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Can the Seattle Sounders Compete Against a Champions League Winner? (Feat. PSG Talk) - Ep. 109
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The Sounders are playing the best team in the WORLD! It’s time to wrap up the Club World Cup group stage, which will see the Seattle Sounders take on a pretty big foe: Paris Saint-Germain, who might just be the best team in the world at the moment. Ed from PSG Talk joins the show to preview Seattle’s matchup with the UEFA Champions League winners, who have world-class talent all over their roster, and just sustained a surprising 1-0 defeat to Botafogo. Will that loss have them out to prove a point against the Rave Green at Lumen Field?
Follow PSG Talk: https://psgtalk.com/
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Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.
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Transcript
Exciting Matchup: Seattle Sounders vs PSG
00:00:00
Speaker
Well sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. Quite the scorcher today. Well it's gonna be scorcher.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome in to special episode of Lobbing Scorchers. The Club World Cup is almost over for the Seattle Sounders, barring something miraculous.
00:00:33
Speaker
But before it ends, there is one more game. And it's a big one. They've played Botafogo. They've played Atletico Madrid. And now... The Seattle Sounders are about to play ah the best team in the world, which is still kind of crazy to think about.
00:00:52
Speaker
But a big matchup coming up. with Paris Saint-Germain on Monday afternoon at Lumen Field. ah The UEFA Champions League winners, they got some good players.
00:01:06
Speaker
It's going to be an interesting matchup and a historic one, and we're going to be previewing it here tonight.
Insights from PSG Talk
00:01:13
Speaker
And to help me do so, I have a special guest who's been gracious enough to give us his time this evening.
00:01:20
Speaker
His name is Ed from PSG Talk, and we're going to bring him on right now uh he is the founder of psg talk which best i can tell is one of the biggest english language outlets covering psg uh and he's going to let us know what the scoop is with the uefa champions league winners as they get set for a big matchup for them against the seattle sounders ed thank you so much for joining the show this evening how are you doing Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing wonderful. The Club World Cup is in full swing. We're still basking in that Champions League glory. So happy to be here you with you this evening and and talk a little about Saunders and PSG.
00:01:58
Speaker
Absolutely. Excited to get into this game with you. But ah before we do that, I do like to give our guests the opportunity at the top of the show to ah just tell our audience about the work that you do at a PSG Talk. I've looked at your website. You got written content. You got podcasts. You got a YouTube.
00:02:14
Speaker
ah So if you could just tell everyone just the type of stuff you guys do covering the team and where people can find your work.
PSG's Social Media Presence
00:02:20
Speaker
For sure. Yeah. So our home base, I like to call it is psgtalk.com. That's where you're going to find a lot of the transfer rumors and kind of the things that are out there, just news-based stories.
00:02:30
Speaker
um You can find us pretty much, as you said, everywhere on social media, probably most active on on X, but we're on Instagram if you find us there. So just search PSG Talk, you'll find us. And then, you know Ari, lately we've gotten into this substat game that everyone's been jumping on. So now we have sort of ah a premium outlet. We've got interview podcast interviews with ah journalists that cover PSG. So if you find us on Ensemble PSG on Substack, we're over there as well. So yeah, we're we're trying to do a little bit of everything.
00:02:59
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah, you guys are doing great work. And let's just get right into it, Ed, because ah for us out here in Seattle, this is an exciting matchup just for the novelty of it, getting to see the Sounders play a team like this.
PSG's Ligue 1 Dominance and Champions League Victory
00:03:15
Speaker
ah But, you know, I think it's also...
00:03:18
Speaker
ah Going into it, you don't want anything like embarrassing to happen. It could go off the rails. So I think there's a little apprehension in that respect. But what I like to do to ah start these interviews when we're previewing Seattle's upcoming opposition, which it's still funny. I'm usually like doing doing this about like FC Dallas, but...
00:03:38
Speaker
Now, and as we scout up PSG as Seattle's next um opposition, what I like to do is ask the get or give the guest my perception of their club as an outsider, as a neutral, ah what I've gathered from like my knowledge and research, and then you can tell me if my perception of PSG is accurate. ah So...
00:03:59
Speaker
PSG, the way that that I understand it is, ah you know, when you're talking about the hierarchy of French football, Ligue 1, there is PSG and there is everyone else.
