Hail GFOP!

Rog writes: Won’t we ever learn the only truth in football? Never, ever score too early. The United States had three minutes and 20 seconds of ecstasy, opening with their earliest goal netted against Mexico in 30 years, but were then impotent in the face of a tempestuous stomp-down. The scoreline last night was 2-1, but it does not capture just how dominant a strong Mexico squad were against our G-Leaguers. The U.S. had flickers of fight, but just 15 touches in the Mexican box. We won zero corners to Mexico’s 12. All Gold Cup, we have wondered how good the U.S. are, a little like a footballing Jake Paul, all we have done is face vulnerable opponents. Last night’s game was akin to Paul stepping into the ring against a half-decent boxer and being slapped around. 

Congratulations to Javier Aguirre’s team. They deserved their record-extending 10th Gold Cup title and the opportunity to dance a Payaso de rodeo in the locker room. They made our boys suffer. Just as harrowing was the lack of American fans in the stadium – which has been one of the most painful storylines of the summer. The sold-out crowd in Houston was 90% pro-Mexico. It felt like the Azteca had floated north of the border. 

📺 WATCH: Clint Dempsey broke down his thoughts on the final, who caught his eyes, and his concern about the lack of fans, and took your calls on a post-whistle episode of THE DEUCE. ♠️

This was our last competitive game before the World Cup. We just lived eight games in 40 days, were out-classed by two mid-level European teams, then beat No. 100 Trinidad and Tobago, No. 83 Haiti, No. 58 Saudi Arabia’s B-team, and No. 106 Guatemala, while needing penalties to get past No. 54 Costa Rica. When you throw in the Nation’s League and the Copa América that came before it, here is where we are: we are finding a way to overcome poor teams, struggling to score against mid-level ones, getting smashed by good ones, and the off-the-field soap opera that overshadowed the action in the beginning of the summer. There are questions to be answered at every level of the program. I will talk about the game briefly—watch my conversation with Clint to really gain a sense of the mood—and focus on where we go from here, which is ultimately the critical question. 

Chris Richards Is a Great American 🦅

Chris Richards' fourth-minute goal was the earliest the U.S. had scored against Mexico in 30 years. The snap of the neck was Brian McBride-esque in the best of ways. The goal proved to be complete misdirection as Mexico roared back via their two big Premier League stars, Raúl Jiménez and Edson Álvarez. But Richards was the one U.S. player who can walk off that field with a sense of pride in his performance. In a creaky, buckling backline, he was a rock. His positioning and focus unrelenting. I am so happy for Chris. He is so incredibly likable and has worked so hard to reach this level. If I was a sponsor, I would go all in on Chris. He should be one of the dominant faces of this team. 

Our Starlets Were MIA. Their Young Hero Was a King. 👑

Diego Luna dominated the pre-game show. I could not believe the extent to which he was in the spotlight. I adore him, but he delivered delicious moments against truly mediocre opponents. In this game, with Mexico targeting Max Arfsten, Diego had to play so deep, as a quasi-auxiliary left-back, he became a virtual non-factor. The same goes for Malik Tillman, who was brave, but limited by the fact the game was played almost exclusively in the U.S. half. I believe Tillman will be a starter for Poch in the next window – proof to the big name players who have not been with us of the culture Poch wants to set. Luna is a character. He has animated those who watched the game. His spirit is reminiscent of the collective fight of the good old days. He can, and will, be a spark off the bench. 

For real quality though, the star of the game was 16-year-old Mexican wonderkid Gilberto Mora whose decision making on the ball was so sophisticated and audacious. He dominated the game, cutting apart the U.S. defense at will. I am old enough to remember when we American fans were salivating at our young talent. Mora is the real deal and I am fan-fictioning him to Everton as we speak. 

