TOMORROW WE CROWN A EUROPEAN CHAMPION 🇪🇸🇩🇪

Hail GFOP!

I type with fingers crackling with excitement for the Champions League weekend to come. Real Madrid-Dortmund live from London. The Jude Bellingham Memorial Derby. One final, last exquisite blast of this season’s footballing journey. The best saved for last: the biggest game in global club football. The honest truth is, football don’t sleep, and the season immediately blurs into the Copa and the Euros. But the Champions League Final is a symbolic last stop. The game casts an eclipse across the entire planet for 90 rollicking minutes, from the second the button is pressed on that booming anthem ‘til the big-eared trophy is raised into the London night sky. A fresh hero will be revealed. An iconic goal scored. A new stitch added to football’s tapestry of memory. I can’t wait to revel in the emotional beats of the game with you after the final whistle with Rory Smith who will be on-site at Wembley. Come and join us and have your say, question by question.  

ii. The highlight of the week for me was announcing that Tyler Adams, captain of the USMNT and my friend, has joined the Men In Blazers Media Network to reprise the role he played in the run up to World Cup 2022, as our narrator through the United States journey on the path to 2026. I have long revered Tyler from the moment he first swaggered into my studio as a raw 17-year-old and told me he would one day lead his nation out into World Cup play.  A prediction he proceeded to make come true. Few players speak about the game with a richer emotional intelligence than Tyler, and as we brace ourselves for this Copa Summer and all that is to follow, I am elated he is back, and grateful to Allstate for making it so. Episode 1 will drop this coming Wednesday, June 5th across our platforms.

iii. Summer time means we are heading out across the nation for Live Show action and to eat all the Burnt Ends. Kansas City, Sam Mewis and I are headed to you next week to celebrate the Kansas City Current. The LAST FEW TICKETS REMAIN and you can grab them RIGHT HERE.

🚨🗣️ LOS ANGELES: JUNE 19TH!!! Come and raise a beer to the kick-off of the Copa Das Copas with me and Brendan Hunt and a slew of special guests. Not a single ball has yet been kicked, so we can dream big reckless dreams about the American tournament to come, and savor the Messi-tinged narratives of the tournament, reveling in this magical moment in the countdown to the World Cup in 2026 as football finally stops being America's Sport of the Future, and becomes the Sport of Now. The show will be held at the El Rey Theatre at 8pm PT. Tickets will be available imminently, be sure to check across all our socials.

2. To the Football: Champions League Final: Dortmund vs. Real Madrid (Saturday, 3 p.m. ET, CBS Proper)

Forteen-time winners Real Madrid go up against the surprise package Dortmund, the fifth best team in the Bundesliga. A case of one team with peerless Champions League credentials who are in their rightful place, and the other, so tickled to be in the spotlight. A collision between dutiful destiny and dizzying dreams. Madrid intend to lift their sixth trophy in 11 years. Dortmund pine for their second in 27 seasons. A lopsided-seeming match-up we will most probably not see the likes of again as in next season’s new tournament format, the knock-out stages will be seeded.

Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid are to Champions League Glory what Joey Chestnut is to hotdogs. They play with a magical aura that Gareth Bale has described as forcing other teams to “play the badge and not necessarily the team.” Dortmund have astonished themselves by arriving in the final – however they have overcome doubts from the very outset, emerging unscathed from the Group of Death and not looking back. A European club with a squad in transition, they are the 12th wealthiest club in the game. Economics determine victory in this tournament. No club with revenue of less than $500m has won the Champions League since 2013, and that was when Bayern Munich beat Dortmund in their last appearance. Dortmund’s income last season was $456m which is no longer enough for them to keep the young talents like Jude Bellingham or Erling Haaland they used to harvest. Hence your Niclas Fullkrugs, Emre Cans and Marcel Sabitzers.  

More: The emotional storyline is the game will be the last club appearance for Madrid’s tempo-setter Toni Kroos and Dortmund’s terrier Marco Reus. Rory Smith spoke beautifully about both men here. 

And: How Jadon Sancho got his Groove Back.

🥇 UCL FINAL SHIRT GIVEAWAY: Our friends at WorldSoccerShop have given us a Real Madrid kit to giveaway ahead of the Champions League Final. All we need to know is your email (to let you know you won) and what size kit you’d wear.

PrizePicks: Best PP since Penelope Pitstop  

Charlie Kipp writes: Here we are, the officially-official end of the club football calendar. If there was ever a time to sign up and take advantage of PrizePicks’ new Demons and Goblins in the soccer section of their site - it’s now. As we put the capstone on this season, I say we end with a pure “vibes” pick - a combo of a retiring legend and our favorite PrizePicks stat category of the year: it’s Toni Kroos MORE than 84.5 passes attempted.