00:04:10
Speaker
And it has been like that for generations. ah They win Ligue 1 every year. and to the To the point, it's like ah they have ah lack of competition domestically to the point where the barometer of success for PSG has very much been how they do in UEFA Champions League.
00:04:28
Speaker
And I feel like the story for many years has been that... ah PSG is kind of like almost on the tier of these clubs that win UEFA Champions League, but couldn't quite break through to be considered ah like a top, top club in the world as like a Barcelona or Real Madrid or Bayern Munich or those like big, big time powerhouses.
00:04:49
Speaker
But this last year, That all changed. PSG won a treble, if I'm not mistaken, ah and finally broke through and won UEFA Champions League. And to me, it felt like that Champions League victory was kind of symbolic of PSG sort of breaking through and making a statement that they are now one of the clubs in that tier where, ah you know, you look at a Real Madrid, you look at a Barcelona, and it's sort of like...
00:05:19
Speaker
We're not chasing you anymore. You're chasing us now. Would you say that that is kind of an accurate ah portrayal of where things stand with PSG coming off what has to be the best season in club history?
Team Cohesion Over Superstars
00:05:33
Speaker
I would say that's very optimistic. I don't know. I'm i'm a little bit more pessimistic as a PSG fan. I don't know if we can compare ourselves to Real Madrid. They have considerably more Champions League trophies than we do. We've just got the one.
00:05:45
Speaker
But, you know, clubs like Manchester United, they only have the three. So, you know, PSG can run off a few of more of these, then maybe we're in that conversation. um We'll go back to what you were talking about, Ligon. I think PSG have only in the past decade or so, they've only lost it twice. It was the they lost the league to Monaco when Kylian Mbappe was there. And then they've also lost it to Lille.
00:06:06
Speaker
So by and large, you're right there. We we do dominate. league on, we do have the financial advantage over pretty much every other team, especially with our TV deal. a lot of teams just don't have that money that say a premier league team would have.
00:06:18
Speaker
So we do dominate the league there. um We also won four trophies. We've got the league on the coupe de France trophy to champion in the beginning, and then the championking So we actually did the the quadruple there.
00:06:29
Speaker
So that was exciting. it's It's certainly the most successful season in PSG history. And so, yeah, I think now you can't call yourself a big club if you don't have that Champions League trophy. Now we've got it. Okay. Now everyone's looking up at us.
00:06:43
Speaker
We're playing attractive football. This wasn't a fluky type of win. This was a team that was put together by Luis Enrique, by Luis Campos. They've identified young talent, expensive. You know, this isn't, you know, upstarts that didn't come through the academy, but we've identified young players who would fit this team and,
00:07:01
Speaker
Luis Enrique has really put together this team identity. This you know culture is maybe overused a lot, but there really is a team first mentality, a team first culture now at PSG, which we didn't have in past seasons when you had Mbappe and Neymar and Messi, these kind of big global superstars. Now we've got a really cohesive team. So it's an exciting time to be a PSG fan, I'd say.
00:07:23
Speaker
I was going to ask you what ah what you think led to PSG finally breaking through and winning Champions League. And I think you kind of hit on some of the stuff right there. ah But like do you think it ah it was a matter of not being just a collection of superstars and becoming a real team like you're talking about? Is it as simple as that? ah Is there anything else you can pinpoint as to what Luis Enrique or the Club Brass did to assemble this team that did what so many PSG teams before them couldn't do and and win championships?
Young Talent and Strategic Play
00:07:58
Speaker
They really knocked it out of the park with several transfers. I would say really the the way that PSG went about winning this thing is I think that they have the two best fullbacks in the world. In Nuna Mendes on the left, Akraf Hakimi on the right.
00:08:10
Speaker
And when you have those two fullbacks getting forward and joining the attack and the ability that they have, and then you combine Kavar Scalia, who PSG signed from Napoli in January, and then you've got a young player like Desiree Douay, and then you throw in Ousmane Dembele. PSG are able to attack you down the wings with multiple players. These players are interchangeable.
00:08:30
Speaker
Sometimes Hakimi will end up as in a position that a traditional striker would be. So I think that with Luis Enrique's vision, that mentality that I mentioned earlier that he's put together, But make no mistake about it, PSG has a very talented collection of players who are fast and talented and have this does hunger and desire to win trophies.
