Unabridged: World Cup Recap with Brady Thomas
You knew this episode was coming. Now that the World Cup has officially wrapped up, I’m doing a full recap of our summer of soccer with my favorite amateur sports analyst (and my brother), Brady Thomas. We discuss our overall thoughts, how America did as the host, FIFA’s corruption, and what to watch if you’re still craving some soccer.
TRANSCRIPT
Traci Thomas 0:11
All right, everybody! I am just so excited. Today is an extra special bonus episode of Stacks Unabridge. That is my content that is exclusive to paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack. What you're gonna get to hear is like an hour-long conversation between me and my favorite soccer analyst. Not Alexi Lawless. No, no, it is my dear brother Brady Thomas. Brady, welcome to the Stacks.
Brady Thomas 0:38
Longtime fan. Great to finally be here.
Traci Thomas 0:41
Long time, first time. Brady has been begging to come on the show for eight years, and I just turned 40 this week. As you're listening, and I thought, as an elder in the community, I should be more mature, and I should allow my fans to have more access to me. So, welcome again, Brady. I'm so honored. Yeah,
Brady Thomas 1:00
thank you. I mean, I've been following your stuff for as long as I can remember. You've had a big impact on me, and so I'm great. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge.
Traci Thomas 1:09
Okay, we're gonna do a World Cup recap. The plan is to talk about what we just watched for the last five weeks to talk a little bit about FIFA and, unfortunately, Trump. And also, we're gonna kind of end this with what you, dear listener, who just became obsessed with Erling Holland, Jude Bellingham, soccer in general, what you should be looking forward to moving forward because now you're a diehard soccer fan like the rest of us. So let's just start kind of at the beginning, big picture, Brady. What did you make of the 2026 World Cup?
Brady Thomas 1:47
I was honestly a big detractor heading into it. I think I was acutely aware of the issues that were coming into play with having Donald Trump represent the United States on a grand scale, and so the Faustian bargain that was struck between our president Donald J. Trump and the head of FIFA Infantino was something that I was very nervous about. But after what was that a month and a half of of sporting brilliance, I came away with it relatively excited about what I just witnessed, and and I think it lived up to what I was hoping it would be, and it didn't hit all of the negative points that I was really fearful of.
Traci Thomas 2:27
Only some, like only just like minor sort of infractions, like calling FIFA to get our star player back in the game, which like was good for us, and so we liked it. I'm going to be honest, I liked it. We sucked it up after that, it's the Trump. You know, Trump poisons everything he touches. But okay, we just got off the final. Spain won the World Cup. You did predict it. I don't want to give you credit, but it's true that you did, and there are text messages to prove it. So, I guess congratulations to you.
Brady Thomas 2:57
Thank you.
Traci Thomas 2:57
But also, my big takeaway from this World Cup was like it was so much fun from a fan perspective. It was so much fun when it started. We start the World Cup. We've got more teams than ever. We're getting an extra round. People are discovering my beloved Scotland. Like Norway is making this great showing. The group stages are shockingly fun. Like I was interested in like Slovenia or whatever, like their soccer team, sure. But as the World Cup went on, I actually feel like it got less and less fun at every every matchup later in the thing. It was like round of 16. Oh my God, USA, Belgium! And every time I wanted a team to win, they lost, which meant that Argentina made it to the final, so I feel like I loved watching people discover the World Cup, but also then was reminded of how less and less fun it gets because there's less and less games. You like less and less of the teams, and in this case, there were so many African nations that made it to the knockout, and then only I think one made it of the of the. There were 10 teams that went into the World Cup. Nine made it to the round of 30-two, and I think was it just it was Morocco and Egypt. So two made it to, and so that was sort of a bummer for everyone who was just rooting for Black people.
Brady Thomas 4:12
Yeah, I mean, I think underlying all of that is just the pressure involved in a in at this level. So I feel like the group stages are fun. You know, you have Curacao, you have Cave Verde, you have South Africa, you have all these countries that might not have an opportunity to showcase, and so they're just happy to be there, and they're going to oftentimes play free and open. Then you get to the knockout stage, and that's where the rubber meets the road. And the best example of that was you saw how tight, how absolutely in their own heads the English national team was for the whole entire tournament? They get knocked out to Argentina in what is going to be a very memorable matchup for a number of reasons.
Traci Thomas 4:55
Justice for the Falklands,
Brady Thomas 4:56
and then the next game they come out and play free open. They're they're having a blast because there's no more stakes, and and it was pretty interesting to see that. I think that's what the difference was between the group stage, and then when you got to the knockout stage, everybody, it's literally life or death,
Traci Thomas 5:11
right? I think England is an interesting team specifically because they have so much pressure at home, and they have like the media and the tabloids there are just so ruthless in a way that I think, like here, even though our team really stunk it up in the round of 16, it was like on ESPN for 20 minutes, and then everyone was like, they were like Carl Pulisic, we love him. I was like, no, that's not even his name, and he sucks. So I do think like watching, knowing what I know about soccer as a fan outside of just like the World Cup, and knowing the kind of pressure that happens in the UK specifically, England was a fun team to watch because they sort of-I felt like they seemed looser than normal until the Argentina game.
Brady Thomas 5:57
Yeah, I mean, I think I don't think it's just England. You saw the you saw the absolute meltdown in Germany and Brazil after they got knocked out early. I think the pressure
Traci Thomas 6:07
right in South Korea.
Brady Thomas 6:08
I mean in South Korea, South whatever example.
Traci Thomas 6:10
What anywhere?
Brady Thomas 6:12
Yeah, that yeah. So you see in countries where soccer football is not the fourth or fifth biggest sport in the nation that there's so much riding on it, whereas in the United States they're already worried about you know LeBron's next.
Traci Thomas 6:28
They're worried about football. It's the football season. The other football. Do you feel like were you excited by what you saw from American cities as we hosted the World Cup, do you believe, as people say every year, now a new generation of children will be into soccer, or do you think it's the same stuff? It's just the social media of like Scotland in Boston is like more fun than when we didn't have social media for it.
Brady Thomas 6:56
Yeah, I mean, I think that travel is the best thing that you can do to become smarter. Like going different places and seeing
Traci Thomas 7:06
and read books and reading books, yes.
Brady Thomas 7:07
But going other places and seeing that there's not just one way to do things is really illuminating. And so, getting to import that into the United States was powerful. And hopefully, there are people that are going to take to the sport in a way that they wouldn't, if this, you know, would have been hosted in any other nation. But the fact of the matter is, I think the the joy was brought from abroad, and I don't know how long it lingers in a world where all of these matches, all of these players that people have now grown to love over the next month or last month, or month and a half, are going to be playing their nine to five soccer in a country that you might not know much about, or in a league that you might not be in tune to watch. And so that's that's the part that's tricky.
