MLS All-Stars VS Liga MX Recap, Infantino Selling FIFA? And Mancini & Ranieri Hired By The Azzurri

Marco: Bueno, ¿cómo estamos?

Project 90 Soccer: Bueno amigo. Welcome everybody to another episode, the Project Ninety Podcast. My name is Antonio and I'm here with El Hefe Masgrande, numero uno, Marco Munoz. Marco, how are you?

Marco: Marco, Marco Antonio Muñoz, I'm an Antonio too.

Project 90 Soccer: Marco we got two Antonios in here. It's too much to handle, but we're gonna make it work. Marco, como stamus, amigo?

Marco: Molto bene, fratello.

Project 90 Soccer: man.

Marco: right, right off the heels of watching the MLS All-Star game.

Project 90 Soccer: That is correct. So MLS All Star game was just finished up maybe what, 10, 20 minutes ago. We want to jump into that a little bit, Marco. I think that was a fun one, you know. That was that was a pretty fun game, but we're gonna jump into that, touch on that. We want to talk about today. This this wild news also that's been coming out just out of nowhere, to be completely honest. Mr. Notorious Infantino selling part of the World Cup, something like that going on. This this is crazy to me, right? And we're gonna close this one out with look, the soap opera of Italy, right? It seemed like in less than twenty-four hours, something Maldini Maldini resigned, Pirlo's gone, Leonardo left, and what did they do? They found a new coach, technical director. They got Mancini back, Claudio Ranieri's in. So we're gonna go over that and then we'll have a notable mention at the end. Something very kind of s bitter something very sad happened in Italy that we wanna we wanna just give a give a shout out to. But We'll get to that at the end of this episode. But before we get there, we want to start with this amazing sort of fun event, right? Skills challenge, all star game. MLS All Stars is Liga Mekis. As you can see, San Jose Earthquake shout out, Daniel Muni, center defender, putting on for the MLS All Stars. Marco, what did you think of this game, man?

Marco: Shouto LAFC Son Hum Min.

Project 90 Soccer: Dude. Do that again. Do that again. Who? Fuck.

Marco: Stop huh mint.

Project 90 Soccer: I thought it was hum

Marco: Feel like a

Project 90 Soccer: I thought it was Human Song.

Marco: Sung Ming ho whatever. Sun.

Project 90 Soccer: Son, what's up, son?

Marco: Done with a brace. Man, this guy's

Project 90 Soccer: Dude.

Marco: been on fire.

Project 90 Soccer: Fire. Fire. Coming off the World Cup right. Gotta mention Carlos Hill from New England Revolution. Two assists. The guy's a real playmaker coming out of Valencia in Spain. This guy came to the MLS. He runs the MLS. This guy is probably one of the best players that the New England Revolution have ever seen. Great player, just playmaker all around. You know who I did fancy though, towards the end of that game, jumping a little ahead here, but we'll jump all over the place was Rondon for Liga Mekis, man. Forgot about that guy, dude.

Marco: Salamón, el rey rondón.

Project 90 Soccer: What is he? Pachuka?

Marco: Pachuca Everton. He was

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Zenit.

Marco: yep, Zen at St. Petersburg.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: just last year he was with Real Oviedo, also a Pachuca owned team. But yeah, man, this guy was all over the place. I always say this, two different games, first half. It was like the MLS all all the MLS all stars were concerned were concerned about was attack, attack, attack. And when you get an all-star game, just like you get in the NBA, we're not worried about defense. We just want to see goals as fans, as players,

Project 90 Soccer: Entertainment.

Marco: as players. This is our opportunity to freaking shoot from all over the place and score however many goals we want. fun first half. And you and I were talking like, man, the way this is headed, if Liga Meki doesn't get their head up out of their ass, this is gonna be a scraping. And as soon

Project 90 Soccer: It's gonna be a

Marco: as I saw, as soon as I saw Evander. Come in. The second half. here we go. This guy's gonna score. And what does he do? This guy always finds the back of the net. But kudos to Mohamed and the Liga Mekis players. They were able to get their shit together in the second half.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I think they had more opportunities than they actually scored because man, the Canadian goalkeep. I'm not gonna butcher his name because I feel like I

Project 90 Soccer: Dude.

