World Cup News & Drama at the Top and Bottom of the Premier League

Speaker 1: Alright. What's up? Welcome to another episode of the Sunset Soccer Club. I'm Tyler Kern, and I'm joined by our new permanent member of the Sunset Soccer Club family. It's Armand Kafai. Armand, welcome to your first episode as, like, a full on, just like cohost. Dude, we're just doing this thing now.

Speaker 2: It's also my first full episode of me not in, like, an obscure location. Well, I've been in my car, I think, two of the three, and I was at the airport last time, which made for really good content because all my friends just took a picture that zoomed in my zoomed in face on Instagram and sent to me just for making fun of me every single day. They were like, what's going on here?

Speaker 1: We're content factory Yeah. Well, and, like, one of the clips that, like, stolen water media decided to take and post on Instagram was like, I think you you were talking and making a wonderful point and then like, somebody came and like needed the seat next to you at the airport and you were like, yeah, fine. Just like sit down and it was good. It was good. So, welcome to having an actual like camera in front of your face and us like doing this thing and dude, you have so much soccer knowledge. I'm so happy to be doing this because I really love talking soccer with you and so, I think we're going to have a good time and talk some good soccer for folks.

Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the goal, right? Like, get people ready for the World Cup and get some excitement going on with what's going on in this country and it's kinda crazy thing at less than two months.

Speaker 1: Less than two months and man, there's there's a lot to talk about from like a news perspective for the World Cup and we'll get to all of that. But for this episode and I think for lots of the episodes going forward, I think we'll just start off the show just like talking about, here's the soccer that we watched over the weekend. We're hoping to record consistently on Tuesday nights. So, then, you have a episode in your episode feed inbox on like Wednesdays and Thursdays for the most part. Wednesday or Thursday depending on when editing gets done, when this thing gets posted, and also when you get around to actually listening to So, hopefully, you're listening to this on like Thursday and it's not massively out of date by the time we talk about it but we'll tell you about like all the soccer we watched over the weekend whether it's MLS, whether

Speaker 2: it's

Speaker 1: EPL, whatever we're getting into. If it's US men's national team based, anything like that, we'll update you on all of that. So, that's how we're going to start the show today just to tell you about, hey, here's everything going on in the soccer world. As we've talked about in the show in the past, the soccer world is massive. There's too much going on to try to cover like the wholeness of it and so we're going to give you a US men's national team lens but also just like the most interesting thing going on at a given time and right now, I really feel like that's in the Premier League. I know that that's low hanging fruit. I know that's the league that everybody watches and cares about but my goodness, there's so much drama going on right now and I just like could not pull myself away from it this weekend. Just whether it's the title race, whether it's Tottenham in the bottom three and looking like they might get relegated, like, the Premier League is just like a gift that keeps on giving right now, and I was just, like, glued in whole freaking weekend.

Speaker 2: It's funny. I saw someone post on X with Lester getting relegated to league one. It was a Spurs fan saying, Lester won't be in our title race next year because if for those who don't know, Lester beat out Tottenham for in the title when they won the championship, and the whole bid is Spurs going down. So, I mean, there's it it's incredible because I you mentioned this in a group chat we're in, Tyler, where it's crazy that the possibility of Spurs getting relegated is actually real. Like Yeah. At first, like, oh, this would be a fun bit. Then you're like, oh my god. This actually could happen.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, as we sit here right now, like, with West Ham playing better under Nuno Espirito Santos and then Nottingham Forest winning on the weekend. Tottenham is like two points below safety right now. And like you're in that position because you suck. And so like, it's not, there's not this expectation that the teams around you are going to like be picking up points on a regular basis but like, West Ham looks a whole lot better if you watch them they played yesterday or I guess Monday. And looked the better team against Crystal Palace West Ham did. And then Nottingham Forest like who did they beat? Burnley I think and they won like pretty handily. And so like the teams around Tottenham are actually playing fairly well. And then you watch, like, the Tottenham Brighton game, and, like, Tottenham takes, like, a late lead, and you just kind of knew in the back of your mind, like, this game's not over. And it, like Yeah. And it wasn't. Like, it's wild ass. Like, the they might actually get relegated.

Speaker 2: It it'd be immense to see a team like Tottenham with a brand new state with their basically brand new stadium, with their I mean, we're talking about these guys being, like, in, like, the top six, and now they're gonna go like, now they could go down and play in the championship. Like, what first of how cool it'd be for those championship teams, to play in that amazing stadium. But also all the bits about it, all the memes are just they're killing me. They're killing me. I'm not a big meme guy or anything, but, like, when it comes down to seeing Spurs getting relegated, like, I don't even hate Spurs, but, like, it's funny. It's just funny to look at.