Traci Thomas 7:51
I feel like what was fun about the World Cup, and I think like particularly meaningful for Americans who maybe don't agree with the Trump administration is. It was sort of a reminder of like, we're fun, we're cool. Like the people on the ground are lovely. Like we could all get along if our leaders maybe weren't such fucking assholes. And it was also like a reminder that as much as everyone hates America, rightfully so, like I get it. Like please, like we're in the middle of bombing countries, just like for no reason, and like rounding up people. Sure, like I understand why you would hate us. It was a reminder that like we do have good stuff here, and like watching people discover Chick Fil A sauce is like so much fun, and also so many people like being open to foreigners in a way that if you just like read the headlines about America, you would think that like anyone from another country we would automatically hate. But seeing like people from Cote d'Ivoire like dancing in American seats, streets dancing in the streets of America, while like um like white boy Americans are dancing with them, and you're like right, yeah, we actually could have a great time together, and like we actually do appreciate each other, and obviously that's like sort of soccer's biggest tagline. I feel like that's FIFA's the worst, but like soccer sort of is the sport that brings people together in that way. So I I was heartened by that, and also again watching people eat like burritos for the first time. Yeah, amazing.
Brady Thomas 9:19
I feel like the stuff coming out of Mexico City and Guadalajara was the most fun.
Traci Thomas 9:23
It was definitely Mexico City, like because it because it was like a bunch of Korean people in Mexico City. Japanese, where were the Japanese? They were somewhere fun too. Also, maybe Mexico. I think
Brady Thomas 9:35
they had a couple games in Mexico.
Traci Thomas 9:36
The Scottish in Boston, the Norwegians in Boston and New York City, and then the Germans, I think, were in like Texas, which was like amazing. They were like they had that guy Freddy, like in the South.
Brady Thomas 9:49
Yeah, I mean that's the thing is it's like you have the unity, you have the patriotism that is beautiful, not the disgusting nationalism or race. But you have the patriotism that you want people to shell for the pride, right? And then you also have the contradiction, which is nations that are in the same competition are bombing one another in real time, denying people visas, political leadership. I mean, there was the situation with I think it was the Paraguayan congresswoman.
Traci Thomas 10:23
Oh, and Mbappe.
Brady Thomas 10:24
Mbappe that was almost too racist to believe happening in real time. So you bring people together, you get the best and the worst. But I think for the most part, it was pretty beautiful all in all, and it and it didn't descend into some of the worst fears that I had, at least starting.
Traci Thomas 10:44
Yeah. What do What do you make of like? What do you think people who don't follow football don't understand about like FIFA, its history, the racism? Like, I think a lot of the a lot of people watching maybe heard like FIFA so corrupt, FIFA so corrupt, but maybe don't know what that looks like, and obviously they saw what happened with Trump and Balagun or Balogan or people. You know, the Nigerians on TikTok are telling me to say Balugun. So, anyways, what what we saw with that, but like to me, that didn't feel out of place, right? Like to me, I was like, of course, this is going to happen. So, can you explain to people a little bit of like why everyone says FIFA is the worst and they're corrupt, and like how that's maybe different than other soccer?
Brady Thomas 11:28
So FIFA basically puts on the World Cup. I think it's 90% or 80% of the income they make in any four-year period comes from the World Cup. They are supposedly nominally a nonprofit organization, if you can believe that, yeah, cheap, cheap. But it has steadily grown from what the World Cup started as 100 years ago into this hugely a huge money making operation, and so you have the person at the top, Infantino, who is put there by all of the voters from these individual confederations, which are all also seemingly corrupt men, and the confederation
Traci Thomas 12:05
is like concacaf
Brady Thomas 12:07
Yeah, or the or the country, the country itself. So the so the yeah, FIFA's broken up into different groups of different nations that are loosely around where the countries are located. So you have like a set of them that is South America, North America, Europe, Oceana. Does anybody say that?
Traci Thomas 12:22
Oceania, and then Asia. But Australia plays in Asia now. Yeah.
Brady Thomas 12:26
Okay. And Africa. So each one of these feeds up into a larger group that is also just as corrupt and hungry for money. There's been documented cases of bribes and extortion and betting and all these other things that you wouldn't try to associate with something that is supposedly about the sport, but it also has a stranglehold on the most. I mean, there's a billion plus people that are watching these matches. There's nothing else in the world like that, bar the Olympics, and I think even that doesn't get the same type of viewership or passion around it. So you have to take both. You get the dichotomy of disgusting corporatism and money grubbing, and then you also get what we got to see, which was passion and in in some cases really beautiful soccer.
Traci Thomas 13:11
And does does FIFA like because one of the things that FIFA does is they try to like respond to people saying they're racist or corrupt. Like this year, we had the new "Don't Cover Your Face" rule. Can you explain like what that is about? I know that didn't actually come out of a FIFA match, but just like some of that, like on-field fan, like they try to legislate the fans. Yeah.
Brady Thomas 13:35
Well, it's interesting what they focus on because some. So four years ago, and six years ago, when the United States was in the United States and Mexico was were hosting, there was a lot of uproar around the anti-gay slurs that the Mexican fans oftentimes were were shouting during the game. For whatever reason, the Mexican fans continued to do it, but it wasn't a point of emphasis this year, and it didn't really come up. But there was something that happened maybe two or three months before this World Cup, where one of the best players in the world, Vinicius, who plays for Brazil, got into an altercation with an Argentinian player. Go figure on the pitch during a Champions League match, which is the the club schedule, which is the nine to five that these guys have, and the Argentinian fullback covered his mouth, said something, and the whole Real Madrid team in Vinitius erupted. They said it was racist. It turned into this whole thing. They couldn't really prove what he said was racist. He said it was actually an anti-gay slur, which was his the way he defended himself, and so they they.
Traci Thomas 14:45
I'm not racist. No, I hate gay people. Hello.
Brady Thomas 14:48
Yeah exactly.
Traci Thomas 14:48
What is wrong with you?
Brady Thomas 14:49
So that guy was suspended for a few games, but they couldn't really prove it. So now they came out and said, okay, cool. If you cover your mouth in an altercation with an opposing player, we're automatically treating it. As if you did something that was the worst case scenario, so you're kicked out of the match, and I think you're suspended for the next match or something like that. And so we saw that happen a few times. And even Messi tried to tried to get somebody else embroiled.