00:08:51
Speaker
And like I said before, it's not something we always had. When Messi came, he had all the trophies. He was sort of warming up for the World Cup, kind of using PSG there. And so now we've got players who are hungry to kind of carve out their own name.
00:09:02
Speaker
and wanted to to do everything for the badge. And again, it sounds cliche, but really we saw that throughout the season. The season started and it was a little bit rough. We weren't scoring goals. i don't know if you how much you paid attention to the group stage of the Champions League, but PSG just barely scraped by it and got into the knockout stage and ended up winning this thing. So it's been a long process this season. They finally put it together and things came together at the right moment with this amazing collection of players.
00:09:28
Speaker
Talk to me about Dembele. I mean, this guy is the best player in the world, I think. ah You know, it's debatable, but i think now that he has the Champions League, he's absolutely in the discussion. And, I mean, anyone who's watched him play can see it.
00:09:48
Speaker
He does... everything He does everything. He's there. There's, there is no weakness to his game. And he just seems like, uh, I mean, he's like a God on the field, but he also just seems like the perfect makeup in terms of like character and the exact type of guy that you need to build around to become a world-class team like this. Uh, he's ah superstar in every sense of the word, uh, word, just like a joy to watch play.
00:10:19
Speaker
oh when you watch you watch him week in, week out, game in, game out, what would you say are the things that make him special? And what type of just person is he on the team?
00:10:31
Speaker
Yeah, so... With Usman Dembele, we've kind of all watched him at Barcelona and throughout his career. He's been really hampered with these injuries. Everyone knew the quality was there, but it always seemed like once he got going, boom, an injury would happen and just his career got stalled out.
00:10:47
Speaker
This season at PSG, he was finally able to stay healthy and put it together. I talked about those early season troubles for PSG. He was certainly part of that. He would get the ball in really dangerous positions and he'd sky a ball, a shot that go over the crossbar and end up, you know, 30 rows up.
00:11:01
Speaker
So he was really struggling. And then again, sometime around late November, December, he started putting it together and the goals started coming. And now after the Champions League win, you certainly have to put him and Lemmy and Yamal up there at the one, two, maybe ah Jim Belly, probably number one for the Ballon d'Or, which goes to the the overall best player. So yeah, i think you're saying that he's probably the best in the world. It's hard to argue with after the season he just had.
00:11:25
Speaker
What I think I like most about Dembele is, Yes, he's very skillful with the ball. He scores goals, but he hates to lose. You could see when they lost to Liverpool in that first game, you could just see in his eyes he was encouraging you know the players to like, come on, guys, let's let's get it together.
00:11:41
Speaker
You see him when he was pressing in that Champions League final. the The desire that we saw in him is is unlike anything I've seen in any PSG player in recent memory. He hates to lose. He wants to press. He wants to do everything. And if they do go down a goal, he's the first one to say, hey guys, let's go. Come on, let's put it together. We got this.
00:12:01
Speaker
Do you think he's going to play against Seattle? It seems like they've sort of been not really using him in this tournament, if I'm if i'm not mistaken. Yeah, so he picked up a bit of a muscle injury in the Nations League with France. And so ah initially it came out that he wouldn't play in the group stage. So I didn't anticipate seeing him at all. Earlier today, we're recording this on Saturday.
00:12:21
Speaker
um Earlier in the day, I saw that he was at training. And so hes he's out there. It seems like he's coming back. i I don't expect him to start. I think late in the game, if we need something, or even if the game's been decided by then, maybe come in for 15, 20 minutes just to get him a few touches.
00:12:38
Speaker
i Personally, I would be surprised if we do see him start against Seattle. i'm I'm a little torn on it because on one hand, I really want to watch him play in person. and I want ah like Seattle's guys to get the experience of like playing against a player like that.
00:12:54
Speaker
On the other hand, the thought of like our MLS defenders going against him, I'm like, oh, that could get dicey. It's the best the literal best player in the world right now. I think he's going to get the ball in the door. Yeah.
00:13:06
Speaker
ah yeah it's ah Yeah, it's kind of a weird balance, I feel, between ah genuinely I want to watch him play. I want Seattle to get to play against him, but it's also like
Unexpected Loss to Botafogo
00:13:18
Speaker
he's probably going to destroy our center backs, but it's fine. ah Ed, what are your thoughts on how the Club World Cup has gone for PSG so far? Because I think it's actually been interesting.