Speaker 1: It's it's funny and also, like yeah. Like you mentioned, like, in the group chat, I was kind of just like, this is like, this is a real possibility because for so long, it seemed like that top six of what? City, United, Liverpool, Arsenal. Arsenal. Spurs, and who am I leaving out? Chelsea. Chelsea. Like, it just felt like so ironclad, right? Like, it was always that top six, always in some order and it was just like, who's going to get Europa League? Who's going to get Champions League? Was kind of just like the question and like, Chelsea had like like a dip every now like there was like a Marino year, right? Where they started off like really terribly and fired Marino halfway through and then like bounced back and like it wasn't even a conversation and you kind of like flirted every so often with like, oh, looks really bad and then like, they were never going to get relegated and they finished like tenth and they'd fire whatever manager and hire a new one. You know, whatever the case may be and so, to be actually in this position where with what, five matches to go, like, they are firmly, firmly in a relegation battle is is just completely wild and I know there were like a million missed missteps along the way that like got them to this point. But, like, it's it's still crazy to me. Like, we're actually talking about Tottenham potentially being relegated here at the April.

Speaker 2: And then on the other side, we have basically a huge game within the title race between City and Arsenal, and I was definitely locked into that game. And that was you know, like, Arsenal's been playing a lot of ugly soccer, I think, this year. And I think as a whole, actually looked at someone put a chart out on either X or Blue Sky. Can't remember which one. And it talked about how in the Premier League, the actual, like, expected goals created has dipped across every single team. And it's it's kind of like a little bit of an indicator of like, oh, these teams aren't even producing quality chances. They're not really getting in those grid moments, etcetera. And when I've watched the Premier League this year, least, I'm like, damn, this saga has been kinda ugly. Yeah. Like, to watch. It's it hasn't been pretty. And even from Arsenal side, we're like, they're they're they'll gut out results. They'll have chaos on set piece, etcetera. That game, the Arsenal City game on Sunday was great soccer from start to finish. You had the physicality between Holland and Gabrielle going back. I mean, a mutual respect, but a physicality. You had we're talking about before the show, Nico O'Reilly looking great. I think I I can't who was it? Was it Howard to miss that chance super late that went right over the bar and, you know, mistake by Don. You had everything in that game.

Speaker 1: I mean, I think I think Eze hit the inside of the post, like, kinda did the thing where, like, he hit the inside of the post and it went, like, along the goal line for a second before kinda, like, ending up on the outside of the goal. Like, yeah, that game had that game had a lot. Like, it was awesome. It felt like, I mean, it kinda felt like some of those, like, Man City, Liverpool tilts from the last few years where it's like, okay. The it feels like the title is kind of like riding on this a little bit, and the stakes felt immense for, you know, just a a regular league match, at the Eddie Head, but it was awesome, man. Like, the stakes were were good. The soccer was good. I mean, I looked at a chart. One of kinda like the the analytics guys, which I I don't know. You're probably familiar with this. But, like, one of the guys just kind of, like, posted a chart that showed, like, how much time, like, during arsenal's match against Bournemouth, like, the ball spent, like, out of play. Yeah. And I I think it was, like, over 50% of the game was not actual soccer. I And feel like our arsenal's been doing that a ton this season where they slow the game down. They just want set pieces. They just want to generate chances like from like those chaos moments and the rest of the game is just a grind and just a slug and this actually felt like an aberration, like a difference from that and boy, Erling Holland popping up in a big moment. You mentioned Nico O'Reilly like big moments from from Manchester City players and Arsenal was right there on the doorstep multiple times and I mean, just drama all the way through. It was a great, great match.

Speaker 2: I thought Bernardo Silva was unsung here as well too, like, late in the game. I mean, constantly, the commentators are like, what what the hell? This guy is so short. He's going up for header. He's recovering balls. It's gonna be interesting to see where he lands after it sounds like and it's it's not like you mentioned that he's gonna leave Man City Mhmm. At the end of the season. Just an incredible player that I wonder how they're gonna replace because he's one of those players that, you know, like, I feel like on paper, like, might think, oh, it's easy to replace this guy, but it's gonna be a lot harder. Right? Like, I'm I'm not putting him, like, in the same cover as, like, Roderick, for example, where, like, without Roderick, it looks like an absolute disaster compared to when they do have him in there. But Bernardo Silva still I think he still has a lot to give wherever he ends up.

Speaker 1: I think it I think it like some of these super super clubs like Manchester City. Like, I liken it a little bit to Bayern where like Bayern Munich always has like a guy, at least one guy, normally like two or three who kind of like carry the culture from like one generation of players to the next, you know, and so like, Bayern had like the Philip Lam, Bastian Spine Steiger, Thomas Mueller era, and then like by the time like that was kind of ending, like, you had Alaba, you had Kimish. Yeah, Kimish, you know, Kimish was like kind of coming up and like, there's always like that next like and and of course, like Manuel Noyer has been there like throughout all the. So, like there's always like the flag bearer of like, doesn't matter like who the coach is, doesn't matter like what else is going on like, we are like this club and like to a certain extent like Bernardo Silver kind of feels like that guy for Manchester City right now who's like been there for so long. And I suppose there are like those guys now who will like carry that culture forward without him. But it does feel like one of those like monumental like pillar kind of guys for that club leaving and those guys are not easy to replace. So, it'll it'll just be interesting to see like who takes it.

