USMNT's Summer of Destiny Begins 🇺🇸

Hail GFOP! 

I type with fingers crackling with joy. Clint Dempsey has joined the Men In Blazers Media Network. A really lovely moment both professionally and personally. We have been looking for a voice for our coverage of the U.S. men’s team as we crash towards a World Cup on home turf. It feels like the best of times, the worst of times right now, right? I ran into Clint when we both spoke on a panel during a conference at MetLife Stadium. I was blown away by his careful, measured analysis of how the United States team has fallen into such a rut at the worst moment, and what it will take to get them battle ready come June 2026. He spoke with insight, passion, and with stories of his own experience, and we kept the conversation going long after the panel had finished. Clint talked about wanting to engage with American fans in a thoughtful, honest way before and after games on this journey we are about to walk together. And here we are. We sketched out a vision for our new show, THE DEUCE, on the back of a beer napkin. And a few weeks later, Episode One is out into the world (listen here or watch on our YouTube channel now). Clint does not hold back. 🇺🇸

Personally, I am ecstatic. I covered the United States team under Klinsmann for ESPN, ultimately living with the squad in the six months up to Brazil 2014, as I directed the ”Hard Knocks” behind-the-scenes experience. (I have not watched the show in a while, but just found Episode Two, and the surging optimism we all felt for the program back then feels like such a nostalgic head-trip.) I always loved interviewing Clint. He did not speak much back then, but once we developed a sense of trust, he was my favorite as he spoke with such tenacity and swagger. A man who had ground his way, against all the odds, from Nacogdoches, Texas to the Premier League, defying all naysayers—and there were many—to establish himself as a profoundly competitive maverick sharpshooter. To now come full circle, and have this gent whose face would be the first I would carve on the side of the Mount Rushmore of American Soccer, join the mission of our network—to be able to listen to his thoughts throughout the summer and into a World Cup on home turf—is proof that life’s journeys can be unexpectedly beautiful. 👑 

Here’s the deal: Clint and I will be working together throughout the summer. We will do some live shows in Austin and Dallas ahead of U.S. games to spend time with you fans across the nation and try to bring some joy together. Tomorrow, Saturday, we will LIVESTREAM THE USA-Türkiye GAME ON TRUtv and HBO MAX alongside NBA star Chris Paul and NFL wonder Cam Jordan. Come and be with us, and have your comments and questions appear on screen throughout our conversation. Let’s talk. Let’s question. Let’s dream. And do it all together. 🍻

To follow The Deuce ♠️: Subscribe to our new YouTube channel and TikTok.

ii. The highlight of my week came Saturday morning when I charged down to Yeadon, PA to spend time with Tyler Adams. Tyler opened the latest of the mini-pitches he has invested in alongside Allstate and the U.S. Soccer Foundation. It was incredible to watch him run a training there for the kids in the area. All I can say is: This, by a thousand. Only through efforts like this—making football accessible and affordable—can the men’s game in reality, match that in our dreams. It was amazing to speak to Tyler about the United States funk, the culture of the squad over the last year, and the kind of leadership it will take to move from darkness towards the light. That interview comes out Monday. 🦅

iii. On a personal tip, I have a childhood friend, James, coming round for dinner tonight. I have not seen him in over 20 years. If you have read my memoir, you will know him from my teen days and early misadventures in Liverpool’s pubs and clubs. I am so excited it is hard to describe these feelings of joy that the English past is about to collide with the American present in such a meaningful way. 🫂

iv. 🚨WASHINGTON, DC, MARYLAND, AND VIRGINIA GFOPS: WE COMING TO YOU JUNE 30 with The Women’s Game’s Sam Mewis and Becky Sauerbrunn to celebrate one of soccer’s greatest rivalries: USA vs. Canada, ahead of the Allstate Continental Classico in DC. We will welcome football icons at DC’s historic Howard Theatre and revel in the past, present, and future of these two storied women’s programs. We hope you join us for what is sure to be a magical night ahead of an unforgettable matchup. Tickets available now. 🏛️ 

🗣️ Save the date July 25 in New York City for a really, really special show. More info coming.