Marco: Craig Fogs, I feel like I butcher his name all the time. We saw him in

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: person last week.

Project 90 Soccer: We did.

Marco: In Orlando versus San Jose. And man, we don't talk about goalkeepers being the players of the match, but the sah this guy had a solid show in seven tapes.

Project 90 Soccer: He kept he kept him in there, man. And you know, League Mekis was on MLS's ass at the end of the game there, right? Run no one's a problem, man. There was the whole VAR, the whole penalty check. Jackson Reagan threw out I still don't know if he got a touch on him or what happened. It looked like he kind of did. Not too sure. Referee looked like he was just letting things just go all over the place. but yeah, man, you know, speaking of League Mekis, obviously they scored the first goal, right? Which is kind of I wasn't expecting that because

Marco: Me either.

Project 90 Soccer: Like you like you were telling me, like a lot of their players got sent back home. They got games coming up. Some of their star players for the for the Liga Mekis went home. So they weren't in this game, but we did see two of the World Cup players, right? Lita was in there, Gallardo was in there. So, you know, it it shaped up to be a nice game, but I think just depth off the bench, MLS just had more quality, right? This had more quality.

Marco: One hundred percent.

Project 90 Soccer: shout out to Krapo, solid game. Shout out to Daniel Munich of San Jose Earthquakes representing the only player to make it. but yeah, man, Thomas Mueller came on, excited to see him. Honestly, did not really do anything. You know, a lot of these players are out there, they're just having a good time, which is understandable.

Marco: For a second he didn't even he for a second, I didn't even think he a he touched the ball like ten minutes.

Project 90 Soccer: I don't think he did. I really think he came on, he maybe touched the ball once, and then after that it was like he wasn't even on the field, to be completely honest, right? So yeah, man, that it's it's a fun game. But we were also talking, I think it's it's interesting to sort of bring up and talk about is this whole mid season MLS all-star game. You know, you just come back from the World Cup, you just took a huge break. You're in the middle of your season, you're you're firing all gears again, trying to get things going, and you're just gonna break the league real quick and do an MLS all star game in not even in a soccer stadium, right? It's in the in the Panthers stadium in Charlotte. I

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: mean, what what are we doing? I don't I personally think, right, it should be more along the lines of the NFL, right? The All Star game they do or at the end of the at the end of the the Pro Bowl, right? right before the Super Bowl, all the players in the in the Super Bowl don't play it. They go out there at the end of the season, they have some fun. But MLS just seems like, hey, Let's just put everyone's health on risk, right? At risk here. Let's just go out. Let's have fun and let's hope nobody gets hurt and just have a nice sort of gathering of what? Of the soccer community, middle of the season. I mean, what do you think of that? I think that's ridiculous.

Marco: Yeah, there's just a whole lot of stuff wrapping up. You got Leaks Cup around the corner. you're coming off your your previous week in game. Yeah, man, I don't know. Maybe it's just one of those things. Maybe they're just trying out this year, like, hey, we're just gonna knock it out, get it out of the way, so we don't gotta worry about it. And then we just focus on the season. in the long run. I don't know. I wasn't the biggest fan of just personally, I'm not the biggest fan of all star games in general. But hey,

Project 90 Soccer: It's

Marco: they they got it out the out the way. But yeah, I'm not I'm I'm with you, man. I'm actually I like your idea, right? Like the NFL, what the guys are going to the chip, they stay out of the the All Star game, the Pro Bowl game is what they call it. And everybody else gets to focus and have fun and there's no restraints on anyone. If if you get selected, you get to go.

Project 90 Soccer: I agree, man. I don't know. To me, it's just one of those things that just screams MLS to me. Scre you know, you I know they're changing the season now. It's gonna be they're gonna line up the calendar to match Europe's. So, you know, they're sort of changing things up a bit, but I still find this whole all star thing. I mean, imagine back in like twenty ten, for instance, you go to La Liga in Spain and then you get the SEA, for instance. You stop them mid season when Real Madrid and Barcelona are having absolute wars

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: on the field and you say, All right guys. We're gonna get together here for three days and we're just gonna go play this nice fun sort of scrimmage game, if you will. I mean it just it does it's crazy.

