Scuffed | USMNT, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America - #619: Pulisic documentary fallout with Meg Swanick, plus the weekend action

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

The venerable Meg Swanick joins Belz and Vince to talk through the Pulisic & Weah vs the pundits news cycle, plus a full rundown of the weekend action.https://swandive.substack.com/ Skip the ads! Subscribe to Scuffed on Patreon and get all episodes ad-free, plus any bonus episodes. Patrons at $5 a month or more also get access to Clip Notes, a video of key moments on the field we discuss on the show, plus all patrons get access to our private Discord server, live call-in shows, and the full catalog of historic recaps we've made: https://www.patreon.com/scuffedAlso, check out Boots on the Ground, our USWNT-focused spinoff podcast headed up by Tara and Vince. They are cooking over there, you can listen here: https://boots-on-the-ground.simplecast.comAnd check out our MERCH, baby. We have better stuff than you might think: https://www.scuffedhq.com/store Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to the Scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. Soccer. Hey, everybody, we're now three weeks away from the Friendly Against South Korea. It's all going to start happening very soon. We have a special guest today. She's covered two World Cups. She's written for The Guardian and ESPN and the Philadelphia Inquirer, and she writes a newsletter called The Swan Dive, which I will put the link to in the show notes. Meg Swanik.

Welcome. How are you? Hi, I'm good. Thanks for having me. What do you think is the story of the men's national team right now? What's going on? I think that right now, this team is almost trapped by its own excitement and potential. I think that it's a really talented generation. I think that that is true. There's a lot of caveats in there. But I think that the excitement they generated amongst younger fans and a broader fan base was very real.

but they've failed to really deliver at a level we haven't seen from previous generations. And the past year and a half has been disappointing as an understatement. So I think that it's still a likable team, likable players, but the results have been disappointing for a very long time. And the players and the fans are going further and further apart. So right now we're staring down a year toward the next World Cup with a team at odds with its fan base and struggling to really get the results that I think that they do deserve. Meg, I want to drill in on one of those points that you made.

You said that the team is likable. A lot of people would disagree with you, including one, Hercules Gomez. So where do you think that disconnect is amongst the fan base? And I think the three people on this call think the team still likable. I mean, I find them to be very likable as individuals. I think they've got really interesting stories, a very wide array of different backgrounds. You know, they're all battling it out in different leagues around the world. I think that there is, and, you know, this is another kind of theme of the team right now

is that I don't know this, but it seems that there is a bit of a rift between generations of the U.S. men's national team. And I think that maybe previous generations of players that did have to battle more of a stigma around where Americans can play that didn't have a path carved out for them. I feel that actually they were maybe more talented or delivered more or cared more. And so I think that maybe that is at play a little bit when it comes to some former players who are kind of maybe trying to moderate the hype surrounding this team a little bit. And I don't know if that's at play.

But on the other hand, I mean, you know, it is a team to give her. and the detractors of the team, people who don't find them likable. I mean, I can see where they're coming from as well because the results haven't been there. I'm a huge Tim Wea fan myself, but I was giggling throughout all of last week at the fact that he called his critics evil, which is a hilarious choice of words. And, you know, again, I think he's so talented. He, you know, I'll never forget that goal that he scored against Wales. but if I was the guy that had like punched a Panamanian in the head again at Copa America

and kind of accelerated that collapse, I don't know, maybe I'd score a few goals before I call my critics evil. So I can see as well where people are falling out of love with the team. Well, we'll get into it when we start to drill down actually into what, who the messaging was for in the Pulistic documentary and all that. But Bells, I do have to address your, response to when me asking or me saying that the three people on this panel, I guess, still think the team's likable. Bells, you kind of rode your eyes a little bit. I want you to explain your, the reason why you made the face.

I did a little shrug. I mean, is it, it's not, I don't, I'm not saying that anybody's unlikable necessarily, but I don't likeable is a strong word to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, that's downright mean to say about somebody, I think. But, um, I don't know. I don't find them particularly likable. And maybe I'm just becoming a crotchety old man.

You can see the gray hairs in my facial hair here. But when a 24-year-old talks. Okay. Was that the end of the sentence? I don't know that there's that much in it for me, you know? And particularly these fellows, they have lived. you know, they've lived a very particular kind of life. They have, they have, they have been playing elite soccer.

They're so fun to watch play soccer. Tim Wea is like, he's, he's a joy to watch when he's on his game. Pulisic's a joy to watch. Do I really want to listen to them talk that much? The answer is no, I don't. Because I just, I just don't think they have, they don't really have that much to say. And I think the choice of the word evil is just the, the choice of words of someone who hasn't had to choose words very much.

You know, I'm not, I'm not beating up on him for it. It's just kind of like, he doesn't, he doesn't have that much insight, at least that I have seen. That's why I kind of go like this, because, not because I dislike anybody, I just, I think Weston McKinney's likable. I think Chris Richards is likable. There may be others that I think are likable, but nobody immediately comes in mind.

Serginio Desk. I mean, Matt Turner's likable. Tim Riem, there's a lot of likable players. But, no, I mean, I agree with you that there's all this content that's kind of getting ahead of them, having really done more at the national team level than previous generations. I mean, Christian Plissick has won a Champions League, things like that. But yeah, there's a lot of talking and a lot of content and not a lot of results. I get where the detractors come from.

I guess the only point I would make is I feel like we do got to give space for these 24-year-olds. to mature. Yeah. You know, I always feel like, well, I feel like it's a fact almost, that people are almost conditioned to like not like the athletes. You know, it's a very transactional relationship

between the fan, the athlete, and the athlete and the fan. And as soon as you get off of, offbeat and don't perform, or you speak out of turn, use a wrong word, etc., etc., all hellbreak. lose. Oh, now everybody's raining

down on them. They're unlikeable there, blah, blah, blah, blah. And don't get me wrong, Tim way I put on a disaster class in that documentary. Okay? He, he, without a doubt, should have watched the final cut and been like, yo, can I come back in the studio? Like, I need to clean that up because not only did he do the evil thing, which is hilarious. Like, I just watched the episode

before we hopped on this call, and it is funny. Like, like Mike said, I was giggling. the entire time because it was just like, he says evil, which first of all, the evil thing, I want to say, like, we know how Timway is, kind of, kind of woo-woo a little bit. He meant like the bohemian interpretation of evil, you know, he meant basically Landis throwing the vibes off, but he just, he used the wrong word. I think, I think. I've been wrong in this whole.