The U.S. Fan Situation Is Dire. How Did It Get to Be This Way? 📉

In 2014, the United States fanbase was the toast of the football world. Henry Winter, then one of the leaders of the traditionally dismissive English press pack, wrote approvingly, “The American choirs chanting ‘I believe that we will win’ simply reflect the inexorable rise of the sport in their country, and that they are now a respected force in the global game.” Eleven years later, and the U.S. Men are playing either to empty stadia, or ones filled by opposing fans, which led Pochettino to express his shock for the second straight game. Last night he said, "Football without fans is impossible,” and that he hopes there will be a day when the U.S. will play with a stadium full of home fans. This Gold Cup was a wake-up call for all who care about the game in our nation. There has to be a concerted effort to rebuild fences with the fanbase who have been taken for granted and lost. 

Will We Look Back on This as a Wasted Summer? It All Depends on What We Do Now. 🤔

For Pochettino, this loss was a missed opportunity to change the narrative for the players who were not with him. On one level, we knew this was our C-team. But the reasons we got to this underwhelming place – the players who did not report of their own free-will, the legacy of the Nations League, and Copa loss before that – remain a complex set of interwoven problems to be diffused. 

Within a year, Poch’s honeymoon is long over. Here is the damning statistic: Since Pochettino took over, the U.S. have played five games against teams in the top 30 of FIFA's rankings, and have lost all five. The English media are loving this chaos. The BBC led with a headline, “Is Pochettino delivering hope - or panic - to U.S. after Gold Cup loss?” At the same time, for Poch, only three games matter: the ones in the group stage. That is how he will ultimately be judged. 

What matters now is how he reintegrates the big name players in the FIFA windows in September, October, and November. Whom does he bring? Whom does he punish and leave out? First and foremost, there has to be some fence-mending with Christian Pulisic. That soap opera at the top of the summer still lingers. Pulisic not reporting, leaving U.S. Soccer to put out an unorthodox statement acknowledging it was the player’s choice, Christian then revealing he had offered to play in the friendlies only, but was rebuffed, adding that he did not agree with the decision, leaving Pochettino to fume, “I am not a mannequin.” U.S. Soccer should have Poch in Milan ASAP, with a comms plan to show the two of them are now focussed solely on all the football to come. This cannot be a flapping piece of skin-style distraction. Come July 2026, we may be laughing at how Christian took a summer off and came back to deliver American glory with a redemption narrative for the ages. How this is handled will be legacy-defining. 

I will leave you with Chris Richards’ fantastic tweet: “gutted but so proud of everybody this camp. 40+ days, 9 cities being away from friends and family. tonight was the baseline for what we are going to do in the future. mark my words. love every member of staff, player and fan that showed up or watched at home. go go USA.” I love that attitude and will remain hopeful. We have great players. I believe we missed Antonee Robinson on that flank, and Balo or Pepi up top most of all. A generational opportunity lies ahead of us: a World Cup on home turf. To cock this up would be the greatest footballing own-goal of all time. What do we want? Clint Dempsey nailed it in our show: “A team that tries sh*t and has fun.”

Courage,

ROG

Players Across the Club World Cup Honor Diogo Jota 💔

- Written by Tommy Stewart

The devastating death of Diogo Jota and his younger brother, André Silva, has put football into perspective. It has united one of the most global communities there is in grief, mourning, and celebration, as club and international teammates past and present viscerally displayed vulnerability and emotion for their friend, when he was remembered before each of the Club World Cup quarter-finals. Even the world’s most famous Manchester City fans, Oasis, used the first show of their reunion tour to pay tribute to the Liverpool and Portugal attacker, as thousands watched his image appear on a colossal screen in Cardiff while Noel Gallagher played the outro solo to “Live Forever” for the first time in 16 years. 