00:13:30
Speaker
ah You go out there in the first game, absolutely destroy Atletico Madrid. which I thought that was going to, I thought PSG was going to win pretty easily, but I thought that was going to be more of a game than it ended up being.
00:13:41
Speaker
ah But then Botafogo goes out there and beats PSG 1-0, the best win in the history of that club, it that has to be. That was not one that anybody expected. Seattle and Botafogo already played, and it was a pretty intense back and forth competitive game. like it felt like uh seattle like botafogo's level is definitely higher but it didn't feel like seattle was like crazily far off i don't know that's just how i saw it um but how do you sort of size up uh these first two games so far and uh did you see anything in the botafogo game that concerned you as you look ahead in this tournament or in the future or what kind of what do you think happened in that game
00:14:24
Speaker
Yeah, so just the tournament as a whole, I've been really pleased with how strong the lineups have been from PSG. There was talk about, hey, we're going to go to the United States. We're going to take this serious. And I think from the starting lineups, you certainly have seen that.
00:14:36
Speaker
There hasn't been ah that many changes from the team that played in the Champions League final. Sure, Dembele's not there, but that's due to injury. I think if he was healthy, we'd probably see him out there. Atletico Madrid, they seem to sort of run out of gas. They came out pressing and Pici were able to really kind of pass around and get away from their press and then and and hit them on the counter and find these open spaces. So they were able to take advantage there and and it ultimately blew them out.
00:15:01
Speaker
Against Botafogo, PSG did make several more changes ah changes to the starting lineup. But I think the situation with Botafogo was that they were really up for that one and they wanted to make a point. And I'm talking about the South America versus Europe kind of battle that's underlying in this tournament. They were really up for this one.
00:15:21
Speaker
They absolutely suffocated PSG. And despite PSG having most of the possession, They never really looked that dangerous. Botafogo were able to get that goal and then sort of kind of park the bus and sit back and really frustrate a PSG side without some of their regular starters in the game at that point. So um it's sort of how like PSG ultimately ended up beating Liverpool and Arsenal, the Champions League. They they believe they could. They had this collective. They played like underdogs. They were tired of saying PSG can't can't beat Premier League teams.
00:15:51
Speaker
and they took it personal and went out and beat them. I think with this one with Botafogo, if you keep telling a team they're not good enough and they can't beat a team, that just motivates them more. And I think they at the end of the day, they just simply wanted it more than PSG on that night.
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00:19:04
Speaker
Do you have any sort of a gauge or feel based on these first two games of what the PSG lineup is going to look like against Seattle? You said that you've been pleasantly surprised that they've been putting out pretty strong lineups.
00:19:18
Speaker
hi Do you think that this could be a situation where they look at it and they're like, all right, This is an MLS team. We can probably play the backups, play the kids, whatever it is. or like For me, my i feel like Botafogo winning that game was the worst thing that could have happened to Seattle because now A, PSG is going to be pissed off and B, like they they kind of are going to go into this now feeling like they need to smash on Seattle, which perhaps before, they if they were already like through or coming off a win, they might not feel like that.
00:19:48
Speaker
But how like how seriously do you think they're going to take this game? What kind of lineup are going to see? For sure. Yeah. So after the game against Botafogo, one of my tweets, if you go to my my account, I think I put out um the gif of Ralphie from the Simpsons saying, I'm in danger now.
00:20:03
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. You're right. Exactly. PSG are going to be a little ticked off. You could see in that in the second half against Botafogo, Luis Enrique made just of just a bunch of changes. He brought in a bunch of his regular starters because he had seen them enough, what he put out there wasn't working and he didn't like that. Botafogo was really kind of slapping PSG around. I mean, we were really frustrated he didn't like that. So I think they're going to go to Seattle and the way the table is shaking out the, you know, this is the group of death. I mean, if PSG were to lose this game, so say Sounders win, um then it would be Botafogo and Atletico Madrid that will go on.