Traci Thomas 15:10
Okay, you guys know I don't like Argentina as a team. I have I I have a I wrote a post on my Substack, which I'm assuming you read because you're a paid subscriber because you're listening to this, where I talked about like how to pick a team to root for in the World Cup. It's like I was like, you got to root for your home country, even if you hate America or wherever you're from. You got to pick a team that's like your underdog team, and maybe you don't know that going in. You discover it. A lot of you went with Cape Verde. You got to pick a team that like probably could win. I went with England because I know a lot of the guys from the Premier League, and then you have to have at least one team you hate. And I was like, I have two. Mine are Argentina and Germany for like you know World War Two related reasons. And it has been thrilling to watch Argentina just behave in the kinds of ways you want your enemy team to behave. Germany got knocked out early, a great celebration for me. Watching Argentina, whether whether it was actually the refs were rooting for them because of FIFA or not, watching them play like fucking assholes yesterday in the final, Messi trying to bait someone, talking about a guy getting hit in the face by a ball that Messi kicked into this man's face by accident, and then the his the Spanish teammate went over and was like touched his face and was like oh he had his face and then Messi turns to the ref and is like he's covering his mouth we want him off watching another player get a red card watching them after the match beat people up did you see Messi after that they show a shot where Messi like looks over sees them getting in a fight and he just continues to keep walking I'm just like even I feel like that's also a knock on Messi because like a real teammate would have gone over and got in the muck, tried to pull people. He just looked and walked away and was like, "Oh, I don't go here anymore.
Brady Thomas 16:53
I think I mean you've called this out before. You say there are some people that are so powerful in sports that they can call in the hit. Maybe he called. Maybe that was his action.
Traci Thomas 17:00
This is my one of my hottest takes. I've never talked about it on the microphone. This is this is Warriors lore, but I believe that Draymond Green hit Jordan Poole because Steph Curry Curry ordered the hit. I will not explain further. If you know, you know. I also do not want Steph coming for me, but Jordan Poole was removed from the team immediately, and the video leaked. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. I'm not saying. I'm just saying.
Brady Thomas 17:24
You know, if it was gonna happen, it would have to come from from the top. From the top. Either
Traci Thomas 17:27
Steve Kerr or Steph Curry. Like it's it's got to be a name that sounds similar.
Brady Thomas 17:31
Maybe Messi said, "Hey, let me send my goons. We have one more score to settle before we exit.
Traci Thomas 17:36
I want to make like a like a mafia joke right now, but I also feel like that's like racist against Argentinians because do they have a mafia? Like I don't know that dynamic.
Brady Thomas 17:45
I don't know.
Traci Thomas 17:46
I don't know either. So I'm gonna just just refrain. I don't. I don't want to be racist. Okay. Do you feel like have you gotten a sense from your you know your sources on the ground around the world that people like or hate America more or less after this World Cup. Obviously, Erling Haaland really liked us as a people. He was really tickled by Americans liking him. So one Norwegian player likes us, but like I haven't got, I haven't seen any reports of like public opinion about America from other countries.
Brady Thomas 18:21
It's tough. It's tough. Did we cover ourselves in glory as a nation during this World Cup? Probably not.
Traci Thomas 18:27
I don't think we did.
Brady Thomas 18:28
Did we? Did it play out as? I mean, I was expecting like ice raids at stadiums. I was expecting like actual ugliness between U.S. citizens and our guests.
Traci Thomas 18:41
Yeah.
Brady Thomas 18:42
Aside from what the Trump administration could do with their limited amount of focus and attention to detail, like barring the Somalian referee from attending and and making it really difficult for Iran to participate in the tournament in any meaningful way without letting them bring in their staff and making them basically live outside of the country and travel in, like those were like the low hanging fruit of racism and destruction that they were able to accomplish. I feel like they didn't get a chance to do much more. Maybe their worst impulses were stymied by the way that FIFA had somewhat some leverage on them. But no, I mean I don't think the United States comes out of this looking like a better nation than what we are? I think we are who we thought we were.
Traci Thomas 19:26
Yeah, I think that's right. I think we were more gracious hosts than I thought we would be on a city to city level, and I think that Trump is a monster and a self-absorbed psychopath, and so anything he could touch, he did turn to shit, but anything that like was bigger than him or like because the other thing I saw online, which is not not true, it is true, is like all the cities that all these people went to that they fell in love with were all like blue cities in blue. I mean, like Dallas is in Texas, but it's Dallas. You know, like Seattle, the Bay, L.A. New York, like all of these places are are cities run by blue governor or like cities run by blue mayors. They're places of so much diversity. I mean, Houston is one of the most diverse cities we have in this entire country, and so I felt like I feel like people who did come to the United States for matches left feeling a different version of the United States that some of us experience more often than like had they been in a I mean a smaller place. I think Kansas City is probably like the closest thing to red they would have really hit.
Brady Thomas 20:36
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 20:37
but even still, Kansas City is a major American city with like, it's it's probably the bluest place in the state of Kansas.
Brady Thomas 20:45
Well, so I that's 100% true. I don't think there are many purely red cities. Maybe like Oklahoma City. I don't know. Maybe like
Traci Thomas 20:52
Maybe like Birmingham. Yeah, I don't know.
Brady Thomas 20:53
But I think that's true. As an aside, you know this. Maybe your listeners don't. I spend a great deal of time in Boston, Massachusetts. Although I live in California, my wife is a college professor, and so we spend the school year in Boston.
Traci Thomas 21:07
Sarah Fong, second guest ever on the stacks.
Brady Thomas 21:09
There you go, plug. But I saw out of Boston something I hadn't seen, and I think that was prompted by the way that the Scots came in and just absolutely brought an energy and a passion and an outdoorsmanship. Like Boston is very much, you stick to yourself. You don't talk to your neighbors. You kind of get in where you fit in. Maybe if you get wasted, you might have some fun. But other than that, you're probably going to get wasted and fight. Actually, now I think about it. But I saw so many people and talk to so many people. Unfortunately, I wasn't there. I was in California when it was taking place. Who were like, "We need to keep this energy once the Scots leave. We need to keep it. And I don't know that we will. I don't know that Boston will. But it was cool to see that you could be called out for, you know, not being very fun. Yeah, and people could bring the fun from from abroad. Now, I have to ask because I don't know if your listeners know why you are such a Scot. I'm just getting ready to tell.