It would be incorrect to suggest that the impact Toni Kroos has had on every team he’s been a part of has been “immeasurable” - frankly, it’s been quite “measurable” and the result? Success. From 15 domestic trophies to a World Cup with Germany in 2014 - where he played a vital role in THAT semi-final we’ll never forget (want to watch crying Brazilian children? Fine, indulge yourself) the 34-year-old East German born midfielder has had an impact on the sport far greater than you probably realize. Kroos is a catalyst whose (at times) invisibility on the pitch is more a superpower than a weakness - because he never makes mistakes. This season, Kroos has exceeded 75 pass attempts on 20 occasions, including his last two domestic appearances for Madrid, including one in which he lodged 116 passes in only 72 minutes on the pitch. Ultimately - while we love this selection on PrizePicks for the logic, it also passes the “sniff test” with flying colors: we are talking about the big bad German wolf who has done nothing but win at Bayern Munich and Real Madrid over his decorated career, ignore what your heart says, follow your head on Saturday and take Toni Kroos MORE than 84.5 passes attempted.

If you haven’t joined PrizePicks, CLICK HERE and use code MiB for a first deposit match up to $100.

3. USWNT ARE EMMA HAYES’ TEAM NOW: USWNT vs. SOUTH KOREA (Saturday, 5 p.m. ET, TNT)  🇺🇸🇰🇷🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

The US women have bigger matches to come, and the cardinal rule, that we should never read too much into friendlies, still stands. But this is a massive match-up because it is Emma Hayes’s first at the wheel. This USWNT team has historically been player-driven, with world-beaters passing down an invincible mindset and culture from generation to generation. The coaches have most often had to stay out of the way or be pushed out by player-power. Yet, that invincible aura has been dented then shattered at the last World Cup. In comes Emma at our nation’s hour of need. Not just the highest profile and best paid women’s coach in the world, but also the most media savvy and charismatic. Make no mistake. This is her team in totality now. It has been both surreal and magical to see Emma Hayes, this Camden Town-born wonder, who won the English title with Chelsea five-times straight, march around in a cap and tracksuit with the US crest upon it, all while declaring, “I needed this more than I realized.” She is our Emma Hayes now. And how she sets up the team, what she demands of our Federation investment-wise, and how she coaches up young, still raw talents like Trinity Rodman and Jaedyn Shaw, is going to be a wonder to watch.  

This: Emma Hayes in-tray for the USWNT. The challenges that lie ahead include finding the balance between old and new, empowering Jaedyn Shaw, and ID’ing the right Number Nine.

For complete coverage of Emma’s first match in charge follow the Mighty Sam Mewis and The Women’s Game on Twitter and Instagram. We will have live coverage across social during tomorrow’s match. 

4. Premier League News and Notes

i. Chelsea is set to announce new manager Enzo Maresca today on an astonishing five-year deal plus 12-month option. After the success of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, the big clubs are suddenly all chasing “Diet Peps” – young tactically-savvy coaches from the Guardiola coaching tree who are seen as capable of acting in the narrow role of head coach, and building a squad-project grounded in youth.

ii. Ipswich manager/wunderkind Kieran McKenna elects to remain with the club he has promoted twice in his two seasons there, despite interest from Manchester United and Chelsea. The 38-year old becomes one of the highest-paid managers in England and will be backed significantly as Ipswich prepare for their first top-flight campaign since 2001-02. I am so relieved. Would have been so cruel to see this gent ripped from the squad he has dragged back to the big time. For McKenna, this season to come is now a well-paid free hit. 

iii. Everton report that 777 have, surprise, surprise, blown another deadline and the club can now entertain new buyers. How this careening soap-opera has been allowed to run on for so long, and 777 been taken seriously as their other investments fall apart around the world, has been woeful to witness.

5. CONCACAF Champions Cup Final 🏆🇲🇽🇺🇸

Arguably the BIGGEST football final taking place on June 1st with the word “Champions” in the name, the CONCACAF Champions Cup Final between MLS side Columbus Crew and Liga MX side Pachuca kicks off at 9.15 p.m. ET at the Estadio Hidalgo in Pachuca, Mexico (FS1). The winner of the revamped competition’s 59th final will join Club Leon (2023), Seattle Sounders FC (2022), and CF Monterrey (2021) as one of CONCACAF’s four representatives in the new 32-team Club World Cup. Godspeed Columbus. Attack the game like I have attacked an Old World Sausage Sampler at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus.

