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Charles Boehm and Jeremiah reminisce about Seattle’s glow during the USMNT match
1 Playsin 2 hours
Charles Boehm joins Jeremiah to discuss how Seattle put on its best face for the USMNT match vs Australia in terms of weather, infrastructure and performance on the pitch. They also expressed some hope that we’ll get to see more games here sooner than later.
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Transcript
Introduction of Will Bruin and Sounder at Heart podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
Hi, I'm Will Bruin, and I was just recognized as a Seattle Sounders legend. Now I get to do voice reads for the Sounder at Heart podcast network. Here we go.
00:00:11
Speaker
Come
Celebrating the Seattle Sounders' MLS Cup victory
00:00:12
Speaker
on. Hey, O'Shaughness. Let's The Seattle Sounders have done it. MLS Cup winners. The Sounders rule the region.
00:00:43
Speaker
Ooch of a gooch! All creatures, great and small! Rothrock gonna collect it, he does about, runs into the advertising order. Low to our left, ball goes in!
Sponsorship by Full Pull Wines and connection to fans
00:00:56
Speaker
Oh, what a Where's my copy? got bunch of them How many do you cost them? 50 bucks.
00:01:08
Speaker
I'll deadline you.
00:01:18
Speaker
This episode of Nos Arietes is sponsored by Full Pull Wines, a Seattle-based wine retailer and proud sponsor of Nos Arietes since 2011. Full Pull was founded in 2009, is based in Seattle, and is owned and operated by longtime Sounder supporters.
00:01:32
Speaker
They offer the best boutique wines of the world to members of their mailing list, with special focus on their home, Pacific Northwest.
Jeremiah O'Shan and Charlie Boehm discuss Seattle soccer events
00:01:42
Speaker
Welcome back to another episode of Nos Adientes on the Sounder at Heart Podcast Network. i am Jeremiah O'Shan and joining me as has become increasingly frequent is my good buddy and colleague, Charlie Boehm.
00:01:58
Speaker
Welcome back, Charlie. Thank you, Jay. It's so great to be back on with you. And I'm still basking in the glow of a wonderful trip, not only to Seattle, but to the O'Shan household.
00:02:10
Speaker
Listeners, Jeremiah and his family graciously opened their doors to me for three nights. Yeah. Three or four nights. Three nights. Three nights. three nights it was It was incredible. And myself and and Adam Bells of the Scuff Podcast. And then we even put up, ah at my request, we we put we sheltered, provided one night of shelter to ah another journalistic colleague who had unluckily had a bus canceled. so um So the the the wife and kids were remarkably...
00:02:41
Speaker
hospitable after all that yeah it was i will say it felt like a lot you know it's funny because it went by very quickly but it also felt like we went through a lot in three days it's true it's true and even even recorded this is our second uh podcast recording in in three days yeah we did give you ah your literal dining room table yeah Exactly. If you are a completist and you really want the full picture of what Charlie and I have been doing, go make sure to check out the scuffed podcast. They ah ripped one off right before we like, as we were getting ready to head out to the airport, he said, let's, let's record. And, ah and so that was, That was a podcast where we talked a little bit more about the technical aspects of the game. We aren't going to so much do that today. I think I'm more interested in getting your perspective on sort of the atmosphere and the environment and maybe what this says about...
Seattle's role in FIFA and U.S. soccer events
00:03:38
Speaker
Seattle's role in future FIFA tournaments, but also its role in U S soccer, because it does seem like Seattle has been at best an afterthought in U S soccer's planning in U S soccer's, uh,
00:03:54
Speaker
you know, the way that they they do things. We haven't hosted a match by U.S. soccer's behest, I believe, since 2013. And that was in the World Cup qualifier. And at that time, it seemed like a watershed moment. You know, we wrote a whole magazine article about it in in the latest issue of four. Charlie, of course, wrote that. And at the time, I remember feeling like, oh, man,
00:04:18
Speaker
ah they're going to move the the Mexico game here. We should be hosting Mexico. This is the future of U.S. soccer is ah home crowds in the Pacific Northwest. There's all these advantages to be had.