The image that will eternally survive Fluminense and Al Hilal’s match will be the pre-match tears of Jota’s former international teammates, Ruben Neves and João Cancelo. Neves was the only footballer who was a pallbearer at Jota’s funeral, so to play through his grief and trauma speaks to his strength, and how crucial he and his friend’s shared love of the game was. Pedro Neto, who was another close friend of the Liverpool attacker, bravely stood through a pre-match tribute as he and Chelsea captain, Enzo Fernández, held a shirt with Jota and his younger brother André’s names on it. Real Madrid’s Trent Alexander-Arnold showed extreme levels of mental fortitude just by showing up following the news, and at a packed Mercedes-Benz stadium in Georgia for PSG vs. Bayern Munich, Jota’s Portugal compatriot, Nuno Mendes, and Bayern center-back, Jonathan Tah, stoically struggled to restrain their emotions when a moment of silence was beautifully honored by the 67,000 people in attendance. Near the end of that epic dust off, Ousmane Dembélé dedicated his goal to Jota, replicating his trademark gaming celebration and driving home the theme of the past week that even though Diogo and André are gone, they will not soon be forgotten.

Nine-Man PSG Take Down Bayern Munich 📈

Paris Saint-Germain 2-0 Bayern Munich 🇫🇷 🇩🇪

Despite plenty of early chances, if PSG didn’t have a mountainous Gianluigi Donnarumma between the sticks preventing attempts from Michael Olise, and a weird pass-come-shot from Aleksandar Pavlović, it could have been au revoir for the Parisians early on. His opposite number, Manuel Neuer, matched him in his shot-stopping, but was lucky to not concede in the 74th minute when he gifted a pass to Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, struggling to recover and leaving an open net to substitute, Ousmane Dembélé, who missed by inches. The opener, however, finally arrived minutes later as Champions League hero Désiré Doué beat Neuer from outside the area to give PSG the advantage. William Pacho was rightly sent off not long after for a high tackle on Leon Goretzka, and in injury time, former Bayern player Lucas Hernández saw the same fate for a loose elbow to the face of Raphaël Guerreiro that The Rock would be proud of; sandwiched between those two moments of madness, VAR disallowed a markedly offside Harry Kane goal. Somehow with only nine men, Dembélé was able to complete a short redemption arc with a goal in the last minute of injury time to take his team to the semis for a box office showdown with Real Madrid in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium.

The Power of PSG 🧨

As you may recall, Bayern beat PSG 1-0 in the ‘league phase’ of the Champions League in November, but since then, Luis Enrique’s side have quickly evolved, conquering Europe with a breathless playing style that drowns and overwhelms opposition. Bayern Munich looked uncharacteristically stupefied in the opening 25 minutes of the game, unable to dampen PSG’s relentlessness, as they came close with chances from Doué, Kvaratskhelia, and Fabian Ruiz. Enrique has them so well-drilled and synchronized that even with nine men, PSG continued to PSG, swarming Bayern’s defense for an injury time goal at a time when most teams would sit on possession and attempt to kill the game. To have the continued ability to keep dispatching genuine European heavyweights, even after having won everything on offer so far over the past year, exemplifies the pure power of PSG at their peak. 

Heartbreak for Bayern and Jamal Musiala  🩼

Vincent Kompany’s biggest heartbreak in Georgia will not be his team’s elimination from the Club World Cup, but the cruel fate of star man, Jamal Musiala, who after an injury, was starting his first game in the tournament. The tearful reaction of PSG ‘keeper, Donnarumma, the man who accidentally caused the German’s new injury, was evidence alone of its severity. Bayern have confirmed that “Musiala suffered a fibula fracture and an ankle dislocation and will be sidelined for a long period of time,” so that matched with fellow-attacking player and club legend, Thomas Muller’s final farewell to the only football club he’s ever known, means the German Champions will return to Bavaria with a lot less than they came with. Kompany will be encouraged that his team dominated possession and shots, but their inability to capitalize on that command in clutch knockout games is something that he’ll need to address immediately. 

📬 Enjoying The Raven? Check out our other Men in Blazers newsletters here.