Well, he talked about a sense of betrayal because these are the guys who will come and shake your hand and want to be friends with you, but then they'll, yeah. Right. So, and then also the ultimate cell phone was the, you know, those guys didn't win anything either, which was just like, I mean, there was like five different ways he could have phrased that. I would have said, hey, we were the youngest team in the World Cup by like the age of the minutes played, the age of who played the minutes. You know what I'm saying? I know Ghana was technically the youngest team. But anyway, we were the youngest team in the World Cup and we got to where the U.S. always gets and something like that.

He could have used that. Boom, that would have been a great point. Instead, he was like, hey, you know, we generationally losers. You know what I'm saying? It's not. We all suck. Which is valid, I mean. I do want to ask, Meg, where are you in the world right now? We're now a world traveler. I just wanted to check in.

See what's going. Philadelphia. I am home at the moment. Okay. Okay. Okay. What are your plans for next summer? What are you going to, um, how are you going to, um, how are you going to, approach covering the World Cup? It's a good question.

I've got some ideas for leading up to next summer, and I am planning to be covering the World Cup. To be honest with you, though, and it really does feel like there is as much between me and next summer professionally as there is for all of these players. Any number of things could happen, and there's a lot of possibilities, I think. But I'm tempted.

I don't know whether I want to kind of be with the U.S. men's national team or be covering the tournament more generally. I think that, you know, the World Cup is so much fun and so interesting. And there's so many stories that I care about and am interested in beyond just the U.S. men's national team. So, yeah, I think that's one of the big things I'm thinking about. But I definitely hope and intend to be covering the tournament in some way. Are you going to get credentialed and go to the games? That is up to FIFA. So hopefully, Yeah, I think so. What about you guys?

Are you going to try and... I don't think I am. I mean, Vince May. Well, like, as a Big J Journal... No. I don't think so. I find that doing the media stuff takes away from enjoying the match. And in the World Cup, I want to enjoy as much as possible and kind of, like, party and stuff, you know.

Yeah. No, really. I mean, I've... So I've been fortunate to attend. World Cups and I've attended both as a fan and as, you know, someone that's credentialed. And they're both really cool experiences, but they're very different experiences. And I think that this summer, I was credentialed for the Club World Cup, but kind of experiencing that tournament and like hanging out with fans outside the stadium kind of reminded me how much

fun it is just to like be in the parking lot with a bunch of Brazilians and stuff like in Moroccans and Tunisians and stuff. And I don't know, it's tempting. I'm kind of wrestling now with do I want to be like embedded with the U.S. men's national team with the entire country's sports media probably there? Yeah. Or do I just kind of want to enjoy the unique situation of having a home world cup in Philadelphia is one of the host cities as well. So it's tempting to stay put.

What captivated you about the club World Cup? I mean the fans, which I think like, you know, so many people said that, that it became maybe a cliche to say that. But for me, it really was just really a reminder of why the World Cup is so much fun. And it's because there's all these different fan bases from around the world. And, you know, you're walking around the city and all of a sudden they're like in Reading Terminal or like running up the rocky steps and kind of engaging with locals. And you flares are going off and you're stuck in traffic. And yeah, it's all the different people from from around the world and kind of just partying with different people.

The games were also great. Who are your favorite country conglomerate? Who are your favorite people in the world? It's an impossible question to answer, Vince. I mean, really, I love the variety as well. That's the other thing about the World Cup, is that there's so many different types of fan bases and different teams, and they've got different stories,

and you meet all these different people who, you know, they go to a ton of World Cups. That's the thing they do, would they meet up with their friends? every four years, they go to World Cups. I will say that I think El Tree fans I don't know if that's a controversial take to have in this podcast. They show up at World Cups.

Every World Cup I've been to, Mexico fans are there in large numbers and they're a lot of fun. I think Brazilians are always a lot of fun. I'm tempted to say Brazil, but I'm hesitant to come up with a favorite, to be honest. I enjoy England's fans. That's probably also a bad take to have Is that a bad take for this podcast?

There are no bad takes here, every take. Some people would think that's a bad take. But I think most of our listeners, they would agree with the L-Tree stuff. They're fun. They're fun, and they show up. Every World Cup, they're one of the most represented, and they are head-to-toe all day long, having a good time. So, I mean, got to give credit where credits do.

Yeah. From how I understand things, you know, we hate El-Tree, the team, love Mexican people and everything. but I think a lot of scuff fan base, if we were to pull out a survey, I think they truly do hate English people. Maybe it's because you can get away with it, Scott free, you know,

you've got to worry about being all the races. Yeah, yeah, that's exactly what it is. Yeah, I mean, we did have a rift with Leeds fans a few years ago. Oh, man, oh, yeah. Are you planning on going back? I'm trying, you know, I'm trying to give them space, but definitely.

is the answer. So I think definitely at some point. But, you know, I think that we got to be careful with this whole return to the Premier League with Leeds and Brendan. We got to, you know, we can't go in as hot as we did two years ago with the Twitter feuds and stuff. But yeah, I hope so. Let me ask you this. What's your favorite soccer venue you've been to? Is that an impossible question to answer to? Yeah, it's tough. It's a good question, though. Ellen Road is up there. love the old stadiums. You know, I think that one of the tragedies of the modern sport, across sports, but there's kind of like a flattening a little bit, I think, of culture. Like the internet in general flattens culture, I think, beyond sports. But, you know, more and more new stadiums get built. They all

look the same kind of thing. And I really do love those old English stadiums that are just right in the middle of a neighborhood. And, you know, where Luton plays as well, like that's a, that's a cool stadium. But Ellen Road is a really cool stadium and great atmosphere, crazy fans, as we know. So that's up there. The stadiums in Qatar were really impressive. And when I went to one of the games, and I obviously a lot of, you know, unfortunate situations surrounding the construction of those stadiums, but, you know, they were great places to watch a game. And I think that one thing that I love about stadiums outside of the U.S. is that very often the press are not behind that thick sheet of glass. You're not in a press box. You're in a press tribune, so you're in the stadium.

And like there is a huge difference between watching Mexico or Argentina or the U.S. and you're just in the stadium versus I was at MetLife for the semifinal of the Club World Cup. and this won't be the case for fans, but for me, in the press box, you can't hear anything. It's awful. It's like, am I even in a stadium?

It's so removed. It's like you're in a Boeing 747 that is parked inside the stadium. Yeah, yeah, it's awful. MetLife is, going to MetLife's press box was what made me decide to not get credentialed basically ever again. It was the worst. Yeah. It was the worst.