00:20:39
Speaker
There's a lot of money up for grabs in this tournament. PSG don't want that embarrassment. You win the Champions League and then you can't even get out of the group stage and Botafogo gets ahead of you. like I just don't think that's going to happen. So I think they're going to go up to Seattle and you're going to see you know the fans going there wanting to see a good game.
00:20:54
Speaker
I think you're going to see the best of PSG. So um when I'm thinking, we talked about Dembele. I don't think he's going to start. So in terms of starting lineup, I think you'll see Donnarumma in goal. You'll see Nuno Mendes at left back, Akra Fikimi at right back.
00:21:07
Speaker
You're going Marquinhos and William Pacho at center back. ah Midfield, Vitinha, Jauneves, Fabian Ruiz probably in the midfield and up front. You're going to have Kovar Scalio on the left, Desiree Due on the right, and then Gonzalo Ramos is going to be a striker.
00:21:23
Speaker
I think if there's any change to that, you might see maybe Bradley Barkla could be in the conversation to replace Kovar to just maybe give him a little bit of rest. um But look, I mean, like I said, PSG, they have to win this to secure a place in the knockout round.
00:21:36
Speaker
um And so I think they're really going to go for it. So you and everyone else with the Seattle Sounders who are going to this game, I think you're going to see a lot of the the big names at PSG and they're going to have to go for it. I think at at least the opening 25 minutes, they're going to try to score early and put this game away as quickly as they can.
00:21:54
Speaker
For people who haven't watched PSG or don't know anything about PSG, you know, ah guys like Dembele, everyone knows him. ah But who are maybe like ah your personal other favorite players to watch on this team?
00:22:09
Speaker
Maybe like an unsung hero that does the dirty work that people might not appreciate globally, but you appreciate as ah as a fan. Like who who are guys like like that outside of the obvious that people should – look forward to watching in this game.
00:22:25
Speaker
Yeah. I feel like now that PhD won the champions league, a lot of football fans are becoming acquaintance with like players that we kind of knew like Vettinian and Dway and some of these guys, they're kind of becoming household names. But if I had to give a player, it would be William Poncho. He's our,
00:22:41
Speaker
Our center back, and we talk about unsung heroes for PSG, and he certainly fits the case. We don't have a lot of depth at center back, which is why that's the position we're looking to identify and fill with our first move in the transfer window.
00:22:55
Speaker
um But Paco, he arrived last summer from Frankfurt, i think was 40 million. And it was a deal that was sort of under the radar. There were some other transfer rumors. We knew we needed a defender.
00:23:06
Speaker
And one day there was a rumor. And then literally like 12 hours later, oh, he's here. Like no one really knew about It it was just a ah transfer that just popped up. And all he's done since day one is come in.
00:23:17
Speaker
He's been a first team starter. He's never an issue. He never makes any glaring mistakes. And he's just been amazing. He's 23 years old, if I'm not mistaken, and he has to be one of the best young center backs in the game today. So I think he absolutely fits the bill as the unsung hero for PSG.
00:23:37
Speaker
Ed, I'm curious. You alluded to it earlier, but this is a PSG team that ah as recently as a couple years ago had Lionel Messi, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappe all on the same team.
00:23:49
Speaker
That team didn't win Champions League. ah After that era, that trio broke that era that trio broke up ah Has it surprised you, like, the swiftness with which they've been able to reassert themselves globally and then ultimately break through and win Champions
Rebuilding After Superstar Departures
00:24:09
Speaker
League? Like, was there any period of time after Messi left and that whole thing happened where you were like, oh, man, this the future here could get dicey? And has it sort of taken you off guard at, like, how fast they've ascended?
00:24:21
Speaker
I think each player you have to take case by case with Messi. We could tell he never really wanted to be here. And ever since he came to Inter-Miami, and you guys got to deal with him now, um ever since he's left, he talks about how unhappy he was in Paris. And you could see that. like He wasn't a bad player. You could just tell his heart wasn't in it. He never really wanted to leave Barcelona.
00:24:39
Speaker
It was just a case of... oh, Messi's available and PSG is probably the only team that can afford his wages. So sure, why not? let's Let's take him on for a couple of years and see what happens. But he doesn't really want to be there.
00:24:50
Speaker
So when he ended up leaving, it was kind of like the time was right. Like we we weren't that much better with him. So it was time to move on. Sold a lot of jerseys, but you know we didn we didn't get where we wanted to go.
