The Unfiltie Awards, 2025 Soccer Predictions, & 2009 Confederations Cup Reflections

Speaker 1 The Intercontinental World Global Championship Tournament Cup.

Speaker 2 Wow. I mean, we need more soccer.

Speaker 1 Who needs more soccer?

Speaker 2 We need more soccer.

Speaker 1 Welcome to Unfiltered Soccer with Landon Donovan and Tim Howard, presented by Volkswagen. Volkswagen has long been a supporter of soccer in America and has proudly been a partner of U.S.

Speaker 1 soccer for the past five years.

Speaker 2 LD, took my daughter to see Hell's Kitchen on Broadway, the Alicia Cubes produced show last night.

Speaker 2 Second time I saw it. When I go to see a show more than once, you know, I love it.
When I first saw it, it was top three for me. I know it's up there with Jersey Boys.

Speaker 2 And then last night, it's moved into the top two.

Speaker 1 I mean,

Speaker 2 amazing.

Speaker 1 Amazing.

Speaker 1 Is Hell's Kitchen because of the area in New York?

Speaker 2 Yeah, it's because of how she grew up and it's actually in that area. But

Speaker 2 yeah, it was a special show. This show,

Speaker 1 did you ever see? Wait, did you ever see Wicked?

Speaker 2 I didn't.

Speaker 1 It's supposed to be good. What about Book of Mormon? Yeah, yeah.
Book of Mormon.

Speaker 2 It's dangerous.

Speaker 1 I think I've watched that like seven times.

Speaker 2 Book of Mormon. Like, people told me it was wild.
I'm like, I can do wild.

Speaker 1 Dude, it's gnarly. And the more you know about the Mormon religion, the better it is.
I dated a girl in high school who was Mormon.

Speaker 2 Fantastic. Maybe that's what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 What do you think of my sweater, bud?

Speaker 1 Look at this.

Speaker 2 It's amazing, by the way.

Speaker 2 Golf clap for it.

Speaker 1 Did you buy it? I asked you if you wanted to.

Speaker 1 Fox gave it to us. It was like a whatever holiday present they gave us.
It's cool. It's got my name on the back, so I can't wear it out, but it's really cool.
I love it.

Speaker 2 Please just spin around. Let me see a little bit of the back.

Speaker 1 All right, I got that.

Speaker 2 It's amazing. It's all stitched and everything.

Speaker 2 We got a great show today. This is going to be fun.
We're going to go a little off kilter,

Speaker 2 rip up the format a little bit, and we're just going to talk about some interesting things about the show so far and things to look ahead as we end the year in football.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it should be fun. Follow us social media at Unfiltered Soccer.
Make sure you subscribe on YouTube.

Speaker 1 Anywhere you get your podcasts apple podcast spotify if you like what we're doing please leave a comment it helps other people find us you can also email us at feedback at unfiltered soccer all right so first thing timmy just a few questions let's go back and forth on this um what so far have you enjoyed about the podcast?

Speaker 2 Well, this is a space that I love. You and I chatted early on in this process.
And we're like, what do we want this to be about? And ultimately, it's about

Speaker 2 talking a load of nonsense and fun and opinions on soccer, but more than anything, interacting with our fans and hearing what fans of soccer and fans of this podcast want to hear. Like the real stuff.

Speaker 2 Like we, we absolutely, the way that media works now, you're getting all the scores and highlights right at your fingertips.

Speaker 2 As soon as you wake up, you roll over, check your phone, check your favorite teams.

Speaker 2 But we can actually use this space and the time to dig into like issues that are on the tip of everybody's tongue and the front of mind. So I've enjoyed that.

Speaker 2 I've enjoyed not always agreeing with you, but with respect,

Speaker 2 always back and forth banter and

Speaker 2 debate, but most importantly, the fans. It's just awesome to hear their feedback.

Speaker 1 I have to say, man, I've been really surprised at the reaction.

Speaker 1 When I was at MLS Cup, there were a lot of, obviously, all soccer people, MLS people, et cetera.

Speaker 1 Almost every single one of them came up unsolicited and just said, hey, I'm loving listening to the podcast. And I'm like, you're listening to this podcast? These are people like in MLS circle.

Speaker 1 I'm like, what the hell you listen? But I guess the reality is, is

Speaker 1 people can't,

Speaker 1 they said to me, we can't go anywhere where people can just give an honest opinion. Sure.
There's so many things they say.

Speaker 1 I'm so glad you said that about him or that team because nobody will say it, but it's so true. Yeah.
Right. And they're saying, so that's been really fun for me.

Speaker 1 I had my buddy that I golf with yesterday. I had no idea.
He said, I'm loving listening to the podcast. And I said, okay, well, give me some feedback.
What do you want to hear more of?

Speaker 1 What do you want to hear less of? He actually said something interesting, and you and I have debated this. He said, I want to hear more stories about

Speaker 1 like, can you guys do an episode on your time at Everton and just everything that happened, how it happened, everything that went down beyond the scenes? So we're taking note of all that, guys.

Speaker 1 Totally. And,

Speaker 1 you know, whatever you guys want to hear, we're going to talk about. So

Speaker 1 it's been really fun.

Speaker 2 I think the other fun part about LD is like, when I think about some topics that we've touched on, but we're going to get more into is, you know, even like systemic issues in the game, right?

Speaker 2 Promotion relegation,

Speaker 2 the building of youth soccer in America, the pros and cons. Like this is what everybody's dealing with.

Speaker 2 These are like high-level soccer fans are dealing with this and moms and dads who have their kids in soccer are dealing with it.

Speaker 2 And it's like, it's really interesting some of these conversations that we're going to be able to get into because they're going to be very, I think, informative.

Speaker 2 And I've talked, as an example, the promotion relegation thing.

Speaker 2 I'm on one side of the argument, but you know what? I've had conversations, as I've mentioned, where I've been talked off that side to the other.

Speaker 2 So like I, it's so complex, but also fun for our listeners as well.

Speaker 1 It's going to be great. It's a new way to help grow the game.
So I think it's been a lot of fun and we'll continue. All right, we're going to start,

Speaker 1 do something a little fun today. The first annual, hopefully not the last annual, the unfilties.
So we got a few categories here. And we will, we'll lay out some nominees.

Speaker 1 You guys feel free to chime in on YouTube, give us your comments on what you think, but we're going to give our opinions and then we'll go from there. So first one,

Speaker 1 your favorite, I think. Best shithousery, best actor, best just deceiving, deception.

Speaker 1 So potential candidates here. Jamie Vardy mocking Spurs fans over Lester's Premier League title.
That was great. If you haven't, if you don't remember that, go back and take a look.

Speaker 1 Holland. Early Holland getting the last word on Mark Kukurea.
You saw that earlier in the year. We have to throw in now a little bit of the Kyle Walker the other day.

Speaker 2 Kyle Walker and Darby.

Speaker 1 Now, there's been a lot of them, and I'm sure we're going to miss some.

Speaker 1 Well,

Speaker 2 that's what you all need to send us in some things we missed or your favorite shithauser moments. Hit us at unfilteredsoccer.com.
Look, for me, if the category is going to be named best shithousery,

Speaker 2 I do think like your name is on the MLS MVP trophy.

Speaker 2 I think Jamie Vardy's name has to be on the trophy because like this guy who I played against, by the way, in the, in the Premier League winning season of 2016, he just drinks Red Bull and is up for a fight.

Speaker 2 Like, that's what he does. His team's down 2-0.

Speaker 1 No problem.

Speaker 2 He's going to run the line. He's going to be nicking balls off.
He's going to go down in the box. Like, he, the fact that he scored

Speaker 2 and then celebrated that, that with Spurs fans and gave him a bit like, I love that. I love that.
And also, by the way, like, it's Jamie Vardy. That's, that's what I expect from him.

Speaker 1 It's just fun to watch him because he's a guy who should never have been where he is. No.
Right. Like, the odds were so stacked against him, and he doesn't care.
He just, he couldn't care.