Yeah. I don't know if it's that impressive, of a stadium either, like compared to other World Cup final. I mean, I'm sure maybe, I'm sure it will be great. I'm going to have angry Giants fans coming at me now, but, you know, oh well, but. I want to just, I want to just say in there, drop in here, I'm really, I really don't like Mercedes-Benz Stadium for, I've never been. I'm enjoying a soccer game.

The lighting is bad. It feels like you're, it feels like you're in a Aldi grocery store. store with like the flickering fluorescent light. And no offense to Aldi. Love it. But yeah, I think every time I think about am I going to go to a bunch of World Cup games in Atlanta, I'm like, do I want to go to that stadium or watch a game? That's interesting. A lot of the foreign press I asked, because I was unimpressed by MetLife, I think the link

is a nice venue. I'm biased, obviously. That's the local venue. I think Philly will be a good host. I think the venue, the stadium is not hard to get to. You know, it's right in the Southfield-Opia sports complex, and it's, you know, it's a nice venue. But I was, those were the only two places I saw Club World Cup games. And I'd asked some members of the foreign press who were there for covering the game where they liked.

And a lot of people said Atlanta, so that's interesting. I, it's crushing of our hopes of having cool venues. Not me. I'd rather be hot in the sun outdoors than I have to endure that experience again. Anyway, sure. I mean, I was in Mercedes-Benz the same day you were, Adam Bell's, and I'm trying to think back. I do think I remember it being kind of dark in there.

It was dark, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have the same type of visceral that you got to put. Yeah. I didn't have any problem with, like, I don't have a problem with the city or the, that was a great scene in terms of the people in the stadium. I'm just saying, like, the physical plant of the stadium. stadium. Let's listen to the clip. Let's move to the clip of, uh, that has got everybody talking.

This is, um, we, we referenced it earlier. It's, it's going to run for a little bit here, but let's just let it, let it play out and then, uh, we'll respond to it. Mark Pulisic just wilding on here. The most annoying thing and for me, the biggest cop out, um, of all time is when, uh, especially, you know, all, all pundits want to say, you know, they, they didn't want it. They didn't have the heart, you know, back in our day, we would fight. We would fight. and we would die on that field. When we were on the field, there were guys on the field all over the field who, if they didn't perform well,

their club team probably lost. But there's not a lot of guys who fall into that. I think those guys are chasing checks, and for me, I just feel like they're really evil, honestly, because they've been players and they know what it's like when you're getting bashed, and those are the same guys that'll turn around and shake your hand and try to be friendly with you at the end of the day.

These guys want clicks. Social media, it's subscribed to my channels, channels, listen to my podcasts, or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I respect all of them. I mean, they were players that I looked up to, but quite frankly, the guys before us didn't win anything either. I think they should look in the mirror and look at their last performances for the national team before they start talking shit.

All right, so a lot to unpack there. I think, you know, we should also say, Paulus, I mean, Mark Pulisic said a few, like a minute later that it's because people are jealous of Christian. That's why they're doing anything they can to bring him down. And I don't know. One thing, I'm curious what you think about this, Vince, but one thing that occurs to me is, when I watch this, is the Michael Jordan documentary,

you know how he is constantly nursing grievances. Yeah. Against people. That's right. And it's almost magnificent how Michael Jordan did that. that like when he you know he almost had to invent grievances where there weren't any everybody recognized his greatness yeah and still he's going to find ways right and so it it reminded me a little of that like pulpit mark pulisic in particular uh you know standing up for

his son like i don't know that anybody wants to everybody wants to bring christian down or you know it doesn't seem it doesn't seem right to me but uh obviously we're talking about different categories of athlete and greatness for sure, but it's sort of the same phenomenon a little bit of inventing something to be upset about. Well, I think the missing link here is that, you know, the whole idea of the soccer parent

that we've been wrestling with for three years now since, you know, the geo, the rain has blew up the spot for everybody, you know, to where, uh, Helicopter parenting was national news or whatever. But I think, so what I'm saying is the parent is always going to be able to find something to make up a grievance to be mad at somebody. I'm surprised, really, I mean, going back to like two or three episodes or whatever, when I talked about me being disappointed and Landon and Tim specifically in the first place for entertaining this whole thing. And it's not about the criticism.

once again, it's not about the actual criticism of Christian Polisik skipping this tournament or their criticisms of the team or whatever. It's the fact that you get Mark Polic respond and then and then what's it called the unfiltered soccer podcast or whatever? Soccer unfiltered, I don't know. They create this whole UFC style event. Like we're responding back to Mark Polic, blah, blah, blah. Like it is just like, man, do we need to do this?

this. And that's where the point of the clicks and stuff kind of start to ring true for me because it's just like, man, if you didn't have these avenues that you're trying to grow and make money from or whatever, would this have blossomed into this thing that it is right now? And I don't know. I think no. I think the answer's no for me, but I don't know. Make it make how you feel. No, I agree with that. I mean, I think that there's. There's been critiques that are valid across punditry and the fandom that are valid, but they're not all the same. And potentially, Landon and Tim might be, you know, going for the hot takes. But I'm personally of the opinion that in the broader landscape of American sportsdom,

the punditry surrounding American soccer is still kind of soft and polite. You, you know, you zoom out and you listen to NBA podcasts or NBA punditry, the NFL. Like, it's more harsh, I think. So I don't think Landon and Tim were too far out of line in their podcast, but I could see the driving, the subscriptions. I also think that with those two in particular, there's a longer history of maybe them coming out firing with over-the-top critiques for the players or things that the players felt were too far. You know, that goes back to World Cup qualifying when... Weston. Right?

And I'm sure it sounded like that genuinely injured Weston McKinney when he said, did he say it was unforgivable what he did. Yeah. Which, you know, probably not unforgivable. Yeah. So there's that. Pretty forgivable. Pretty forgivable and extremely understandable, most importantly.

You know, it was like, it was like Landon couldn't get his head around the whole situation. I was like, man, you've been to, you've been, a, you've been to, A, you've been to Nashville, I think, and B, you've met Weston McKinney. You know what I'm saying? It's just like, that was like, yeah, he had us thinking that something really severe had happened. And it wasn't as bad as the unforgivable made it seem. I think also like Tim Howard, he, you know, he writes articles. I think he's written articles critical of Christian Plissick's politics or presumed politics based on the Trump dance that he did. he wrote something in the Daily Mail about that.