Marco: I like to I'd like to see the the ratings, like all these challenges, the goalkeeper challenges, the the shooting challenges, to see if there there's any bing for their buck there. Right. I know in American sports it's all star game for this, all star game for that. So I understand why they're trying to do it. And but I'm I'm curious to see what what's the ratings for that and if people are really tuning in outside Of the United States and the telecast that we got going on here. But something I would like to say is this whole League of Meccis versus MLS All-Stars is getting kind of old, right? I

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: want to see, especially if they're gonna continue to happen during this time, get one of these European clubs who are gonna start going on tour in the summer and get all these friendlies under under their belts, right? Let's start seeing Wrexham versus MLS All-Stars game all-star team. Let's see a

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: Spain team come in They get to play their young players who are trying to get minutes going into the season that are not going to get minutes, right? They're trying to see if they make the final rosters or whatnot. So I want to see that. And also because as much as like the MLS and the Leon Mekis, I I I like I like it when the Europeans dominate, right? Because it

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: shows you the it shows you the level that they're at

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: in comparison to what we got here in the States, although it's a fun, competitive. domestic. We got a lot of players from overseas, but you could tell the difference when two worlds collide.

Project 90 Soccer: absolutely. And they used to do that, right? They used to have you know, Bayern Munich came out, Everton's come out, all these European teams would come out and do exactly what you said, and then all of a sudden they seem to change it, make it Liga Mek East versus MLS. why, I couldn't tell you. I don't know. But at the end of the day they do that. I'd love to see the numbers as well. Is this really a a home run of a of a Of an occasion in terms of like making money, selling tickets, merch, all these things. I don't know. Maybe it's for charity. I'm not too sure, but I would just like to see it after the season. That's that's my main concern with all this. But today, final score, four to three, MLS. Shout out MLS, shout out League MX, another MLS All-Star game wrapped up. And Marco, I heard you mention something a little bit ago here. Something about a bang for your butt. Okay, and I think this is a smooth transition into this craziness that we're hearing right now. This cr this this I was not expecting to hear this this week, but Infantino selling shares or stock of the World Cup to 20%. I mean, what what have you heard about this? What what what is this nonsense that we're hearing? Because WEFA, I've already heard, is they're they're ready to go all in against this because it's they're selling the game essentially. The game is not for sale. You can't sell soccer, especially the World Cup.

Marco: Anto Fratello Mia Miko What what what what what haven't we heard? What

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Marco: haven't we heard about what's going on with with FIFA and infantino and this nonsense and now you get to buy stakes in this? Like what are we doing? Why are we still

Project 90 Soccer: I don't know, man.

Marco: talking about the World Cup? The World Cup is over. Like

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: like let's let's move on. We got the Euros coming up, we got Nations League coming up. We got the Gold Cup, we Copa Medica we want to worry about. Like Infantino, we don't want to stop stop trying to get all the attention. You remind me of Jerry Jones. You want all the attention on you right now. Right. So why are we talking

Project 90 Soccer: Yo dude. Shots fired.

Marco: why are we talking about this nonsense? Right? Do you remember when he tried to do the biannual roll cup and they got shot down?

Project 90 Soccer: I yeah. He proposed that idea because, of course, you know

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: what is it gonna do? It's gonna generate more money, whatever, whatever, whatever. Yeah.

Marco: Commercial money, commercial money, commercial money. Just like the hydration breaks. I was not a fan. He

Project 90 Soccer: No.

Marco: says they didn't get a dime, but there was parade logos all over the place. Right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: So I don't know, man. This screams continuous corruption. and they're looking for for their benefits. And he's even saying that if you don't jump on board, you you're gonna suffer not getting funded, which is about forty million, for those that

Project 90 Soccer: That's crazy.

Marco: for those that don't jump in and on board. So from what I've been reading and what I'm seeing, WEFA's gonna hold an urgent meeting tomorrow with all the bigwigs on their end, and they're really hammered down on on what's going on. I was reading earlier today, the Kunkakaf is like, hey, we didn't know anything was going on. we're just hearing it now. Unfortunately, we're seeing it through social media just like everybody else.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: When I saw that, I was like, That's a total load of crap. Because it

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: reminded me back when bl bladder was in charge.

Project 90 Soccer: Yep.