00:04:30
Speaker
Let's go. And the if you had asked me in 2013 if it would be ah almost 15 years the next time that U.S. soccer – well, that would be the last time U.S. soccer would choose to have a game, a men's game in Seattle – I would have thought that was crazy because everyone seemed to think it was so good.
00:04:49
Speaker
And so in case you're wondering where, where is 2016? Well, 2016 was e a coma ball decision. And that was just a happenstance of the way that the draw were of the, ah the bracket worked out.
00:05:02
Speaker
And of course, World Cup was, you know, U.S. soccer had something to do with the bid of us ah the Sounders being or sorry, with Seattle being included in the bid. But again, it was completely on FIFA to decide where these games were going to be.
00:05:17
Speaker
And in any way, I don't know what the question is, but what do you i don am I? it am i am i Is it it's fair that I'm a little I'm confused, but also hopeful?
00:05:29
Speaker
Well, the the logistical aspects of this, the reason that that USSF and
00:05:37
Speaker
it's mainly them, right? but yeah Because the Gold Cup has been around too. But the the main thing that always comes up, of course, is the artificial turf at Lumen Field, a.k.a. Seattle Stadium for this month.
00:05:49
Speaker
And the distance for European-based players to travel. I think we've got a... We're now so talking about a perfect seven wins, zero losses, zero draws, all-time competitive matches in Seattle for the U.S. s men's national team. And that Those numbers talk pretty loud. So I know things like flight distances and distance of travel. And yeah actually, it was funny. One of the things I didn't expect to learn from Iran's covering Iran versus New Zealand last week was that one of the things their coach said was, you know, you're supposed to do
00:06:22
Speaker
when you when you travel, you're supposed to do an an hour for each time zone, basically, in terms of your acclimation process, like e each time zone you cross. So like that just gives you an idea that they're, which is part of why they had disruption with with having to shift their training camp and everything for the World Cup. But when you think about people People feel they're real smart, right? And it's it's entirely possible. I'm not going name any names because I don't know this with certainty. But if you just do the little math and look back at who is in charge of what entities and had the last word on what decisions in the 13-year process that we're talking or or time span we're talking about, it's possible that there's someone who knew more about the the mathematical, you know physiological, and periodization formulas than they did about...
00:07:08
Speaker
the heart and soul of of soccer in the United States. So so maybe they galaxy brain themselves into deciding that that was the trumping the the the trump card or whatever. and it just it happens. But at this point,
00:07:21
Speaker
And I say all this knowing that the the the qualification process, when when the MNT has to start doing that again for 2030, it's going to be a lot easier, frankly, for lack of a better word, because of the expansion of this World Cup. So we're we're going to experience this after everyone else because we qualified automatically for this one.
00:07:38
Speaker
But that there won't ever be, ah ah in my in my opinion, there won't ever be a true... high stakes, zero sum U.S. versus Mexico world Cup qualifier home and away the way that there has been for decades with the Hex and then most recently with 2022, the octagonal. But if you do want to play a high stakes games on U.S. s soil and you're concerned about the mix of ah the strength of support, the ability to to drown out away supporters and expatriate community supporters. You got to come up here. and and And whether or not listeners want to hear it, like, honestly, Providence Park down in Portland falls into this too. They almost never go there as well. Never heard of it. No, I don't actually, you you know, you make up a a fair, you make a fair point. I don't know that they've actually, i don't know that the men have,
00:08:25
Speaker
ever played at providence park they played a gold cup there oh that's right that's right and i think there were games i think there may have been games that uh maybe at other venues um like way back in the olden days going back yeah yeah yeah um to the last century so uh but yeah it's it's just it's a combination of turf and travel and let's let's all set that aside man these guys get used to long haul fights like Well, let's also put it a special. Yeah. And I don't mean to start on a sort of petty point here. And I feel a little guilty for doing that. But let's talk a little bit about what this game was in terms of the atmosphere and the environment that it created.
Highlighting Seattle's soccer culture with massive marches
00:09:05
Speaker
And I got to tell you, it was funny, you know, when we were sitting at the dinner table or doing that podcast, I had been looking for video of the march.
00:09:15
Speaker
And I had found one video that seemed to show a impressive but not necessarily overwhelming march size. And in the meantime, since then, I have found some more videos of the march. And I got to tell you, I was wrong.