Traci Thomas 22:04
I'm here today wearing my blue Scottish jersey from this World Cup, though I did was gifted a pink one by my brother, the Rose. So, some of you will know I am a Scotland fan, but my Scotland origin story started in 2024 during the Euro Cup. I went to the opening match of Scotland playing Germany in Germany at the Allianz Stadium, which, if you've read Nazi billionaires, you might be familiar with the Allianz Company. Same company, they got a stadium, but it's a it's an historic stadium in Germany. It's where the opening match was. I go to Germany and I'm like, I don't want to root for Germany, but I feel that I must because I was familiar with the idea of like hooliganism in soccer, and I thought that international soccer had the same kind of like hatred. So I was like, I'm not going to go to Germany and root for the other team. So I show up. I like bought this like stupid Germany T-shirt. I gave it away already, and we're in Munich, and it's like two days before the match, and our hotel's right in the town square. And I just hear like bagpipes, and we go to the little market, and these men are walking by in kilt, and I was like, and they're yelling things at us, and they're like, no, no, no, and I'm like, I don't speak Scottish because if you've ever talked to a Scottish person, it's not English, but it is. And as the day goes on, we like go back to the hotel, get ready with my best friends, and now we meet up with her and her boyfriend, and he's German, and he like, and we're out drinking, and we start just like hearing the waiters be like, "Well, we don't have any more beer, and we're like, "What? And they're like, "These people have drinks out of our beer in Munich, which is where they do like Oktoberfest, okay? It's like a beer culture, Bavaria, big on beer, big on sausage. The Scottish people are just chanting. They're doing a chant. I can't fucking understand a word they're saying, but I love it. And it's the one. It's the one like that's to the di dun dun dun dun dun dun dun. So I'm like, I know this tune. No clue what they're saying. Finally, it's the day of the match. We get on the subway. We're surrounded by Scottish 20-five-year-olds. They are drinking out of refilled plastic bottles. I'm like, I recognize this. These boys are amazing. The train stops underground for 20 minutes, sweating. I start talking to them. Obviously, I'm asking them to do certain chants. I'm asking them to do the Ezra De Bruyne chant because that's the chant for my kid, Kevin De Bruyne chant. But we call it Ezra, anyways. And I start talking to them, and they're like, "Oh, where are you from? And I'm like, "Oh, I'm from California. They start giving me shit. They're like, "Oh, you're gonna order an Uber? You're gonna get on your Uber, go to Hollywood. We start talking. They give me stickers. They're like, "You gotta root for us. I'm like, I love you guys. They start teaching me all the words to the chant. We get to the match. Before we get to the match, we take a picture with them. They have this giant flag. It's like this crew, the Baxter brothers. Anyways, fall in love with them. We get to the match. We go to our seats. I'm like, we're gonna be sitting with these German people because we're in German territory. There's two Scottish men next to me.
Brady Thomas 25:00
Right next to you,
Traci Thomas 25:00
they give me their flag. They teach me the words to all the chants that I didn't fucking understand. They're like, "You got to stand up for the Scottish national anthem. It's the most beautiful thing you'll ever see. I'm like, "I love it. We score a goal. The final score is five one. We score a goal when Scotland scores a goal. I cry. They are crying. Turns out it was an own goal, which is fine.
Brady Thomas 25:21
Yeah, we'll take it.
Traci Thomas 25:22
We, but it was. I have been to you know countless sporting events. Never have I ever fallen in love with another country or team in this way. I watch all their matches now. Scott McDominay, he's great. It's just I love it. I so knowing this when they qualified for this World Cup, I was like, people are gonna fucking freak for these Scottish people, and I just was happy to be an early adopter.
Brady Thomas 25:47
You were an early adopter. I mean, we were living vicarious through through you back in the United States, and I did see you head off to the game in a Germany kit and leave in the Scotland flag.
Traci Thomas 26:00
Everything in the flag. I still have the flag and the sticker that the boys gave me. One of them was at this World Cup, and I was like, "If I was in Boston, I would die. Oh, and then this is just stupid but amazing. We're leaving the match. We're walking out of this giant. It's like 60,000 people, and who the fuck do we see but the Train Boys? And they turn and they go, "Hollywood, Callia Uber, and I was like, I love these people. Amazing. So I don't know. I can't speak. I've never been to Scotland, but the plan is to go for the 2028 Euros.
Brady Thomas 26:30
So that's the next major tournament. Yes. Okay. So that's what we want to talk about.
Traci Thomas 26:34
Yeah. We talked enough about this World Cup. What do people do who like soccer? Obviously, there's all these like not like you're calling them a nine to five these like club team games, but also maybe you're not ready for that. Maybe you just want to continue to root for like some random team or some great team or some weird team that you met. What are what are my options?
Brady Thomas 26:57
So full disclosure, I did not fall in love with the sport until 2010. I grew up basketball, baseball, football, just like most red-blooded Americans, and I didn't have an appreciation for the sport. I didn't play, you know, liquor soccer after I was probably seven years old, but I did live in Costa Rica for two years in 2009, 2010, and that's where I fell in love with it. In fact, I was in Costa Rica when the 2010 World Cup was taking place in South Africa. Costa Rica didn't make it, unfortunately, but I remember being there and thinking, "Oh my God, how amazing would it be to be in Costa Rica while the World Cup was going on? And so that's kind of what sparked my passion for the sport. And then four years later, when the World Cup was in Brazil,
Traci Thomas 27:44
oh yeah,
Brady Thomas 27:44
I did a trip through Europe with four of my best friends, and we were in every country while the team played. So we went to Croatia, saw a game in a Roman Colosseum there.
Traci Thomas 27:52
That was the coolest.
Brady Thomas 27:54
We went to Milan and we watched the game. It ended up raining, so we're in like a bar, but that was still fun. We went to Germany and watched a game at the Brandenburg Gates. Switzerland. We watched another game in Germany. So, I that's how I fell in love with it. Was the World Cup? That was kind of my entry point to the sport. 2010. I'm like, look, well, this is over. So, what am I going to do now? I need a team, and I knew I wanted to pick a team in the English Premier League, which is the top flight league in England because just it's just accessible, right? I really liked the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid, which was in the Spanish league during that time. But I knew when I came back to the U.S. the Spanish League wasn't on TV as much.
Traci Thomas 28:36
This was and the Spanish League is called La Liga.
Brady Thomas 28:39
Yep, and so this was before all the everybody had an app for everything, or like a paid subscription. So I was like, I'm gonna pick a team, and so I didn't know how to choose. I had a couple players that I liked, and I had an ethos I wanted to slide into.
Traci Thomas 28:56
Okay.
Brady Thomas 28:57
So I didn't want to choose one of the big clubs in England, which would be Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal. Those are massive, massive clubs.
Traci Thomas 29:06
And then at the time, also because things have changed.
Brady Thomas 29:09
Yeah, but those are still huge clubs,
Traci Thomas 29:11
But Man City is now a huge club. Right.
Brady Thomas 29:12
So at that time, Man United, Liverpool, and Arsenal are probably still the biggest clubs in England.
Traci Thomas 29:19
What about Chelsea?