So I'm sure that I don't know what their relationship is like and I don't want to delve into anyone's politics. But I'm sure there's a little bit of a I could see how if someone's friendly to you when you see them and then they're writing articles about you in the Daily Mail, you might feel a bit miffed by them. Right. And this is something that's been brought up twice now. First time by Christian Polisick on the Call of What You Want interview where he insinuated that Landon and or Tim. are fake. And then once again in this policy documentary, this time said by Tim Wea. So, and this is the thing. Like from people I talk to,

it's specifically these two. You've had Casey Keller come out. Tony Miola, who, I don't know, Tony Miola is kind of like the understanding uncle in this whole situation when you like listen to what he had to say about what was going on and put it in proper context. But like Casey Keller is just like, oh, so we can't, we can't criticize you at all now. Now, if you play a bad game or what? I don't think that's what they intended for the message to be. And this is key, right?

The intent, how was your message going to be received? Especially when you're putting out this message on a pre-filmed documentary. This isn't a live podcast episode or whatever. Like I said, Tim Wea, you could have listened to the final cut and got this redone. And that's just like my whole thing about this is just like I hate I hate unforced errors. I hate unforced errors. If you're going to clap back, make sure your reasoning is clean and precise into where people cannot do what they want with what you say. You know, take it out of context, make it into a clip, whatever, whatever.

And that has to solely be on them. Yeah, it's just, it's tough. And you know what? We talk about this a lot. I do want to say, I think this whole thing is just extremely boring too. It's funny, but also, like, the fact that it's Christian Policic, the most, I mean, just, like, being in this presence sometimes will, like, suck the life force out of you. Just like, the way he sighs, Meg, I don't know if you, do you agree with me? Like, would he get to question sometimes?

It's just like, man. I mean, he clearly doesn't like, he has a, he clearly has a. very strenuous relationship with the spotlight that his skill has brought on him. And, you know, all of this, again, I think a lot of the story of his career is, and it's not all forced on him, but, you know, he didn't want to be labeled Captain America at Chelsea and then was labeled Captain America and then that made Chelsea fans. Kind of like the hype that is inevitable around him for an American marketing apparatus that wants to grow the game pisses people off and then he gets the critique like there is some merit to

it and he clearly doesn't enjoy speaking with the media so yeah it which you know not everyone who's going to be talented is going to be someone that enjoys the spotlight like i think weston mckenny enjoys the spotlight like there's definitely times where he comes up to the mic and it's it's almost like he's like thrilled to have the microphone in front of him and that's not how um christian polisic has ever been, I think. So, yeah, no, he doesn't, it's definitely something he doesn't enjoy, I think. And, um, and, okay, so despite what you're saying, Meg, here we are. Episode eight of the, of the, of the Pulitzer Documentary on Paramount Plus. You know, he's giving us this stuff to talk about. But yeah, Christian, very uninteresting from, from what he gives us. Even in, I don't know how

much of the documentary you don't watch, Meg, but it's, um, it's about what you would expect. And then Landon Donovan, who, I mean, come on. Paint drying, man. Ed is an uninteresting fella, uh, for the most part. I'll give, I'll give a little bit to Tim Howard, uh, but real quick before I get off this, I think it was the last thing I say about this. Um, I know that Mark Polic quote had to maybe sting for Tim Howard especially, you know, because wasn't, wasn't he? he was part of the Kuva disaster

so Mark was like these guys should think about their last performances before they talk about yeah I've heard many people say if anybody else is in the sticks for the for the matches that Tim Howard was in the in the hex that we probably end up making that World Cup

so yeah he was he was getting a little bit washed I there's definitely some misunderstanding in the way they talk they're talking the two sides are talking to each other whether it's willful or not i don't know like you like you mentioned you know casey keller saying why can't we what we can't just we can't criticize you guys at all and obviously that's not what pulisic and wea were saying it just specifically pulcic was saying

he doesn't like when people question his heart and his commitment and um but there's also i think some at least in the documentary cut some misunderstanding like of what donovan's says. So right after he says that, then there's the clip of Donovan saying, when we were out there, there were all these guys, and you think he's going to say who would like die for the crest or, you know, whatever, something, some cliche like that. Instead, he says all these guys who, if they didn't play well, their club would lose. And none of these guys are like this, which I think is actually kind of an interesting point. It's not necessarily that he's questioning their heart, at least in that case. I think he did question. Do you question Pulisic for not going to the gold cup?

For sure. Question is heart for that. Yeah. Yeah. But the clip that's used in the, in the documentary is about how very few of our national team players are the guy for their, for their club team, which I think actually is outside of arguably Pulisic, pretty much true, you know? So anyway, I think that's just the nature of the discourse these days. You can, like, you cannot have a sort of rigorous good faith debate. It's not possible.

It's not possible. Yeah. I mean, this is just the nature of the beast. And when all of these guys weren't playing, you know, this is what we had to talk about this summer. So, yeah. There's also irony, I think, a little bit in criticizing people making hot takes to get subscribers when they're kind of doing the same thing.

Like how much attention has been paid to this documentary because of this clip that went around of. of them firing back. So to some extent, they're doing the same thing, you know, driving views and getting eyes to his documentary. But yeah, so it's hilarious, but I think that we just need to see them playing again. And we'll all happily move on from the discourse, I think,

when they do come back. The only thing that matters to me is that Potch calls up Pulisic in three weeks, two and a half weeks, whatever it is. And he's gonna, right? I don't know. I think it's possible that he continues not to call everybody up. I think that he should. Just to be transparent, I think that he should have,

I think he should have let him play in those friendlies. I feel like that was such a missed opportunity. You know, if there were players, we know that Polisik wanted to play in the Turkey and the Switzerland friendly, I would have, I think that he would have. I think that he should have let him and then rest the rest of the summer. But I don't know. It's hard to sometimes fully read into what Patch was thinking. And I wouldn't be shocked if he continues to not call everyone in for this next window.

But I don't know. Okay. I mean, I feel like we were hearing rumblings that he was going to be left off. But that has sort of quieted down a little bit, especially since some. I don't know, especially since like we don't have, we don't have peppy or balligan. Sergeant didn't even get called up the last time he could have been. How are we going to, we could really not call him Pulisic for a couple of friendlies with the World Cup eight months away. Right.

And then look like we can't fight our way through a wet paper bag against South Korea and Japan. I mean, this seems like just a crazy. course of action. Yeah, I mean, that is a pretty crazy window to try and still prove the point. Like, you know, you can prove the point for the Gold Cup. That's a nice time to prove your point. You know what I'm saying? You can still win.

It's still, the expectation is still that you get to the final, even without all those, whoever, whatever. So, yeah, good time to prove your point in the Gold Cup. But yeah, if he wants to go up against South Korea and Japan, and still try to prove the point. And while we probably maybe put up, you know, Switzerland-level performances, then, yeah, it's going to be, that's going to be tough. It's going to be tough to do.

