20230324 Raven Newsletter

March 24, 2023

Hail GFOP!

I type with fingers poised for takeoff. It is International Break and I am returning to England for the weekend to see my parents, Val and Judge Ivor, and to take my little one to Wembley to watch England lose to Ukraine. I do so at a remarkable time. The US Men have “Avenger Assembled” in Orlando for the first time since the World Cup, with the surreal subplots of the Berhalter-Reyna report, as well as Folarin Balogun’s National Team decision, surrounding them. NWSL also kicks off its 11th season, which is an incredible feat in its own right – and on top of that, the league is surging. More on all of this in the newsletter to come.

It has been a storming week at MiB. Wednesday night, I raced back through heavy traffic from Brooklyn and ran into my studio three minutes before our Live Amp with Landon Donovan kicked off. It was a fascinating conversation, hearing his experiences of the beginning of a cycle as well as his analysis about the fallout from the Reyna situation in the present. We then slammed right into time with the great Matt Turner, which drops TODAY. I love that bloke. I find his backstory truly singular and inspirational. We detailed that part of his story last summer, right before he moved to Arsenal (Listen to it here). I also appreciate the emotional honesty with which he processes the journey in which he picked up goalkeeper gloves aged 16 and has, with force of will, propelled himself all the way into a league-leading Arsenal squad and World Cup clean sheets.

We have spent a ton of time this week working on our digital strategy, which is both wonderful and funny to me. Men In Blazers’ “digital strategy” used to be just me tweeting whatever came to mind while walking around the city thinking about football. We now have a small but mighty team trying to work out how to serve and respond to all of you GFOPs on platforms that did not even exist back in the days when Brendan Rodgers was opening envelopes on “Being Liverpool.” As ever, we appreciate your feedback and insights on this and every matter at [email protected]. Your ideas are what keep us going in this time of wonder. One more thing: next week we are announcing a new voice joining our network we have been working on for the past six months. It is a “Woj” of a signing. Save next Wednesday night, when I hope we will Live Amp together.

2. International Break is upon us. Baby Eagles Assemble 🦅🇺🇸

Are you ready for some CONCACAF? The US Men’s National Team are back in action with their European-based squad for the first time since the 2022 World Cup and the subsequent Berhlater-Reyna feud which eviscerated all the good vibes that short but sweet campaign created. The team girds its loins for CONCACAF Nations League play Friday night in Grenada, then Monday night we face El Salvador in Orlando. (All games are on TNT, Peacock and Universo.)

Gregg Berhalter’s contract was allowed to run out, and he is no longer with the team, which is now under the eye of interim manager Anthony Hudson. New manager. New culture. Tactical tweaks. Yet, still a lame duck leader from the players’ perspective – this is a manager they know will not be around for much longer, with the 2026 World Cup just 1174 days away. There is also the frustration of this self-created inertia. Time is precious. There are very few chances for the squad to come together. Every game has to matter.

However, it cannot be exaggerated just how much these gents do love being with each other. The team culture was perhaps the greatest achievement of the Berhalter tenure. These gents are grinding it out in European club football. It is hard, occasionally lonely, and takes a real mental toll. The US Squad is once again a safe space. A joy. A time to recharge and to win. I asked Matt Turner what the goal was for the week ahead and he said, “To get a road win in CONCACAF. Then to get a CONCACAF home win.” That is a goal we can all get behind.

ii. Gio Reyna is back. Tim Ream set the tone on Reyna’s place in the squad. "The biggest thing is making sure that everybody knows we're here for a reason and what's happened with Gio in the past is in the past and what happened at the World Cup happened at the World Cup and we moved on from that as players." I hope Anthony Hudson starts Gio, and lets him dive right back into action, drawing a line under the past for the player. Despite all the online craziness, Gio is so young. He has apologized to the team. Everyone makes mistakes. How you respond to them, what you learn, and how you change your actions as a result of them is all that matters in life. I talked to Landon about this on the pod on Wednesday night. I hope that by 2030 Gio is leading this US team to a new level, and this incident, which looms so large right now, is merely a detail in the profiles that are written about his growth as a leader.

iii. Flo Balogun is a Great American? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇺🇸🇳🇬

Folarin Balogun, Arsenal academy product triple-national who can play for the US, England or Nigeria is driving US fans into a fever after dropping out of the England U-21 team with “injury” and then apparently cropping up in Orlando. The 21-Year-Old, who was born in New York City but left for London aged two, is currently blowing away Ligue 1 defenses at Reims (17 goals in 27 games). Let’s all agree to lose our minds with a dose of reality, right? Our team only scored three times at the World Cup and cries out for a true No. 9 who can score not by fluke nor off their junk. Flo is a very good player in the here and now. We would love him to play for us. With heart. And commitment. He is a young player who is thriving in the moment, playing the football of his dreams in France. Yet we know that football is a grind. Consistency is elusive. Tenacity is crucial. All of our stars – Pulisic, Gio, Wes, Tyler, Brenden, Sergiño – have waxed and waned. There are no silver bullets to glory.

