Sam's Army

Sam and Mikey sort through the wreckage of USA/Mexico and pull out some positives from Uruguay draw. Weekend preview features United/Lester and Wolves/Chelsea (plus some locks and an upset special), along with Leipzig/Bayern and crunch time in MLS. Finally some much-deserved love for Phoenix Rising.

What to make of a wild & crazy North London Dærby plus potential red flags(?) at City & Liverpool. Harsh words for lily-livered response to racism by Serie A but praise for Gareth Bale & Sounders/Galaxy.  Interview with LAFC/USMNT's Walker Zimmerman followed by a quick & dirty breakdown of what to watch for in this week's friendlies vs Mexico & Uruguay.

EPL postmortem of Liverpool/Arsenal beatdown and David Luiz's brain plus United/Spurs bed-wettings. Chat with Galaxy/USMNT's Sebastian Lletget about LA Dærby and what Zlatan is really like. Breakdown of Gregggg's new USMNT roster. Quick lap around rest of Europe. Games to watch. Sam & Mikey Fowler argue about North London Dærby. Tribute to Colin Clark.

Sam & Mike discuss what to make of EPL results, touching on VARy crazy City/Spurs, Wolves/United takeaways & the fun time that was Chelsea/Lester. Also Teemu Pukki & (yikes) Watford/West Ham. Mike may have cried while discussing Ashley Cole's retirement. Bayern vs Barça — whose ass is more in the jackpot. Shoutout to Union Berlin's psychological warfare. And finally what games to circle on the TV guide this weekend.

WE BACK! Sam's Army rises like a glorious phoenix from the ashes with cohost Mike Magee as we discuss EPL preview/predictions; some praise for VAR (!?!?); Neymar getting b-slapped by PSG fans; DCU's Amarikwa discussed impact of Wayne Rooney's impending departure; Mike has harsh but fair criticism for Zlatan; and games to watch this weekend!

Extra special (still-on-temporary-hiatus) bonus episode! Sam attended Nashville SC's unveiling event last week and sat down with CEO Ian Ayre to discuss his decade at the helm of Liverpool (2007-17) and plans for building his new cliub ahead of their 2020 launch in MLS [3:35]. Sam also bumped into Don Garber and got a chance to ask the MLS commissioner about the league's interest in embracing non-traditional media platforms [20:01]. Next up, Mikey and Sam ran it back one time for the homeys, previewing the two YOUGE daerbies in North London [22:10] and Merseyside [33:59] this weekend, did a quick Lap Around the World hitting on what to watch for in Germany, Italy and Spain [42:33], before finishing up with a rundown of the storylines heading into the 2019 MLS season [46:30] and offering some off-the-cuff predictions for the world's least predictable league. 

Come in hot with some banter about the late-breaking news that a Leeds "spy" was caught at Derby County's practice ahead of their top-of-the-table tilt on Friday. Next we move on to the EPL with a preview of the biggest game of the weekend as Ole Gunnar's reign as coach of United gets its first big test against Tottenham [6:30], and also including plenty of other sneaky good games led by City hosting Wolves [10:47] and Bournemouth visiting Everton [13:38], culminating with two massive six-pointers involving four of the five worst teams in the league that could go a long way towards deciding who is playing in the Championship next season. Finally, we close out with a quick Lap Around the World [27:40] and some parting words to dearly beloved listeners. 

Sam sits down with former "Man vs Food" star Adam Richman to discuss how an actor/TV guy from Brooklyn fell in love with soccer and Tottenham Hotspur, what the practice and game exeprience was like being coached by Jozay Mourinho for a charity game, his thoughts on the possible departures of Mauricio Pochettino and Christian Erksen, who is winning the EPL this season, and finally how Adam is dealing with Christian Pulisic's impending move to rival Chelsea.    

We start out with a quick run-through of this past weekend's FA Cup results, highlighted by a conspiracy theory about EPL relegation contenders and what we learned from Liverpool's loss to Wolves. Next up we run through our preferred Best XI's from the first half of the season [7:05], and hand out some awards for best and worst surprises of the season to both teams and individual players [16:15]. We then run through a bolus of listener voicemails [30:05], touching on Arsenal's transfer plans, what if the top six and bottom six EPL managers traded places, thoughts on Tyler Adam's move abroad and a debate about the growth of soccer in America. Finally we close things out with previews of the midweek Make Belieague Cup games on deck, starting with City vs Burton [55:30] and closing up shop with an actual game involving Spurs and Chelsea. 