00:09:27
Speaker
ah The march was massive. It was i I, one person who actually recorded it and who keeps track of this stuff said it took 11 minutes ah for the, for the March to clear. And I assume that was sort of at its peak, but that is a massive ah group of people.
00:09:44
Speaker
And sure. By the time they got to the stadium, it wasn't quite what it was at other points in the March, but there, there is some video of this March that are really kind of astounding.
00:09:56
Speaker
And i have to say, ah kudos to the American outlaws and everyone else who went out to the harbor steps and created this rally that was very, very impressive. And I think may have changed a lot of people's perspectives on just how much or open their eyes a little bit on how much of a soccer town in Seattle is. Now, there's obviously a lot of outer towners here. This is not all Seattle. I don't want to take all the credit, but there is something about the way the environment that Seattle creates that brought this out.
00:10:28
Speaker
Yeah, and it's, listen, I mean, even in Seattle where the local MLS club and two two comparable looks that I don't ever want to exclude NWCL and women's soccer, but, you know, because it is it is a Venn diagram. there's There's connections here. But in general, we're just speaking about this, about Seattle as a market, right, it's the gold standard. note You know, I think Atlanta still, since they came in, are still technically running bigger crowds and thus a higher average attendance. But those routes, as we've seen recently with kind of some of their,
00:10:58
Speaker
uh lean years and the way that the crowds look different now than they did but early on nobody's done it better or longer a on a bigger scale particularly in mls than seattle has even when you have that though and national team game one a world cup match to bring out ah ah just a bigger different scale of uh a fan, a demographic, whether it's people coming in or people around the region who, for whatever reason, you know, haven't connected full on with, with the sounders or rain. So the scale of everything, right. That building was, was pretty packed. I think if there were any empty seats, as we said the other day, they were, they were,
00:11:39
Speaker
Very, very scattered and few and far between maybe up in the corners. But essentially, the place is full. The place is full early, right? This is a noon kickoff. And I was marveling at the scale of the the pre-gaming. And yet everybody was still in there well before kickoff. And and it just it's such ah the the the the net you're throwing out is so much bigger. And the hope is that maybe even, you know, maybe people remember.
00:12:02
Speaker
or Or feel so good that they they come out and and check out a ah Sounders game when when they get back to back on the field starting next month. Yeah, so you to your point, and I guess maybe I should have made a point of ah bookmarking this and sharing the the image, but I recently saw an image of from outside the stadium, looking into the stadium, looking must have been like during the national anthem or something.
00:12:27
Speaker
And, you know, you expect to see some stragglers just kind of rushing in. and um like on the It was shot from the north end. So it has the concourse and sort of the that huge ah staircase that leads into the stadium.
00:12:44
Speaker
There was not a single person there. like outside, like there there was not a visible person outside of the the stadium and, or like in that, in that area, like every single person made sure to get to their seats.
00:12:57
Speaker
And it did create a really, you know, it was an inspiring moment. You know, I, i am not someone who, you know, I'm someone who over the last five or six years, has really started to, you know, get a little down on the whole national anthem thing. I have decided to to sit oftentimes, or if I stand, I sort of like do the bare minimum.
00:13:18
Speaker
ah And I just don't feel like it's always appropriate to be playing these in in club games. But man, on a day like this, I was ready to belt out the the national anthem in the press box. I mean, it was it was really inspiring stuff. And I don't, you know, again, and I'm not someone who gets worked up or excited about gratuitous shows of military force.
00:13:38
Speaker
But when those Blackhawk helicopters flew over the stadium, that was pretty awesome.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, there's just there was, I thought, the appropriate blend of pomp and circumstance. and um We even had the ah the the colors, right? that You had that that ripple effect from that the wavy Waldos, as I and others have been calling them, the the you of the U.S. red and white hooped kits. And then you had these bright splashes of gold with the Aussies clustered behind one goal. And in the corner, I believe it was the... they in the Southeast corner, uh, upper deck and, and, and they played their part in the the experience. And i think everybody loved having a, you know, a good spirited, bunch for an opponent who, who, who have clearly traveled all this world cup and maybe Seattle is, um,
00:14:26
Speaker
and Vancouver are somewhat easier trips if you're if you're coming from down under than other parts of the US. So it was just ah the the collective experience. and And you and I were out at Fast Fashion Brewing at seven, eight in the morning, something like that. yeah yeah Not the first ones there by any means. no it was It was remarkable. that was good i mean, we got there a little bit before eight and Fast Fashion was basically full.