3. MiB: Noise. Noise. Noise.

i. With the International Break upon us, Men in Blazers is your one-stop shop for all things Baby Eagles. Our coverage began Tuesday with a gent who - despite not being in this US Camp - is inarguably one of the brightest young American defenders in the game. We're talking about Bama Beckenbauer. The one and only Chris Richards. Listen to my conversation with the Crystal Palace Center Half, Presented by the GFOPs at Camarena HERE. It left us feeling a little better about life. AND WATCH THIS VIDEO VERSION ON YOUTUBE.

ii. Wednesday, on a very special edition of Do it Live!, we chopped it up with none other than US Soccer Legend Landon Donovan. Fascinating to hear Landon talk about this new generation of US players and how their desire to win reminds him of the generation prior to him. LISTEN HERE.

iii. Yesterday, our mate Herc Gomez went deep on the culture inside this USMNT, Folarin Balogun's visit to America, and Christian Pulisic's recent comments about Gregg Berhalter. Plus, who will lead the line for El Tri. LISTEN TO VAMOS PRESENTED BY BUD LIGHT HERE.

And later this afternoon, keep your eyes peeled for that Matt Turner Pod Special from USMNT camp. Arsenal fans, you will not want to miss this one. Stay tuned...

iv. With the Baby Eagles getting ready to take flight, it's a perfect time to remind you to subscribe to our American States United newsletter, in which we deliver everything you need to know about how our best and brightest are faring in the world's biggest leagues. SUBSCRIBE HERE.

4. Premier League News

i. Manchester United Sale Detour

Qatari Sheikh Jassim Bin Hamad Al Thani and Mancunian Sir Jim Ratcliffe have been given more time to submit offers to purchase Manchester United after Wednesday’s deadline in the second round of bids for the club was extended. There remains a lack of clarity as to why. And whether it is a power play by the bidders flexing their muscles or the sellers remain in control. They remain the only two bidders to have gone public with their interest, though others may be lurking without PR teams.

ii. Tottenham fans I ache for you 😢

I have heard from so many of you who are feeling it right now. Mixed emotions. A sense of chaos, a sense of letdown, mixed with a realization that much of what Conte said contained some truths, even as he airbrushed out his role in the darkness. Irrespective, Italian Anton Chigurh did not stick around in London, flying right back to Italy. Nature abhors a vacuum. So does football. The rumor mill has kicked in with suggestions that the players are done with Conte and that Daniel Levy is grappling with the conundrum of whether to appoint Ryan Mason, first team coach, as interim for the rest of the season, or to bring in a new full-time coach now to lock down fourth place and the Champions League money which comes with it. Firing Conte will give him a reported $5M payoff, which is probably what he wanted in the first place: A reward for his terrible behavior.

5. NWSL IS BACK IN OUR LOVING ARMS 🏆🍻

Welcome back to the NWSL, which this weekend returns for it's 11th season. What a magnificent runway to the World Cup. These are remarkable days for the league. The ratings are up. Season ticket sales are 20% up across the league. So much to look forward to as the Portland Thorns look to defend their title. All eyes on Alyssa Thompson, the Lebron James of Los Angeles, who joined her hometown club Angel City FC Straight Outta High School. The San Diego Wave continue to break attendance record after attendance record at the magical Snapdragon Stadium -- 23,500 tickets sold for their home opener a new NWSL record for opening day. The mighty Debinha, who has been a player of wonder over the last 6 years in North Carolina makes her debut with the Kansas City Current, and the league gets ever younger. A couple of weeks ago the Washington Spirit made Chloe Ricketts the youngest NWSL player ever. That record has already been broken, with the San Diego Wave signing fellow hometown wonder, 15-year-138 day old Melanie Barcenas. You can follow the league on CBS and Paramount+. To all the players, teams, and fans, we send wishes for love, strength, health and glory.

More: NWSL returns in search of global domination by the great Meg Swanick.

6. A tribute to Mesut Özil upon his retirement 🇩🇪🇹🇷

I loved that Umlauted wizard. A gent who walked a singular path. A footballing clairvoyant able to anticipate his teammates’ intentions, slice open the gut of his opponents’ defense with a pass and leave them chasing only shadows. A player who at his best lived to break at pace, his yogic calm cloaking the complexity of his vision as he wove into space. As football became an ever more tactical endeavor, the German provided moments of poetic inspiration, in which seeing, thinking, and doing were reduced to reflex action.