Speaker 2: We're seeing the Liverpool. We're seeing the Liverpool side as well too. Yeah. With Salah and I think, what, Robertson? Both

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Being sounds like they won't be at the club next year. Like, we're seeing kind of, like, a turning of the page almost for some teams in Premier League, and, you know, that's it's again, it's just super fascinating to see, like, again, the the title the title battles between City and Liverpool that we're all, you know, accustomed to, Dean Klopp and Guardiola now kind of evolve into a different way to where now we're talking about guys like, I'll say his name again, Nico O'Reilly Mhmm. Stepping up and, like, just in huge moments and being the, quote unquote, unsung hero of these teams, etcetera. So it's really interesting to see what's gonna happen with the Premier League, and I'm super I'm super amped to see how it's gonna end, especially. I that's because City, what they they're gonna we're recording this on Tuesday. They play, I think, Wednesday. I think they play midweek against Burnley, if I remember correctly.

Speaker 1: That is that's right. I think Rodger is gonna be out for this match. Not that that means that you can't beat Burnley, but, you know?

Speaker 2: Hopefully, they can. They should.

Speaker 1: They should.

Speaker 2: They should.

Speaker 1: They have a game in hand on arsenal. The three points back have a game in hand. So this is the game that they're gonna make up. So they win this game. If they win this game by one goal, then they'll be tied on points, tied on goal differential, like, tied all the way across the board. If they win if they beat Burnley by more than one goal, then they'll jump into first place in the Premier League. So it's fascinating. It's fascinating I'm here for it. It was a big weekend of MLS action as well. Peter Musa continues to score for FC Dallas. San Jose looks really freaking good. So much going on in in MLS also. Do you have, like, I don't know, thirty seconds you wanna spew on MLS goings on?

Speaker 2: I'll have to break it up in a couple in a in a a couple of fifteen second intervals. Nashville looks I mean, Nashville, their congestion has been absolutely amazing throughout the year. Playing CONCAP Champions Cup. They go to Atlanta. They win two o. They they're they're rotating. They're fine. Sounds like they're getting almost everything correct, like, with the way they're playing. And San Jose, you mentioned it, beating LAFC four one. What a result for Bruce Arena. This is a team that, you know, need a statement result, and that was their statement result right there. I think they look legit, and Bruce Arena is doing his magic again, pulling a team that, you know, wasn't good and making them contenders. So we'll see if that continues. But, I mean, MLS MLS is weird this year. I was talking about with someone, and you basically have two seasons in in one with the whole break, with going into the World Cup.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 2: And some teams are kind of just BS ing the year, getting ready for the schedule change. It's a weird year in MLS. It's hard to take some things seriously, hard to take things not seriously. But

Speaker 1: I don't know how to, like I don't know how to actually, like, word this in a, I don't know. I I look at like the the table right now in MLS, both Eastern and Western Conference and you got these teams that came in. I I you've got these teams at the bottom of each conference that came in with like so much fanfare and some of them even won trophies and were great for a time and like have not figured out how to like continue evolving within Major League Soccer. Think of like.

Speaker 2: Not running United?

Speaker 1: Atlanta. Atlanta especially but then like even Austin like came in with so much like, momentum and hype and, like, they've got such a great crowd and such a great culture down there. And, like, they're not good, and St. Louis isn't good, and and Orlando is not good. You know, like

Speaker 2: Austin being good is worrying, though, because Austin, they've invested so much. And, I mean, if you talk with our around the league, like, resource wise is very rich.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 2: When it comes down to their training facilities or stadiums, the amount of investment they wanna put in, Boy, it doesn't seem like they're getting the pieces right at least from when it comes to a personnel perspective. And in terms of Saint Louis, same situation. I mean, Saint Louis Stadium is awesome. Their facility is right next to their stadium. State of the art looks awesome. But they're like, hey. We're gonna weigh a little bit under Corey Ray. We're gonna try to build in the summer. So it's MLS is weird, man, when it comes down to this stuff, especially with how long the break is in between. Yeah. With the with the World Cup break. It's you basically are off from May to July. Like, you basically have a off season if you think about it. In the summer window, it's for you're gonna see almost ramp up towards the end of the year for sure. But right now, it's just kinda like you have unbalanced schedules. Vancouver's played seven of their eight games at home. FC Dallas, six of their eight. I mean, Seattle's played two of their seven at home. Nashville, three of eight out. Like, it's all just all over the place, man.

Speaker 1: It's wild. MLS is gonna MLS always, And I'm sure we'll have more to say about it down the road. But we're gonna step aside real, real quick, and when we come back, we're gonna talk a lot of just kind of like World Cup news. There's a lot going on around ticket sales, around movement of people during the World Cup, and also just some general US men's national team stuff. So we're gonna do that when we come back. Alright. Welcome back to the Sunset Soccer Club. We are talking World Cup stuff and World Cup news here in this let's call it like the second half of the show. We're going to start off with just a report that came out in the athletic written by our dudes Adam Crofton and Henry Bushnell. Just talking about ticket sales for the upcoming World Cup matches. Their report kind of details how ticket sales for The US's first match against Paraguay in Los Angeles are lagging behind. Some of the other matches that are taking place most notably, they've sold less tickets for The US and Paraguay than Iran, New Zealand in the same stadium in SoFi Stadium. So, that's US' opening match of the World Cup. There's a lot of details in this report. Again, you can read the whole thing on The Athletic. They go into just like the various, like, pricing structures, all of that sort of stuff. But I think just like on the face of it, it's not a great look that The US is not selling a ton of tickets for the US men's national team against Paraguay. I have a thought on this but I want to get your reaction first, Arman, because like, yeah, that this is like, even if you just take the headline at face value, like, that looks really bad.