Christian Pulisic was sold by Dortmund to Chelsea for the GDP of a small Caribbean nation (and promptly loaned back) so we start by talking through all the burning questions -- what does it mean, how will he fit and how should non-Chelsea fans feel about it? Next up is a review of the midweek results, starting with City's massive win over Liverpool [19:40] and working our way through the rest of the slate. Finally we run through a quick Top4/Bottom3 Power Rankings [1:03:25] and highlight some of the games worth watching and betting on in this weekend's FA Cup games [1:05:05].   

We start off by running through the results from the weekend, touching on the defining moments from Liverpool's curb-stomp of Arsenal, what happened to Spurs vs Wolves [1:50], whether we learned anything from United/Bournemouth [15:15], and a little ditty about my journey of self-discovery into why I have been so negative about Olivier Giroud lately [21:00]. Next, we run through a quick Power Rankings of the Premier League's T op 4 and Bottom 3 [36:52]. Then comes a preview (plus predictions) for all the biggest games of the midweek slate, most notably the biggest game of the season so far as City host Liverpool [41:00] with no less than the fate of the title race at stake. Finally we close out the year by listing all the best and worst highlights and lowlights from 2018 [1:22:35] and offer up some New Year's resolutions for 2019 [1:32:05]. 

We start off with a rundown of all the Boxing Day results, featuring a discussion of wtf is wrong with City [1:47] and whether Tottenham are "in the title race" [17:10]. After a quick Power Ranking of the EPL's Top 4 and Bottom 3 we move right along to a preview (plus predictions) for this weekend's action, including Liverpool vs Arsenal [49:20], Tottenham hosting Wolves [54:29], whether Bournemouth is the first real test for Ole Gunnar's United [56:26], PLUS looks to go for four in a row with his Safe Money Lock of the Week. We wrap things up with a quick Lap Around the World focusing on Serie A [1:12:03] along with a quick discussion about Timothy Weah's imminent loan move away from PSG [1:18:30]. 

First up is a recap of a wild and crazy weekend chock full of silly results, none more so than Crystal Palace's upset of City [1:35] followed closely by Lester beating Chelsea [8:33]. After a quick rundown of our respective Power Rankings for Top 4 and Bottom 3 [33:17], we turn to the Santa's greatest gift of all: a full slate of games coming up on Boxing Day. Previews and predictions for all the match-ups, highlighted by Watford/Chelsea [46:16], Southampton/West Ham [48:30] and Tottenham/Bournemouth [57:47]. Finally we finish up with an extremely abbreviated Lap Around the World [1:09:45]. 

We are back on the interview kick, this time chatting with Sunderland/USMNT's Lynden Gooch about his path from California to northern England, the pain of relegation(s) and thoughts on new Netflix docuseries "Sunderland Til I Die". Next we turn to the EPL where we start with the tragic loss of the content king himself, Jozay Mourinho [27:00], followed by a discussion of the Make-Belieague Cup results [37:25] -- and the relevance of one in particular -- before pinching off previews and predictions for all this weekend's action, featuring Wolves/Liverpool [48:44], West Ham/Watford and Everton/Tottenham [51:47]. Finally we do a quick Lap Around the World [1:16:40] laying out what to watch for this weekend in the Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A.    

Losing someone special is never easy so it is with heavy hearts that start today's podcast with an extra special moment of silence for Jozay Mourinho. RIP in peace, sweet content prince. You are gone but will never be forgotten. The show must go on though because the ping-pong balls were picked and Champions League draw has been set for the Round of 16 knockouts, so the first order of business is breaking down each of the match-ups [2:40], highlighting what to watch for and offering picks on who will advance. Next up we run through this weekend's results, starting with Liverpool vs United before moving along to interesting games involving Watford/Cardiff, Southampton/Arsenal and Fulham/West Ham. We also included a quick Top 4 / Bottom 3 power rankings [1:02:32], along with a discussion of this week's upcoming Make-Belieague Cup action [1:05:41]. Finally we do a quick Lap Around the World [1:09:37]  touching on the biggest results in La Liga, Bundesliga and Serie A, plus a discussion of the pluses and minuses of MLS's newly updated playoff format [1:19:18].