00:14:50
Speaker
And even more even more than that was on the way into the stadium, you know, going past the, you know, I went down the, the waterfront and pier 62 admittedly, I guess there was a men in blazers live show being taped. And so maybe that was a big part of why, or being, being broadcast. And, but that was already full, you know, bars at 8am were already sort of lines out the doors.
00:15:16
Speaker
It was buzzing with activity. And this is four hours before kickoff and not just four hours before kickoff, but, But like you said, four hours before a noon kickoff, this is might have been, you know, I guess the World Cup game, the first World Cup game here was also at noon. But I can tell you for certain that the atmosphere was many multiples levels above that. and And I think a big part of it was that it wasn't just the 67,000 or so people that were inside the stadium. I would be willing to bet that there was another 75 to 80,000 people outside the stadium in Pioneer Square. I mean, you if you've seen these videos of people at ah Brick Park, or you've seen, you know, I, my buddy was down at Westlake Park, which is on the honestly on the other side of downtown.
00:16:02
Speaker
And it was packed. I mean, it was more packed than I've ever seen it, frankly. And I was just sort of blown away at how much, and these, and to me, these are probably more likely actual Seattleites, whether or not Seattleites were all in the stadium.
00:16:16
Speaker
And it just really goes to show what a, what a soccer town Seattle is, but also I think it it illustrates how far U.S. soccer has come, how much ah the region has sort of embraced the World Cup despite all the other things that are going on. And it was, you know, and I also think it says something about this urban stadium that we have that is really unlike anything else in the United States, at least as far as the World
Seattle's readiness for hosting large soccer events
00:16:42
Speaker
Cup goes. And i don't know. I just think this was this was really the platonic ideal of what everyone hoped it would be, I think.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, I use the phrase fever dream on the scuffed pod because I'm in i'm in my 40s and my one of my formative experiences in my youth was going to World Cup 1994 matches in in Dallas. And um I think I'm i am who I am and do what I am in large part because of that experience in an impressionable age. And and that back then, days like this were or sort of the vision and it it it didn't feel like You know, it felt like maybe there were a couple places in the country where you could maybe someday get to it in my lifetime.
00:17:26
Speaker
And the fact that this is Seattle's, I think, still at the vanguard, not the only one we've seen the spread. Right. And yeah and the the culture has grown. And somebody, was it you? I think we were talking about whether this is the the last, the only time or only other time, you know, we'll have the World Cup here in our lifetimes.
00:17:47
Speaker
But people are pushing back against that idea now. Maybe maybe FIFA is it's just enjoying this and enjoying these numbers, these these financial numbers too much.
00:17:57
Speaker
to not come back in ah in a few decades. Who knows? I do think, I think the, the, the, the rotation process should, should mean it's a very long time before the world cup comes back here, but now it's such a massive event.
00:18:08
Speaker
And this, and even you, you really feel that um I came home for a couple of days to see my family before I go back out to to l LA to resume coverage of the USMNT tonight. And,
00:18:20
Speaker
world this This event now with 48 teams and all these groups and four matches a day, like you're going to have to put together NATO-type operations to to pull off a hosting effort. And and and you could just you could do it on six months' notice here because the sheer scale in our...
00:18:37
Speaker
our sporting infrastructure. So maybe this is all going to happen again. I don't know. But the, the point point is there's it was just, it felt like Seattle felt that l LA was cool. um was very Hollywood crowd for that first match against Paraguay.
00:18:51
Speaker
Seattle felt more like it felt more like, you know, our Liverpool perhaps. Wow. Well I'll let you say that ah rather than me, but yeah,
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00:20:56
Speaker
Hacks and Ferments is a proud sponsor of that Sounder at Heart podcast network. you know It is funny, though, because you you think like the next World Cup is going to be a joint effort between ah Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and I guess there will be some matches in Uruguay as well. And then and and i guess it's Saudi Arabia is somehow going to manage to host all the games, which is is seemingly... they're just going to build some new cities, I think. If there's not enough cities, they'll build some...
