a pretty incredible rate of return from a guy that we've been seeing for quite a
while.
He got on the field at the end of those 2018 World Cup qualifiers that doomed 2018 qualifying
campaign.
And ever since then, he's been a fixture for the US men's national team.
Now there have been times during his US men's national team career.
And this is something that I think is worth focusing on if you're going to be watching
the US, if you're going to be following them at the World Cup, where you see a policy
playing for his club team, and he has a really clearly defined role.
He has a niche card out that is his spot on the field that is what he is going to do.
And he plays really well within the team framework, right?
It is set up often to allow him to succeed.
But the rest of the team is able to kind of play their game.
What's been interesting with the US is even in their last friendly, what we saw was,
the US has started the match against Australia, and the US is two to one win against Australia.
And he got hurt 20 minutes in, got pulled off the field, and people noticed that the US
was playing better when he came off.
Now is the US better without Christian policy, absolutely not.
But the challenge for a guy who so much is always rested on his shoulders when he's been
playing for the US, the challenge is that in the past, he's taken too much initiative,
too much of the burden of creating attacking play for the US, is rested with Christian
policy.
And so he's developed this habit and this tendency of, I think, trying to do too much,
which disrupts the flow of the team.
He moves into areas on the field that should be occupied by other players for the US.
And he doesn't allow the attacking phase of play to really grow the way perhaps that
it should.
That is the only critique I have of Christian policy game, because otherwise he's absolutely
outstanding attacker.
He's going to be playing more and a half space for the US men's national team.
What that means is somewhere between a winger and a striker, there's that space, and we're
going to call it a half space where he drops a little bit in front of the defenders and
picks up the ball in these dangerous areas.
That's how Mauricio Puchotino, the coach for the US men's national team, has been using
him in the limited time that we've gotten a chance to see him for the US men's national
team.
So I'm excited to see how he carries out that role for this team as we head into the
World Cup.
And additionally, he got injured in that game against Australia and the US is last friendly.
And so we won't see him in November play for the US in their next international window.
He's going to be out for a little while for AC Milan.
So I think the next time you'll get a chance to see him for the US will probably be in
January, something along those lines, but it's just a lot to look for, right?
The next time you see him playing for the US, keep an eye on what areas of the field he's
dropping into is he allowing the attack to build in a way that gives him the framework
to succeed and to get the ball into the box, to get into dangerous positions.
Or is he trying to force the play to happen, force the ball to come through him by dropping
deeper and deeper into midfield and kind of occupying the space that belongs to other
midfielders.
And that sort of thing.
That's my only criticism.
But otherwise, he's the best attacking player the US has the best hope that the US has
at the World Cup to really progress a really, really long way into this tournament quarter
final semi-finals is for Christian policy to be the most dangerous player on the field.
And I think he can do that.
I know he has the talent to do that, but it's just a matter of creating a system where
he is comfortable and where he allows that system to benefit his play and allows him to
make the other players on the field better.
So that is Christian policy.
We're going to keep previewing other US men's national team players down the road.
But he's the biggest one.
He's the biggest name.
He's the one that everybody needs to know.
Okay.
Coming up next, we're going to be talking to John Arnold.
He has written for a lot of publications here in the soccer world.
He's written, he has bylines for ESPN, New York Times, all of these incredible places.
And he has a newsletter called Getting Conquercaft where he talks and writes often about stories
that fly under the radar.
He covers this region of the world so incredibly well.
Nobody else does what he's doing in the world of soccer.
So I'm excited to get his take and his thoughts on World Cup qualifying where we're at right
now.
How Mexico is approaching the World Cup next summer and so much more.
So stick around John Arnold's coming up next here on the Sunset Soccer Club.
All right.
Joining us now is the first ever guest on the Sunset Soccer Club is Mr. John Arnold.
Like I mentioned before, John has an incredible newsletter called Getting Conquercaft, but
he writes about the region here that we are in America better than anybody else and covers
it like nobody else.