Speaker 1 And that's the best shit Housery is when you just don't care. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Also, the one I just thought of was when Erling Holland, Erling Holland chucked the ball at the back of,

Speaker 1 was it, was it the Arsenal game?

Speaker 2 It was the Arsenal game. Is it Man Gabrielle or something like that?

Speaker 1 He grabbed the ball out of the net, just threw it at the back.

Speaker 2 I can't figure out Holland. Just can't figure him out.

Speaker 2 He's a machine.

Speaker 1 All right, let's move on to team of the year. Yeah, this one's hard.
Team of the year. All right, here are the candidates, the nominees.
Bayer Leverkusen, people forget.

Speaker 1 They won the Bundesliga, beating out Dortmund, beating out Bayern Munich.

Speaker 1 Spain at the Euros, I was there. They were phenomenal.

Speaker 1 U.S. women winning the Olympics.

Speaker 1 And then Orlando Pride, who would have gone undefeated all year. They rested their starters in one game, but then went on to win the NWSL trophy.
They were phenomenal all year. So, your thoughts?

Speaker 2 Did you cover Spain at the Euros at all?

Speaker 1 No. Yeah,

Speaker 1 many games.

Speaker 2 They were

Speaker 1 scintillating. They were so fun to watch.
They were fun to watch.

Speaker 2 Without massive names,

Speaker 2 big names, but not the traditional.

Speaker 2 I mean, Bayer Leverkusen for me under Chavi Alonso has just been so impressive with the young manager playing progressive football, taking on German footballing giants in Munich and Dortmund and did it unapologetically.

Speaker 2 Look, for me, for me,

Speaker 2 you know, because I get a vote, as I keep saying, it's our show.

Speaker 2 The U.S. women's national team, it went in gold.

Speaker 2 It's so difficult because of the standard that they set.

Speaker 2 If they don't win a gold medal or a World Cup, it's a catastrophe. Literally, the team gets ripped up and questions are asked and manager gets changed.

Speaker 1 That's incredible that that's the standard now, right? It's incredible.

Speaker 2 And whenever I get a chance to speak to some of the women players, just offline, it's like that mentality of always

Speaker 2 number one, going in and having to win. And then, by the way, when you do win, it's like, yeah, that's kind of what you're supposed to do.

Speaker 2 Like, it's almost, it's such a thankless position when you set such a high standard. But for them to do it

Speaker 2 again and again and to kind of rebound, right? Like to get back to the footballing summit, I thought it was, I thought it was awesome. Always exciting to watch them.

Speaker 2 And doesn't, you know, my daughter, who's, you know, as you know, a soccer player and going to play in college next year, like we get an opportunity together together to like cheer this team on and wear the jerseys and go crazy.

Speaker 2 So it's always fun.

Speaker 1 It is. It's remarkable what they've done.
And that's my vote too.

Speaker 1 And I'll tell you why.

Speaker 1 Women's soccer has caught up to the U.S. national team, right? The rest of the world has caught up and in some ways had surpassed it.

Speaker 1 In the last few years, there was a lot of talk internally in in U.S. soccer circles about what are we doing wrong.
Yeah. And Emma Hayes came in.
And by the way, Tim, she had like a couple months

Speaker 1 to prepare the team. Right.

Speaker 1 And we talk about how long it takes new managers. We're looking at Ruben Amarim at United, how long it takes teams to start to play in a certain way.

Speaker 1 And she made hard decisions. She left Alex Morgan off the team.

Speaker 1 And she said, here's my front three. I got a few.

Speaker 1 I got a few reserves that were going to come in and play, but I'm playing the same team seven games in a row, and we're just going for it. And we're six games in a row, seven games in a row.

Speaker 1 We're just going to go for it, and we're just going to to win it. They went for it.
And, and yeah, I mean, you talk about unapologetic with Xavi Alonso. I mean, she just went in, it was her way.

Speaker 1 And now, all of a sudden, she's just grabbed that team. They will do anything for her.
Yep. And now the future looks much brighter.

Speaker 1 And by the way, it wasn't a bunch of 33-year-old women at the end of their career. These are a bunch of young women who are going to be for a long time.
Yeah. Right.
So I thought they were phenomenal.

Speaker 1 Yeah. I thought it was awesome.

Speaker 2 Moving it along, biggest shock of the year. Now, this category is interesting because because there's a couple of things.
Whatever shocks you is fine, winning, losing, that type of thing.

Speaker 2 In the category, we have Manchester City. Take that how you want.
The fact that

Speaker 2 they've won the title last year, last season, and now they're in the position that they're in. Nottingham Forest in fourth place in the Premier League.

Speaker 2 Massive, massive, massive shock. Chelsea in the Premier League, where they are,

Speaker 2 second, chasing a title after just things being upside down for the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 Atlanta knocks off Inner Miami and Messi in the playoffs. First round.

Speaker 1 That blew our mind.

Speaker 2 But blew our mind. No one saw that coming.
Sam Marino, the lowest-ranked FIFA national team, breaks a 20-year losing streak.

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 2 I'm like, I'm reading that. I'm thinking there's a zero when they take the zero.

Speaker 1 I was like, what?

Speaker 2 If it was a two-year losing streak, we'd think it was good. 20-year losing streak

Speaker 2 and a 1-0 win over Liechtenstein. So

Speaker 2 talk to me.

Speaker 1 Well, look, there's a lot of shocks here. I'm just like, I'm still reading this.
20 years

Speaker 1 of losing. 20 years.
Can you imagine? I mean, there's probably guys on that who played there for 12, 14, 16 years,

Speaker 1 20 years of losing. So, San Marino, congrats to you.
You get my

Speaker 1 award for biggest shock here, the first unfilthy for biggest shock. Congrats on winning a game against Liechtenstein, Portland Steiner.
For sure. You take it.

Speaker 2 You have it. Your biggest shock.

Speaker 1 It's all yours.

Speaker 1 All right. Biggest.
We're going to call this biggest red card of the year or biggest fail. So it doesn't have to be a literal red card.
It could be.

Speaker 1 We've got a couple on here. Yeah.
You know, we're trying to rack our brains. How do we define biggest, et cetera? So

Speaker 1 literal red card. Yep.
Tim Weez versus Panama.

Speaker 1 And that because.

Speaker 1 There were a lot of dominoes that fell from that. Obviously, Greg Berhalter gets let go.
Pochetino comes in.

Speaker 1 I always say, Tim, in life, some of the worst things that happen end up being the best thing. Sure, sure.
You learn from them and you grow from them.

Speaker 1 So, I ultimately think that was probably the best thing that could have happened, maybe for Tim Wea personally and for the national team. He learned a lot from it.
He's been in incredible form since.

Speaker 1 Yep.

Speaker 1 The other one we have on here: the Canada drone scandal. And if people don't remember, Canada got found out in the Olympics, women's Olympics, for

Speaker 1 having drones fly over their opponents' field, training field, during training. And

Speaker 1 head coach Bev got let go. John Herdman since from Toronto, who was implicated, I would say, in all of that, got let go from Toronto FC because he was the former men's national team coach for Canada.

Speaker 1 And if you talk to people again, internally, they say

Speaker 1 they've been doing this for years. Yeah.
And

Speaker 1 I guess my first thing is, like, can we just talk about this? What the hell were they thinking? Right. I mean, this is crazy.

Speaker 2 Yeah. Look, the Tim Wea red card, as you said, you know, he's still a young player.
And that's such a big moment. And I know he felt it in a heavy way.
And he's bounced back.

Speaker 2 And it's amazing how quickly you can mature from these things. So

Speaker 2 that's an interesting one. Look, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 The Canada drone scandal,

Speaker 2 it could actually fall in best shithousery. It really could.
I mean, here's what I would say. Here's what I would say.

Speaker 2 There's legalities and lawsuits. I'm going to say, Conca Calf, don't you dare, don't you dare start making scapegoats out of Canada.
They might have done wrong.

Speaker 2 They might have done wrong, but you and I

Speaker 2 have been in Azteca.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we've been in El Salvador. We've been in San Pedro Sula in Honduras.
We've been in Jamaica.