PS - This made my week: The Ferris Bueller vest is going up for auction. I WOULD DIE TO OWN THIS. 🐆

News from MiB World HQ 📡

NEXT WEEK, we are heading to Los Angeles to celebrate the massive mark of ONE YEAR TO GLORY in the magnificent kingdom where the first match on U.S. soil for the 2026 World Cup will kick off. We’ll celebrate LA's rich World Cup history, from the '84 Olympics to the '94 and ‘99 World Cups, and all that is building towards 2026. We can’t wait to celebrate with the FIFA World Cup 26 Los Angeles committee and set the stage of what is to come. I will also be appearing on June 9 with all the World Cup city organizers at the Paley Center in New York City to introduce their planning, visions, and wonder to the world. If you are there, come and give me a hug.

ii. The team at The Women's Game had an absolutely epic week even by their lofty standards. Sam welcomed new USWNT (and current Manchester United) goalkeeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce on Friendlies after she claimed her first cap at SoFi stadium and to talk about taking over for the legend Alyssa Naeher. Then double-goal-scorer Lynn Biyendolo joined Sam on Good Vibes to recap both USWNT friendlies against China and Jamaica and provide some inside scoop on the culture Emma Hayes is creating around the team. You can find both of those great conversations, and plenty more, on the TWG YouTube channel.

iii. Over on VAMOS, Herc Gomez welcomed Seattle Sounders' Cristian Roldan where he discussed his team's Club World Cup journey, a decade of playing in MLS, and his thoughts on the USMNT and the upcoming Gold Cup. Listen here. 

iv. Lastly, Father's Day is coming up and if you're still looking for something for the football-crazed dad in your life, may I suggest a gift created by two of those very people? Our book, "Men in Blazers Present Gods of Soccer," is on sale right now and is sure to lead to at least one "Huh, I had no idea" moment from your dad or your money back.

The USMNT Summer of Destiny Begins 🇺🇸🙏

USMNT v. Türkiye (Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET, TNT/HBO Max) 🇺🇸 🇹🇷

USMNT v. Switzerland (Next Tuesday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT/HBO Max) 🇺🇸🇨🇭

The World Cup is 370 days away. The United States Men’s National could not appear less ready. After the stinging humiliation of last summer’s Copa America, and the self-immolation of back-to-back Nation’s League losses to Panama and Canada, we head towards a Gold Cup, the last competitive games before the World Cup, with almost all our biggest names missing—some by their own choice. In their place, a squad filled with understudies that best resembles an NFL roster stuffed with replacements during the 1987 strike season. Everyone stay calm. 

Sergiño Dest is the latest USMNT star to pull out of the squad as he continues to return from a torn ACL, even though he made seven club appearances totaling 375 minutes at the back half of the season. “We determined the best decision is for the player to have an individualized training program for the summer so he can focus on being fully recovered and ready to perform next season," Pochettino said. This sounds rational. But on top of the voluntary absences and unorthodox messaging around Christian Pulisic and Yunus Musah’s omissions from the squad, it just adds to a sense of inertia around the program.  

There are two schools of thought here: the rational sense that, for Pulisic, who has played 50 club games this season, “He’s too valuable long-term—let him rehab, lock in, and come back sharp for World Cup. It’s the smart move.” But there is also the context; this team has screamed into the abyss since the 2022 World Cup. The players themselves have admitted their fight and the program’s collective mentality has dropped. Pochettino has told them to leave their golf clubs behind, making it clear they have treated international duty like a vacation. This is a critical time for Poch to show he can sew his idea of Grinta—the willingness to suffer in the name of victory—into a squad whose recent displays have been the polar opposite of that. An all-hands-on-deck moment in which commitment, togetherness, and backs against the wall is the only way to go, if the squad is to spark an interest and belief, even amongst their natural diehard fanbase.  