So John, thank you so much for joining us and for chatting here on the Sunset Soccer Club.
My pleasure.
History that can't be erased.
We would never erase you, John.
We would never do that.
But in addition to covering the region of Conquercaft, John has lived in Mexico and covers
Mexico incredibly, incredibly well.
And so with the USA and Mexico both automatically qualifying for next summer's World Cup, John,
what is the mood currently in Mexico around the national team there and how are people approaching
like the most recent round of friendlies?
Well, you have to remember that Mexico is coming off a World Cup that was extremely disappointing.
One of the first World Cups, the first World Cup in most fans lifetimes that Mexico didn't
advance out of the group stage, they had had this sort of curse of getting to the knockout
stage and losing, but they didn't even get that far this time around in 2022.
So I think people were generally down on Mexico coming into this cycle.
And then that had sort of changed this year as Javier Aguerre, who's this old school Mexican
coach.
He's been the Mexico national team manager on two previous occasions.
Aguerre comes in and just kind of, you know, he's that old reliable.
He's the familiar face you know.
And you know, I think Mexico fans were into that and they're really into winning trophies.
They lived to the concafnations league trophy, the gold cup, which is the continental championship
this summer.
And I think things were going really well until these October games.
In fact, right here at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Mexico was battered by Colombia, just really
couldn't hang with some of their attacks, their attackers.
And I think that's a huge source of concern.
So I think overall the mood, you know, similar to in the US where people are very excited
that, hey, this tournament is going to be here.
We're going to have games that you can go to.
People are trying to figure out how to buy tickets, all those things.
That hype is real in Mexico, but obviously in a country that's so much more in tune with
what's happening with the national team.
Their sort of recent play affects more the mood and excitement.
I think there's still a lot of enthusiasm.
I think people in Mexico are still liking what they see out of their team.
But yeah, that October window kind of took things down a level from a very high place.
It took some of the shine off of things a little bit.
Anytime you lose for nothing to a team that you think that you should be competing with,
that's kind of just what happens.
But also, there's that challenge for these host nations of not having qualifying being
a part of this, right?
And so you're trying to become battle tested and figure out what it looks like to play
as a team, but you don't have that built-in way of building that chemistry together.
And Mexico is going through that in the same way that the U.S. is.
Absolutely.
They're playing some weird games coming up.
Their ports are going to play in January at like some Central American teams.
Is that going to help you?
I don't know, maybe, but they played some South American teams in January of this year.
And that's where this teenage sensation, Gilbert Del Mora, who's just turned 17 this month
in October of 2025, but is almost certain to start for Mexico at the world of copies.
Such a sensation.
Such a great player.
He made his first sort of impact at the senior national team level.
So maybe there is something to take from these types of games.
It's just weird because you don't have that experience of these qualifiers that are hot
and heated.
The fans are upset, yelling at you, et cetera, or they're cheering you on, you know,
exuberantly, if you're the home team, trying to simulate that atmosphere, even though
you might not need it if you're Mexico or the U.S., knowing that you're going to have
the crowd behind you at the 2026 World Cup, kind of keeping players understanding what
it feels like to represent their country, I think, is important in front of mind for
Mexico.
Again, a country where like, yeah, everyone is going to be watching every single Mexico
game of the World Cup.
That's just how it is.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so with the U.S. Mexico and Canada all automatically qualifying, ConcordCalf qualifiers
are still going on for the World Cup.
And give us a little bit of an idea of what the format is where we're at.
I know we're into the last round now.
So where are we in qualifying and what's at stake?
How is it all going to play out?
Yeah.
There's three groups of four teams that have gotten into this final round of World Cup
qualification in ConcordCalf.
And the winner of each of these three groups goes to the World Cup.
So in November, we'll have three qualified teams from the ConcordCalf region outside
of the North American teams.
Then two of those teams, the best second place finishers, we'll go into a playoff that
we think is going to be played in Mexico that hasn't actually been confirmed by FIFA.