00:25:02
Speaker
With Neymar, way too many injuries, way too many. When he was on and when he was healthy, amazing. But it got to the point where he was just, just completely unreliable. And so when we were able to transfer him to Saudi, ah the Saudi league and and get something, I think it was 90 million or something like that, nowhere near what PSG paid Barcelona for him, but it was way more than we thought we would get for a player with his injury history. So we we were able to reinvest that into some of the players that we see on the pitch today.
00:25:32
Speaker
And then with Mbappe, I don't know if your listeners, there there was a viral video that ah went around that said it had Luis Enrique, really kind of lecturing Killian Mbappe talking about, I hear you like Michael Jordan. Well, Michael Jordan could score the ball, but he also played defense and you did not want to go up against him on defense. That's what I need you to do.
00:25:51
Speaker
And Kylian Mbappe just is not interested in doing anything else than doing Kylian Mbappe things, which is amazing. He's one of the best players in the world. But you need to track back. You need to be part of the team pressing. He just wasn't that type of player.
00:26:06
Speaker
So when he left, we were like, it's time. He always has dreamed of Real Madrid. Let's get rid of that headache. We don't want the transfer rumors. So as you can tell, like each player, when they left PSU fans, weren't that upset, whether we got a large transfer fee or just a lack of transfer rumors and drama, we were happy to be rid of it.
00:26:23
Speaker
Now we all thought that this would be, um, kind of rebuilding season. Um, But it turned out to be a Champions League winning season, which just goes to speak to the incredible work that our sporting director and Luis Enrique, the manager, have done in identifying these players and putting it together so quickly. I don't know if in the history of football we've seen a team lose arguably the best player in the world and then and win the Champions League next season.
00:26:46
Speaker
I mean, it's certainly something in the the history book of football. It's certainly going to be a chapter. I mean, it's pretty incredible what they pulled off. and to put you on the spot. Like who who do you, who do you rate higher Dembele or Mbappe?
00:27:01
Speaker
I mean, at this point you'd have to say Dembele. If you gave me a choice right now, I would pick Dembele every single time. He, he won a champions league before Mbappe. And let's not forget Mbappe didn't go to Seattle Sounders or, you know, Brighton and Hove Albion or something like that. He went to Real Madrid and not only did they not win La Liga, they didn't win the champions league. So I'd have to go with the guy that's won it all and the leading candidate for the Ballon d'Or. So yeah, if I had to choose, give me Dembele every day.
00:27:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, I think that's the easy answer, which is just like kind of crazy to think about how fast these things can change. Because yeah as recently as a year or two ago, if you asked me who the best player in the in the world was, I probably would have said Mbappe.
00:27:43
Speaker
ah But now now you have... it's It's interesting to hear you talk about how ah it sounds like it was a lot of like addition by subtraction, almost. And then the result was ah like a real team.
00:27:56
Speaker
Like the the ah the dream team super collection of superstars. Yeah, you can put all that talent on the ah on the field together. But if it doesn't gel and you don't have everyone on the same page playing team ball, it's it's not always going to win you stuff. And like the thing in the in the limited PSG that I have watched the team soccer that they play is just ah fantastic.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah, I'm trying to think of like an American sport equivalent. You know, you could think maybe the Lakers with Luka Doncic and LeBron, the two of the top five players in the league and sure they got to the playoffs, but no further.
00:28:30
Speaker
You have to have a collective team, which is why we see the Pacers and Thunder in the final right now and going up on game seven to tomorrow. So yeah, I think just this is a win for sport. um Just having a collective of really talented guys who play for one another.
00:28:44
Speaker
um So I think that if that tells us nothing, it's that money doesn't always buy championships. You do have to have a team. You have to have a mission. Money does help. Don't get me wrong. we you know Some of the players take calls quite a bit, but identifying that talent putting it together, it means more than just throwing money blindly and signing the biggest name in the sport. You have to spend it smartly.
00:29:04
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like a more kind of likable team in that way than like your typical big sort of powerhouse star studded team like that. would Would you agree like this, this PSG team has kind of like a special aura about it in that way?
00:29:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, like aura. Absolutely. And just on social media, people were kind of getting behind this PSG team. Now there's there's definitely a lot of people who you know, don't love ownership and QSI and all that. And we certainly as fans um have issues with that as well. But when you just look at the the players on the pitch and what they're able to accomplish, yes, absolutely.