At a time when we do not know who our starting goalkeeper, central defenders, and striker could and should be at the World Cup, this current reality makes our game feel so small in the United States. Either we are not the serious program that we aspire to be, or the Gold Cup is not a serious tournament.   

Having said that, as I wrote in our new United States Men’s National Team-obsessed newsletter, USMNT ONLY 🇺🇸 (subscribe here, and please share this link with your football loving friends), as Albert Einstein once said, "In the middle of every difficulty lies opportunity." And for the young, raw squad members, including five first timers, this is an open audition for a World Cup place. A chance to force out a big, established name who has become complacent. They have been handed a chance to make the biggest tournament ever, on home turf, by training so hard they become impossible to ignore. The footballing equivalent of a golden ticket to the Wonka factory. Watch Diego Luna, Sebastian Berhalter, and Quinn Sullivan seize their moment.

Really Thoughtful Analysis of World Cup 2026 as We Hit a Year-Out

The World Cup hits the year-out mark this Wednesday. It will change football forever in this nation. We clatter towards it with the magical news Uzbekistan qualified for the first time in their nation’s history. This sits alongside the parallel narrative of geopolitics and the dark chaos of the travel ban. This Miguel Delaney piece was really a fascinating read: casting an eye on the new format FIFA has created for the tournament. I do believe the World Cup is going to make our host cities sing to the world, but the bloat of 48 teams in 12 groups of four is worth thinking about. The geographical scale, with games far, far away from teams’ bases and time zones. The 17-day group stage features 72 of the 104 matches, which will be played merely to return the field to its current size of 32 teams. Seventy percent of the competition will be spent eliminating a third of the field. 

Excited for the 2026 World Cup? Our newly-launched weekly USMNT Only newsletter is your go-to source for backstories, insights and narrative surrounding Poch’s squad in their run to (hopeful) glory. Subscribe now. 🇺🇸

More Football Did Ya Say? 📰

• PSG’s victory was ecstatic. It was still sportswashing. Two things can be true.

• Is Tijjani Reijnders the new KDB for Pep Guardiola? 

• Can Burnley, Leeds and Sunderland stay up in a way the three promoted sides have all failed to do the last two seasons?

• Where does this rank in the list of greatest post-match interviews of all-time?

• This makes me so happy. I love this man so much.

Incredible Games to Watch Around the World 🌎

World Cup Qualifier: Andorra vs. England (Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, Disney+/Fox Sports) 🇦🇩 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Thomas Tuchel’s England team lead Group K of the World Cup qualifiers, while tomorrow’s opponents, Andorra, are bottom and so far goalless. We’re only two games into qualification, mind, and although nothing is a certainty in football, this should be a match in which Tuchel can continue his audition for next year’s World Cup squad, with his side fourth, and the opposition 173rd in the FIFA rankings. Center-back Trevoh Chalobah could make his debut following a breakout season on loan at Crystal Palace and then back at Chelsea, while one of the coolest men in football, Ivan Toney, returns to the England squad for the first time since Euro 2024, proving that a move to Saudi Arabia does not translate to an international cold shoulder under Tuchel. England’s German manager has had his team sweating through intense heat training in-tents, ahead of a Wet Hot American Summer next year, and with this only his third competitive game in charge of the Three Lions, he’ll likely field a strong team, with Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Cole Palmer all sure to feature in some capacity or other. Andorra is a small city-sized country that’s like a tiny freckle on the border between Spain and France, and because their 3,000 capacity national stadium is currently unavailable, the game will be played in Barcelona’s 40,000-seated RCDE stadium, home of Espanyol. Charli xcx is playing a music festival in the Catalonian capital this weekend, so let’s hope for some brat x England football fan crossover in the stands of the RCDE.