Marco: Who was the vice president? Jack Warner from the CONCACAF was a vice president who got charged with racketeering, fraud, and all this glamorous stuff that when you're corrupt, you get charged for, right? So I don't know, man. I just kept going down a rabbit hole and reminding me of the documentary for fans, subscribers. Go check it out. FIFA uncovered. This has been going

Project 90 Soccer: Yes.

Marco: on forever, Anton. This has been going

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: on forever since like 1974 when the Brazilian guy took over. I don't know, man. this is taking stuff away from the game, from the beautiful game. The beautiful game is not looking too beautiful. It's taking the integrity away from the game. And ultimately for us fans, like now when we see these questionable calls like we've been talking about, like, it's

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: like, all right, that makes sense. There's there's some money behind that. So which

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: is what we shouldn't be worried about. We should be worried about Just watching our guys, the best players go head to head, focus on the clubs, on the countries, on these competitive leagues. But unfortunately, we're here talking about Infantino trying to get rich. And that's all I

Project 90 Soccer: You know, man,

Marco: got.

Project 90 Soccer: it's it's the World Cup is is for the fans, man. It's for the beauty for the love of the game. Okay. And speaking of documentaries, this is starting to remind me of I watched a documentary on the formation of the Premier League. The modern Premier League, as we know it, formed in nineteen ninety-two, and how these investors came together, these these TV I believe it was Sky. They came in, they said, Man, this is an absolute, this is like A bank that has not been tapped here. Like we can we can make so much money here if we get the rights to this, if we blow it up. They looked at the Super Bowl, for instance, here in America and they saw what they were doing. They're like, how can we generate more money at the expense of this sport? Now you see the Premier League and the the the ridiculous amount of money is in the Premier League. The investors that come in and buy these clubs. So while while it makes sense that you want the game to grow, you need money for the game to grow. I think. From from the investor standpoint, the infantino and these guys like that, it's not for the love of the game ultimately. It's it's truly just greed. That's all I see. And people are are screaming from the heavens about this is capitalism, this is blah blah. But really, it's just human greed, right? It's in our nature as humans, and these guys they're taking it way too far now. All right. You already wanted to expand the World Cup to 48 or to the 48 teams like we did. Now they're talking about 64 teams. Which we all know what that means. It just means more games, more ads, more revenue, ticket sales, everything. It means two

Marco: Two two months worth the World Cup.

Project 90 Soccer: month imagine you just you just finish a whole season. Now you got a a sixty-four team two-month World Cup that you gotta go to. You're gonna play they just played eight games to win the final Spain. Imagine playing ten games. Ma I mean it's just like it's getting ridiculous. You're taking the joy, the excitement. You already added hydration breaks. Now we're playing a four quarter game. So I mean It's like they they're subtly changing it and then he drops this bomb where it's like, I'm gonna sell portions. And one of one of the the main investors coming in who's a private private would be JP Morgan. So it's like you hear names like that, and it's like, come on, bro, we all know this is a money play, right? If it's not already obvious. So it's just I don't know how a guy like Infantino can just come in like that, take over the beautiful game the way he has. The most iconic tournament of all time, of all sport, the World Cup. And attempt to do what he's doing. Do I think it's going to work out? I honestly don't. I think there's going to be a lot of backlash. But then again, we don't know who's behind the scenes, man. We don't know who these people are, what they're doing. Obviously, they're going to try to incentivize it or make it look as if it's beneficial. But at the end of the day, we we both know. And we all know what's going to really happen. There's going to be some individuals whose pockets get lined with a ton more cash because of it. Not a fan.

Marco: And look, and look, it happens everywhere, right? Let's I I don't wanna throw shade on people trying to make money, right? I don't think all

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, no.

Marco: these organizations, I don't think all these leagues are registered as nonprofits, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: They got people to pay, right? They have overhead. But if you're gonna do stuff like this, like don't don't don't throw it out to the public. Do it

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm.

Marco: behind the scenes. What we don't know, we don't know. You know what I mean?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: let there be a little bit of secret and mystery to the game, if that's the case, because Infantino's not the first. Bladder wasn't the first, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Right.