The bat will be a playoff in early 2026 to decide the final spot in the World Cup field
in 2026.
They'll try and fend off teams from other confederations, Bolivia is one of the teams from South America.
There's teams from all over the place that are going to be in this thing.
Kind of a mini tournament for like the last spot.
Similar to like the first four that we see in college basketball, it's kind of the same
idea.
Last chance to win for a lot of these teams.
The qualifications have been weird.
Right now, if things ended, Serranam would be qualified for the World Cup.
Jamaican Honduras, they're kind of maybe more familiar names.
It wouldn't be their debut.
But even then, like Curacao, an island of less than 200,000 people, they would make the
playoff right now.
So things have gone strange.
I definitely think that whether it's through my newsletter or not, if you're just a fan
of sports and weird things happening, watch the November window of World Cup qualification,
it's going to get weird.
Well, yeah, because like you're talking about, I think Jamaica and Curacao play in that
last game, which could easily be like for a spot in the World Cup.
Yes.
And then you've got like Serranam who's tied right now in their group with Panama.
And so you just have these countries that you just don't hear about terribly often.
And with the three kind of US, Mexico and Canada, all automatically qualifying, it's really
opened up the door for teams like this to kind of step in and get a chance to play on
the biggest stage that they maybe wouldn't have gotten otherwise.
100%.
I mean, also, not only this was the World Cup for a lot of teams in ConquerCaf because they
wouldn't have to go through the US, Mexico, and Canada who are the powers in the region,
US, Mexico more historically, but Canada recently surging to become a very important soccer
team as well.
And so this was the big chance.
And I think that's why a lot of these teams that we thought would be qualified relatively
easily, Panama, Costa Rica, Guatemala felt like it was their big opportunity to make it
for the first time ever, not only because the North American teams are out of the way,
because FIFA expanded the field for the World Cup.
Controversial, we say, is this going to worsen the games, is this going to make the World
Cup less fun?
But what it's ended up doing is that these stories have kind of shifted down.
Okay, maybe you don't have to worry about certain countries making the World Cup, but
the ones who are on the verge are even more fun, I think.
I was able to go to Suriname for my reporting at a place that, yeah, I mean, most people
probably can't find on a map and people they're kind of aware of that, culturally a very
odd country.
It's geographically in South America, but culturally politically and soccer-wise in the Caribbean,
even though it's not.
And they don't speak, they speak Dutch because it's a former Dutch colony.
So they're culturally strongest ties in Europe, geographically, they're South America,
but they're playing these Caribbean and Central American teams.
You saw this sort of beautiful cross-cultural moment in Panama when Suriname was there
playing the national team in Panama City and the fans show up for the traditional, we
are going to disturb your sleep with a really, really loud speakers and drums and cheering.
And Suriname just came out and started dancing and waving their flag and just kind of joining
in the party saying, no, no, we're used to this too.
We like to dance.
We like to listen to loud music and you're not going to bother our sleep because we're
just going to party with you.
So some of the scenes and qualifications have been absolutely incredible.
There have been less positive scenes as well.
But for the most part, it's just been a really fun thing to watch and follow.
And yeah, I don't think most people in, you know, with North American teams already qualified,
I don't think many people are really tuned in, but it's easy to find on a streaming service
and the games are going to be worth it here.
I think November 13th and 18th, if I've got my dates right.
Yeah, yeah.
And it was awesome getting a chance to see some of your stuff and read it from Suriname
because no one else is really traveling to Suriname for qualifying games, which is why
like following your stuff is really, really exciting and so much fun.
Do you have like a favorite story that's really stuck out from these qualifiers and from
getting to see some of these smaller countries that we don't often see kind of at this point
in a qualification process?
Do you have like a favorite story or favorite thing that you've gotten to write about?
I think that's Suriname story and the Kuroshaar story.
You know, listen, like both of those are former Dutch colonies.