Nations League Final: Portugal vs. Spain (Sunday, 3 p.m. ET, Disney+/Fox Sports) 🇵🇹 🇪🇸 

This battle of the Iberian Peninsula pits 17-year-old Ballon d’Or-winner elect, Lamine Yamal, against a man who’s held that golden ball five times, football’s Peter Pan: 40-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo. He scored the winner against Germany in the semi-final of this tournament and Yamal said “hold my Prime”, bagging a brace and a MOTM award in Spain’s breathtaking 5-4 win over France in the other semi yesterday, using his stage to directly barge past Dembélé, Mbappé and Doué in the 2025 Ballon d’Or popularity contest. Portugal’s midfield is more inventive than Sydney Sweeney’s marketing team, and a rich roster that includes Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and Rúben Neves, can fluidly rotate depending on the game’s requirement. Euro 2024 winners Spain are as close to a club team as an international outfit can be, with Pedri, Zubimendi, Olmo and Gavi having the ability to effortlessly bypass opposition midfields with more triangles than an episode of “Ancient Aliens”. Just over a week after it hosted the Champions League final, Munich’s Allianz Arena rolls out the red carpet again for some of the world’s best footballers, and although this match isn’t as consequential, it’s still a final that’s utterly compelling.

San Diego Wave vs. Seattle Reign (TONIGHT, 10 p.m. ET, Prime) 🇺🇸

Manager of the month Jonas Eidevall and his San Diego side host Lynn Biyendolo’s Seattle Reign as the Wave attempt to go unbeaten in seven. Both sides sit in playoff contention as we near the second half of the regular season, a win for Eidevall’s team would take them within one point of the top. Elsewhere in the NWSL, CONCACAF W Champions Cup winners Gotham FC return to domestic play after defeating Tigres in the final on May 24th. They face league leaders KC Current in what could be Rose Lavelle's first appearance this season (Tomorrow, 1 p.m. ET, CBS).

Big news from the league this week: NWSL OKs intraleague loans, while Boston and Denver get more expansion cash.

“This Is Football: The Beautiful Game” 📷📕

An Interview with Author Daniel Melamud

I’m surrounded by a small library of books that are sent to me on a weekly basis, and when Daniel Melamud’s “This Is Football: The Beautiful Game” landed on my desk, it was one that gathered dust for a while. But once I opened it, I could not put it down, finding myself lost in a world of footballing wonder and nostalgia. Through its pictures and words, it is a celebration of the timeless beauty of football—its greatest and most stylish players, from past heroes to today’s stars, along with its hallowed grounds. The photos of old Goodison Park alone make it an absolute heartbeat-of-football treasure that will forever bring me joy. 

Rog: Tell us who you are.

Daniel Melamud: I’m a senior editor at Rizzoli New York. I’ve been a New Yorker for 25 years and have edited books for almost as long. I grew up in London and Brussels, surrounded by books, marveling at the design of them; my life in New York is much the same, only now I’m in the very fortunate position where I can help create those books with colleagues and friends who are as obsessed with them as I am.

R: What is your favorite photograph and why?

DM: I spent three years selecting the 405 photographs in the book from millions of images in Getty’s vast football archive, so asking me to choose between them is like asking me to choose my favorite child, which is impossible because I don’t have kids, but there’s one that stands out. I remember seeing a Nike billboard in London with the words: “Behind every great goalkeeper there’s a ball from Ian Wright.” The image on pages 380-81 shows Wright celebrating the opening goal against Wimbledon with Paul Merson and Patrick Vieira, who provided the assist, at Selhurst Park on November 2, 1996. Merson also scored in that game. I imagine Wright especially enjoyed scoring at his old home ground and since it wasn’t against Crystal Palace, he didn’t hold back on showing it.

“This Is Football: The Beautiful Game” is available wherever you get your books, or you can also find it right here.

MiB Mad Libs 📝

This week’s phrase is:

“The one thing that makes me feel most positive about the USMNT is _________”

Email me your submissions to be in contention to win a coveted MiB patch.

We had so many great entries last week. The winner was the mighty GFOP, Steve Shaw: Manchester United without Bruno Fernandez is like Hawaiian pizza without pineapple. It was really bad to begin with and it's still bad without its main ingredient.