00:21:27
Speaker
Well, and it's and that's sort of what it's becoming is that there's really... we're We're really narrowing down what... If this is what FIFA wants, for better or for worse, if FIFA wants to have these mega events, they' it's going to be increasingly difficult to kind of move it around at the way they have moved it around
Infrastructure readiness for World Cup events in the U.S.
00:21:43
Speaker
in the past. And it's become... You know, like someplace like United States, let's be honest, is able to do this without having to build a bunch of white elephants. And, you know, every single stadium that was used for this was effectively built already.
00:21:59
Speaker
And sure, you know, Toronto had to add some seating and and a bunch of stadiums had to be retrofitted in one way or another. But the heavy lifting had already been done. years if not decades ago in order for the u.s to pull this off infrastructure wise and you know especially in a place like seattle where you know we have pretty decent transit i did not i have not heard any complaints about people getting in and or out of downtown i'm sure there were long lines to get on the light rail but people managed to do it without uh without too much drama.
00:22:30
Speaker
I saw something that there were more than 60,000 line bike rides into downtown, into and out of downtown ah for the game. i mean, it's been, there's a lot of ways that my point being, there's a lot of ways for people to get here. And, and, and so this is, i don't know, this is again, for better or for worse, it's hard to imagine FIFA seeing how this is all going down and thinking, eh, whatever, maybe in 50 years, we'll do it again.
00:22:56
Speaker
they could even They could just go back to a different set of mega stadiums. in in Right, exactly. right exactly exactly you could do another In 10 years, you could do another World Cup or 12 years, you could do another World Cup here without doing any overlap and not really miss out on much.
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, i I should also tell this too. So I like Jeremiah took the end bells ah took the the bike ride in downtown from from Jay's place and um I should have it was it would be great to do it at pace and feel feel what it what it was like buy was stopping constantly because I kept having these jaw dropping Seattle.
00:23:37
Speaker
you know, sunrise in Seattle kind of moments with with bridges and waterways and mountains and space needles. And it was so I took a ton photos. I've got to still got to throw those up on my Instagram.
00:23:48
Speaker
But it was just such a photogenic day in every way. I feel like I've kind of had a bookend experience now. Remarkably in my in the deck, more than a decade now of full full time soccer work. I've only been up to Seattle for work twice now. Maybe it'll be three ah next month. We'll see if if they if the US advance.
00:24:05
Speaker
uh to the round of 16 but i've now had the inverse i so i came for 2019 mls cup and it was uh it was it was clear and crisp i think by december in seattle standards that that day um but but certainly brisk and i i rode a line bike from from downtown to to lumen field for that one and had the you know the crisp air and and caught the march to the match and then this was sort of like uh the opposite and it's a it was a day for the for the tourism board i think to to savor everything seemed to to line up and oh my god special day so uh so yeah i think i think also the it's ah always fun to hear what the overseas media has to say right and people that i think um yeah aussies as well as european journalists had had heard about lumen and had heard all the stuff about the acoustics i think that's the sort of like the talking point that gets the most attention is that it it often wins those kind of noise rankings or whatever else but then i think they saw that the uh
00:25:04
Speaker
The the school scale of the place and the well-organized everything was quite impressive in the ease of of transit. Because I can tell you getting in and out of that stadium. And and it was what I didn't even I didn't even know this, Jeremiah, somehow until I'm leaving the stadium after being getting kicked out of the press box and still having ah one more thing to finish writing, walking down the street just outside of Lumen and realizing Oh, there's a there's a there's an endgame happening this evening because that's one of those notes of the 2013 World Cup qualifier was annoyingly. I think for many people, the attendance that at at USMNT versus Panama was capped because of the overlap right with the Mariners game. And that I i don't know if it's just FIFA's got a little more pull or everybody's more confident in the infrastructure, but lot of people flowing in out of the the waterfront that that that Friday.