So they're able to bring in a lot of players who are eligible because their parents or
grandparents are from the Netherlands or excuse me, are from those countries and they
grew up in the Netherlands.
So you see this strong influence and we see it all over the world.
Actually, Morocco has a fair number of players who came up in another one system, the Netherlands
themselves in Indonesia, almost making it to the last kind of world spot, world cup spot
for Asia, but just the fact that like these guys are representing the country of their dad
or their mom or their grandma and, you know, you hear some, you know, this person passed,
but I'm doing in their honor and it's such a tear-jerker to hear about that, but also just
how badly they want to deliver.
I talked to Shiroldo Becker who's like the star of Suriname played in Bundesliga, he's
playing right now in La Liga, the top league in Spain.
And he was saying that when he's home in Amsterdam, that people stop him on the street and they
say, I'm Suriname, you got to do this and he's like, that's why I keep traveling and doing
these games.
Tyler, I was on the same flight as Suriname to go to Panama, like these guys are not
living the life of luxury, almost every other nation in Conquercaf is chartering their
planes.
The Suriname Federation says we don't have the funds to do that.
And so these guys are in the same terrible airport security line that I'm in, imagine
that.
And literally the manager was like two rows ahead of me.
These guys are not flying first class, these guys are not flying charter and Becker and
those kind of big stars from Europe, they're used to that, they're used to the fancy hotels,
they're used to the first class, they're used to go in on a private train or a private
jet, whatever the case is.
But he's like, it's worth it to me to keep coming back because those people who stop me
want this so badly and I want to give it to them.
So, you know, I think every country has that and sometimes the tie is even more obvious,
Guatemalan people are stopping Guatemalan dudes on the street when it's like, hey, we need
to make the world cup.
But hearing some of that kind of meaning where it seems like those guys are almost mercenaries
and yet what it really means has been a kind of edifying part of the reporting during
the World Cup qualification process.
Hey, yeah.
Last question here with John Arnold, gracious enough to give us some time here on the
Sunset Soccer Club.
John, just we're doing a show that is like primarily looking through the lens of US Soccer.
But you have a really great perspective of getting a chance to kind of see how the US
is viewed from other perspectives.
So, what is the view of this US team where it is right now with Mauricio Pochettino as
the coach from, you know, whether it's the Mexican perspective or just different places
in Conquercaf?
How is the US being talked about if at all?
No, no, no.
They definitely talk about the US.
They talk, like when you travel in the region, you realize both politically and sporting
wise how much of an impact the US kind of has where you wouldn't necessarily think.
I'm not saying everyone but like people in Panama for sure, like watch the NFL and watch
the NBA and consume that regularly.
And they also consume part of American culture.
Panama's, you know, interesting example because like the US invaded Panama.
So you got a lot of American culture there.
Partly it's cool.
And yeah, they're watching the chiefs game with me on whatever was something I football
or whatever.
But at the same time, it's partly because of some pretty negative history.
But I think for the most part, you see that influence.
And I think that when you hear people talk about the national team about the World Cup
coming up in the US.
People are higher on the US than the US I think is.
I think people really think Mauricio Pogetino is a great hire and they are scared of
Christian, and they know how good of a forward for imbalagin is.
And they think that Chris Richards is doing really well in the Premier League.
And is he doing the same with the national team?
Yes, okay.
So I think that that sort of, you know, it's easy to be hyper critical when it's the
players you see every single window.
But when it's, you know, even like in Panama, Panama beat the US, the nation's like semi-final.
But they're not saying, oh, we're so much better than the US.
They know, hey, we played a perfect game and got a little fortune up there.
That soccer and that was kind of what the situation was.
So I think that, you know, I'm not even saying that the US fans are doing anything wrong.
I just think that the 30,000-foot view from other countries is generally much more not
fearful, but sort of taking the US seriously, putting the US as a power of conca-caf and
really respecting what the program has been historically.
And also what it looks like right now under Portugino, and look, I think that's probably
right.