His was an intuitive style forged as a kid playing streetball in the manufacturing city of Gelsenkirchen. Özil honed his game in the fenced-off pitches tucked in between looming immigrant apartment blocks known as Affenkäfig or “Ape Cages.” By relentlessly playing five-on-five in a game where the ball never went out of bounds, Özil became hypersensitive to angles and space, developing an ability to pass the ball into fractures others could not see.

Off the field, Özil was known as a gent unafraid to speak his mind, even when it cost him. I always loved his self awareness, perhaps best symbolized when he settled down in Madrid. After purchasing a mansion, he erected a cage in the backyard. A true reflection of his own self-definition, which he once tried to sum up in the following words: "My technique and feeling for the ball is the Turkish side to my game. The discipline, attitude and always-give-your-all is the German part."

Watch this: This Nike video Özil made about his retirement, in which he lives a luxe yet lonely life, has always been my favorite football commercial. A frail, gray-haired Mesut spends his days watching his own highlight clips with only his butler for company, to whom he calmly boasts, “we won 12-0 and I scored 10 times.”

7. More Football, Did Ya Say?

i. Brilliant piece on England under Southgate and his Last dance by Barney Ronay.

ii. Rory Smith’s lovely piece on how Argentinian World Cup winners have found their club experience, their “day jobs,” different since becoming Champions of the World.

iii. Jurgen Klinsmann’s Big South Korean Adventure. My Lord.

vi. Unbelievable piece on the travails of modern refereeing: The Impossible Job.

vii. Whom should Liverpool sign for their midfield this summer? A speculative yet fascinating list.

viii. When did the term ‘golden generation’ originate in football? (Finch Farm. Whenever Tony Hibbert was there.)

8. Not Football, and all the Better for It

i. The American Diet Has a Sandwich Problem. Maybe the American Sandwich has a Diet Problem.

ii. TSA settles the score: Peanut butter is a liquid. Any country serious about flight security would at least have the decency to evaluate the viscosity of peanut butter on a case by case basis.

iii. Rick Ross’ Neighbor Worries About Safety of Children After Rapper’s Buffaloes Roam Her Property. She should get back in her house and be thankful that she doesn't live next door to the cocaine hippos in Colombia.

iv. Louisiana backs off, lets family keep invasive rodent as a pet. I knew a guy in college who was illegally harboring a chinchilla in his dorm room and I am so sorry to report that he did get a lot of girls up there with that thing.

v. A 90-year-old tortoise named Mr. Pickles just became a father of three. Inspiring news for late bloomers everywhere. Mazel tov buddy!!

vi. How Can I Avoid Looking Like a Tourist in New York? Slippery slope. One minute you're trying to stand on the subway without holding a pole, the next you're cursing out Elmos while pushing your way through Times Square.

vii. Inmates dig out of jail with toothbrush, get caught at IHOP, officials say. Breakfast - not the most important meal of the day. Been saying that for years.

viii. 50 horrible albums by brilliant artists. Putting Liz Phair by Liz Phair at 32 is a hate crime against women.

ix. The world’s happiest countries for 2023. I'm positive this list is a psy-op paid for by the Scandinavians (out of taxpayer dollars obviously) but I cannot for the life of me explain what angle they're playing by putting Lithuania at 20.

x. Kevin Harlan’s epic call to end the Furman vs UVA game last week. Can only imagine how Andres Cantor would have called it.

xi. Why Do We Have Presidential Medals for Celebrities? And why do we not have presidential medals for niche twitter micro celebrities?

xii. We Found the Actual Valerie From Amy Winehouse's Song ‘Valerie’. Real ones know it's actually a Zutons cover. Realer ones know that the Glee cover is actually the best version???

xiii. J. Smith-Cameron Understands Power. Hell yeah she does.

xiv. The Incredible Disappearing Doomsday: How the climate catastrophists learned to stop worrying and love the calm. "It is, I promise, not quite as bad as you once imagined, but it is worse than you’ve lately been led to believe. The seas will rise, the summers will get hotter."

xv. I love this book: Above Ground Poems by Clint Smith. Clint is a remarkable human being. You know him from his writing at the Atlantic and the No. 1 NY Times Bestseller How the Word is Passed. I know him as a fanatical Arsenal supporter living his best life. This book of poems about fatherhood and parenting is intelligently accessible and emotionally perfect. You read it and feel alive. Clint is the Odegaard of thinking. Who says you can’t do it all?

To more. Make great Memories through Football.

To Better Days Ahead for All.

Go! Go! USA!

Courage.