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah, it was pretty funny. I left the stadium around four o'clock and it was almost as many people come. It felt like as many at that point, you know, and this is two hours after the game ended, but there were, it felt like there was as many people coming into the stadium as, or into the stadium area as there were going out. And obviously the people coming in were all wearing Mariners gear. It was very obvious who was who. And it was, it was remarkable.
00:26:24
Speaker
It was sort of just an amazing sporting day in Seattle. It was, ah like you said, it was the kind of day that the tourism board absolutely dreams about because this is the kind of thing where people go to themselves, I got to get back here somehow.
00:26:39
Speaker
And i don't know what the, the, the effect will ultimately be on the Sounders or Seattle soccer in general. But for this day, I got to think that every, you know, i I wrote in the editor's note for four that I don't think that Seattle is going to be the best kept secret anymore.
00:26:59
Speaker
ah that I think everyone is going to kind of realize what an amazing place this place that this, what an amazing place this is to be, especially in the summer. And that was on absolute full display. Another little anecdote. I have been, you know, I'm on Instagram and I'm browsing it. My Instagram feed is just full of people talking about how great it is. And it's not just, ah you know, the the local TV stations interviewing people, that's all that's always fun. And and then that's nice. But how many European bloggers and, ah and influencer types are just talking about what a great time it was, and sort of their their new experience of, or or they're oftentimes joy at being able to show
00:27:44
Speaker
their countrymen, how wonderful America and Seattle, for sure, but America even in general, can be in that it is, you know, for all the the obstacles that we put up for people to to come visit this game. And you know, some of them we put up ah through visas and and various immigration tactics, but also FIFA with their ticketing prices. And they're all these for all these negative things that were these barriers that were were put on fans coming into our country, it's still it's shining through. like there is It's just like the negativity, which I hope at some point we can we can sort of deal with. Like, hey, if FIFA ends up getting sued by various attorneys general over their ticketing processes, bravo, I'm all for that. i don't want i don't want this all to go away.
00:28:35
Speaker
But I think what it it showed was that This is an amazing event and that no matter how much FIFA may try and no matter how hard the United States may try, like the, the unity of what sport can do for people ultimately broke through and is breaking through.
00:28:54
Speaker
So let's get to let's get to the real question here, Jeremiah, which is how are you guys going to recreate that in Renton in a few years' time? Oh, come on. i know. I know. that is it is i do I do honestly wonder, and i and I hope at some point we get to talk to some people in the Sounders about if this has affected, has this done anything to sort of change the outlook? Because it is, let's be honest, it's hard to imagine this kind of thing happening Like there's no way that the sounders are going to benefit ah in the same way if they are
00:29:27
Speaker
currently playing in a C in a stadium in Renton. And, and i know that that what they're, they they will always say is like, we can always play big games in Seattle. We can always go back there and play our, if we need to play an one-off game or two-off game or whatever at Lumen field, it will be there for us to use.
00:29:46
Speaker
And i mean, I guess there's some truth in that, but I also can't help, but feel like moving out of the city is going to, And this is not a dig on Renton. Renton is a a honestly a wonderful place. I love Renton. But let's also be honest that Renton is not as centrally located as Seattle. it is not as well connected to the ah mass transit infrastructure. And to put a stadium out there, I feel like is just undoing so much of what has made the Seattle Sounders successful.
00:30:18
Speaker
And you know and and i hope there's some rethinking and there is some you know efforts by, if not the Sounders themselves, people outside of the Sounders to look for ways to try to make it work in CF.
00:30:32
Speaker
And listen, i your listeners are going to super love me for bringing up Portland not once but twice in the same episode. But this is what was what was really revolutionary about what about Portland's entry into MLS, which is a long time ago now, but for it for a major city to, and it was, I remember how contentious it was, but for a major city to essentially seed primacy to the soccer team on a prize downtown and all you know also a historic landmark of a stadium,
00:31:05
Speaker
at the direct expense of baseball, the American pastime was like revolutionary. And even if it was a whatever, I forget if it was a council vote of whatever the margin was, but like, and they've now since gotten to, you know, kind of even build it out further. That's the Timbers house and others people can use it, but it's their, their tenants. Right. And and that fundamentally, even if things are operating in a different, a smaller scale there than they are in Seattle, for example, it's,
00:31:32
Speaker
the the what What I imagine the Sounders execs, if they were they could respond to us right now, it would probably point to that, the sheer math right and the and the power dynamics because that was a gorgeous, beautiful grass pitch that the the US and Australia played on. You know that it's going to go away, right? Its its days are numbered and and it shouldn't be the case. Yeah.