Speaker 2: Well, the aspect is they're selling these tickets for almost double the price of everything else. Like, they're not they're like, so for example, I'm going to Iran, Belgium in LA.

Speaker 1: Hell yeah.

Speaker 2: Not even the flexes. I'm going to that game. That ticket, full transparency, cost $450 for a category two. The US, I think, two ticket is right now selling for a thousand 50, like 1,100, somewhere in that range. They're almost doubling that. If those prices went down, like, I promise you that game would be damn near selling out. But, I mean, I was when I was on the way to Atlanta to go watch The US play, I was talking to these the American some guys are in the American outlaws. I have no idea what their names are if you're listening to this. Hope you enjoy your shout out. But they talked about how they were offered supporters, like, section like, seat sections for, like, twelve, thirteen hundred dollars.

Speaker 1: Are you serious?

Speaker 2: Yeah. Like and they're like and the guy was like, I mean, dude, like, screw it. Like, it's like, I'm not gonna watch The US play an opening match game again. Like, I wanna do it, etcetera. I'm sitting there like, this is crazy. That that USA Paraguay game is priced insane, and it's been continuously priced insane because the quote unquote opener. I mean, the problem is I understand some of these games will lag a little bit. Right? Like, to the American, I guess, common American soccer fan, if you're not like a sicko or you're not like a like, hey. I'm I love soccer. I'm gonna watch whatever. You're not gonna go to Saudi Arabia, Cape Verde. We're just like just full honestly. You're gonna be okay. I'm gonna pass in that game. I'm gonna stay at home and maybe watch on, like, on TV or something like that.

Speaker 1: Well, I'll be there, like, with the the sickos the sickos meme. Like, yes.

Speaker 2: Yeah. I yeah. Yes. Yes. Watching this. So the but but FIFA is also doing this thing. Like, we're recording this on April 21. On April 22, they're releasing more tickets. Oh, your last chance. It's all BS. And I think FIFA is taking the American consumer as kind of like a sucker almost.

Speaker 1: Yes.

Speaker 2: So like, oh, hey. We're gonna go and we're just gonna gouge these guys. And we know it wouldn't fly anywhere else in the world, but in The US, we know it it happens. It happens across every sport, so we're gonna exploit that. That's what it seems like they're doing, especially for that game specifically. All the other games, again, like, you're on New Zealand, for example, you're on Egypt. You're on Egypt. I had a buddy go on the portal. They still had category three, a $180. Of course, you're go to that game, pick up for a $180.

Speaker 1: Heck, you

Speaker 2: know, like, all these a lot of these games are gonna go down in value. Like, that's why I tell the I tell the I I tell I have a lot of my people I know who ask me, should I buy tickets? You can weigh a little bit on us like a marquee matchup. Unless you're really gonna go to, a game involving maybe Lionel Messi in Dallas or maybe even the Dutch who are looking like they're gonna invade Dallas with their, orange bus. Like, you can't, like, you can't wait on the Congo and Uzbekistan and Atlanta. That game will go down, and that will be an awesome game to go to. There's gonna be games that are gonna be fantastic to go to that I always tell people this, story, Tyler. And I want the listeners to, take us in account. The best guy I went to in the Euros I went to Euros in 2024 with our good friend Daniel Robertson, And the best game I went to was not a game involving Italy, Spain. It wasn't a game wasn't Germany, Hungary. It wasn't watching, Slovenia, Denmark. It was Romania, Ukraine because the atmosphere created by the Romanians was incredible. Do not sleep on those low key matchups. And I think but, like, back to the ticket situation, it's because they're just trying to gouge us. Like, man, they're trying to gouge the American ticket buyer into, hey. You're gonna overspend first game. And that's all it is.

Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's absolutely true. And, like, I think this has been the case for, like, the entirety of the soccer world. That's why they have, like, the ridiculous, like, Premier League showcases kind of, like, all throughout the summer where it's like, oh, we're gonna go play at, like, Michigan's football stadium or whatever. And it's going to be Manchester United's beast B team against Chelsea's B team or whatever like, this has been going on for a while and I think like FIFA, the soccer world in general has viewed like The US as just like a big yeah. A big cash cow of like, how do we get matches there? Right? Right? Like, how does LaLiga play matches in Miami for like the regular season? Is is like a real thing that they are discussing and like trying to make happen. Right? And so, yeah, The US is just viewed as a big cash cow but I think like the miscalculation here is that they're trying to use like the US men's national team as like the vehicle for the cash cow and what they're not realizing is like the US men's national team is like the fiftieth most popular soccer team in the in The US.

Speaker 2: It's probably the most popular national team.