Speaker 2 There's a whole lot of folks at our training match day minus one that ain't supposed to be there.

Speaker 2 And they pretend to have other jobs. around the stadium, but I can assure you there's one job that they have.

Speaker 1 So, so before we go, CONCACAF, before we go picking and choosing who we're going to blame and who we're going to bring scandals upon and yes canada if you if you messed up then shame on you and and you should be dealt with but deal with everybody conquer calf yeah so yeah right so there's the conca calf piece there's the fifa piece right fifa's gonna and fifa same thing goes it holds true for you fifa so but yeah i mean what people don't know is like when we travel anywhere there'll be like some guy in the corner like fixing a brick in the stadium and you're like oh that's great he's here working on a friday before the saturday game and next thing you know he's pulling out a notepad writing stuff down and like in your oh wait what's this guy doing here yeah you're paying your penalties your penalty gets saved the next day yeah exactly and the next day goalie guesses the right way on the penalty i'm like what the hell so there's all kinds of now

Speaker 1 um deception that goes on in day before game trainings you'll put out a different team and pennies you'll put out you'll take penalties definitely take penalties a different way don't do set pieces the same way but canada took it to a whole nother level So for me,

Speaker 1 that's a big red card. You just can't.

Speaker 1 How dumb are you, by the way? It's flying a drone over. Well,

Speaker 1 if no one's going to notice a drone flying over,

Speaker 1 right? So, anyway. All right.
Last one here for the first annual, first annual unfilties.

Speaker 1 Best performance.

Speaker 1 Okay. Best performance.
So we're going to start May 4th, 2024. Take you guys way back about seven months.

Speaker 1 Lionel Messi had a goal, and not one, not two, not three, not four, but five assists for Miami against your New York Red Bulls, Tim.

Speaker 2 Go Metro stars, yeah.

Speaker 1 That's number one. Yep.

Speaker 1 Number two, 16-year-old Lamin Yamal, who I watched at the Euros, had a goal and four assists. A 16-year-old, Tim,

Speaker 1 as a 16-year-old, a goal in four assists. And I wouldn't say led his team, but was a huge part of his team winning the Euros.

Speaker 1 And then finally, Jose Lu scoring in the 88th minute and then again in 90 plus one versus Bayern Munich to send Real Madrid to yet another Champions League final.

Speaker 2 Yeah, look, my take on all these is messy. I mean, just keep doing what you're doing.
Like, there's no surprise there. Like, we're giving you a nomination, but like, also not surprised.

Speaker 2 What I am surprised at, look, the last two blow my socks off. Here's why.

Speaker 1 16 years old.

Speaker 2 Like,

Speaker 1 it was so hard.

Speaker 2 It was so hard for me to compete at the top of my game and to be motivated and not worry about the outcome and not be afraid because I was all of those things at 16.

Speaker 2 Like on the biggest stage to have, I admire these young players. They have just, they just have so much freedom and it's, it's incredible what youth can do.

Speaker 2 So that for me at the European Championships is like one goal for assist for Spain at 16 years old. Pretty amazing.
The Jose Lou one is personal because here's why.

Speaker 2 I didn't know he still played soccer.

Speaker 1 And don't laugh. No, that's not to be disrespectful.

Speaker 2 i knew you were gonna you're a bad guy jose lou i'm a bad guy you said it you're terrible jose lou we he lived in my in my neighborhood in manchester we went to the same uh gym this country club gym spa and he was playing i think for stoke city at the time and he might have either come from or gone to newcastle right and he was like

Speaker 2 at stoke city playing sometimes like that's it right like end of story and so that's not he's a good good player on his day but okay next thing i know probably 10 years go by before I hear his name.

Speaker 2 This pops up, and I'm thinking, I called my mate who was our trainer

Speaker 2 in England, and he was friends with him. And I said, Tom, I just saw a Jose Lou.

Speaker 1 That's not the same one.

Speaker 2 No, a Jose Lou scored for Real Madrid. He went, yeah, expletive, expletive, expletive.
Can you believe it? I'm like, that's not the same person.

Speaker 1 Sure enough, same Jose Lou. That's incredible.

Speaker 2 Maybe he gets the nod.

Speaker 1 All right, he gets your nod. All right, guys.
That will end the first annual unfilties. You guys let us know who should win.
What did we we miss? I'm sure we missed a lot. Let's take a break.

Speaker 1 When we come back, we're going to preview what's to come for soccer in 2025, some predictions, our ideas right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim presented by Volkswagen.

Speaker 2 The Unfiltered Soccer podcast is brought to you by Volkswagen. the presenting partner of U.S.
Soccer.

Speaker 1 As the U.S. gets ready to host the world for soccer's biggest moment, Volkswagen is helping people discover new turfs and new ways to play the beautiful game right here in the U.S.

Speaker 2 From deaf and power wheelchair soccer to beach and futsal, VW is actively supporting all the communities and teams within the U.S. soccer ecosystem.
They're working with talent from across the U.S.

Speaker 2 soccer extended national teams and are focused on helping to give these less widely known forms of soccer a platform moving forward.

Speaker 1 As a longtime friend of Volkswagen, I can tell you they're really making a difference, opening up new turfs and new possibilities here in the U.S.

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Speaker 2 LD, this is going to be a little bit of fun or a lot of bit of fun. 2025 preview segment, right?

Speaker 2 So we're going to have a couple headlines, which are real, and then we're going to have some fake headlines, which we're going to have a ton of fun with.

Speaker 2 And we hope that you... listeners do too.
But

Speaker 2 the real part, this could be the last year of the February to October MLS schedule.

Speaker 1 Oh, boy.

Speaker 2 I think I'm in favor of it. I do.
I mean,

Speaker 2 I think it poses challenges, right? Geographically and with the weather, it's just, I think it'll be, there'll be some places where you're just going to have to accept that that's the norm.

Speaker 2 But ultimately, it favors us as a whole in America to be on the FIFA schedule.

Speaker 1 Yeah, so there's, there's a few things to unpack here. So Garber has hinted at it.
Commissioner Don Garber has hinted at it. I know internally the league has been looking at this very seriously.

Speaker 1 Currently, there are so many challenges with the way the schedule is, right? So one,

Speaker 1 in the latter part of the season, you're going up head to head with the NFL, which is a nightmare for every sport. Anybody talking sports in this country knows that that is the biggest disaster.

Speaker 1 So the challenges are the weather. I think that's the biggest challenge.
Every time I talk to someone at MLS, they say it's the weather, right?

Speaker 1 The weather is the challenge in january february december even march whatever totally but i said this previously on our podcast i think the league is mature enough now where if it's

Speaker 1 where if it's you know 31 degrees or 26 degrees or 12 degrees in kansas city or toronto whatever people are still going to come out and support the team i mean look people have been coming out to dallas and houston at 103 degrees with humidity and dc and kansas city and everywhere chicago in the summer so I don't see that being that much different.

Speaker 1 I like it

Speaker 1 mostly for the players because it's really hard to coordinate international breaks with the way the MLS schedule is now. And it just, it would streamline everything.
So I'd be curious.

Speaker 1 I'm sure they've done

Speaker 1 a study to monitor the fiscal impact and how much it's going to impact the league in that way, but I'm for it and I think it'd be great.

Speaker 2 So the other thing, the other thing that I think it does is the American sports fan is so resilient, right?

Speaker 2 That like it will, it will then start to, they'll then start to believe that they have an actual home field advantage, right? Because you're like, oh, don't want to go to Minnesota

Speaker 2 in December, right? And then people will, it's like when we played with the national team and we brought Mexico up to Columbus, people like started to really engage that.