00:29:41
Speaker
It did seem like this collective was much more likable. We had a lot more fans of other teams kind of rooting us on and saying, this is the most attractive football I've seen in a long time. I wish my team played like that.
00:29:51
Speaker
So yeah, I definitely have seen quite a bit of that.
Luis Enrique's Impact on PSG
00:29:55
Speaker
Got Ed from PSG talk on the show. ed as we, as we wrap it up here, the last couple minutes, I wanted to get your take on Luis Enrique. Cause I think ah one of the most interesting parts of being in this group of death is it's the player matchups, but also uh,
00:30:11
Speaker
ah the matchups for Seattle's coach, Brian Schmetzer, you know, he's usually going against ah MLS clubs. And if not, it like in Cogicap Champions Cup, he has to deal with the Liga and Mechies guys. In this tournament, he's got to deal with two of the best clubs in the world, but also the best coaches in the world.
00:30:27
Speaker
I was talking to my Atletico Madrid guest about ah Diego Simeone, who I rate absolutely as a top five coach in the world. ah When you look at Luis Enrique,
00:30:38
Speaker
um do you Do you consider him like a ah a key player in why this team is so good? like Is he the beneficiary of talent? like Sometimes people say coaches are... like How do you think he stacks up in the global coaching hierarchy?
00:30:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think absolutely. what do When you bring the first title to a team like PSG in the French League, which has only been done with Marseille, the only other team that won the Champions League. So I think just that accomplishment alone, you know, for years I've said Kylian Mbappe winning a Champions League at PSG would mean way more than anything he does at Real Madrid, and that's because PSG haven't done it.
00:31:17
Speaker
And that applies to Luis Enrique as well. Bringing that title to PSG, he very well may get a statue out front of the the stadium. um he He will forever be remembered as a PSG legend for for what he was able to accomplish, as we just talked about.
00:31:33
Speaker
this kind of rebuilding year actually turned into a champions league winning year. And it's really a testament to Luis Enrique and his style play. He never wavered. Even last season when we had Mbappe, he benched Mbappe. He would take him out early. Other coaches didn't have the confidence to do that.
00:31:48
Speaker
And i think Luis Enrique, when he came in, he had that past success with Barcelona. And so he was able to come in and players listened to him. And if you didn't listen, either on the bench or you're out of the team, if you didn't fit the way he that he wanted to play and you were unwilling to learn,
00:32:03
Speaker
You're out of the team. We saw that Colomani went out on loan this season. So, Luis Enrique had a vision for this team and he never wavered. And I think that is a big part of why they played so well.
00:32:14
Speaker
And I also think just, Luis Enrique, he's just a good guy. We all know his story of what happened with his his daughter. And I think the players, if you can't get up and and go to battle for a guy like that, I don't know what else I can tell you. And I think he's just a good guy. He's so in touch with himself and his players and his surroundings.
00:32:37
Speaker
that I think that resonates throughout the dressing room. And I think the players really do fight for him. And I think that means a lot. And so, yeah, I would definitely say he's absolutely a top five manager in the game, if not higher. And he's absolutely crucial. I hope he doesn't leave anytime soon.
00:32:51
Speaker
Ed, that is all I got for you here this evening. Thank you so much for the time. i'm you know it's I'm looking forward to the game. I've been trying to kind of be zen about this tournament.
00:33:03
Speaker
it's We're in the group of death. It is what it is. I've been saying that my ah my barometer of success is just ah acquitting yourself well, competing with dignity. That's the phrase I've been using.
00:33:13
Speaker
So I'm just hoping the team does that, not expecting too much result-wise. uh but thank you so much for the time tonight uh if you got any anything to plug uh as far as the coverage you're doing of club world cup or psg going forward here that you uh that you want to let people know about or uh tell us where to find absolutely yeah so you know psgtalk.com um but for the game on on monday which uh your listeners probably are definitely going to be dialed into that one if you want to pull up my stream or give me a follow on, uh, on X or something like that. We'll be there. We usually live, um, tweet during the game and that kind of thing. So you'll probably find me there on Monday.
00:33:52
Speaker
Awesome. Thank you. e Take care.