Speaker 1: No. Yeah. Mexico definitely more popular and like, Paraguay is not the draw that like Columbia would be or something like that and so like, I think like as much as I love the national team because the national team is like my entry into soccer, right? It was like the two thousand and two World Cup and so like that's really like what like launched my fandom in a big way. I love the national team, but, like, this particular version of the national team is not terribly interesting because, like, your best player, Pulisic, is, like, a pretty boring human being, as good of a player as he is. Like, he's he's not like the most engaging person really like not like the kind of like marketable person that like people are going to get excited about. There, you can't like sell the underdog story like you could back in the day. I don't like, The US just like, the US men's national team is just like not the draw that they think that it is and I think that that is really like hurting the ability to sell tickets. It's like they think that, oh, people are going to spend thousands and thousands of dollars. I'm sorry. It's LA. There's other things that people are going to do and other better games that people are going to want to go to and like The US just like isn't the same draw for a lot of people as like seeing your favorite Liga and Mecky's team or seeing your favorite Premier League team if they come here like on a summer tour or anything along those lines like, yeah. Sorry. It's it's it's just not. So it just feels like a massive miscalculation to me of just, like, what the soccer appetite is here in The United States.

Speaker 2: And it's it's sad because they you could make it a moment or, okay, just, like, to where kids grow up saying, hey, I wanna watch the national team. This is fun. Like, I wanna wanna root on my my nation but like often you don't get that, right? Like, you just now you're price gouging you're price gouging your fans.

Speaker 1: Like Yeah.

Speaker 2: A lot of people I know don't support the US national team. Just for whatever reason, they just don't support the US national team. It's oh, The US is not good. This, this, that, all this stuff, whatever. But at the same time, it's like there's an opportunity to, like, captivate more of, like, the the The US and, like, in this opening match. I don't know what's gonna happen. I it sounds like FIFA's gonna hold on, hold on, hold on until they have to bring down prices and stuff like that. But, I mean, again, it's all just really shortsighted in my opinion. You're making so much and plus the BS with the whole changing the categories of people's seats basically where, like, you're a category one. Oh, category one is now here. We're adding a new thing here. I mean, it's all a joke. And FIFA and there's something that, our good friend John Arnold mentioned.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 2: They have the twenty thirty one Women's World Cup is gonna is more than likely gonna be held in The US and and Jamaica and I can't remember what other country is a part of the bid. How is, like, this how this World Cup is going gonna impact that and the relationships? I know we're gonna talk about it in a little bit, but which relationships between FIFA and the host cities, FIFA and the fans who are now, like dude, The US soccer fan, DK, they're not dumb. They're really smart, and they know not to buy into these primarily friendlies anymore. They don't care about that. They're like, whatever. We'd rather go to Europe to watch games. We're not gonna go do spend an arm and a leg to watch this. They support their local club, And, also, they're not gonna be they're, like, they're not gonna they're they're gonna call FIFA's bluff. Like, they're not the again, The US soccer fan maybe used to be like that, but it seems like it's a very outdated thought process for what The US soccer fans' appetite is to pay for things. And right now, I am not even remotely shocked that they haven't sold out that game. I'm not shocked at all.

Speaker 1: I'm I'm with you.

Speaker 2: If anything if anything, it's if anything, it's would be more shocking if it was sold out by now, in my opinion. Because, again, you're you're asking people to pay $23,000. And who's gonna go to the opening match? The the the big US fans, not the casual, the big US fan. And they know, hey, we're reading online that you're moving people's seats. Why am gonna pay $2,000 for a seat that I might not even have? So it's it's this World Cup, I think when it kicks off, TK is gonna be awesome. But as we're gonna talk about, I think even more, there is just so many just things going on outside. And for a listener, the thing that's more interesting, I think, to me, TK, is not like, the national team action isn't really going on right now. But what's the outside of it? Like, what is what is going on with FIFA and these host cities and FIFA and the fans? I think right now, what we're getting is a sign of dysfunction.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I think like, I think one of the things that like we're really seeing happen here is that every entity possible that sees an opportunity to make money on the World Cup is like seizing that opportunity with both hands, which like capitalism, baby. Welcome to the World Cup in The United States where soccer has had, you know, thirty two years since our last World Cup to kind of like grow its reputation and everyone gets to talk about, you know, like, the growth of the game and all that sort of stuff. Well, okay. Like, the, like, the spin off of that is, like, here's another story. New Jersey is charging, like, a $150 for train tickets into New York City for, like, match day, like, subway fares. Right? Like, train tickets into, like, these games whereas, like, a normal ticket is $13 and so this is what you're referencing, right? Like, where the game and, like, everything going on around it is getting kind of, like, poisoned by the fact that, like, every instance possible is being used as, like, the biggest money making operation of all time. And, like, boy, that's really soul sucking when, like, you are an actual fan of this game and you have been for quite some time as I think a lot of the people who would typically go to World Cup games are. And in the end, I think what you're gonna end up with are stadiums filled with, like elites who can afford like these $1 tickets or people who just like wait long enough but like, I think you're really pricing out the casual fan which is not going to end up with like the long term gains for the game as people really want to believe but yeah, there's another story on the athletic that Adam Crofton wrote just about.