Speaker 2 And look, the fact of the matter is, geographically, I've never, ever, ever understood why more teams don't build their clubs around the weather what do i mean you shouldn't be losing at home in denver you shouldn't be losing at home in texas now you're going to lose at home you shouldn't be losing at home in toro you know toronto and minnesota and montreal in the winter months like these right you should build these teams to be resilient to the weather that way you automatically gain this horrific home field advantage so um yeah i i think i think it'll be a good thing what happens in the nfl right i mean miami dolphins go play in green bay and they just like

Speaker 1 can't handle it right and they can't deal with it and it's a big advantage. So

Speaker 1 the TFG takeover at our former club, Everton, I believe is now final.

Speaker 1 I hope, you know, I'm like cautiously optimistic, Tim, because we've talked about this. The grass isn't always greener.
And when Everton were a mid-table club,

Speaker 1 top eight, top seven, top six club, the fans wanted more and more. And we need to spend money and we need to spend, okay, so bring in new ownership, spend more money, and now look wherever Tenars.

Speaker 1 So, cautiously optimistic, but

Speaker 1 what are your thoughts?

Speaker 1 Well, look,

Speaker 2 this has needed to happen for a while, right?

Speaker 2 TF, TFG has

Speaker 2 a task on its hands to rebuild the club kind of from the inside out. And what I would say is

Speaker 2 anytime you get a takeover because of how

Speaker 2 Premier League fans, English fans consume the game, it's like mana from heaven. It's like, okay,

Speaker 2 you're going to get a runway of like, they're here to do good. Let's go.

Speaker 1 Now, that's a short runway, right?

Speaker 2 Because ultimately, what we know about fans, particularly in the UK, is

Speaker 1 if

Speaker 2 they have a bag full of excuses and gripes. Let's call them gripes, not excuses, right?

Speaker 2 If you're winning, those gripes stay in the bag.

Speaker 2 If you're losing, then it becomes about the stadium needs to be redone. We need a new manager, right? So, as long as you're winning, now that seems simplistic.
What happened with Moshiri, and

Speaker 2 I was part of the team when that transition of power happened from Bill Kenrick, God rest his soul, to Farhad Moshiri. And everybody at the time, and I say this because I was part of that culture.

Speaker 2 It was

Speaker 2 sell the damn club, Bill. Sell the damn club.
And Bill kept saying,

Speaker 2 Yeah, I don't want to sell to just anybody because I love this club, right? And it's always about dollars. We get that.
So he sells, right, to an ultra-rich billionaire.

Speaker 2 And everybody at Everton was going, yeah.

Speaker 2 Fast forward eight years later, seven managers later, three directors of football later, fines and sanctions because

Speaker 2 the money that was that they demanded be spent was spent and it was spent irresponsibly, right? So

Speaker 2 new ownership.

Speaker 2 They've got to build the trust of the of the supporters. They get the new stadium involved in the deal and the package to transition the team from Goodison Park to Bramley Moore Dock.
So

Speaker 2 that's good. What I look at, and United are starting to get it right.
Look, Manchester United, everybody's got something to say about them. They're on the tip of everybody's tongue.

Speaker 2 But INEOS is creating this. this hierarchy from the top down, from Sir Jim Radcliffe and Brailsford down.
And I know

Speaker 2 they brought in Omar Barada from Man City and they just fired or let go of Dan Ashworth. But the fact of the matter is they're building a sustainable structure between ownership and

Speaker 2 the playing staff. So they have their work cut out for them.
I think Sean Dych's contract is up at the end of the season.

Speaker 2 I don't think they'll retain him, not because I don't like him, and I think he's a really good football manager.

Speaker 2 And what he did, and you know this over the last three years to steer this football club to safety

Speaker 2 has been a football genius because look, they were under sanctions. They got fined.
They sat to sell some of their better players.

Speaker 1 They they couldn't bring players in. They got to get points.
Right.

Speaker 2 Got that point. They have, you know, they have probably three

Speaker 2 top players and he got them to buy in.

Speaker 2 So like, yeah, Landon, I think, I think their work is cut out for them, but it's sunnier days, certainly from where this club has been over the last couple of years.

Speaker 1 Well, let's hope. Let's hope it turns around.

Speaker 1 Club we obviously both love dearly. And you spent a lot more time than I did, but I think our feelings for it are very similar.
So totally. All right, let's move into, this is fun.

Speaker 1 We are going to do fake headlines. So, these are going to be fake future headlines.

Speaker 1 What I'm going to do, Tim, I'm going to run through each one, and I want you to tell me then yes or no, if you think this headline is going to hold up, and you tell me why, and then I'll give you my thoughts.

Speaker 1 Okay, okay. First fake headline will be in May of 2025, and it will say, Chelsea have won the English Premier League.
Yes or no?

Speaker 2 Not as fake as one might think.

Speaker 1 There's no levels of fakeness that are fake. There's lots of levels of fakeness in this world.
No, I think that

Speaker 2 I think it could happen.

Speaker 2 I still wouldn't put them as my favorites, but I like them. And I think that

Speaker 2 not a terribly fake headline.

Speaker 1 Okay. Now, would you say they are the most likely to challenge Liverpool? Obviously, right now, a few points.
Okay. Yeah.

Speaker 2 Easy to say now, but they're not showing us any signs signs that they're, that it's, that it's fake. So yeah.

Speaker 1 I really, really want to go out on limb here and say it's a real headline. Um, I just think they're just a little young and immature.

Speaker 1 If this was a year or two from now, I'd say I think they could do it. Um, it's a fake headline, but we'll see.
Maybe it'll be real.

Speaker 2 We'll see.

Speaker 1 All right. Next one I got for you.

Speaker 1 FIFA announces

Speaker 1 another FIFA tournament.

Speaker 2 Amazing.

Speaker 1 It is called the Intercontinental World Global Championship Tournament Cup. Do you think this will happen?

Speaker 2 Wow.

Speaker 2 Wow. Another FIFA tournament.
The Intercontinental World Global Championship Tournament Cup.

Speaker 1 Yes, winners. They were citing lack of funds at FIFA.
They needed to bring in more money. That's the reason they've

Speaker 2 here's the thing. That is

Speaker 2 the wildest headline ever. Other than the fact that,

Speaker 2 I mean, we need more soccer.

Speaker 1 Who needs more soccer? We need more soccer. Players don't need more soccer.

Speaker 1 Oh, my God. No.
Massively fake. FIFA.
All right.

Speaker 1 Forget the name. I love the name.
Brilliant name we came up with.

Speaker 1 Is there a chance that FIFA somehow comes up with yet another tournament?

Speaker 1 No, you know, we said no two years ago. Yes, yes, yes.
Because Nations League. Yeah, yeah.
Love World Cup expanded. I mean, who the hell is, right?

Speaker 2 Other than the fact that I can't imagine there being another competition, but I didn't think there'd be another competition a couple years ago.

Speaker 1 The National League would exist.

Speaker 2 No, I'm glad it does, to be fair, but I know.

Speaker 1 I know. Slightly.
It did away with all the friendlies. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 1 Last one. Yep.
U.S. men's national team.
Fake headline. I believe I'm just going to say it right now.
This will be a real headline.

Speaker 2 Yep.

Speaker 1 USA wins the Nations League and Gold Cup double. Yes or no?

Speaker 2 Not a fake headline. The U.S.

Speaker 2 need, U.S. men need to win the Nations League and the Gold Cup double.

Speaker 1 They need it for morale.

Speaker 2 They need it for confidence.

Speaker 2 They need it because, let me go on the other side of glory.

Speaker 2 They need to get to

Speaker 2 semifinals and finals of tournaments together in big moments to know what that feels like. Because again, we were beating this horse.
There is no World Cup qualifying.

Speaker 2 They need to be in those moments where it hurt, where that sour feeling in your belly when you wake up because something is on the line that day and your whole group needs to feel it.

Speaker 2 And there's not enough of those moments. I mean, when we were playing, it wasn't enough of those moments.

Speaker 2 And so I think if you look at the headline of them winning both the Nations League and the Gold Cup, that means they will have gotten to those moments and surpassed them.

Speaker 2 And so, uh, and I think this team can do it under Marcia Pacutino. So, yeah, I'm excited for that.

Speaker 1 I think they will too. All right.
You guys let us know. Will Chelsea win the Premier League? Will FIFA announce another tournament this year?