Brady Thomas 29:20
Chelsea's there, but they're probably a little bit below. Tottenham is there, Manchester City is there, so I decided I was going to pick a team that wasn't at the top. Now, at that time, Manchester City, which is the team that I fell in love with and have since converted converted all.
Traci Thomas 29:42
I mean, I brought me into yeah.
Brady Thomas 29:44
Manchester City in 2008 was bought by some oil magnates, some Saudis, right? No, no, United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi
Traci Thomas 29:56
Of course, Emirates,
Brady Thomas 29:57
Sheik Sheik Mansour from Abu Dhabi, and. And at that time, because of course, remember this is sport and it's also reality. I was in it for the sporting experience, but I was seeing in the news, and especially out of England, that there was a lot of racism because this was the first time you know oil money out of the Middle East had bought one of these major major clubs, and so they were talking about him in the veiled racist language that I recognize and understand from Americans.
Traci Thomas 30:23
I know racism. I'll pick that team.
Brady Thomas 30:25
So I was like, I want the team with, in my mind, the black owner. Got it. Right, the the guy who everyone's being racist towards. So I chose Manchester City. They also were starting to spend some money. Yeah, and I was like, okay, this could be like on the upswing.
Traci Thomas 30:38
Yeah,
Brady Thomas 30:38
and then a couple years later, they started spending real money, and they got real big players: Yaya Torre, Rabino. They got Carlos Tevez. They they got all these players who are now like retired, but at that time they were big names.
Traci Thomas 30:53
Yeah,
Brady Thomas 30:53
and then they actually won, and they won in one of the most amazing fashions. They won with last minute goal, so that's how I picked. I just decided I didn't want to choose a big team because I'm from Oakland, California. For us in Oakland, San Francisco is the big brother, and we're always denigrated as the little brother team. So I didn't want to choose Man United. So I was like, oh, let me take this upstart team from Manchester.
Traci Thomas 31:15
For people listening, basically Man United is the Lakers, Man City is the Clippers. That's like kind of the easiest thing.
Brady Thomas 31:23
That hurts to say, but yeah, right.
Traci Thomas 31:25
But the Clippers don't win, and Man City did. Come on, City. Yeah. Okay. So for people at home, do a lot of people became fans of certain players. So like, if you, but there are the constraints of the league. So can you walk us through sort of the big European leagues. Obviously, there's MLS, which is the American soccer league, which you can root for because they played a different time, but also like don't recommend.
Brady Thomas 31:49
No, there's not your stars are not going to be in America until they're too old to make until they're messy in Europe.
Traci Thomas 31:54
Yeah, or backup, but in Europe we've got the Bundesliga,
Brady Thomas 31:59
okay, which is Germany.
Traci Thomas 32:00
Tell us a little bit about that. What would happen if you became a Bundesliga fan who's there?
Brady Thomas 32:05
So there's two leagues where you're just gonna have one team that just outshines everybody. That's gonna be the Bundesliga, which is Germany, and that's Bayern Munich. That's the team that has Michael Alyssa. Harry Kane plays on that team. Their manager now is Vincent Company, who was a star from Manchester City, but more importantly, he's Belgian and he's black. So if you want a team in Europe that is managed by a black manager who is probably the smartest, most personable, most lovable man you could ever imagine in the sport, then then Bayern Munich might be for you, but Bayern Munich kind of is. I think they've won like nine out of the last 11 years, or you know 20 out of the last 20-five. They always win their league, and so it's a little tough.
Traci Thomas 32:52
No parody.
Brady Thomas 32:52
Not really much parody. There are a couple other teams in that league that are pretty good. Barisha Dortmund is another one. That's where Erling Holland and Jude Bellingham played before they got too big and got sold. So Germany, I mean, Germany is one league with a clear front runner team. The other one is France.
Traci Thomas 33:10
France
Brady Thomas 33:10
PSG also same thing.
Traci Thomas 33:12
One is that what it's called?
Brady Thomas 33:13
Ligueon.
Traci Thomas 33:14
Well, okay. The English translation would be League One.
Brady Thomas 33:17
Yeah, Liga.
Traci Thomas 33:18
It's an insane name for a team. Like Ligand, they're doing the best they can.
Brady Thomas 33:21
Ligand, the French do the best.
Traci Thomas 33:23
The Spanish like serie, like Premier League Ligon.
Brady Thomas 33:27
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 33:27
and I love the French. Go ahead.
Brady Thomas 33:29
So they have Paris Saint Germain, PSG, who also, I mean, they have so much talent. They're the two-time defending European champions, which is a huge deal. That's the Champions League. They've won the last two years, and they have stars all over the pitch. Their best player is Dem Bellay, who also played for France. But but they have Sachimi is a right back who was on the Morocco team with their best player. They have a lot of stars on that squad.
Traci Thomas 33:57
And Mbappe was there.
Brady Thomas 33:59
Mbappe was there, and he forced to move so that he could go play.
Traci Thomas 34:02
Who's like second best in France? It's not even like that. It's like they have like PSG coming. They have like yeah, it'll be like five teams that are around.
Brady Thomas 34:10
Like Lens was has been good out of nowhere. Nice, Monaco has been good in recent years. Marseille, but there is no clear number.
Traci Thomas 34:19
It's not even like in Germany where there's like a number two, right?
Brady Thomas 34:22
And they also have an owner from the Emirates, yeah.
Traci Thomas 34:26
Okay, so then we go to Seria A, which is Spain.
Brady Thomas 34:29
La Liga is Spain. Seria A is oh, is
Traci Thomas 34:32
Italy. Okay, well let's do Italy because that's where McTominay is, and now Kevin,
Brady Thomas 34:36
Kevin De Bruyne,
Traci Thomas 34:36
Kevin De Bruyne. So if you watch Belgium or Scotland, Kevin De Bruyne is the Prince Harry-looking gentleman, which is what I used to call him for years. It's just Prince Harry, and he plays in. Is he Napoli? They're both in Napoli.
Brady Thomas 34:51
Yeah, as is Lukaku.
Traci Thomas 34:52
As is Lukaku, who's also Belgium. Who who's the one who did the Trump dance after he scored his goal against America? It was embarrassing. It was debilitating and also spot on. So they're in Naples. They also have Roma.
Brady Thomas 35:07
Yep, Roma, Inter Milan, and AC Milan are probably the two biggest clubs. They're both obviously in Milan. Oh, okay.
Traci Thomas 35:15
Wow. Okay, got it. So that's the names are around the cities.