Yeah, and what a missed opportunity it would be, because these are such good teams to have scheduled, and there's only so many opportunities to really learn things and build the cohesion that we want for next summer. So, yeah, I think it's not impossible that he doesn't call them up, but I hope not. Hopefully it's done and buried with the summer. Okay.

Real quick, just for you move on to the, it's my last thing. No, no, it's fine. I remain like, I think about this all the time, just how, like, you think about that Iran goal, right? The Christian scored and the reaction after that, you know, those are America's nuts, you know, all the stuff people are saying. That's ridiculous. I still think it was all kind of corny.

But still, you see all that reaction to Christian, and then fast forward to 2025, skips the Gold Cup. It just goes back to show what to my earlier point, just about the fan player interaction and just how transactional it actually is. I don't know. Yeah, I don't question. I don't know, just as hard.

I don't know. As a person that went through this, right? with my brother or whatever. It just, I wish it didn't have to be like this. I'm sure it's really frustrating. I would love for people to see the humanity in these athletes.

Anyway. Would you say that the pundits are evil, Vince? Look, I'm not going to say anybody's evil, bro, but you know what? There's certain points where it's like, damn, like, if you saw this player as a person, person, you would not be responding to the situation the way that you are.

And I'm not talking about anything that's going on right now, but just from like personal experiences and stuff that we've already due rather podcasts enough, so I don't need to get into them. But it's just like, man, like you really do see, I've been one step away from calling somebody evil. That's all I'm saying. And in my head, maybe I do think some people are evil because of certain situations. But anyway, let's keep moving.

I think some people are evil. I don't know if I'm ready to say it about Tim Howard or Landonovan. Landon Donovan does not have enough, you know, personality to be evil. It's just like, I mean, it's just, what are those little graphs, like chaotic neutral, lawful neutral? You know, he's just right in the middle there, whatever neutral that is. So let's take a little, let's take a little break and come back and blaze through the action from the weekend. If you want to get the clip notes, which Vince has been lovingly crafting for all of us, join the Patreon at the $5 level.

If you want to get these episodes without the ads, join the Patreon. The link is in the show notes. And we would appreciate it. It is what sustains the podcast. We'll be back in a minute. And we're back. Pulisic, despite all the heartache he's been suffering in the past month. He's back to scoring for A.C. Milan.

Went scored a goal in their 2-0 win in the Copa Italia over Bari, a newly promoted Siri B club from the heel of the boot down south in Italy. Game started quietly for him. Laoscared the opening goal. Actually, after kind of a hilarious moment from Pulisic, he does a nice little, his first sort of notable action of the game is he does a nice one-and-two with Fofana. Fofana was everywhere in this game. and Fofana plays him to the end line, and he tries to, I don't know what he's trying to do,

is he trying to kind of lift it across or whatever he's trying, sends it sailing over everybody, almost out for a throw-in on the other side of the field. Tomori collects it and sets up, whips a ball in, a perfect ball for layout. He rises and powers it home at the near post. So I guess we're giving Pulisica a pre-assist here, a pass before the assist. It's nasty. Laos shortly goes off with an injury to his calf And then Pulsick kind of takes over

Nearly hits the top corner Off the press has a shot deflected up and over It's the crossbar with his left foot After a lovely back-to-front flowing move Set up for Fana for a good shot from 20 yards out With a running little square pass This is all in the next 20 minutes And then he gets his goal early in the second half

Some sloppy stuff from Bari And it falls to Santi who had come on for Laossoe. He lays it off for Pulisic. Pulisic drives at the goal, lays it out wide for Santi. He zips it across for Pulisic. Tidy little touch and swivel

and wraps it under the outstretched left arm of the goalkeeper. 2-0. Good stuff. It's the quickness of the swivel and the shot. That does it, just so efficient. He's a... Yeah, he's really good of soccer. Yes.

Yes. He is... Yeah, he looked focused in the aftermath of scoring it too, not too high. I agree. It was the look of a man who'd been in the news again all week and was focused on the season ahead of him. I totally agree, yeah, I noticed that as well. Not resting on his laurels, is he? Mm-mm.

He comes off a little after the hour mark. Musa comes on at Wingback. Luca Madrish comes on to great delight at the San Siro so making his Milan debut in the Copa Italia I have to be honest I didn't watch the rest of the game after that does anybody have a feeling about how Musa was at Wingback he's always pretty good out there right

just kidding that's right we'll just leave that alone he probably did a job yeah yeah yeah They saw the game out. So Dest always looks good in the Ayrdivizzi, and he looked good again. I don't want to get too much into it, but he forced an own goal by skipping past the guy wide and firing the ball into the six. He and Parisich had a lot of fun out there on that right side against a guy named Mots Rotz.

and yeah his close control where he just rides challenges positive first touch always a joy to watch can't wait to see him back in the shirt wasn't tested much

defensively but held up fine and switched to left back for the last 20 minutes and was also good out there another a non-death note from this game is Alisamplei came off

hurt in the 19th minute after class with a Twente centerback in the gold mouth. His knee got kind of wrenched. And Bosch said yesterday, I guess I haven't looked at the headlines this morning, but Bosch said yesterday it might be pretty serious. It looked bad. Hate to see it in general.

And PSV struggled after he came off until well into the second half. But I think, you know, from our point of view, this team looks like it has just a massive Ricardo Pepe-sized hole in it at the moment. Goostill had a He deputized that striker and he was Oh Jesus Horrible Yeah

That's not good Okay Missed a sitter Missed a Missed a free header From the six And also didn't Like didn't play well in the buildup either

So Maybe peppy Maybe they'll rush Pepe back a little bit Supposedly it was going to be two weeks But maybe they'll rush him back now And That'd be good Yeah especially because

it doesn't seem like what he's dealing with as like a, it's not a structural thing. You know, they say it has some fluid on his knee or whatever. So I think they might be able to rush him back and not have to deal with like any repercussions from that. I mean, maybe the fluid shows back up. That's possible.

But, hey, Rico, we need you on the field scoring some goals, man. And you got, it's opened up for you because it looked like it was going to be a pretty nasty fight once again at PSV for Rico for playing time with this time of Pleia instead of Luke DeYoung of course but you know go and get your spot man yeah yeah it's going to be so nice to see him back playing again and with Dest I just want to say that I appreciate he's also got his hype videos back out there I don't know if you saw his social media cut of his his action but yeah good to see him playing and good to see his promotion videos back there too does he have one

already from this past weekend? Yep. I don't think from the, oh, from this past weekend too? I think I saw one. I think I saw one this one. I saw one.