Speaker 1 And will the national team win the Nations League and Gold Cup double? You guys let us know. All right, we're going to take a break.

Speaker 1 When we come back, last segment of 2024, we're going to face off in a little bit of trivia that Jordan has for us. We have no idea what she's going to ask.
I'm kind of scared.

Speaker 1 And then we're going to get into quite a few mailbag questions.

Speaker 1 You guys have left a lot lately, so we're going to try to answer your questions right here on Unfiltered Soccer with Landon and Tim, presented by Volta.

Speaker 1 This episode is brought to you by Airbnb.

Speaker 1 All right, Tim, between your work, your daughter, your son, or maybe just your own enjoyment, how much traveling do you think you've done to see soccer this year?

Speaker 2 Honestly, I've lost track at this point.

Speaker 2 You know, just this summer alone, I was all over the place.

Speaker 2 But it is, it's a beautiful thing to see see how many soccer fans and how soccer has been embraced no matter where we go.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I mean, I was just in Austin. I'll be traveling to New York.
Everywhere I go, I meet fans. Whether I'm going to see a game myself or just on vacation, I see people everywhere.
I hear stories.

Speaker 1 I hear stories about their pilgrimage to Everton to go watch a game, to go see the new stadium, to go see their favorite team. They get immersed in the chants, the songs, that incredible feeling.

Speaker 1 of seeing the game up close and personal.

Speaker 2 Well, I mean, I think that's what that's where the game has changed. These trips have become a big deal for soccer fans.

Speaker 2 And this summer is going to be no different as we'll see the soccer community make their way to 11 host cities here in the U.S. to support their favorite national team.

Speaker 1 That's going to be incredible. I can't wait for it.
And what if those fans could turn their homes into an opportunity while they're away at the game?

Speaker 1 Hosting your home on Airbnb while you travel is an easy way to earn a little bit of extra cash, maybe go towards tickets for your game that you want to go to. We know they're not cheap.

Speaker 1 Or maybe to help your kids pursue their soccer dreams.

Speaker 2 Yeah, your home might be worth more than you think. So find out how much at airbnb.com slash host.

Speaker 2 LD for me, the holidays are all about connection to family and to friends. We host a lot.
So we got a lot of people over the house.

Speaker 2 Oftentimes, when it starts to get chaotic and the turkey or the ham's getting burnt and the kids are running around playing with their new toys, I go out back by the fire pit and I choose chill.

Speaker 2 I crack open a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's my favorite time of year. It gets cold,

Speaker 1 not quite as cold as New York, but it's cold outside. It gets dark early.
Kids are playing. We turn on the jacuzzi, relax in the hot tub with a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Choose chill, relax, have family, friends, good food, good memories. My favorite time of year.

Speaker 2 When you embrace a chill mindset this holiday, it's a good time to choose chill and crack open a Coors Light.

Speaker 1 Choose chill this holiday season and then reach for a Coors Light. Get Coors Light delivered straight to your door.

Speaker 1 Visit CoorsLight.com slash USLNT, or you can find it pretty much anywhere that sells beer.

Speaker 2 Celebrate responsibly. Hoors Brewing Company, Golden, Colorado.
There's nothing better than feeling like someone has your back and that things are going to get done even without you having to ask.

Speaker 2 Like your crisp new jersey waiting for you in the locker room or a perfectly set up wall for a free kick.

Speaker 1 Yeah, as we on Unfiltered Soccer get ready for next summer, we know that very little in the beautiful game is guaranteed.

Speaker 1 But as we prepare to bring our unfiltered brand of non-stop soccer coverage, it's good to know ATT has your back with the ATT guarantee.

Speaker 2 Staying connected matters. That's why in the rare event of a network outage, ATT will proactively credit you for a full day of service.
That's the ATT guarantee.

Speaker 1 Learn more at ATT.com/slash guarantee. ATT, connecting changes everything.

Speaker 2 Credit for fiber downtime lasting 20 minutes or more, or a wireless downtime lasting 60 minutes or more, caused by a single incident impacting 10 or more towers, must be connected to impacted towers at onset of outage.

Speaker 2 Restrictions and exclusions apply. See ATT.com/slash guarantee for full details.

Speaker 2 Yeah, we are back. Listen, Landon, this is everyone.
This is what we're hearing. Everyone's favorite time of the week when Jordan, our wonderful producer, joins us for mailbag questions.

Speaker 2 But first, today,

Speaker 2 because it's the holidays, we have a trivia game.

Speaker 1 Jordan, I love trivia.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I'm good at trivia, by the way. I'm just throwing it off.

Speaker 1 Bring it. I love trivia.
I love trivia.

Speaker 2 Where's your Houston dash at? Let me see.

Speaker 3 Is it have you sent it to me?

Speaker 2 Because I'm certain. I'm certain it's on Santa's Lei.

Speaker 1 I'm certain. Yeah, okay.

Speaker 1 Just saying.

Speaker 2 All right, we'll get that up in the new year.

Speaker 3 So, the trivia I have put together is actually unfiltered soccer trivia.

Speaker 1 So, this is trivia from our episodes.

Speaker 3 Yes,

Speaker 1 okay. So,

Speaker 3 you guys recorded the show.

Speaker 1 You should probably

Speaker 1 try to forget it. All right.
All right. Are you ready?

Speaker 1 Always.

Speaker 2 Do we have a buzzer? Do we have buzzers? Do we have like we have bells?

Speaker 1 How are we ringing in?

Speaker 1 Go.

Speaker 3 I mean, you should just jump in with the answer.

Speaker 1 No, we didn't think through this very long.

Speaker 1 It's just like, whatever. All right, here we go.

Speaker 3 Okay. In our first ever episode, which two MLS coaches did you mention?

Speaker 1 I can'h and Bruce Rina.

Speaker 3 You're half right.

Speaker 1 I'm going to say,

Speaker 1 when was our first episode?

Speaker 3 It was a million years ago.

Speaker 1 It felt so long ago. I'm going to say...
Definitely Greg Berholter, by the way. Definitely.

Speaker 2 Don't look to her for answers.

Speaker 1 I'm going to say

Speaker 1 Tata Martino and Bruce Serena.

Speaker 3 Okay, so you're both half right.

Speaker 1 Tata Martinino. We talked about

Speaker 1 Bruce Arena and Jim Curtin. Oh, Jim.
Jim Curtin.

Speaker 3 Laynan was so mad.

Speaker 1 Right, because he got fired.

Speaker 2 He got fired. Yeah.

Speaker 1 All right. All right.
It's hard. Okay.
God, out of sight, out of mind, huh?

Speaker 3 So you guys have half a point apiece.

Speaker 1 How's that? All right, here we go. Okay.

Speaker 3 On Monday, December 2nd, which is when we recorded an episode, who were the top three EPL teams in order and why?

Speaker 1 That's the worst question ever. I know.
Oh, I know. I know.
I know. I know.
Go. Come on.
Liverpool. Yep.

Speaker 1 Arsenal, Chelsea, and Arsenal were ahead based on alphabetical order.

Speaker 3 That's right. My guy's got a guy.

Speaker 1 That's my guy. That's my guy.

Speaker 1 Yeah. Proud of you.

Speaker 2 Sometimes you carry us, and most of the time I carry us.

Speaker 1 It's fine. Sometimes this big forehead carries a lot of knowledge.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 Next question.

Speaker 3 This one's really hard. I don't know if you're going to get this one, but maybe.
Maybe. In what year did N.L.

Speaker 3 Jackson write that all players taking part in England in future international matches be presented with a white silk cap with red roses embroidered on the front, and these will be termed international caps.

Speaker 1 What a guy he was, huh?

Speaker 2 Okay,

Speaker 2 1800s or 1900s?

Speaker 1 18, yep. It was 18s.
1883. I'm saying 1897.

Speaker 3 Okay, so Tim's actually closer. It was 1886.

Speaker 1 But he doesn't get a point. Half a point.
No points. No, you don't get a point.
No, you don't.