More: listen to mighty Herc interview Crew coaching mastermind Wilfried Nancy and Pachuca winger Osama Idrissi HERE.

☀️🌴 West Ham going on a Florida Tour…and we want to get you there 

West Ham are visiting Florida for the first time for a two-match Sunshine State Tour this summer.​ The Hammers will cross the Atlantic Ocean to the US to take on Premier League foes Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace as part of the inaugural Stateside Cup (Champions of Florida Cup you’ll never sing that).​

The matches will see them take on Wolves at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville on Saturday July 27 at 7 p.m. ET, before facing the Eagles at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa on Saturday August 3 at 7 p.m. ET.​ You can get your own tickets HERE.

Thanks to the GFOPs over at West Ham, we are excited to be able to give away two West Ham prize packages that include two (2) tickets to the match of your choice in Florida AND two (2) personalized yet-to-be-released 2024/25 kits. All you have to do is sign up for our text line by texting “HAMMERS” to 513-572-3171 (you can click the number to open your messages) and you’re entered to win.

For all the info you’d need – and to get tickets of your own – you can visit the FAQ page RIGHT HERE. Godspeed to all you Hammers traveling this summer.

6. This Week at Men in Blazers World Headquarters

⭐ It is Champions League Final week. Cue the music as Dortmund prepares to attempt to go all Rocky Balboa on the Apollo Creed in football boots that is Real Madrid. And we have the final covered from every different angle on this week’s European Nights Podcast with Rog and Rory Smith LISTEN HERE, including the farewell to your favorite footballer’s favorite footballer Toni Kroos and that German maestro Marco Reus. 

🍸 The aperitif for this weekend’s final, Olympiacos’ Europa Conference League victory over Fiorentina. And while the game was slightly mortal, the afterparty in Athens was at Dionysus levels. And Rog and the quite brilliant Nedum Onuaha broke it all down, and went deep on the Premier League managerial carousel, on a very special Do it Live! LISTEN HERE | WATCH HERE.

🇺🇸🇲🇽 Another final this weekend, the CONCACAF Champions Cup in which the free flowing Columbus Crew take on the unrelenting Mexican force Pachuca at Estadio Hidalgo. Our mate Herc Gomez covered it from every angle on a special episode of VAMOS, Presented by Camarena Tequila in which he sat down with Crew manager Wilfried Nancy, Pachuca winger Osama Idrissi, and ESPN’s Eric Gomez. LISTEN HERE. 

💪 Another massive week at The Women’s Game with Sam Mewis as we prepare for Emma Hayes to take the wheel. Sam was joined by the North Carolina Courage’s own Ashley Sanchez on a special Tuesday edition of Friendlies WATCH HERE | LISTEN HERE. And yesterday, Sam and NWSL all-time leading scorer Lynn Williams went deep on what to expect from this weekend’s USWNT game and Lynn’s engagement party WATCH HERE | LISTEN HERE.  

7. Not Football, and All the Better for It

i. Dream Merchant: The Excellence of Dawn Staley.

ii. The End of Merch. This author clearly hasn't seen our "Proper Football" hoodies on World Soccer Shop.

iii. My Lunches with Judith Jones, the Queen of Cookbooks. If you're going to have regular lunches with someone, best if that someone is "The Queen of Cookbooks".

iv. "Our leader was Torpedo. (He insisted that his name was Torpedo.) He wore a hat that said “Torpedo.” He wore board shorts and slip-on shoes. He reminded us, had we not already, to sign those waivers." Surfing the American Dream.

v. Loved this: Proving That I Belong in the Sport I Love.

vi. Stop Wasting Your Fridge Space. Just think, you could shift your eggs around and have enough room to rent on Airbnb. 

vii. Can you taste design? You can certainly post it on Instagram. 

viii. Rolling Stone ranks the 200 Greatest Country Songs of All Time. The correct #1 but a bizarre Taylor Swift inclusion....

ix. Why Are Debut Novels Failing to Launch? Interesting AND slightly depressing, which is what we aim for in all our content. 

x. So excited for this: Bratpack movie trailer.

xi. Paul Weller is, and will forever remain, a Boss. Lenny Kravitz is living a life that makes Mark Wahlberg look lazy.

xii. I loved this song this week: I Kissed Your Lips by Allo Darlin’.

That is it for this week. Let’s attack life with the wonder Jurgen Klopp is bringing to his new instagram account. It is remarkable to watch him revel in his newfound freedom, shorn of the burden of football management. May we all savor that kind of effervescence this weekend. 

Let’s not take a second of watching football together for granted, 

Big Love,

Courage

ROG