Huge love to two cats who made me laugh, Chris Crader’s Manchester United without Bruno Fernandes is like watching paint dry without any actual paint, and Dr. Christopher Kiever: “Manchester United without Bruno Fernandes is like a camper van without Rory Smith.”

Not Football and All the Better for It 📖

• Pie and mash shop owners are joining forces to protect this essential cuisine. Honestly, this is my X-Men reboot. 

• You've heard of the Waffle House index, get ready for the BEC indicator: How Inflation Is Hitting a New York City Breakfast Staple.

• It was (re)bound to happen: How Gen Z Is Taking Over the NBA.

• Coolest woman alive: Waxahatchee: She Lives for the Sake of the Song.

• If you've ever wanted to drink a cup of coffee from one of David Lynch's own mugs, here's your chance. Anybody wanna go halfsies on the denim Twin Peaks shirt?

• THIS IS INCREDIBLE: During every Bears game last season, the owner of a Chicago Yarn Shop knit a section of a scarf. Now, Bears Quarterback Caleb Williams is wearing it.

• This song got me through the week: “Never Arriving“ by Allegra Krieger

Dear Rog... GFOPs Write ✍️

I loved a long, thoughtful, and frankly beautiful email from Matthew Karnstedt from Palatine, Ill, which I have extracted below. As so many of you finish your studies for the year, it is so timely:

Matthew writes: This letter may seem a few weeks late, but here it is. I'm a high school teacher in the Chicago suburbs, and a longtime Everton supporter (which I do believe goes emotionally hand in hand with my love for the Chicago Bears... but that's a different letter). To me, the Premier League season is a mirror of my own school year - the promise at the beginning of the year, the dregs of January, and finally (at least for the Everton of the last few years), racing to the finish just trying to survive and get to summer.

This year I felt even more of a connection between my work and my football consumption with the closing of Goodison Park. My brother and I were lucky enough to make the pilgrimage last season (a 1-0 victory over Burnley on a wonderful DCL crap goal), and I have felt an especially close connection with the club ever since, deeper than what it had been before. As I watched the scenes from my living room, the moving tributes, the generations of supporters, and the glorious Liverpool sunshine, I was overcome with emotion for a goodbye to a place that, though I've only been once, has become profoundly important in my life. As I reflected on Goodison, I had a revelation as to why these two facets of my life (music and football) are so important—they are the two venues that, in my opinion, remain to be truly collectivist in the face of a society that's becoming ever increasingly focused on individualism. 

Both participating in and performing/playing are activities in which the individual efforts are a contribution to the greater collective goals - whether that is spurring your team on to a scrappy win, going to a concert with the love of your life, creating music with your closest friends, or hearing that Goodison roar one last time. Those are memories that are forever linked with people. With humans. With being human. I think too often we can get caught up in the tribalism, the rivalries, the "us vs. them" narratives - but when I step back, I see people in their continual search for betterment and for a chance at glory, redemption, or just for a nice day out with those they love. 

I guess this letter is more of a thank you to both of you for so joyfully spreading your football love and knowledge. My life is better for having randomly found your podcast in the early days of my football fandom, and I know that it has touched countless other lives. It has helped me stay connected and grounded, not only in my Everton support, but also in connection with the millions of GFOPs and football fans across the world. It has made me see humanity in a different light, and has made me a better teacher and person. 

Rog writes: Matthew, I adore your thinking, and that you are a bloke of action. It makes me so happy you were able to travel over with your brother and experience Goodison. There can be nothing more important than that. The shared experience and bonding through football, or music – that is when we feel most alive. We do have to savor every second. I came across this great line from Anton Chekhov’s Ivanov this week: “This life of ours...human life is like a flower gloriously blooming in a meadow: along comes a goat, eats it up---no more flower.”

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected].

To Better Days Ahead for All.

Let’s not take a moment watching football together for granted and make great memories. Big Love.

Courage,

ROG

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