Speaker 2: He's all over all this stuff.

Speaker 1: He is all over this stuff. Like, when he left, where was he before? Like, I guess he was like at the Guardian or maybe he's with the athletic but like over in The UK, he, I, I know he like came to The US to like cover the build up to the World Cup, but I mean, just like all of the stuff around like parking around different stadiums for the games, or like train into like different cities to watch these games. Like, all of it is just getting gouged to absolute hell and it is not the way to like endear or ingratiate yourself to like the next generation of fans or to even like prime the pump for like a 2031 like Women's World Cup sort of situation. So, I I mean, I realize like that's the world that we live in to a certain extent. But like the desire to make like the most of every single potential scent seems to like miss the point of like last weekend everyone was watching the masters and part of what everybody loves about the masters is the way like nothing about it has changed in like one hundred years, right? And for better or worse in some ways but like, they love like the concession prices being really cheap and like all of these different things. People don't have their phones out and that kind of thing and like this World Cup is about to be like the polar opposite of that in so many different ways. And I think that there's a limiting factor than to like how much people can actually engage with that.

Speaker 2: It's it's super it's super interesting because that that situation that we're talking about with the transit systems, I don't think it's a FIFA issue. I think that's the that's the cities.

Speaker 1: Yeah. No. It it is.

Speaker 2: It's because the the the cities, they signed a agreement saying, hey, no cost for transportation if they have tickets to go into the games. Then FIFA came back and amended it in 2023 and said, okay, at cost. So New Jersey Transit comes back and says a $150. Boston or wherever their transit system is going to Foxborough, is in the middle of nowhere, basically, $80 for your return trip. But other cities are doing it differently. You have Dallas who's trying to figure out a way to get from Dallas proper to Arlington. For those who don't know, it's, like, thirty, thirty five, forty minutes. It's really far. It's not like it's not close. You can't just train there because there's no metro there. So they're trying to figure out something. Houston's charging no no charges. Atlanta is charging $2.50 for their MARTA, which I talked about in the last pod. Excellent city. I would that's a great place to go watch again. Yeah.

Speaker 1: Philly is judging like yeah. $2.90, I think. Like yeah.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Basically. Nothing. Pennies. So it's like, again, this dynamic between FIFA and these host cities, how like how is that going to impact 2031? Right? Is are the is The Meadowlands going to get the world cup final again? Pretty sure FIFA would want it in New York, but maybe not. Will Boston get something? I'm pretty sure FIFA would want it there. Probably not. Yeah. Remember Chicago pulled out because they were like, we can't afford any of this. Like, we don't wanna deal with this headache. But these other cities stayed in. So that's the part disappointing. Like, you you don't need to make money off all these things, but they're choosing to do so and just put the tax on the tourist that's coming in here. Like, oh, look. I went to you know what's crazy, TK? Again, I I keep making this comparison, but the euros, your ticket gave you a euro gave you a pass to go all around Germany. That was your ticket gave you that pass. But in in Qatar, what I read, your your ticket gave you that transportation to go around. It's to me, part of it is is the greedest season. That's where I'll have to I I unfortunately have to defend FIFA, which is not what I and and it's in the sense of doing.

Speaker 1: It's a rough spot, dude.

Speaker 2: But I truly believe, TK, when the World Cup actually starts, it's gonna be fantastic. I I don't think these these issues that we're talking about, I think, are gonna go to the wayside kind of like Qatar. Right? We talked about how people don't remember, but, like, I mean, the big thing about the the Qatar was the slavery to build the the stadiums. That's a big issue. Like, it's huge. But, like, again, I'm not trying to diminish that at all. Or, like, the nonalcohol sales that were being made because because I was like, I'm we're not saying alcohol in the stadiums. There'll be certain areas where you can get some. All these issues are coming up, if you remember. And then when the World Cup started, we're like, it just all disappeared, basically. For like, again, for the worst, obviously, that we don't want that to be diminished at all, but, like, they all disappeared when the games actually started to play. I think it was gonna be the same thing here in the in The US unless something kinda crazy happens.

Speaker 1: I mean, I think you're right. I just think, like, the potential for something crazy to happen is there. And yeah. We'll just yeah. I I I I ultimately, I think you're right. I think like our love of like the pageantry pageantry of like this tournament and like what it means and like, there are the really like great things that like seeing countries come together like in this way like actually does bring and like, there's the less cynical way to look at it, which, like, once the tournament comes around, like, all my cynicism goes out the window, and I'm just like, I love this. It's so great.

Speaker 2: I love this game.