Speaker 3 No points.

Speaker 1 No. 1886.

Speaker 3 86. Yep.

Speaker 1 All right. I'm up one and a half to half

Speaker 1 for those keeping track.

Speaker 3 What made Marta's experience in the NWSL championship?

Speaker 2 Her mom coming to the game for the first time in America. Boom.
You weren't going to, I just rung in. It doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 Yes, her mother came to the game

Speaker 2 for the first time ever.

Speaker 2 Come to America from Brazil. Amazing, amazing story.

Speaker 1 Okay.

Speaker 3 How many English players pulled out of appearing for their national team in November, igniting the ire of Captain Harry Kane?

Speaker 2 Nine.

Speaker 1 I was going to say eight or nine.

Speaker 3 Wow, Tim.

Speaker 1 I told you I'm

Speaker 1 going to trip you. That's what I was going to say now.

Speaker 3 All right, Landon. Come on.
This is the last one. Oh, dude, you're getting house crap.

Speaker 1 I'm still winning one and a half

Speaker 3 to two and a half? Yeah.

Speaker 1 Okay. Oh, God.

Speaker 3 All right, Landon, I know you know the answer to this question.

Speaker 1 You need it. You need this.
Okay.

Speaker 3 How many episodes of this show mention Ricky Pooge?

Speaker 2 Jesus.

Speaker 1 Three. That's a really good question.

Speaker 2 Three is my answer.

Speaker 1 Three is wrong. I don't like the answer.

Speaker 1 Come on, Landon. See, I just helped you.
I'm going to say two.

Speaker 1 Five.

Speaker 2 Oh, my God. That's too many.

Speaker 1 It's too many.

Speaker 3 The only time you have not mentioned Ricky Pooch, because we just did now, was last week. Oh, you know.

Speaker 2 I'm an investor in the Houston Dynamo and Dash, and I'm going to speak to our bosses because this is completely slanted towards Galaxy. And you've done something in your contract five times.

Speaker 1 Hey, listen, pal. If you want your players' names mentioned, then win some trouble.

Speaker 2 Next episode is all about Houston.

Speaker 3 I mean, I think we're going to have to do that since Tim technically did win two and a half to one and a half points in our trivia game. So good job, Tim.

Speaker 3 All right, let's do some mailbag questions.

Speaker 1 How about that? Congrats, Tim.

Speaker 2 Thanks, brother.

Speaker 1 Five. Wow, five? It's you.
It's you.

Speaker 2 It's you.

Speaker 2 Not the podcast.

Speaker 1 How many times has it landed? That's ridiculous. Okay, go ahead, JR.

Speaker 3 Okay.

Speaker 3 Here's a question from Xavier via email. As a professional athlete, how do you limit distractions from the media, rival opponents, as well as potentially harming relationships off the field?

Speaker 1 Wait, say the first part again.

Speaker 1 How do we know, or when we were playing, or does it mean that?

Speaker 3 I think he means as a like when you were playing.

Speaker 3 So, as a professional athlete, how do you limit distractions from the media, rival opponents, and potentially letting it impact your relationships off the field? Yeah.

Speaker 2 It's a brilliant question. You know, the answer to it is this:

Speaker 2 I don't think you can be great or chase greatness or have

Speaker 2 be considered amongst the elite as an athlete if you don't sacrifice everything.

Speaker 2 I miss weddings and funerals and birthdays.

Speaker 2 I closed off from everybody on the outside world. By the way, I'm not saying this is always healthy and I'm not saying it's always good.

Speaker 2 I needed to get to a level, and I've experienced this with other players around me where

Speaker 2 you just create this bubble around yourself. You let very few people in.

Speaker 2 Performance-wise, you have to go to these

Speaker 2 incredibly dark rooms in your mind to get yourself focused, to block all the other nonsense out that says you aren't good.

Speaker 2 There's a lot of takers out there, right?

Speaker 2 And people fall victim to that because ultimately, with what I'm saying, and I know Landon agrees, is you isolate yourself to make those performances happen day in, day out, but then you're lonely.

Speaker 2 And so you you search for people to come to, maybe you buy, you go to the nightclub and you buy them bottles of alcohol or you bring them on shopping sprees with you, you bring them on vacation.

Speaker 2 We see that all the time. And it's just simply to bring someone close to you.
And those people are usually leeches. And so it is so hard.
It's so hard.

Speaker 2 But again, you have for me, I had to, I had to sacrifice everything. I'm not always proud of that, but certainly proud of the career.

Speaker 1 Yep, same. And yeah, to get to the top, that's just part of it.
The media part's interesting. Like Tim and I played in a time where social media wasn't as prevalent.
Thank God.

Speaker 1 Because

Speaker 1 now

Speaker 1 anything you say or do is under crazy microscope.

Speaker 1 And so, and you're also just, if you, you could sit on, I could sit on Twitter today and read hours and hours and hours of people telling me how crappy this show is or how, you know, big my forehead is or how it could just go on and on and on.

Speaker 1 And so fortunately, we didn't have that, but you have to find a way.

Speaker 1 And hopefully it happens quickly for young players now to just either stop reading it or just you can read it and almost just laugh at it because you actually just feel compassion for these losers sitting in their basement like typing things on Twitter.

Speaker 2 Yeah. And I also think to add to that, Jordan and Landon, look, I mean, the question is brilliant.

Speaker 2 When it comes to, you know, I put a lot of onus on and blame and responsibility on the on the agents for not protecting some of these young players, on the clubs.

Speaker 2 Now the clubs are doing a better job in terms of bringing in welfare officers and making sure that

Speaker 2 they have people, men and women around the team, first team and academy players who are looking out for their welfare on and off the pitch. So that's helped.

Speaker 2 But look, for me, the social media aspect is difficult and a lot of players fall victim to it, LD. And the fact of the matter is, I've always believed

Speaker 2 someone buys a ticket and someone watches a game and that's what they get. They get a 90-minute experience.
You give everything you have. And if on a certain day it's good enough, great.

Speaker 2 And And if on a certain day it isn't, okay.

Speaker 2 But the amount of times that these athletes feel compelled to explain themselves and explain performances, like they have to learn to let things live where it's going to be.

Speaker 2 When they say something, as long as it's thought out and maybe fact-checked with their agent or their manager or their best friend that they trust, let it live out there.

Speaker 2 Like this, this constant internet social media battle isn't healthy for players.

Speaker 3 Very strong answers.

Speaker 3 This one's from Johnny via email. What are some of your favorite books about the game?

Speaker 1 Oh, good question, Johnny. Tim doesn't read, so it's going to be tough for him.
Look at those glasses. Come on.

Speaker 2 Got lots of books.

Speaker 1 He's got his books. Did you write a book? You haven't read a book? He has his Volkswagen.
Oh, yeah, you read a book, or you wrote a book.

Speaker 1 I'm in the process.

Speaker 1 This show is going to feature heavily.

Speaker 2 I can write the foreword if you, if there's enough coin involved.

Speaker 1 Keep going.

Speaker 1 I like a lot. I don't know if you read Soccer Nomics.
That was interesting.

Speaker 1 I have read a lot of biographies or autobiographies, including Tim's.

Speaker 1 I'm trying to think what would be my favorite. Do you have a favorite?

Speaker 2 Yeah, The Keeper by Tim Howard. Still on shelves.

Speaker 2 You can get it by Christmas Eve if you like.

Speaker 1 Did you all set this up, by the way, Jordan? Did he tell you to? Listen, listen.

Speaker 2 I'll be honest. The book I wrote is great.
If you have trouble sleeping, sleeping, if you tuck into chapter one about 10 o'clock, it'll put your right to sleep.

Speaker 1 My favorite book was

Speaker 2 Roy Keene's autobiography, and I think he wrote two.

Speaker 2 But

Speaker 2 he's one of the most fascinating, amazing human beings I've ever been around, one of the greatest players, top three that I've ever played with. I mean, I think the world of him on and off the pitch.