00:31:56
Speaker
Yeah, just leave it leave it there until until until you absolutely have to take that's not how american But that's not how American facilities work, is it? So you know there's the there' already lines lines of power already set there. But maybe maybe that can evolve. you know Maybe if you push on the rock long enough, you you can move it.
00:32:17
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it is funny to to think about what role grass ultimately plays because the truth is that this game doesn't happen if there's not a grass surface. and Very good, too, right? You can't just roll out the cheapo stuff like no and it was some cities try to Yeah, and I know there's been some complaints about it being a little stickier than normal. I tend to think that's purely just a, it's it's dry.
00:32:39
Speaker
It's because it's been hot. And I would imagine, like, there there's been no, as best I can tell, at least the field here has held up really well. I know that there's been some complaints about MetLife Stadium, which in FIFA's absolute genius is where they wanted to host the World Cup final.
00:32:55
Speaker
But ah you know the every all all indications are that this is ah that the grass is is holding up well, that it's performing well within the desired ranges. And and and so it shows that you you know you can do it. Now, granted, it's being done under circumstances that are not normal, but you know whatever. Hopefully we can figure that out. ah Well, before we get out of here, I just wanted to get...
U.S. Men's National Team advances in World Cup
00:33:22
Speaker
a real quick assessment of the U.S. national team and sort of where they are in the table and what it means or the for their sort of path. ah Can you just sort of lay that out for us a little bit?
00:33:35
Speaker
Yes. So the U.S. s found themselves in the rare for any national team position and extraordinarily rare for the U.S. men's national team to be in this position of having clinched not just advancement to the knockout phase of the World Cup, but but first place in the group.
00:33:51
Speaker
with a game to spare. And it's, and and it's due to the the match that happened later on in the evening after the S's victory where Turkey were, were upset that they, they should took 65 shots across their, their first few matches and scored zero, zero goals. If I'm remembering you right.
00:34:10
Speaker
And so they've already been eliminated. And so that makes Thursday's us S Turkey a match at the Los Angeles stadium, according FIFA, a dead rubber, which is which is incredible. It's insane. Even when you calculate for, even when I calculated or tried to for the home field advantage, based on the form and the recent results of this team, I never saw this coming, that they would play very well, you'd be very impressive for the eye test, but then also have the numbers they needed to essentially, they can they they can, and I don't know if that they will, but they could start an entirely new 11,
00:34:46
Speaker
They can do whatever they want, but they're already and they know they're going to play their round of 32 match in San Francisco Bay Area, what we formerly knew as Levi's Stadium on July 1st.
00:35:00
Speaker
From what I understand, statistically, the most likely team they'll they'll face is is Bosnia and Herzegovina, although that's not yet been confirmed. But it will be a third-place finisher and one of the other groups.
00:35:11
Speaker
So that's that's just a great spot to to be in for the U.S. Short short travel. They're going remain at their base camp in Orange County until two days before that match when they'll up sticks for NorCal. From then on, they're actually they that that is the end of their base camp. they will They will go wherever the results take them in the knockout phase. But if they defeat that TBD third-place finisher NorCal,
00:35:34
Speaker
the Bay, they will move on to the round of 16 and they'll return to to Seattle and they will play what I believe is statistically most likely, but not confirmed to be Belgium in the round of 16.
00:35:48
Speaker
but Egypt is now a growingly possible. yeah like Egypt currently is technical is technically the only team in that group that controls their destiny, I believe. ah But yeah, Belgium, I guess, statistically seems to be ah still more likely to ultimately...
00:36:05
Speaker
uh be in that game uh Egypt there's I mean the the idea of playing Egypt to get to the quarterfinals uh in Seattle is you look Egypt is not is look great uh Mosola is still a world-class or maybe not a world-class player anybody he is a He is absolutely a very, very dangerous player, and they have a roster full of pretty dangerous players. So don't want to overlook Egypt by any stretch of the imagination. But if you had told me that the U.S. would be facing Egypt in Seattle for a chance to go to their second quarterfinal in almost a century, ah that would be a yeah, I'll take it kind of ah situation.