Speaker 1: So I I get it. Like, yeah, this this comes around every World Cup. It's problematic and we end up getting past it for better or worse and we'll see if that's the case again this time around. US soccer had some news that came out at the end of last week that I feel like we need to talk about. Matt Crocker was the, like, director of sport, within, was that, like, his official title? What was his official sporting director of US soccer, Matt Crocker. He's a Welsh guy. Was brought in a few years ago, and in that time, like, he's the guy that really brought in Mauricio Pochettino. He brought in Emma Hayes for the the US women's team. He made that hire. And so, he made these hires and then at the end of last week, it was announced that he was leaving immediately his role with US soccer to take a similar role within the Saudi Arabian soccer federation. So, very interesting news. Just a couple of months out the tournament. I don't think that this actually impacts the US men's national team in any way, shape, or form leading into the tournament. Just kind of a fascinating thing to have happen. Leading up to this and I certainly have a take on this just from a little perspective, I guess, of, like, a historical US men's national team perspective. But Arman, I'm curious about, like, your thoughts on Matt Matt Crocker just kind of piecing out on The US a few months before the World Cup.

Speaker 2: We need to stop this. We're look we're gonna hire someone based on a search firm and all this stuff. We need to put someone in US soccer that cares about US soccer as a whole. Like, I'm not saying throw Lannon Donovan into there. Like, I think there's better personalities out there. But I think you need someone that really just genuinely cares about you The US soccer. Like, this needs to be treated like look. Soccer is different than, like, a lot of other sports. You need a little bit of passion within there. Right? And I think we've seen this time after time, and it might sound very conceded, but there's this but the American player is different than a lot of players you see. Just like the Argentine player is different. Just like the Uruguayan player is different. They all are different. And to have this kind of one size fits all approach, I don't think makes sense. And we we we we've seen it. Right? We've we we we've seen it, you know, when it comes down to, like, mentality, when it comes down, like, historically, etcetera. So it's like, I feel like, TK, The US just needs a guy that genuinely cares about growing the game and about the national team as a whole, which right right now, I think the interim guys are Gucci and Wayu. Gucci, like, that's a good that's a perfect guy for something like that. Right? A guy who Yeah. Has a national team who has experience in these leadership roles, etcetera. Like, that would be an awesome fit. And I think Matt Crocker has built out an infrastructure for The US, for sure. He a 100% has. But leaving two months before your crown jewel, like, World Cup, where it's like you are the sporting director of a team that's of the country that's hosting it, that's a bad look.

Speaker 1: It's a bad look.

Speaker 2: It's a

Speaker 1: It's a it's a bad look. I I understand, like, taking that that Saudi money. Like, lots of people are doing it these days. I keep coming back to like the scene from the office which is almost certainly going to date me somehow. Season six episode one, the rough, like, outline of the episode is, like, Michael starts a bunch of rumors, like, within the office. And one of them that he starts is that one of the characters, Andy Bernard, is gay. And this is not meant to be, like, homophobic or making fun of, like, people who are gay or anything like that whatsoever. Like, the humor in this entire episode is that, like, the rumor, like, causes Andy to spiral because, like, he doesn't know who, like, he himself, like, actually is because he's an insecure person always looking for affirmation, like, from the boss. And it ultimately, like, culminates in this episode of everybody, like, confronting Michael about the fake rumors he starts in the office and Andy Menard, like, shouting at Michael, like, am I gay? And, like, there's something kind of, like, similar to like, I keep thinking about this in relation to you to US soccer because, like, we keep asking other people to define who we are. The same way Andy is asking Michael to be like, tell me whether or not this is true about myself. Like, so Welsh guy who worked at Southampton, you know, who did some good things in soccer over in the Premier League. Tell us who we need to be. Tell us who we need to be hiring, that sort of thing. Jurgen Klinsman, let's give you the keys to all of US Soccer. Us how we need to be doing youth development. Tell us how we need to be like working with our players and you know, forcing them to go overseas and play overseas and all of that sort of stuff. Like, tell us who we need to be at US Soccer and like, at some point, like, maturing as a soccer nation means getting away from needing other people to define who we are as a soccer nation and I feel like we were closer to having a true identity as a soccer country in 2010 under Bob Bradley with that particular team than we are right now. Because we just keep asking other people like.

Speaker 2: In 2002 as well too?

Speaker 1: Oh yeah. Like entirely. Like I think we are moving further and further away from understanding that as we try to like define a style and like what like what are we really trying to do here and that kind of thing like we've so overthought it and gotten away from it by like bringing in all these outside voices and that's that's not to try to be like xenophobic or anything or trying to say like, oh, if you're foreign, you can't tell us how to play soccer and that kind of thing like.

Speaker 2: No, there's plenty of people that, I mean, care about soccer that like have different backgrounds, right? In The US, I mean, Hugo Perez is a good great Oscar

Speaker 1: Perez is a great example.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Oscar Perez is a great example of that. There's plenty you know, it's it's not about being, like, a white a white guy in The US or whatever it is. It's about someone who cares about US soccer as a whole. And I think that's the one thing that we've been missing is just caring about you just just you're telling Mauricio Pochino cares about US soccer? Like, respectfully. No. He does not. He does not. He just is gonna try to do his best in this World Cup, and he'll be he'll be out the door when it when it after World Cup ends.

Speaker 1: That's it. If Spurs stay up, he will be helming a reclamation project for Todd.

Speaker 2: I mean, it's hard to deserve you for a while, so don't know about that.

Speaker 1: Or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Like, he he wants a Premier League job.