You know, I think that the truth or the real sort of form or level of the United States
is not as low as its, you know, biggest critics would say.
And maybe it's not as high as its biggest boosters would say either.
But I think when you look through the eyes of the Mexico fans, the Panama fans, even
sort of non-fans, the US is respected because of what they built.
And you probably shouldn't take that for granted, you know, I think they're going to have to
prove it on the field.
I'm sure we'll talk about it on the Sunset Soccer Club in the future, but yeah, it's
not a bad team.
They got to prove it on the field.
They got to have a great World Cup, but I think that they've earned the respect they
have in the region.
Totally, totally.
I saw comments after the US's last friendly against Australia saying like, the US played
better without Christian policy, maybe our starting line of doesn't include Christian
and I'm like, okay, you know, so if he has a big blow up with Pochettino or if he does
his hamstring, those are the only two scenarios where I could see that happening and you
don't want either of those.
Exactly.
Either way, that's either way that's a disaster.
John, plug your stuff real fast, like make sure people know where they can find you
and read what you're doing and everything.
Yeah.
The news that I was getting conca-capped, if you search it, you get the joke in the name,
it's probably for you.
There's a free option, a paid option, and then I'm doing vertical videos, J-O-N-R-N-L-F-C
on TikTok, on Instagram, wherever else you get your vertical video, YouTube.
And I'm launching a travel show, actually, if you want to go down to Mexico and watch
some of the World Cup matches in person, you can get it ticket.
Or if you just want to check out like Club Soccer or you just want to dream about maybe
going down there one day, Wadalajara, episode one, a football city should drop this week.
So check that out on the YouTube, John, Arnold F.C.
Hell yeah.
Yeah, that's awesome.
I can't wait.
I can't wait for that.
So yeah, make sure to go subscribe to everything John is doing and stay up to date with everything
going on in the region.
John, thank you so much, man.
Pleasure.
All right, massive thanks to John Arnold for joining the show today and giving us his
perspectives.
John's awesome.
He's the best.
Make sure to go follow all of, again, everything that he's doing, the newsletter getting
conca-capped.
The travel show I'm super stoked for.
So John, somebody who's lived in Mexico speaks Spanish fluently and can just provide incredible
perspectives on these different places that he's been.
So that's going to be awesome.
Make sure to go follow all of those things.
Also, I meant to mention this off the top of the show, but we want to hear from you.
We want this to be a show that is for you all, no matter what your level of soccer knowledge
or interest is.
We want this to be a show that is of interest to you and hitting the topics that matter
to you.
So send us an email.
The email address is sunsetsockerclub at stolenwatermedia.com.
That's sunsetsockerclub at stolenwatermedia.com.
We're part of the club.
If you're watching this episode, listening to this episode, however, you're consuming
it.
And so we want this show to reflect what matters most to you.
Send us an email.
Even if you don't like soccer, if you want to email us and tell us that it's dumb that
we have a soccer show, that's fine too.
We're here for it.
Here for all of those sorts of things.
And so make sure to reach out to us.
We also have all the different social media channels.
And so go follow us there.
Leave us a comment.
If you email us, I promise I will email you back.
If you leave us a comment, I promise I'll respond.
We want this to be interactive and engaging.
If you're here, you're part of the club.
We think that everybody should get a chance to learn more about soccer if that's what
they're interested in.
And we want to provide a place that really helps anybody and everybody.
Feel prepared for the World Cup next summer.
And so we're going to have a lot of guests on that are going to do that in various ways,
like John Arnold and other folks who are doing great work in the world of soccer.
So make sure to go follow us, send us emails.
We're going to do a listener question episode at some point.
So drop us a question.
If you have a question about anything soccer related, drop us questions, we would love
to hear from you.
And we'll make sure to address as many of them as we can on the show in the future.
OK, let's take a look at the weekend schedule for soccer.
There's a million games always across the world of soccer, which makes this a really complicated
thing to do because you just can't run through every game across every league in the world.