Yeah, good. There was plenty. There was plenty. And a lot of it will be in the clip notes video that I referenced earlier. Richards and Palace outplayed Chelsea

and Todd Bowley at Stanford Bridge ends in a zero zero draw. A valuable point for Crystal Palace. I think Richard Richards had a largely unremarkable performance, which I think is good for a centerback in a game like this. He nodded away a bunch of crosses, crosses that you'd expect him to nod away. Did fine in duels except for once when he got beat around the corner by Cole Palmer in the second half.

Kind of fizzed a dangerous ball across. Yeah. I mean, as a Ebenezer, as a goal callback because of a gahy foul in the wall, which I guess is the rule. but that seemed a little odd to me. First time that role has been enforced in the Premier League since the role got put in. Hmm, interesting. And the only other thing I noticed was half the palace squad drop into a knee in prayer at the final whistle, which reminded me of Jack Pierce and him talking about the Christian cohort.

Yeah, they all go down to one knee, praying after the game. Incredible. Yo, I do want to say, you said, Chris got beat by Cole Palmer that one time when he was kind of, I think Cole Palmer got played in, a ball in between Chris and the wingback anyway, he got that crossout. He also put the clamps on Cole Palmer, though, later in the match. Okay.

When he chased him all the way out to the touchline, let's say, I don't know, halfway into Crystal Palace's defensive half. And, you know, Cole tried to go, you know, right. left, whatever, Chris was there every way. Then Chris passed the ball. Cole Palmer makes a run and kind of gets played into the end line.

Chris is with him every step of the way. Cuts his, cuts his, like, fizz ball out for a corner. Crystal Palace team has didn't really celebrate him that much. I would have. I thought this was, I kind of like extended the clip,

you know what I'm saying? Because I thought everybody's all come over to him like, yeah. But no, he just jogged back into position, got ready for the corner. Very workman. like from Chris Richards but he's playing well yeah he is

Defending can be a thankless a thankless job you know you don't always I'm glad you pointed that out Vince because I feel like defenders don't always get their praise do when they do stuff like that Yeah it is true I mean you put them under the microscope and then you just pick out the one

thing they did wrong in the game Exactly The notable thing is when they get beat Yeah Right Well Palace is good man I mean, they're, like, could easily won this game.

And, I mean, Mattata had a really good chance in front of goal. And I love how Richards is, because of his hair, he's so easy to pick out on the field, you know? It's a nice thing, especially when, especially if you get done watching Aiden Morris at Middlesbrough. You know, almost impossible. Bro. It's impossible to tell who's who. Although he does have a little, he has some highlights in his hair that helps a little. bit.

Yeah. But him and, uh, was Hayden Hackney, the dude he shares of midfield with. Oh my. Yeah. Yeah.

It's, uh, it's tough. Tyler and Bournemouth lost four to at Liverpool on Friday. Anything here? Um, yeah, just Tyler got a pre-assist,

right? Did you see the ball that he played? Uh, okay. Liverpool, Liverpool attack breaks down. Tyler basically gets it kind of outside of, uh,

outside of, uh, outside of the ball. turns faces up and there's just a wide gaping hole to play to play the ball in to whoever it is. There's somebody streaking down the left touchline. Tyler's kind of in the left middle of the field. So he plays just a nice ball to him, one that kind of curls into the man's path. And then he crosses it across for Simeonio and then Simeonio finishes the goal. But yeah, just one of those nice Tyler Adams transition balls.

that we know he has. And like I said, there was a pretty big space for him to play it into. But he executed it. Executed it well. And the way that it curled into the attacker's path, that was the ice on the cake right there. So yeah, it was tough. Excuse me. That was good.

Other than that, he looked like Tyler Adams. Bormiff fought back in this match. I thought maybe they could get a point. from it and then Liverpool scored two more goals. You know what? I do have some questions about Tyler Adams. There's kind of questions about Tyler on like

three of Liverpool's four goals. They might be like, I'm not saying he, they're not obvious mistakes, except for the third one, I think. On Liverpool's go-ahead goal, he kind of should have been covering the dude that scored.

That was Keaza that scored the goal. I forgot about that. I knew there was a reason I should remember who the goal score was. It was Keiza back scoring goals once again, this time for Liverpool. But yeah, he's, he's like directly to the right of Tyler Adams with nobody marking him. And Tyler probably should have recognized that he was there. I would almost say, like, definitely recognize he was there and get to him. Okay. All right. Three more players that I want to get through. So moving to the champo, Hodgia got an assist midweek, scored a penalty on the weekend, big comeback for Coventry over Darby County.

My favorite part of this is him blowing a kiss at the Darby County fans behind the goal after his penalty and just listening to hilarious, like a surge of approbation from everybody behind the goal. Like they're just coming at him with the middle finger. I would have loved to hear what they were saying. Or would I? I'm not sure. Otherwise, a pretty quiet outing from him. Got a couple shots off.

Went out people from wide. Not too dangerous. Real quick, though. He is playing like real striker for Coventry right now. Well, is he? He is. He's doing a lot more tussling with centerbacks. I mean, they're hitting long balls to him.

He's fighting for headers. He's chesting the ball down, doing stuff. Like, he's actually doing more of it than I've seen him do before. looks willing to actually do it right now. And so that's an interesting little development. Well, he's written in Penn for September then because we're not, because Posh doesn't like Sargent. Big Pat.

What are we going to say, Meg? Just I think it's interesting. There's so many strikers in the championship this season. It feels like an enormous number of the players in the potential pool are there suddenly. We're still in Sergeant and Hodgie's case. But yeah, it definitely is. interesting to see. I mean, I thought Potsch that was there to watch Johnny this past weekend, wasn't he? I think. So it's interesting. Like you mentioned Sargent with some of these guys.

You wonder what Potch does think of them. How much of a chance? Where is Haji in his depth chart? Is Sargent completely off? Is playing well in the championship good enough? You know, I wonder what he's thinking because Johnny, you know, he's never like Sergeant performed really or translated his. club performances. Right. But maybe he hasn't been ruled out just yet. We'll see. But yeah, it'll be striker season, all season in the championship, it seems.

I, for the record, I do think Potch will probably call up Sergeant for September. This next window? I do. Because he is scoring goals. He called up Brian White, which you could say, well, he wanted to see him. And then he didn't play him basically at all after the. I mean, he played a little bit after the Switzerland game, but he was not trusted by Potch. So I think, and also Pat Ajamong is hurt.