Speaker 2 And

Speaker 2 I remember having his book, and

Speaker 2 I was in the Man United dress room. I was a kid.
I was what the years I was there, I was like 23 to 25 or something like that, 26.

Speaker 2 And I remember, I think he joked about having like boxes of his books still like in his car, in the trunk of his car. And I remember saying, like, Kino, Kino,

Speaker 2 can I have a book, please? You know, and he's like, he brought me the book in the next day. And I was like,

Speaker 1 could you sign it?

Speaker 1 He's like, to you?

Speaker 2 I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, to me, to me. So he signed it.
But anyway, in that book, he talks about,

Speaker 2 it's one of the craziest, greatest stories that I, football stories, is when he tore his cruciate ligament, making a run in the penalty area, and Alfie Holland, Erland Holland's father at the time, stood over him and told him to get up and told him that he was faking.

Speaker 2 And a lot of people won't agree with this or think it's okay.

Speaker 2 And maybe I don't either, other than the fact that

Speaker 2 it speaks to who Roy Keene is as a person. He spent a year, you know, eight months to a year rehabbing a cruciate ligament and he comes back and most of the time for all

Speaker 2 most players and human beings that the anger towards an individual would subside right and

Speaker 2 you want to get back on the pitch and roy lined uh alfie holland up and snapped his leg and

Speaker 2 looked at looked at him stood over him and said some things that maybe alfie holland said to roy a year before and he took his armband off accepted the red card and he walked off the pitch and whether we like that or not we're not teaching teaching you to be over aggressive and snap people's legs but the fact of the matter was

Speaker 2 he's different. And I love the fact that I play with him and have the book.

Speaker 1 Great book.

Speaker 1 The book actually, yeah, that's a crazy story.

Speaker 1 The book I'm reading right now is

Speaker 1 Rest His Soul, Grant Wall's book. And it's not a soccer book, but there are a lot of soccer stories.

Speaker 1 So it's a lot of his stories, or it's all of his stories that he wrote and a lot of soccer stories in there that are really good. So that's what I'm reading right now.

Speaker 3 Nobody asked me my opinion, but Johnny, if you want them, just email feedback at unfilteredsoccer.com.

Speaker 1 I want your opinion.

Speaker 2 My list. No, no, no.
What do you read? Keeper?

Speaker 1 What?

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 3 No, because nobody sent it to me yet. So I don't

Speaker 3 have to.

Speaker 2 You got a book and a hat coming. What's your favorite? You read a lot of soccer books in general.

Speaker 3 I really like soccer books that are about like culture and society and how football kind of impacts all of that. So stuff like how soccer explains the world.

Speaker 1 I think Franklin Foer, right, is the guy.

Speaker 3 Or Football Against the Enemy by Simon Cooper, like those kind of things. Um, but also, like, the first soccer book I ever read was um

Speaker 1 Fever Pitch, right?

Speaker 1 Nick Hornby.

Speaker 3 Like, it's just people have seen the movie and think it's like a fiction thing. It's like a bunch of essays about how much he loves Arsenal.

Speaker 3 And who doesn't like to just listen to stories about how much somebody loves their football club?

Speaker 1 So, totally. Well, not Arsenal, but yeah, okay.
No, not

Speaker 3 okay.

Speaker 3 So, this is Evan on YouTube. What made you guys want to start a podcast together?

Speaker 1 We've talked about a little bit, certainly offline, but

Speaker 1 we wanted to get into this arena for a while. We've both, I'll speak for both of us, we've both had many offers from people to try to

Speaker 1 get us involved in this world.

Speaker 1 We're both selective about things we do. And we both care about the product we put out.
I think that was exhibited in our careers. And so

Speaker 1 we have the same agents, same agency, different agents that we've both had for a long time. And it all kind of came together quickly.
Would you be interested in Landon? Yes.

Speaker 1 Would you be interested in Tim? Yes. And we kind of talked through structure, format.

Speaker 1 You guys were involved in the process, Sinclair, and it just felt right. And I guess that's the simplest answer for me.
It felt right in the right timing

Speaker 1 leading into the World Cup in 26, giving people a place where they can ask questions like this and get really honest feedback in a way that they haven't before. Yeah.
I mean,

Speaker 2 I think the easy answer is this space is really

Speaker 2 an awesome space to be in.

Speaker 2 It allows for freedom of

Speaker 2 kind of connectivity and expression. And I think when it more than anything, Podcasts allow you to build a community, right? And this is what we're doing.

Speaker 2 It allows you to kind of have this steady stream every single week and a touch point for us with each other and our listeners, but for our listeners and viewers back to us as well, right?

Speaker 2 And there's this constant communication and collaboration. And,

Speaker 2 you know,

Speaker 2 when it comes to talking soccer,

Speaker 2 it's what everybody wants to do. And we're very fortunate to be a part of that.
Also, you know, the logistics are There's a lot of podcasts out there that aren't done very well.

Speaker 2 And being a part of a good team is something landon and i have always hung our hat on on and off the field and so when sinclair came and said that they have the right formula to create a successful podcast and they wanted landon and i um you know the relationship between between the three groups just seemed to mesh so yeah but most importantly it's community it's the society we're you know as we build this thing the unfiltered soccer community is going to be the largest in America and we're going to have the loudest voice.

Speaker 2 And so we're just happy to take that journey with you.

Speaker 3 I am really uncomfortable with how warm and fuzzy I'm feeling. So I'm going to move on to another question now.

Speaker 1 You're welcome. Again, I hate it.

Speaker 1 So this one,

Speaker 3 that's me. I'm the Grinch.
I'm Ebenezer Scrooge.

Speaker 3 This one's from Danny Yall via email. The U.S.
men's national team's second place finish in the 2009 Confederations Cup is one of the greatest achievements in the program's history.

Speaker 3 To beat that legendary Spain team in the semis and go toe-to-toe against Brazil in the final was something special. How do you look back on that tournament now? And what was the magic in that group?

Speaker 3 You guys were talking about teams just before that allowed you guys to achieve what you did?

Speaker 1 Great question. So let me take you through.

Speaker 1 This is crazy how tournaments work. Okay.
Oh, yeah. So I'm going to start.

Speaker 1 This might be a long answer. 2002 World Cup, my first World Cup.
We lose our final game. Okay.
So we have four points in the group. We win our first, tie our second, lose our third.

Speaker 1 We lose our final game. The only reason we advance out of our group is because South Korea beat Portugal at the end of their game.
Otherwise, we would have gone home.

Speaker 1 Portugal were the favorite to maybe even win the World Cup, but to win that game, certainly.

Speaker 1 Next thing you know, we beat Mexico, we get to the quarterfinals, and it's the most successful World Cup ever.

Speaker 1 It all hinged on another team's results, or we could have been going home and it would have been a failure. 2006, lose our first game, tie our second.

Speaker 1 Miraculously, had we beaten Ghana in the third game, we would have gone to the next round. We end up losing on a really bad penalty call, but it all could have been way different based on one play.

Speaker 1 2010 World Cup, the Algeria goal, we are minutes away from going home. Instead, it turns into a successful World Cup.

Speaker 1 So just so people understand how tournaments work in the U.S.'s case, it always comes down to a play or two.

Speaker 1 So in that Confederations Cup, our final game against Egypt, we had a minus, correct me if I'm wrong, Tim, I think we had a six-goal goal differential.

Speaker 2 It was six or seven, yeah.

Speaker 1 Six goal goal differential, meaning we needed to win our game and have Italy win their game and a combined six goals change.

Speaker 1 We win 3-0.

Speaker 1 Italy wins 3-0,

Speaker 1 and that means we advance. Okay, so we shouldn't have advanced.
We shouldn't have gone on, but we end up advancing and then we play Spain.

Speaker 1 And in my opinion, that's the best game I've ever been a part of for the Nashingtons. The best overall game we ever played against Spain.

Speaker 1 Spain hadn't lost in 35 games at that point, and we beat them 2-0. Went to the final, we were up 2-0 on Brazil.

Speaker 1 They ended up coming back to win 3-2, but phenomenal tournament.