Brady Thomas 35:19
So the Italian league was the best for years and years and years. In the in the 80s and 90s and early 2000s it was the best league, but the money didn't hasn't flown flowed through the Italian league in the same way it has through some of these other leagues. And so they're like a they're they're still great players, great teams, but they haven't performed at the highest level in Europe. So if you have star players that you liked that play in Italy, it's it's like a little more gritty and grimy. The stadiums are older, but the stadiums are built in these like the one in Rome. They could never replace because they'd have to dig through you know 1000s of years of archeological permits or whatever. So it is kind of a fun, gritty game, but there's not has not been a huge Italian team or like a hugely successful Italian team in quite a while.
Traci Thomas 36:10
Okay, now we go to La Liga.
Brady Thomas 36:12
Okay,
Traci Thomas 36:13
that's Spain.
Brady Thomas 36:13
Yes, because
Traci Thomas 36:14
I'm sort of working our way through sort of like leagues that don't have a ton of competition, a ton of parody, and we're working our way to Premier League. So we've got in that sort of middle, we've got Italy and Spain. These two leagues that have like maybe five teams within the league max that are good,
Brady Thomas 36:33
really good. Yeah,
Traci Thomas 36:33
Spain has one storied franchise, and then they have a second franchise that is their mortal enemy. They go back and forth. There's a lot of personality. You've got Barcelona, which means one thing. You've got Madrid, that means another thing. And then you also have like FC Madrid. What's the other Madrid? Atletico Madrid. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about that because it's important to know Real Madrid will deliver on star power forever through the course, for sure. Like if you become a Madrid fan, you will see you'll have the best stars.
Brady Thomas 37:05
Yeah, Galacticos. They they had that's where when David Beckham left England, he went to Real Madrid.
Traci Thomas 37:11
Jude is there.
Brady Thomas 37:12
Same thing with Cristiano Ronaldo. It's the biggest club in the world, like it or hate it. I am not a Real Madrid fan. I'm a Real Madrid hater because I like Barcelona. Barcelona is, to me, is a team that reflects my values more. It's mesque un club, which means it's more than a club, and they have they're more involved in the community. They have this undercurrent of Catalan nationalism, whereas Madrid is very much the royalist, the the king, everybody who is tied to Madrid and the power of the central government really supports that club, and then you also have other clubs that are just as big, are slightly below that, that are you know peppered all over the country. Valencia, Seville, you have Atletico Madrid, Mallorca. So there, there are a lot of really amazing clubs, and if you know, if you're picking based on where you might want a vacation, that would be a good. That would be a good one.
Traci Thomas 38:06
I'd love to go to a match in Barcelona, and then we come to the Premier League.
Brady Thomas 38:12
Yes
Traci Thomas 38:12
this is for people who are like, I need the least barrier to entry. This would be my pick for you because it's on Peacock, so that helps. It's easy to find the matches. They also have. If you fell in love with Rebecca Low, how could you not? No, she does Champions League. No, she's she's Premier League. She does Premier ABC. Yeah. If you fell in love with Rebecca Low, despite her hideous outfit yesterday at the final, otherwise she's been looking great. She's a fucking genius. I love her so much. If you are a woman listening to this and you're like, there's not enough women in soccer. Honestly, Rebecca Lowe is by far and away the greatest commentator in the game right now, and she is like put her up against anybody unmatched. And so she does commentary for she does like the in studio show
Brady Thomas 39:00
presenter.
Traci Thomas 39:00
Yeah, is what they call it in the U.K.
Brady Thomas 39:02
That's what they call in the UK.
Traci Thomas 39:04
We're very international. I'm giving you America. He's giving you global. Are you saying one of your many languages? But Premier League is accessible because of the Peacock piece, and then also it's the going to be the most like American sports in the sense that there are a lot of teams that are there's only five teams that have ever won. I don't know. There's only a handful of teams that have ever won, but there are plenty of teams that compete. And then there's also like the Darbies, which everybody has. But like there's a lot of history and hatred, and it's it's the messiest, gossipiest, and also it's in English, so that helps if you are not like my brother. Quadruple lingual, apparently he can say every league name in its local pronunciation. But so that's my pick for people.
Brady Thomas 39:52
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 39:53
and plenty of stars. Your Erling Holland is going to be there.
Brady Thomas 39:57
Yeah, your Declan Rice.
Traci Thomas 40:00
If you're into that kind of thing,
Brady Thomas 40:02
so for sure. I mean, I think unless you have either linguistic skills from another nation, or you have familial ties, if you're just looking for an easy way to continue to follow the sport, I think the English Premier League is the best way. ESPN even kind of covers what happens there.
Traci Thomas 40:18
And the quality is great there, and it's not like MLS.
Brady Thomas 40:21
It's the highest level. It's the highest level. English English teams compete at the highest level in Europe and are winning. You know, outside of PSG winning the last two years. I mean, again, PSG is a big club. Barca, Real Madrid are big, big clubs. But there's always going to be an English team competing across Europe, and then you know there's different level. I mean, we can get all into this, but
Traci Thomas 40:44
they do something called a relegation, which is the best.
Brady Thomas 40:47
Yeah, for sure. If you are someone who lives in a city where your baseball team, your basketball team, your football team just perennially sucks, the English Premier League, or all actually all of European soccer has the solution. It's called pro rel or promotion and relegation. If you are in the bottom three, typically in any given year, you drop down out of your league into a lower league.
Traci Thomas 41:12
Right, so like NBA, and then if you're one of the three worst teams, you go to NBA Junior. Yeah, you go to the G League. You go to the G League,
Brady Thomas 41:17
and and you play down there the whole year. And then if you're in the top three. You can come back up, and three other losers take your place. And so, there is actual stakes throughout the whole season in the league campaigns across all of these different nations, which is pretty cool. So you'll have teams that absolutely sucked that are playing games towards the end of the season where their whole fan base is living and dying by every play because they're trying to avoid what is almost like the worst case scenario, the death sentence of being sent down to the play with the little kids below.
Traci Thomas 41:48
Right, right, and also, okay, something else people need to know about these leagues is that there's no playoffs.
Brady Thomas 41:57
Playoffs.
Traci Thomas 41:58
So something that Americans like about sports is like at the end of the season the best teams play off and then they actually start playing not in soccer they are playing it's just based on how you do you get three points if you win one point if you tie zero points if you lose the whole season matters or doesn't matter depending on how your team does but there's no playoff but what there is, which is also a great starting point for people who want to watch some soccer, maybe not a ton of soccer, want to get into it, maybe want to taste what teams are options for them, is the Champions League, which you've mentioned a few times. Could you explain to the people what the Champions League is?
Brady Thomas 42:36
The league campaigns again, you play a set number of games. the The top team based on points three if you win one if you tie as you mentioned is crowned the winner. The game at the very beginning of the season is just as important at the game at the very end.
Traci Thomas 42:51
Arsenal just won the Premier League for people who are like I keep seeing Arsenal. They just won the Premier League.