Marco: The pr the previous president wasn't the first. And it could be happening all over the place to your point. Premier League and Skype Sports in Mexico, you got Televisa and Televisa owns the biggest club in Mexico. So there's always talks there about about stuff going on. So it's happened all over the place. It's just unfortunate that we just keep hearing about it. And it's it's taking the focal point away from what's really important, which is the players, the leagues, the clubs and the fans. And now we gotta look over and and pay attention to what's going on behind the scenes with all these big wigs.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, and we already saw at this World Cup with the the the ridiculous rise in ticket prices. Right. And it makes you like

Marco: Couldn't even go.

Project 90 Soccer: you under I mean, yeah, we had a we had a game here at Levi Stadium, what, an hour and a half away, and it's like that we're priced out practically. And they're saying, it's only so it's only seven hundred dollars for the cheapest ticket. Only seven hundred dollars. Like, what are you talking about, right? And and you look at that and you think, Okay, I understand you have this tournament, you have people to pay. You gotta make money. No no endeavor makes sense if you're not making money. Like I get it. But why not then figure out ways to maybe charge these people who want to put advertisements right from these large corpor I mean they have bags of money, these corporations that run these ads. Charge them more. Charge the people who can afford it more. Charge these big people that are putting this on and buying ad space during the World Cup. Charge them more and give the fans the opportunity to afford a ticket. I mean, you look at like SoFi Stadium and everybody who went to that game. has money essentially. Like where are the real fans? The people who who who literally they cry when their team loses. Like they feel so much emotion watching their team play. Like they go there with nothing but passion for the game and their their international team. And all these people have been priced out. So it's just it's it's sad. You can see it's being commercialized like big time. And yeah man, I just I hope it I hope it comes back to the fans. Ultimately that's what it's about. Like you said, it's about the players, the fans But yeah, man, this is just new news coming out. We'll see what happens. it's interesting, right? It's interesting, but for now

Marco: Well he gave well he he gave them a deadline, September something. So I I guess we'll circle back come

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: September and let the people know if they didn't find out already what this nonsense is about.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, and if you if you're someone listening to this and you know exactly what's going on or know more than we do, just drop it in the comments so you can sort of educate us on this. Cause all I heard was some brief, you know, Instagram posts, a few little little things on Instagram and social media. So yeah, just drop it in there because I'm I'm kind of fascinated by what's going on here with FIFA. Now, corruption was obvious before, but now it's just like it's yelling. It's yelling right at our face, right? Like we see it. I don't like

Marco: And for everybody that's been and for everybody that's been commenting on TikTok, YouTube,

Project 90 Soccer: yeah.

Marco: we appreciate you guys and gals,

Project 90 Soccer: Yep.

Marco: wherever wherever you are. We're not experts. We're just here having fun, having conversation. So feel free to fat check us, correct us. We're happy to Yeah, we're we're happy to

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Tell us we're stupid, whatever. Yeah.

Marco: understand and get your point of view. And hey, we might get your point of view or or topic on the next episode.

Project 90 Soccer: That's true. And the best part about a soccer game, Marco, and this sport, a hundred people could watch the same game and come out of it with a hundred different opinions. Right? It's the most amazing part. But moving on, speaking of international soccer, Italy. We saw this total fiasco go down. Maldini came in, wanted Pirlo. Malago, new president, said, I don't want Pirlo. He's associated with the Russian betting. No Pirlow. So he got a big fat mm. X, you're out. No Pierlo, no party. Maldini said, Nope, I don't care. I want Pirlo. So he said, I'm gonna resign. Leonardo resigned. And in less than 24 hours, Malago seemed completely fine that Maldini didn't want to stay. He's like, no big deal, I'll figure it out. And what does he do? He brings in who quite honestly I would have liked to see as manager with Maldini there. But even now, the new technical director, Claudio Dragnetti, I'm very I'm kinda I'm really stoked about that. I think that guy Obviously, if you don't know who that is, if you remember Leicester City winning the Premier League, he was their head coach. This guy is a legend of an Italian coach. and go ahead.

Marco: Intelligent as fuck.