Speaker 1 But I just want people to understand, like, when you're watching tournaments, we're not a team that wins three games in the opening round yet. We will be someday, but they all hinge on one play.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, great explanation in terms of taking us down that road. What I would say about the Spain game was,

Speaker 2 you know, when you're in, when you're in South Africa or, or depending on geography, you feel a million miles away, right? And South Africa felt a million miles away.

Speaker 2 Like you know where you are on the map, but you're also like

Speaker 2 you're together in this hotel for a month and you just feel far away, right? And so there's so much camaraderie. And we barely, as Landon said, squeaked by getting the Egypt result.

Speaker 2 I don't think we were playing brilliant football in that tournament. In fact, I think we got battered in our opening game, but we go into the Spain game and now everyone knows like

Speaker 2 we're not under any illusions

Speaker 2 at the training table, in the training room, on the training ground. We know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2 We understand how great this Spain team is. And to just explain

Speaker 2 to the listeners,

Speaker 2 this wasn't a fluke. Like, this Spain team didn't go,

Speaker 2 it's the U.S., we'll roll over them. Maybe they thought that, but they didn't perform that way.
We hit them, we smacked them in the teeth, and they didn't like it. And

Speaker 2 Josie was rolling, Josie out the door was putting world-class center backs on his back and turning them and rolling. And by the way, it wasn't because they didn't decide to turn up.

Speaker 2 It's because Josie was strong, he was an ox. And on that day, he gave it to him.
Clint Dempsey, he was another one. He produced magic.
I think Charlie Davis was on the team.

Speaker 2 We earned every ounce of that. And the craziest thing for me is like in the moment, like explain to our listeners,

Speaker 2 you're trying, I can speak for myself. I'm desperately trying to stay in the moment because I am

Speaker 2 feet fluttering off the ground, mind racing, like we could do this. And I'm like, no, no, no, we haven't done anything.
Like get back to the moment, right? There's still 25 minutes left.

Speaker 2 And then five minutes goes by and another shot goes. And then you start to think, oh, we could win this.

Speaker 2 And this constant trying to refocus my mind to be like, stop thinking about this monumental achievement you're about to create and focus on the moment.

Speaker 2 And then ultimately, I think the biggest, as amazing as that is as players, and Land will attest to this, people have been asking for the last 20 years, when's the U.S.

Speaker 2 going to win a major tournament? When's the U.S. going to,

Speaker 2 that question is going to get asked 500 trillion, million, billion times over the next 18 months?

Speaker 2 We had a chance. We were up 2-0, I think, against Brazil, right? With 45 minutes to go, we had the opportunity to be that team.
And look, Brazil was just freaking incredible incredible, too, right?

Speaker 2 But that's the takeaway: that game was just so

Speaker 2 incredible because we shouldn't have been there. We shouldn't have been in that moment and we shouldn't have performed the way we did.
But that's the beautiful football.

Speaker 3 Awesome. Okay.
I only have one question left for you. It is from JR via Grumpy Producer.

Speaker 3 And she would like to know: what are you looking forward to doing with this podcast in 2025?

Speaker 1 Good question well for me um

Speaker 1 i'm still trying to figure out and we're trying to figure out what you guys value the most right what do you want us to speak about the most what do you care there are when we when we do our production meeting there are 15 20 25 stories we could talk about and we end up trimming it down to things we're passionate about or think that are you guys are going to be passionate about But we want to know what you guys care about.

Speaker 1 What do you want us to speak about? And I have anecdotal anecdotal evidence and feedback from people I know. We read comments, you get your emails, but you can feel free to tell us.

Speaker 1 And if there's things you don't want to hear about, tell us. It doesn't mean we're going to always listen.
But we want to, as Tim said, create a community here that

Speaker 1 is inclusive and everyone feels a part of. What I'm most looking forward to, honestly, is

Speaker 1 getting to go places and do this live.

Speaker 1 uh together and in person and with you guys around fans around so whether i'm not committing to anything but i don't want to make jordan nervous, whether it's Nations League, Nations League, Gold Cup,

Speaker 1 maybe go to a Premier League game, go to an Everton game, go places and be there on the ground with you guys where we can do this live and in person.

Speaker 1 I think that'll just be, that'll be really fun.

Speaker 2 Yeah, I mean, I think for me, that's it. To grow this show organically with our listeners, create that community.
For me,

Speaker 2 Two things stand out for the new year. I definitely want to do a live show.

Speaker 2 I want to take the show on the road. I want to be amongst our people.

Speaker 2 I want to feel that energy of what a live show is like, whether that's a Q ⁇ A or a moderated session or just Landon and I rapping and doing it in front of a live audience.

Speaker 2 I know what that energy feels like, and I know it's going to be just awesome for everybody involved. So that's going to be a huge undertaking, but also one that, again,

Speaker 2 again, continues to build community,

Speaker 2 get some merchandise out there, make sure everybody's waving it around um excited about that i'm also excited about about bringing on and again we talk about how i think we had a question recently jordan about

Speaker 2 how do we continue to build this momentum of soccer in america and build this community like i'm excited to bring on um

Speaker 2 some cross-cultural guests on the show, right? We're that

Speaker 2 want to get into soccer or have invested in soccer or have some sort of tie to soccer, but they're not soccer people. And I want to hear what their journey is like

Speaker 2 and kind of share that with you all and

Speaker 2 get a chance to understand how far we have and that reach we have.

Speaker 1 That's really good. And Tim, I was just saying, as you were saying that, when we were with the galaxy, being in LA, obviously, a lot of stars, whatever.

Speaker 1 The two for me, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it now.

Speaker 1 We would have people come into the locker room sometimes after the game, mostly after David Beckham arrived because they all wanted to meet him, see him.

Speaker 1 But I was a benefactor of that. But Wayne Gretzky came in with his son one day

Speaker 1 after a game, which was really cool. And then, God rest his soul, Kobe Bryant came in after a game one day.
And like having, you don't realize that they're soccer fans, right?

Speaker 1 But everyone has, everyone who has kids, almost all of them play soccer at some point. And the ones who really love soccer and are part of it want to be there and be part of it.

Speaker 1 So getting to speak to people, I know Patrick Mahomes now with Kansas City Current. And

Speaker 1 it's just, there's so many people now involved in the game, which is awesome.

Speaker 3 Well, this has been a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 Just as a reminder to anybody who's listening, you can email me at feedback at unfiltered soccer if you've got questions for future episodes, or if you just want to talk about what these guys just asked you, like, what do you want to hear about on the show?

Speaker 3 Let's definitely talk about it. Leave your comments on YouTube.
And thanks to both of you for the seven episodes we've put out so far. It's been a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 I haven't wanted to rage quit my job just yet.

Speaker 1 So it's going really well. We've had some moments, be honest.

Speaker 3 You've had some moments. No comment.

Speaker 1 No, no comment.

Speaker 3 I don't know. Listening to you talk about these live shows and thinking about running around and the microphone is definitely giving me some fear.
But

Speaker 2 we'll get through it.

Speaker 2 We've got the best listeners and the best production team. Thanks, JR.
Enjoy the holidays.

Speaker 1 JR, thank you.

Speaker 3 Thank you guys.

Speaker 1 Well, Timmy, I was just actually thinking how many episodes? Seven episodes. It's been awesome, man.
Really enjoyed it.

Speaker 1 Wishing you and your family the the very best for the holidays. Thanks to all of you guys for everything.
Remember, subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify.

Speaker 1 I know I'm a broken record, but it helps people find us. Follow the show across all the social media at Unfiltered Soccer.
Lots of bonus content. But thank you all.
Happy holidays to all.

Speaker 2 Yeah, thanks so much, everybody. And thank you to our presenting sponsor, VW.

Speaker 2 Have a great week. Merry Christmas.
Happy Hanukkah. Happy Kwanzaa.
Whatever you're celebrating, do it with love with your family and others.

Speaker 2 We'll be be back next Tuesday with another edition of Unfiltered Soccer.

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