Brady Thomas 42:55
Yep. And so the way that that works is at the end of each year they take the top performers and there's it depends on how good your league is. They do these ranking things, but for example, in England, their top four or five teams get promoted into the Champions League for the next season. So if you were good last year, the following season you get to be in the Champions League, and that's that. Those games are not on the weekend, like the regular league games are in the middle of the week, and they call them going to Europe. And when you go to Europe, big money, high exposure, and an opportunity to win the Champions League, which is a knockout tournament. Well, in the beginning, it's a it's actually the World Cup. It's like group play. Play group play, and then the winners get advanced to the knockout stage. But it's happening
Traci Thomas 43:39
throughout the season.
Brady Thomas 43:40
Throughout the season.
Traci Thomas 43:41
Saturday you're playing in the Premier League. Wednesday you're playing Dortmund in Germany.
Brady Thomas 43:46
Away, yeah, exactly. And so it's a really fun way to see these amazing clubs, you know, get paired off against either kind of smaller minnow clubs from Europe or other big clubs. So, for example, the English league will likely get five people. The top five go to the Champions League, whereas in Ukraine or Moldova they might get one team, and in in in Portugal might get two because they're you know a mid-level team. Spain might get three. So it just depends. But this is a cup competition that's happening during the season at the same time as you're paying in your league, and then in addition to that, each nation typically has two other cup competitions. Yes. So we are Man City fans. Man City won several years ago. They won the the big treble, which means they won their league. They won their League Cup, yeah. They won. They won the Premier League. They won the FA Cup, and they also won in Europe. They won the Champions League.
Traci Thomas 44:46
Yeah,
Brady Thomas 44:47
and that's something that Barcelona's done. That's something that PSG just did. It's very uncommon, but when you see that a team is playing, you have to first look and see which competition they're playing because all four can be happening at the same time.
Traci Thomas 44:59
And the other thing. Okay, so the reason that I recommend the Champions League to people who are new is it's a great way to see which teams you like. You get to see a lot of teams from different leagues, but also you'll see a lot of the best players that you fell in love with in the World Cup because this is a this is a competition where conceivably Real Madrid could play Man United. So like you could see Dortmund or like you could see Harry Kane and Bayern Munich playing against Erling Haaland in Man City, and so if you just sort of want to see these familiar faces, and you're not really ready to commit to a whole season of Spanish fan or Spanish league fandom because there's only a few good teams, this is a fun way to do it. You'd get to see your guys playing, and you'd get to be part of something that does eventually become a knockout tournament, and then you could also pick. You could be like, "Oh, I'm having so much fun rooting for Arsenal. I'm going to try Premier Premier League next, and I'd get to watch these seen people again. So I feel like, for me personally, Champions League was the thing that made me more into City.
Brady Thomas 45:58
Yeah. So there is a reason why your soccer friend is absolutely insufferable.
Traci Thomas 46:03
Yes, because there's so much soccer.
Brady Thomas 46:05
Because there's so much to watch, and it's on at really inopportune times. For example, the Champions League matches will happen in the evenings during Tuesdays and Wednesday nights in Europe, which means they're smack dab in the middle of your workday in the U.S. So if you're going to pay attention, you kind of have to. There's a barrier to entry. You have to kind of fight for it. Same thing with Premier League. Like those games,
Traci Thomas 46:27
like four a.m.
Brady Thomas 46:28
on the weekends for California will happen at noon, between noon and 6o'clock in England, which can be like 456, a.m. So, your soccer friend who wants to tell you about everything-they actually, they actually woke up early. Yeah, they woke up early. They're doing everything they can because they really do care. So that little snottiness, that little part of it that you don't like, is their earned arrogance because they feel like you're a Johnny Come lately. But and also do the work, you'll get there.
Traci Thomas 46:55
Soccer fans are assholes. Like you're a soccer fan, I'm a soccer fan. It takes a certain kind of person to like this sport. You kind of have to be a jerk. I think.
Brady Thomas 47:04
Yeah, I mean, yes.
Traci Thomas 47:05
I I think that's fair, but also okay.
Brady Thomas 47:08
No there's banter. Soccer has banter, and that is this thing where it's like expected and understood that you're gonna talk shit.
Traci Thomas 47:15
Yes,
Brady Thomas 47:15
and it's not. I'm not gonna fight. You're not gonna fight over it. You're just gonna come up with better banter if you want to get chanting, yeah. So, like Manchester City has had a lot of success recently. They've won the league six out of the last nine years, or something like that. And so, our banter is that we're better than you. And everybody else's banter is that we cheated oil money and we cheated.
Traci Thomas 47:36
but the other thing, okay, to your point about having to work hard to watch it, a thing that I like about rooting for European soccer is that a lot of Americans don't watch, and it's not getting covered on ESPN. So you could record a game and watch it late at night, and you're probably not going to get spoiled. You take a few precautions, like no alerts from ESPN or whatever, but like you're pretty safe to watch a match a day later and be totally fine in a way that like that's just not happening in the NBA, like the NBA finals are going on, you're gonna find out. Okay, before we get out of this, one of the things that I love most about my brother, who is a know-it-all just like me, is that he's actually quite good at explaining things. And one of the things that you taught me about soccer, as I was watching, that changed this World Cup for me was about time and space. And I would love for you to tell people who maybe like are into soccer, have been watching soccer. They're going to pick up the Premier League with us. They're going to root for Man City because they want to be friends with us, obviously. And they're like, I kind of could like watch a match and feel how like one match felt different than another. Like what, what, like what makes the third place game between France and England feels so different than like Belgium, USA. Like they just felt like such different games. The pace felt different, or whatever. So, can you explain time and space?
Brady Thomas 48:52
So, yeah, typically, this is like soccer tactics, which is something they're giving you it all here at the stack. Something that typically comes later. Initially, you'll have a feel, and you'll just be like, "Oh, this game was really exciting, or "This game felt stodgy and boring. And usually, it has to do with what the teams are trying to do. So you have kind of your defensive-minded teams who really are not going to press. Meaning, when the other team gets the ball, they're just going to fall back into a defensive shape. You'll see they call that parking the bus.
Traci Thomas 49:22
You saw that at the end of the England Argentina game when Argentina came back when England was up one nothing and they pulled all their players and they just were trying to play defense and hold on. They did the game slowed down.
Brady Thomas 49:33
Yeah, exactly. They didn't want to play with the ball; they wanted to just sit back and defense. And so what they were trying to do was control the space and not the, not necessarily the whole space of the pitch, but the space in front of the goal. Right? They wanted to have full control over it, and they were willing to give up time, meaning they would let England, in this case, let Argentina have the ball with plenty of time. But they wanted to control the space, and so they were compressing it and not allowing Argentina to have. Space, what we call in between their lines, are like in their defense.