So we kind of have to pick and choose and decide where we're going to focus.
So I'm going to give you an undercover game that you should watch this weekend.
If you can find a TV to do it on, and then maybe the game of the weekend is going to be big.
And in a couple of other things.
So first and foremost, the undercover game of the weekend that you can watch is Friday
afternoon at 2.30.
Let's say you're like skipping out of work a little early or something like that.
Or I don't know, you just, you're just kind of coasting towards the weekend.
Or you want to put it on on your laptop while you work or whatever the case may be.
2.30 on Friday afternoon, we get Augsburg versus Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga.
So this is the best league in Germany.
Borussia Dortmund's my favorite team, probably in the entire world.
But I'm telling you to watch this game because of Augsburg.
Now, Augsburg's not very good, but they have an 18 year old named Noah Kai Banks,
who plays for their team.
He's a center back on Augsburg.
And he was born in Hawaii to, I think, an American father, German mother.
So he has dual citizenship.
He has chosen to represent the United States at the international level so far.
And so it's possible that this 18 year old who's playing for Augsburg might end up being
on the U.S. roster come world cup time.
I'm very curious to see.
He's a big player, like six foot four, which is really big for soccer players.
And I'm very excited to see how he continues to develop as a center back in one of the top
leagues in the world.
So Noah Kai Banks, he is 18 playing for Augsburg.
If you check it out, 230 Augsburg versus Borussia Dortmund, you'll get a chance to see
a player before maybe a lot of other people know about him.
So if you have other soccer friends, you can maybe be the smartest person in your soccer
group chat.
Okay.
And then coming up on Saturday, you've got a full slate of MLS cup playoff matches.
And the MLS season is, I mean, we're into the playoffs now.
So we're a little late to the game in starting the show and talking about Major League Soccer.
I love Major League Soccer.
I called Games for FC Dallas on the radio for like five years.
And so I care a lot and love Major League Soccer.
I think it's really important to the overall health of U.S. Soccer is a thriving league
in Major League Soccer.
We also have U.S.L., which is huge.
And so we have a lot of soccer here on our shores.
Major League Soccer is in the playoffs.
There's a full slate of MLS games on Saturday.
I'm not going to go through all of them.
They are all going to be great.
FC Dallas plays at 8.30 on Saturday evening against Vancouver.
This is a best of three series.
FC Dallas lost the first match, three to nothing.
They come back home for this match.
They need to win to continue the series on.
So, so FC Dallas 8.30 against Vancouver.
Vancouver was really, really good in the regular season.
It's going to be a tough match up for FC Dallas.
But that is your hometown team on Saturday night.
The game of the weekend is probably in the Premier League.
Tottenham versus Chelsea, Tottenham and third.
Chelsea a little bit further down the table.
But two clubs in London that have histories of some level of success.
Chelsea winning leagues, Liverpool, sorry, Tottenham not so much.
But has had, has won some trophies in recent years and things of that nature
and made it to Champions League finals.
You're open to finals, that sort of thing.
So Tottenham versus Chelsea.
It's going to be a great match up, I think, between two teams that have played
pretty well in the Premier League thus far.
And so very much worth tuning in Tottenham.
Playing well under their new head coach, Thomas Frank.
So worth checking out that match up on Saturday.
That's at 12.30 pm.
I know football, college football, if you're kind of just a sports fan,
has started by that time.
But you might go picture and picture or something like that.
Check out Tottenham versus Chelsea this weekend.
Okay, that's going to do it for this first episode of the Sunset Soccer Club.
Again, reach out to us.
We want this to be a community.
We want it to be an ongoing conversation between us and you.
We are really, really excited to be here bringing you a soccer program here
as part of the Sunset Lounge and part of this big family that has been created.
And so we feel really lucky to be here.
If there are topics you want us to cover, please let us know.
We'll keep this going and keep it engaging.
But for now, be good to one another out there.
Watch some soccer and love each other well.
And we'll see you next week.