The CWC’s Other Big Weekend Results 🏟️

Real Madrid 3-2 Borussia Dortmund 🇪🇸 🇩🇪

A match like an album that starts and ends with its best tracks. It was the sort of spectacle that the knockout rounds of the Club World Cup promised, as 76,611 people congregated in MetLife Stadium for a fixture between two footballing gods, that just over two years ago, was played out in a Champions League final. In lieu of Kylian Mbappé to lead Madrid’s attacking line through most of the competition, 21-year-old academy graduate, Gonzalo Garcia, has seamlessly taken to his surprise lead role in the most watched club in football, opening the scoring in under 10 minutes to level himself as the tournament’s top goalscorer with four goals. Trent Alexander-Arnold provided his second assist of the competition with a daisy cutter of a cutback cross to tee up a tap-in for Fran García before the game went to bed for a bit. Maximilian Beier beat Thibaut Courtois in the 91st minute, barely celebrating because of the fair assumption that it was too late for a comeback. Not long after the restart, substitute Mbappé became a horizontal Air Jordan logo, as he flew in the New Jersey sun to score a gorgeous scissor kick with a befitting celebration, looking down the camera lens to the world, acknowledging Jota with a No. 20 hand gesture. Dortmund replied instantly with a penalty that was finished by Serhou Guirassy and resulted in a Dean Huijsen red card in the 95th minute, and even after this, the game’s theater refused to quit. In extra time of injury time, Dortmund captain, Marcel Sabitzer, had the opportunity to level the match, but the impossible Stretch Armstrong lengths of Courtois won his team the game.

Palmeiras 1-2 Chelsea 🇧🇷 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Enzo Maresca’s team started on the front foot at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, and it was a joy to watch Cole Palmer swaggering around the pitch with the effortless arrogance of another Mancunian main character who also spent the weekend on top of the world, Liam Gallagher. Palmer’s early goal was composed of three seemingly simple, but actually very difficult touches, and it was punctuated with his characteristic ice cold celebration in the hot Philly night. Chelsea had complete control of the game, enjoying most of the possession and shots, but when the sides swapped ends in the second half, Palmeiras were shooting towards a sea of their fans, whose songs and green, white and red flags, acted as a siren call that seemed to pull the ball their way for the equalizer. It was a rocket from 18-year-old Estêvão, who will soon join Chelsea, but that didn’t prevent his badge-pounding celebration, teaching us that there are, as of yet, no conventions about celebrating against your future club. The Brazilian side continued to attack after that, but were kept out by a brilliant Levi Collwill, and the goal that finished them in the 83rd minute was cruel, as a tepid Malo Gusto cross collided off Agustín Giay into his own net.

Fluminense 2-1 Al Hilal 🇧🇷 🇸🇦

Five minutes before half time, Matheus Martinelli provided one of the goals of the tournament with a tricky swivel of the hips and an angled left-footed thunderbolt into the top right corner of Bono’s goal, giving him vertigo in the process. Like all of the Brazilian teams at the Club World Cup, Fluminense’s fans were as vital as anyone on the pitch, perforating sound waves with celebratory roars for tackles, clearances, and refereeing decisions. Al Hilal have made a habit of scoring early in the second half and so to not break from tradition, they did exactly that on Saturday, as a viciously-whipped Neves corner ended up at the feet of Marcos Leonardo, who finished from a couple of yards out to become the competition’s joint top-scorer with four goals. Fluminense didn’t sleep on it, though, and Hércules showed heroism to shoot from distance, miss, and follow it up to finish past Bono to give those baying Fluminense fans a truly beautiful day in Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. Chelsea, PSG and AC Milan legend, 40-year-old Thiago Silva has seen it all and won the lot in European football, so to return to his boyhood club and lead them to the semi-final of the Club World Cup, is the sort of unwritable narrative that only football can organically muster. He told his club-mates to “seize the moment” in the U.S., and so far, they’ve done exactly that.

Come Watch the Club World Cup Semi-Finals with Rory Smith and Rog in Person in NYC 🏆🍻

Rory and Rog will be parked up for much of the week at The Michelob ULTRA Pitchside Club. Entry is free (we just ask that you RSVP) for all the events, and once inside, you'll be treated to a footballing fever dream: massive screens, cold Superior Light Beer, and a celebration of the game we love.

Here are the details:

📍Second – 849 6th Avenue, New York, NY 10001

🎟️ RSVP (Free!): Sign up for all three events here

📺 Club World Cup Semi-Final Watchalongs with Rog and Rory

• Tues 7/8 | 3 & 5 p.m.