Project 90 Soccer: He is, man. This guy's like a master of the craft. Like he he truly bleeds this game. Like he knows what he's doing. And they had some great words, him and Mancini. They had a they had a press conference, and Malago brought them both out. And basically, you know, Mancini, to break it down simply, he he sees Italy. They have a lot of quality, a lot of good players, and it's just about giving those players the opportunity, right? Their main goal and their main focus right now, it's not on the World Cup. It's not even on the Euros necessarily. It's on this next set of games for the Nations League. And in this next set of games, Italy has quite quite the opponent, let's just say. They play first off, they play they play Belgium, okay, which is pretty decent squad to be going up against, especially when you've been Italy, right? You want some good competition to see where you're at. After

Marco: It it could also be an it could also be a new Belgium. I'm sorry to cut you off because but to those

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: guys, they're probably not gonna be with the squad.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, exactly. It's gonna be a clash of new teams, really. New new experiment. And it's for a trophy, the Nations League. So we expect to see some competition. After Belgium, they have Turkey A, which we saw them have a disastrous World Cup. But more or less, that Turkey team is gonna be the team, right? We know they have some good players. Arta Gouler, Shalon Adelou's on the team. Ken and Yield is they're led by Vincenzo Montella, the Italian coach. So that's gonna be a really good game for Italy. And then coming up after that, though, is like The game of games, right? This is the ultimate test to see where you're at. And that game is against France. They're playing France. And after France, they go through all three of them again. Okay. So for Italy, you know, Ragneti was saying, you know, he he's very experienced, obviously. And I think Mancini and Ranieri both have this way of being very personable, creating a good locker room. Obviously, Mancini won the Euros in 2021. And the biggest factor for that team, I think, was their team chemistry and cohesion, the locker room. They had a really good, really good atmosphere, really good high spirits that tournament. And I just think there was a lot of respect between the players and Mancini. Donoruma came out, he said, This is you know exactly what we want. Essentially Mancini. Ranieri, they're very happy with it as the players. And Claudio Ranieri just said, look, you know, he's he has a 12-year-old nephew, I think he was saying how. Their goal here is to give these kids, all the youth in Italy, the opportunity, the

Marco: Bambi means

Project 90 Soccer: Bambini, all the kids, either the Dragazzi to see the Azzurri back in the World Cup and out of World Cup because they haven't. There's kids who are twelve years old, even what sixteen years old, that have never seen Italy in the World Cup. I can't even like for me, it's hard to fathom. I saw them win it when I was twelve. So imagine if I was twelve, I'd never even seen Italy in the World Cup. It's crazy.

Marco: You know what? You know what? I would have rather seen Mexico win it once and have them miss the next three World Cups, at least say they got a star on their badge. So so you know what? So

Project 90 Soccer: That's true. Not complaining. Yeah.

Marco: you know what? I don't want to hear any freaking complaining on your end, all right? 'Cause your team, world champs, they took out

Project 90 Soccer: Hey man, it's it's four. Yeah.

Marco: my guy, Sinadin Sidan. Materazzi, great, great mental fuck with Cine with with Sinadin Cidan. You gotta see

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: Zoo out of his game and ultimately offer that surri and they got the World Cup. But yeah, man.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: two very strong guys at the helm, Ryanetti, who who they offered the position last year. I don't know if you remember, but

Project 90 Soccer: I do, yeah.

Marco: he was with he was with Roma and Ri what do Ryanetti and Roma have in common? They're attached at at the hip, right? They have each other's parts. So he

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, they do.

Marco: said no. but yeah, let's do the press conference in Italian as well. I try to take away as much as I could. But yeah, echoing a lot a lot of things that you were saying. And Mancini, right? Very experienced at the at the highest

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: level, has won it all with the Tsurri. And he gave a lot of opportunity to a lot of these young guys. And he even did some dual national players

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: when he when he was at the helm. So excited to see what's going on. And I'm sure a lot of these players, even if it's been in the youth systems, they've been around these guys

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: as at some sort. So it won't come to a shock to what they're expecting or what is needed in the locker room. And ultimately Guys like Dunaruma, they know what to expect. They've been there. so I'm I'm excited to see what's going on because all those teams that you mentioned in the nations nations league, they're tough. I didn't see any

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: easy, I didn't see any easy games there. So

Project 90 Soccer: No.