Traci Thomas 50:02
Yeah.
Brady Thomas 50:03
Okay. Versus what Spain did yesterday, where Spain was saying, "Look, we are gonna as soon as you get the ball, we are gonna press you, and we're gonna take away the time that you have. So make you make quick decisions, and in doing so, when we when Argentina had the ball, Spain immediately pressured them to take away the time, and and then in that case, what Argentina could have exploited was the space left behind or the space within the defense of Spain, but they clearly couldn't. They they couldn't overcome it
Traci Thomas 50:34
Right and so different teams, especially when it comes to national level, will have a different identity. Absolutely, and so like Spain has a way of playing, and they've been playing this way for decades. And every Spanish player you've ever loved, whether that's Pep Guardiola, who we particularly love, or Javi, or whoever Chavi, Chavi, it's with an X. It's hard to say. Okay, I don't speak Spanish. They are part of something, so you know what a Spanish soccer match is going to look like, regardless of if it's 2026 2016 or 1996 Last thing, we're going to do a quick, we're going to do a quick superlatives. Who was your breakout player of the tournament?
Brady Thomas 51:13
For me, I think it's hard to say this, but I thought Jude Bellingham was just so incredibly good.
Traci Thomas 51:19
Incorrect answer. The correct answer is the goalie from Cape Baird.
Brady Thomas 51:22
Oh yeah, for sure. Well, I mean, he wasn't even he wasn't. He broke out. Yeah, I guess that's true.
Traci Thomas 51:28
Okay, who had the best fans?
Brady Thomas 51:30
I'm gonna say Scotland.
Traci Thomas 51:31
That's the correct answer. Okay, who was the biggest disappointment of the tournament?
Brady Thomas 51:35
South Korea.
Traci Thomas 51:36
Okay, I was gonna go Germany because Germany was like supposed to win.
Brady Thomas 51:40
Maybe, there were a lot of people that had picked South Korea to go deep, and so to see them go out before that was pretty disappointing.
Traci Thomas 51:46
Okay, worst fans. Anybody have a bad showing?
Brady Thomas 51:49
I mean, Argentina.
Traci Thomas 51:51
That's pretty dark.
Brady Thomas 51:53
The way that they behaved, and obviously you're catching vignettes, but you're seeing these things that I show speed. They were being racist team. Yeah, I mean that was.
Traci Thomas 52:02
I had an Argentinian in my DMs this week. She came back. Biggest winner of the tournament could be a player, could be a country, could be Spain. Sort of not, but
Brady Thomas 52:12
unfortunately, I'm gonna say FIFA. Ooh, I feel like FIFA got they didn't deserve it. They got everything out of this. They expanded the tournament, so they got tons more money. They totally dove in on just being greedy as hell, and it was proven to be successful. And I think we're going to see a larger tournament very soon, and more of the same money hungry tactics. So, unfortunately, FIFA is probably the biggest winner.
Traci Thomas 52:34
Okay, I this is where I was going to say Jude Bellingham.
Brady Thomas 52:36
Okay,
Traci Thomas 52:36
I feel like he was he was the star of the show. People were like, I can't wait to watch the third place match. Yeah, that was fun. Most dramatic moment, biggest best. What's the what's the defining moment?
Brady Thomas 52:49
I think for me, the one I'll remember as the pure drama was that Mexico England match in Azteca.
Traci Thomas 52:55
That match was so good. I wasn't gonna say that, but that's probably the correct answer.
Brady Thomas 52:58
That was like pure drama. The way that when England went down and they had to defend for 20 minutes, like that was special.
Traci Thomas 53:05
So great. I don't really have a dramatic. I-I was gonna say probably like just the Argentina ref of it all, like how every match Argentina at the end came back, and you could argue it was because of bad call. Like it was just so dramatic. It was like, what are they gonna do? Even yesterday when Spain scored, we were like, "Okay, call in the refs. Okay, I, I, and then my special shout out, just like one person, place, or thing that you're like, this, this is part of this World Cup that we haven't really mentioned.
Brady Thomas 53:34
If I had a shout out, I would just ask Mauricio Pachetino, please stay, please stay and continue to coach this US Mets national team, we need you. I know that the U.S. fell apart against Belgium. Belgium was a better team, is a better team. It showed the different levels of class, but the way that the United States played in that first half against Paraguay, like oh my god, it was a thing of sensual beauty. Thrilling, and just to think that we have that level,
Traci Thomas 53:59
yes,
Brady Thomas 54:00
we need that type of manager who believes that we can play that way. We don't need the type of managers we've had in the past. So that would be my shoutout. Just please stay. Please stay.
Traci Thomas 54:09
Okay, here's my my shoutouts. Quick, they're quick and they're short. There's two. One is the Black American team players. I felt like everybody went in talking about Christian Pulisic, and everybody came out talking about Tyler Adams, Wesson McKinney, Tillman, Balligan, Balagun loved them. And then my other one is Erling Holland's fashion and Birkenbag collection.
Brady Thomas 54:31
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 54:31
huge.
Brady Thomas 54:32
Yeah,
Traci Thomas 54:33
huge, and his hair ties.
Brady Thomas 54:36
So you knew this going in, though.
Traci Thomas 54:38
I knew about Erling Holland. I knew about his hair. So I did not know about the actual Birkin bags. I had not. I knew about his fashion. I knew about the pajama chic because he's on our team. He's on Man City. So when everybody, I I knew people were going to be excited about him. I was excited when the Norwegians started doing that rowing. I was like, oh, people are going to freak over him, and he delivered on his socials. But I feel like his. Birkin collection, his his clothing choices. I think he had on like green pajamas at some point. I don't know. And then the raccoon. My God. All right. Well, Brady Thomas. People can find you at Pep Talk Mortgage, which is a shout out to our favorite soccer manager, Pep Guardiola.
Brady Thomas 55:16
You believe it.
Traci Thomas 55:17
If you need a mortgage, act fast. Brady Thomas and friends, Team Thomas will get you locked in at a low rate and help you with a two-home tango.
Brady Thomas 55:26
There we go. Thanks for thanks for having me on the podcast after 40 years.
Traci Thomas 55:31
You're hey, the show's only eight years old, so it's only been eight years. But hey, you finally got the call up. Greg Berholter never been on the podcast. Promoted Jürgen Klopp never been on the podcast though. Open invitation, Jurgen Greg, don't call. Okay, love you. Thank you, everyone, for being part of the Stacks Pack and part of the Unstacks community. And we will be back next month with me doing something else stupid that you don't listen to. But if you're here at the end, thank you. See you in the Stacks.