Speaker 2: But, like, look at Mexico. Javier Aguirre is our coach right now. He is kinda transitioning them to his twenty twenty twenty six World Cup. Then after, you know who's taking over? Rafael Marquez.

Speaker 1: Mhmm.

Speaker 2: We know that these guys care about Mexico and Mexican football as a whole. Yes. There's issues when it comes down to like the structure of Mexican football, when it comes down to like the television rights holders. There's a lot of issues when it comes down to domestic league as well. But these guys care about Mexican football as a

Speaker 1: whole. Absolutely.

Speaker 2: I think in in the in The US, we struggle to find that because we're all we're trying to be like England. We're trying to be like Europe. But what defined the great US teams? It was that grit, that kind of underdog mentality, which you like, again, The US soccer wise is better than what what it was. So naturally, you may be missing some of those, oh, we're defending against the ball worthy underdog moments, etcetera. But you don't have to lose that grit. You don't have to lose that kind of swagger that they had. You don't have to lose any of those things. And it feels like as a whole, The US Soccer has kind of shifted away from that. And like I said, Matt Crocker sporting, like, you know, what they've built that infrastructure is. I know data wise, I'm I'm really much more in tune with that side on data side. Their infrastructure is amazing what they built at US soccer. They've been building so much and it looks amazing led by Sam Gregory who used to work at Inter Miami. They've done great work over there. But, like, when it comes to, like, the identity of the actual US soccer on the field, it feels like it's lacking, and I feel like that kind of comes from a culture kind of almost top down.

Speaker 1: Yeah. I think that I think that's right. I think yeah. I think from the top down, think leadership wise, like, having somebody that, like, knows what the culture has been and should be moving forward. I think that just I I think, yeah, I I I don't think that can continue to be defined by somebody who's, like, had success elsewhere and comes in. I think it has to be, like, intrinsic within, like, The US system. And and you're right. Like, that doesn't mean it has to be a white person from The US or whatever. Like, Oscar Perea, Hugo Perez are great examples of of people who know the game within The US, knows the US player, and can then play to the strengths of that and I think that's I think that's well put. We had two other quick topics I wanted to mention because we're going quite long in this episode. But Pellegrino Matarazzo becomes the first US American born coach to win a major European trophy winning Copa Del Rey with Real Sociodad. That was a big moment over the weekend. And then there were there's a bunch of like US striker like strikers for the US Men's National Team that have done notable things over the weekend that I wanted to just like highlight real quick. Valor and Balagan scored in his eighth consecutive game from Monaco and then Darryl DK came back for West Brum. Boy, Darryl DK is still only 25 years old. Came back. He's torn. Yes.

Speaker 2: I mean, I I hilariously have a bunch of rookie cards with Darryl DK when he's at Orlando City because he was a really good I mean, he was I mean, he was fantastic. All these injuries derailed him. I know I think he's out of he's out of contract at the end of the year at the West Brom. I wonder where he ends up after did he come back to MLS? A lot of people do that, and, you know, he might be able to get a bag and, you know, can revitalize career and go somewhere else. So, you know, just see what happens with Daryl DK. I'm really, generally, like, really excited to see him bagging in goals and

Speaker 1: getting on the score sheet. I mean, big striker kind of championship built for the championship, but playing at West Brom, I think he's torn his Achilles twice. So, I mean, just like a ton of injury issues over the last several years but good to see him back and scoring for West Brom and then, Coventry City and Hodgy Wright are getting promoted into the Champions League and so just like a trio of of US men's national team.

Speaker 2: They're going up.

Speaker 1: They're going up. Haji Wright. I mean, back in a ton of goals in the championship playing for Frank Lampard. I I mean, look, that's good stuff. It's hard to argue too much with that. That is it as far as I'm concerned with US soccer news. Anything that we're missing, Arman, that we need to holler out real quick?

Speaker 2: No. I don't think we're I don't think there's anything missing. There's not that much going on when it comes to US soccer wise. On the field at least.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Exactly. Off the field is where all the news is at this moment in time. I mean, yeah, we're going to be able to get into like different team profiles and previews and like maybe preview like every match for The US in the World Cup and all that sort of stuff now that we know every single opponent. We can dive into stuff like that in the future as we get closer and closer to the World Cup again like, boy, we are getting really, really close but for now, that is all of the news and updates we can give you for this week. Arman, dude, it's so good to have you. I'm really glad we're doing this.

Speaker 2: Dude, hell yeah. This is fun, man. I love it. But the arsenal shirt, maybe next time we'll match. Because I think we have the same exact one.

Speaker 1: Yeah. Have we have this one and then we both have LAFC jerseys that I don't see.

Speaker 2: I got rid of LAFC one.

Speaker 1: Oh, that's right. You had too many too many games.

Speaker 2: Guns, I guess.

Speaker 1: That's right. Yeah. That's right. Well, hey, thank you for being here. Everybody, thank you for tuning in to this episode. We'll be back, of course, with more stuff. Check out the Stolen Water Media website if you haven't already and we'll be back soon next week with another episode of the Sunset Soccer Club. Until then, see you.