The Soccer Watcher

Discussing World Cup is actually kinda depressing when you live in the politically embarrassing USA. But we do our best, despite getting sidetracked with gripes about rule changes, blatant racism, and TicketMaster.

Last time was all about winning, but that takes effort and skill and sometimes even luck, so this time around we figured it would be good to celebrate (or at least discuss) defeat–and doing so on Easter Sunday? Why not!

Yes, this is a soccer podcast and we've somehow discussed "victory" for an hour and never once mentioned the film starring Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine, and Pelé. Based on that fact alone I would consider this episode itself to be an absolute victory. But yeah, we talk winning the whole enchilada.

Where to begin with our first episode since the holiday break. With the political climate in the US being what it is, we discuss the murmurs of a potential World Cup boycott – the who, the what, and the why. Fingers crossed everything goes off without issue, but we probably wouldn't bet on it.

This episode is all about soccer gaming. No, not soccer the game or the game of soccer, but soccer gaming as in soccer video gaming, soccer board gaming, or pretty much any form of soccer that can be enjoyed without necessarily going outside or much physical exertion. We talk FIFA franchise, 2K Sports, Commodore 64 International Soccer, Pele on Atari 2600, the rather obscure (in America anyway) Sensible Soccer, and a whole lot more. 

Discussing the massive changes coming to MLS schedules in 2027 - the good, the bad, the ugly, and the unpredictable.

In light of the NBA gambling controversies in the news, we discuss gambling in all of its various forms, but mostly the rise of the sportsbook, online playing, and even fantasy sports. 

The good, bad, and sometimes ugly of soccer-watching technology is discussed. From the (way too many) different ways to watch to on-field/in-game tech to the at-home watching experience(s). Is any of this really enhancing the soccer watcher experience? Listen and find out.

In our debut episode, we discuss rules – good rules, bad rules, rules that no one has ever even heard of, and how sometimes those rules are made to be broken. In particular, we discuss the (in)famous Caribbean Cup match of 1994, the match between Barbados and Granada that featured one of the most bizarre conclusions ever – all of it because of its rules.