I think we'll get another look at Sergeant here. Not that he's definitely going to be on the World Cup squad, but I think he'll. I don't think Damien played this season. I mean, not the season, but this week, this past week. Also, Damien is not the player sergeant is. I mean, he's got some stuff, but I'd be surprised if we don't get to see Josh next month. Maybe this is the window he breaks his curse. Scores a goal, I think he hasn't scored for the U.S. since 2019.

I would love if, yeah. I'd also be surprised if it's the window where he breaks his curse, too. Well, I mean, it's been six years. Speaking of him, he scored midweek in the EFL Cup. We've got to have a nice stroked, left-footed shot at the near post on a cup back, and then scored another on Saturday, kind of a brave header, like throwing himself at a flicked throw-in, actually.

He's been, you know, low volume in basically every facet of the game for a long time. We're talking like, you know, eight of ten passing is sort of run of the mill for him in a game, one or two shots. But he does the things he does well. The things he does well, he does well. Like, he plays well back to goal, lays the ball off, finds somebody's feet, and then he scores.

So, yeah, I think it'd be crazy if Pach doesn't call him in. But who am I? Do you think that if everyone was healthy? Let me just push us on to the last thing. No, no, I don't think that if everyone's healthy. No. I think just partly because Balagan and Pepe are injured, or at least as a recording time, they are. Ajamang's injured

Brian White sucks Who else is there Haji? Harsh I mean I know he's a human But come on Yeah No sergeant's above him

I think But I know I agree with you I agree with that Yeah He did have We'll never take that That touch away from him Against Switzerland

Where he brought down that 50 yard ball With a little like juggle touch Just for a moment look like a Spaniard or something Morris versus Millwall and it's pretty interesting Aiden

got voted player of the match by the fans in Middlesboro he's a so I said he's hard to pick out he's actually getting easier to pick out because he is so stocky he's a big

he's turning into a big boy yeah I mean I've mentioned that twice well not twice I don't know a few times on this before but his brother plays for Louisville City and that's just the family build

there's some there's some stocky gentleman yeah and it serves him well so he is just a unit out there and he's got just enough quality more than just enough he's got enough quality to make him

pretty effective because he's working on the half turn he's making decisions on the ball in traffic and even if he doesn't make the perfect decision or his turn isn't perfect like you're not getting around him to take the ball from him. He is going to keep the ball, or he's going to take it from you. Just a monster in duels.

18 to 29 in duels against Millwall over the weekend per Y Scout. That is a lot of, that's a lot of duels to get into and a lot of duels to win. And it matches the eye test. Just right, he's in the mix all the time. I feel like you want to say something, Vince. Well, just that I was like a little less impressed. watching this match than like I thought it would be coming into it because I saw the dual numbers and everything people were talking about on discord or whatever and it's not to say he played

bad or anything but it's just like I mean even like compared to like last week's performance you know he had a little bit more razzle dazzle on the ball which yes bells I think you're starting to get ada Morris peeled a little bit you know I was trying to I was trying to work him in last year to talk about him a little bit and you know I did talk about him whatever he was clip notes a lot towards the end of the season once he really started to cook. But yeah, he's pretty unique in the pool for being a midfielder that gets as much passing volume as he does. And, I mean, completes him at a, you know, 90, 95% clip, which when he first got to

Middlesboro, I was on him a little bit for never passing the ball forward. But like, when it started, when it started clicking, like midway through the season last year, that it really never stopped. Like, he's good. Yeah, consider me somewhat pilled. Half a pill, maybe. And it's not all razzle-dazzle, but he doesn't, I would say at first he was like passing it backwards, right?

Passing it sideways or backwards every time he touched it early in his Middlesbrough tenure. Now he'll step on the ball and he'll kind of dribble around, look for something to do, you know. I mean, he looks pretty comfortable and commanding out there, even if the razzle-dazzle wasn't quite what it was a weekend ago. Not for sure. Yeah. All right. And even in like, listener will see in the clip notes,

I mean, even with what I've said, like, you know, there's a couple plays where it's just like, damn. Yeah. And you combine that with like just total, like physical domination. in duels. Well, I'm overstating it a little bit, but he's very good in duels. Meg, anything you wish we were talking about that we haven't talked about yet? No, I think we covered the most pressing topics.

All that's left is what's going to happen to GioRena and other depressing things that we don't need to focus on at the moment. Oh, people are tired of me talking about Giorina. That's for sure. I'm tired of thinking about it. Yeah, we'll just hope for the best and see. Yeah, I'm not going to lie. Even when I asked the question to Doug, when I brought up Qatar last week,

I was like, man, people ain't going to like this. And even I'm a little bit tired of it. I just wanted to know if anybody had any inclinence of anything going on when y'all were on the ground at Qatar. Doug said he didn't have anything. But you know what? Shoot, Meg, you're here. I might as well ask you.

Did you know anything was going on until? It was reported that it went on. No. No. No. I did not. No. We'll keep it at that. Bizarre.

It was bizarre when it came out. Okay. I will say that G.O. and Josh and Joe Scali were always separate from everyone else. That did stick out to me, but. Hmm. Okay. Okay. Just an anecdote. Real quick. It's funny that Josh.

Yeah. Go ahead. Just funny that Josh fits in with those two guys, you know. He seems a little more. I don't know, salt of the earth than them. Did Joe Scali not salt to the earth? Took the words out of my mouth. Is he?

I mean, that, dad, former bartender, who then worked his way up to franchise that bar and open up. Come on, man. I mean, what's more American dream than that? Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. Joe Scali, salt of the earth. I retract.

Um, yeah, before we get out of here, I got a few things. Okay, number one, number one, tan attestment. Okay. Hmm. Started 90. As Leon won against Launce, uh, 1-0. Um, Mattage is out. That's something that got announced this past week.

Amalia. In what sense? Out in what sense? He's left the club. He was, he went somewhere else. So no more than Amalia Matage. It's Tana Testament show. They bought, Leon bought Tyler Morton. Yeah, who is that guy?

Where did he come from? He's the English, English lad. And so that's the double pivot. Tana Testament, Tyler Morton, and then Quarantine Toliso playing in front of him. And so with that, we see early returns, but Tantanetestment has a much larger role in the midfield than he did last year. Like, you know, he's kind of the, kind of the main, the main man, the man, defense, the main defensive midfielder in the team.