• Wed 7/9 | 3 & 5 p.m.

🎙️ Live Show with Rog & Special Guests

• Fri 7/10 | 6 p.m.

We want to raise a glass with all of you. The more of you we can see, the better. RSVP RIGHT HERE. 🍻

Some Absolute Weekend Worldies 🚀 🥅

There were a lot of great goals this weekend, but these three get top marks:

Mid-Week Matches Worth Faking a Meeting for 📺 

Club World Cup 🏆

Fluminense vs. Chelsea (Tomorrow, 3 p.m. ET, DAZN) 🇧🇷 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

What was a match between two strangers is now bound by a man adored by the fans of both clubs, Thiago Silva. He lifted the Champions League for Chelsea in 2021, which is the primary reason they qualified for the Club World Cup, and in his twilight years, the 40-year-old now leads this Fluminense team, the darlings of many neutrals watching this tournament across the globe. For Chelsea’s young lions, now bolstered by Liam Delap (who’s suspended for Tuesday’s game) and a fresh João Pedro up top, it’s a golden opportunity in New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium to resume the momentum built by winning the Europa Cpnference League and finishing in the top four, to reach another grand finale and test themselves against the very best in either PSG or Real Madrid.

📺 Watch Rog and Rory breakdown the first CWC semi-final live on YouTube immediately after the game.

PSG vs. Real Madrid (Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET, DAZN) 🇫🇷 🇪🇸

It doesn’t get much better than this, does it? Serial Champions League and Club World Cup winners and arguably the world’s most iconic football club, Real Madrid, against the terrifying, treble-winning PSG, who are managed by a man who played on both sides of the El Clásico derby, Luis Enrique. While it’s tough to divide the quality in these two sides, Xabi Alonso is only a few games into his reign as Los Blancos’ manager, still trial and error-ing to identify what his best side is, which is something Enrique has already done so successfully, that his team now seem to be the template on which modern football could be reconstructed. One of the keys to his triumph was the sale of Kylian Mbappé to Madrid; these two sides have won the last two Champions Leagues but the French captain has still not lifted that trophy, which could be merely coincidental, but it’s a stat that will be at the forefront of his mind. New Jersey, be ready for the Mbappé derby, a game of glamor that the world will be watching.

📺 Watch Rog and Rory breakdown the second CWC semi-final live on YouTube immediately after the game.

Help Us Understand Your Football Love 📊

We're looking to better understand the beautiful game...through your eyes. It would mean the world to us if you could take a moment to fill out this quick survey about your soccer fandom — how you watch, who you cheer for, and why this game means so much. It’s short, it’s sweet, and your voice will help shape future conversations around football in America with on of our partners. Plus, you’ll be supporting GFOP-powered research — the best kind there is. TAKE THE SURVEY HERE 📝

Some Non-Football to Start the Week Off 📖

• Includes a recent MiB guest and NOT the one you'd think: The Best Beefs of the 21st Century, Ranked.

• All my friends and I talk about is getting rid of our phones. Good idea? Yes. Remotely likely? Unfortunately not.

• Brilliant photos: Mike Brodie – Failing.

• The Fast-Food Gimmick That Became an Unlikely Muse for Chefs. Often imitated, never relegated.

• A fitting Romeo and Juliet for our confusing times. In a Milestone for Manhattan, a Pair of Coyotes Has Made Central Park Their Home.

It’s MiB Trivia Time 🤔

This week’s question: Before this week’s Club World Cup semi-final, Real Madrid and PSG last faced each other in the second leg of the last 16 of the Champions League in 2022. The score was 3-1 to Madrid: who scored a hat-trick for them that night?

Email us with your answer for a chance to win a much-coveted MiB patch

Last week’s winner: Congratulations to last week’s winner, Marshall Harper, who in just SIX minutes, correctly identified Mario Mandžukić as Juventus’ only goalscorer in their 4-1 loss to Real Madrid in the 2017 Champions League Final. Your patch is in the post 📦