00:36:49
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. what Wow. it's It's weird to even say it, right? But but Christian Roldan was the first to to to speak to this, right? He had he had already done a little bit of math, or he and those around him ah in the squad. And they were, as we wrote about at Sounder at Heart, he got, apparently fielded a lot of queries, like got a lot of compliments for the city and the stadium and inquiries about what it's like to play Possibly. Yeah. So so that's that's a pretty fun thing to to kind of muse and let your wine wander wander about and think about figure about who might have been making those kind of noises. But but you can be sure, right? it's
00:37:27
Speaker
It's not a ah the the capitalistic reality, especially God only knows what those tickets are going to cost. But the sheer numerical reality say that you're asking a lot of any soccer community in U.S. or Canada to ask them to play, to to host and fill up the a big NFL-sized venue for two,
00:37:47
Speaker
um, high profile matches in what's going to, it'll be like two weeks or two and a half weeks. Like very yeah delight July, July 6th is potentially the date for the round of 16 game here. So go ahead and do the mat today's June 22nd. So, uh, and I'm not, I don't want to, i don't want to say anything or sound in a way, sound any kind of, um,
00:38:11
Speaker
like I'm assuming that they're going to get that far. they And they they certainly are not either, right? there's The knockout phase is um devilish devilishly difficult for anyone and there's so much that can happen. absolutely But to to know that you have the pathway down that you're coming back to a very comfortable home is is a great thing for the US and to have all this time to plan it.
00:38:31
Speaker
they can get their friends and family there more easily, like all the logistical stuff. It's so much, even though I, again, I shudder to think of what it will cost to get in the door for for a U.S. round of 16 match in Seattle. But if you can afford it or figure out a way to talk your way into the venue, it's one. Or if you've already bought your ticket, I, you know, a fair number of people have already bought their those tickets, I i imagine. So ah that, that people are fired up about the team, right?
00:38:56
Speaker
you know like that absolutely you were We were talking the other day about how the the the getting the price the door price for Friday's game against Australia had had and no jacked up dramatically just from immediately following the final whistle of the 4-1 win over Paraguay. So can you you can imagine how high people will be if the U.S. are rolling into the round of 16 and headed back to to one of their you know sort of the ancestral cradles of the sport. That's just ah super cool.
00:39:25
Speaker
Yeah, you know, it's funny. I do wonder if we'll be able to ah rec you know ah recreate that same magical environment that we recreated on Friday. But I can tell you first, i would think the TV audience at the very least will be, got to think that would be you know it will It will set up a new bar.
00:39:47
Speaker
We have not yet seen the numbers from Friday, the final numbers, but it looks like something like 15 million or so people watched on Fox, which I think would be the most on an English language TV broadcast.
00:40:01
Speaker
ah But we don't I don't think we have the streaming numbers yet. We don't have the Spanish numbers yet. I wouldn't be totally shocked if all when it's all said and done that we're close to 40 million ah viewers of that game, which would be A huge number. I mean, it's bigger, I believe, than any of the and NBA finals from this year.
00:40:19
Speaker
It would be by far the biggest number ah that the U.S. has ever had for a soccer match. I mean, there's a real possibility that we are, that we are in fact...
00:40:30
Speaker
breaking new ground when it comes to reaching mainstream sports fans and mainstream, you know, like not even just sports fans. I think ah that's one of the great things about the world cup is that it seems to appeal to a lot of like, not sports fans, like people who are just interested in cultural sort of events. ah But Charlie, I know you have to get on a plane to go back to the West coast. So we're happy that you will be out in our time zone at least. And hopefully we will, we will be seeing you in person again in a couple of weeks.
00:41:00
Speaker
Indeed. And and check ah check back to soundredheart.com for so great great hopefully great work from me and and lots of others on the team. Absolutely. All right. Well, let's get out of here. i am Jeremiah Shan signing off for Nos Audietes, which is part of the Soundred Heart Podcast Network. We'll catch you next time.
00:41:50
Speaker
Let's go Sounders.