And with that, I thought he had a pretty, I thought he had a pretty damn good performance. There's, there's some good, some bad in it. But the defense is turned on. He's, he's turned on to danger. And he is now actually, I mean, I don't want to say, you know what, he's a good defender now. And, and, you know, Bells, we talked about it a lot.

And really, all he had to do was, like, sit up in the gaming chair. You all know the meme I'm talking about. I don't know the meme. You don't know the meme? I don't either. The gaming chair, when it has the little arrow, like, you go from leaning back to sitting up, you know, when you're really in, when you're really in distress and you got to lock in, anyway. People will know it. People will know it.

And, but, you know, we talked about his defense a lot last year. And the thing was for me is that it could turn around like in just one week. All he had to do was like actually like lock in to like being alert on defense. And the turnaround started last season and it's carried over into now where, I mean, in this in this game against launch, I mean, he probably blocked at least at least two shots. I'm thinking it's three shots and then blocked like two or three, four crosses, you know, coming into the box. He was alert on set pieces, which was another thing that kind of played him last season.

He got dunked on a few times. But I'm just happy with what I saw. As a matter of fact, one of the blocks was like basically just evidence of the progress that he's made within these past six months. It was just like, you know, Lonz had the ball in their final third. They're working it around. A guy has the ball like right outside the box. like right by the in line.

And Tanner Testament's like level with the ball. And the guy passes it kind of sideways to the top of the box. And then Tanner Testament has a man that he's marking that is in line with the top of the box, like right kind of close to the D. And as the ball is making this way around, you know, as the ball gets one pass away, you notice that Tanner realizes, hey, I got this guy right here. The ball's getting closer. Let me get ready to go.

and then when the man eventually receives the ball he receives the ball tries to shift it and get a yard uh-uh not working against tanner blocks it out for a corner and it seems like a very simple play but it's one that tanner would not have made at this time at this point last year right um and we're seeing it all come together you know it it's like when he wasn't clued in it's like he kind of looked like a bad athlete because he's like 6-3 and by the time the play's already past him he's like oh I got to run now

and it's like he doesn't have that low set in gravity where he can just turn on a dime you know you got to be keyed in before it happens so that you can have your hips low and ready to go you know when you're that much taller and bigger than everybody you know and yeah this is a lot of what

athleticism looks like in soccer too is being keyed in enough to anticipate and do things with authority, you know, it's easy to mistake the two. Who else you got before we get out of here? I mean, Meg talked about it briefly, but, you know, Johnny, right? Potch there, first game with Athleti, he gets a start. That's huge. They lose.

They lose. They were winning when Johnny comes off. Okay. This is one of the classic, like, you know, good news, bad news, but we don't really care about the bad news because it's not our team. Connor Gallagher and Johnny start the match in the midfield. They get subbed for Koke and the other young Spanish midfielder that they have. And they end up conceding two goals to Espaniel and lose the match.

So nothing but good news for Johnny here to start off the season. And he was, he was all right he was pretty good um there were some you know he did some things like he lost the ball once uh once or twice three times uh his yellow card was kind of because Connor Gallagher got like nutmeg and didn't handle a situation so Johnny came from behind and took the foul but overall for his first half of football and marit did a good job okay is that it good stuff yeah let's be done yeah yeah that's it man hold on real quick before we go meg uh you know the you know the scuff podcast has been traveling across the pond once a year to watch some americans play soccer

I just want to ask. Yeah, yeah, we went to Italy twice. They're telling me we're going back to Italy for a third time, which I'm not against. Incredible. If out of all the places where our Americans play ball, what's your favorite? I haven't seen them in Italy yet. I've been to Italy. I've never, I haven't seen them play in Italy, though.

I'm sure that would be up there. So I feel like that's missing from my perspective of the places. I've been. I really love seeing... Let me help you, Meg. At Dortmund for that Champions League game when I caught him, even though things have obviously gone massively downhill. But that was a cool, that was a cool atmosphere.

And then probably leads, to be honest, even though that kind of combusted at the end of that season, I think seeing Jesse and Tyler. And I didn't see Weston when he was there. But, I mean, that was fun. So probably my favorite experiences. Yeah, I mean, there's others up there. What were you going to say about us? Oh, just that basically the places where Americans are playing right now are Italy, the south of France.

If you have to kind of loosely include Leon in the south of France, I suppose. And then the Netherlands and all those many formerly industrial systems. cities across the great country of England. It's got to be that. I mean, they're all unique and, you know, there's places that are appealing because of the location. Like, Leon is an incredible city. Tim Wea is also in the south of France now as well. So, like, just location-wise, those are great places to be the food.

Yeah, you could do to lose. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, France is not a bad shout. But I mean, I really do love, like, being in random industrial English towns, like Middlesbrown stuff. It's fun. I like the championship as well. It's a very different, you know, I don't, you know, I don't want to sound like, it's different than the Premier League. It's less commercialized and it's, you know, it's unique. It's fun. So, yeah. A championship tour. I wouldn't be mad at it. Think of the opportunities for bizarre fan interactions you could have if you tour your way around Yorkshire. Yeah, I like all those. I like all the options, honestly, but it's just a matter of what's doable.

Get up to Glasgow for an old firm. You could throw that in there if you did the championship. Yeah. Although how, yeah. how do we get tickets to that? Isn't that basically impossible? I harassed, yeah, but I harassed the press officers until they responded and gave me press passes, which you could probably do.

There's a lot of foreign press who go for, you know, ex-player and a range of people with substacks or podcasts or, but yeah, I mean, if you were having, I don't know what it would be like to get tickets if you had a group. Yeah. Definitely worth it, though. Yeah, I've told this story in the podcast before, but when I was like 19, I was in Glasgow and me and my friend from Norway were trying to get tickets to the game. It was the day of the old firm, and we just could not.

People were just laughing at us every, we were willing to pay, you know, an absurd amount of money at the time, like 100 pounds or something for a ticket. No chance. Willing to be ripped off, nothing? Yeah. No chance. But still had an incredible time watching the game in a bar. I mean, I'd never experienced anything like it before, even the intensity miles away from the stadium.

All right, we got to be done. Well, real quick, speaking of a man who played in an old firm, just real quick, we do got to talk about Tim Wales debut with Marseilles, 45 minutes at right back. he was involved in the attack quite a bit didn't really do anything too remarkable he put in some nice crosses but other than that they ended up losing

an extra time in that match I want to say but yeah that's all all right hey Meg thank you so much for bearing with us and doing this what a pleasure yeah thanks for having me it's been fun and thanks everybody for listening check out Meg's substack

I'll put the link in the show notes and we'll see you.