Marco: hoping for the best and hopefully we we see them at the top.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, Mancini laid it out pretty cut and dry. Their main focus is the Nations League right now. After the Nations League, obviously qualifying for the Euros, going to the Euros. And then after the Euros are all done, said and done, then they can focus on the World Cup. And I think that's the right way to approach it. Italy's at a point, man, where they can't go any lower. They're at they're at the lowest they can go. The only way is to the only place they can go is to stay where they're at or to go up. And with Mancini, Ragnetti, and even, you know Some of the players that are gonna be coming back to the team, the the the Donoruma, Calafiori, Sandro Tonali, all these all these guys who are sort of established, good players. Hopefully we see Chiesa come back. 'cause they have a lot, they have a lot more years still with the national team. Another World Cup, I think, is in there, is in the in the cards for them. So I really hope he can kind of bring in some of the youth now. The PCL, the Palestra, who just went to Chelsea, and all the other names that you know that are coming up in Italy. Bring them around and sort of build Build a new team and start a new era for the Italian national team, man. I miss it. I miss seeing them. I I hate hearing all this shit being talked all the time. Well, you didn't you even qualify or this and that, but Italy, man, it's fully deserved they didn't qualify. They didn't they just didn't they haven't they haven't what do you say? They haven't they just haven't been good enough. Bottom line, right? And I think it's the wake up call that we ultimately needed. But yeah, man, so we'll see how that plays out. Nations League coming up in about a couple months, September and October, I believe. But some other news that you had meant sent to me today, I didn't see it. I'm very sad about because the absolute legends that have played for this club and come out of this club, just to name a few. Roberto Baggio, right? Andrea Pirlo, Luca Tony played there, Sandro Tonali played there, Brescia, Balotelli

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: played there too. I mean, so many players have either Come through there, been part of the team. Legendary club, man. Brescia went bankrupt today. They went bankrupt, called it quits, club is dissolved. I've seen this happen in the past with Parma, and as we see, they get rebranded, they get brought back. I'm really hoping that's the case with Brescia, 'cause it's one of those clubs in Italy that's just renowned. Everyone knows them. They're one of the one of the older clubs and it's just, yeah, sad day, man, for the for for Brescia and Italian soccer, you know. I just remember clearly and vividly, if you haven't seen this goal, man, you you or anybody listening, Roberto Bajo ended his career at Brescia. Okay, and he played at the

Marco: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: same time as Andrea Pirlo. And I'll never forget this, like from half field assist. Pirlo pops it over as he does. Bajo coming over the shoulder, the ball coming over the shoulder, takes a touch to the left, this this beautiful, crispy, saucy touch past the goalie and just side foots it in with the left foot. Just class, bro. The guy's 38. He had like a quarter of a knee left. Like this guy was just falling apart. Still had the sauce. Still had the touch. Still had the divine ponytail. Don't ever forget it. And you know, he might have missed that world, that penalty in the final in '94, but Bajal will forever and always be loved by the Italians. And he will go down, I think, not only by Italians, but by a lot of fans around the world as one of the GOATs, man. And Not to mention Guardiola also did play did

Marco: Ayguardiola,

Project 90 Soccer: play Brescia with him. So a lot of lot of legends coming out of Brescia, man.

Marco: So so what kind of sauce was he on? Cause like here in the States we say marinara sauce. was he on

Project 90 Soccer: Ming yeah.

Marco: some some type of spaghetti sauce? What type, man?

Project 90 Soccer: He was on a carbonara, dude, because that's my favorite. Yeah, carbonara, man,

Marco: Carbonara, okay,

Project 90 Soccer: or some fresh sugo from Nona's garden, man. Something just real nice,

Marco: No no, no.

Project 90 Soccer: dude. Some bolognese sauce. I don't know, man. But whatever he was doing obviously worked. Okay. The guy had been broken down, similar to like a Ronaldo of Brazil, just these major injuries. But even after the injuries, their talent, their threat to the other team, it was just always undeniable. Right. Always undeniable. He's my favorite

Marco: Right, but

Project 90 Soccer: player growing up of all time. Still is, man. I mean, come on.

Marco: Bodies are gonna break down, but the magic is always gonna be there. But

Project 90 Soccer: You're right, man.

Marco: yeah, man, better sweet. actually, more so just bitter on my end, right? To your point.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. For that, yeah.

Marco: I I know only so much from from Bret Brescia and but so much history on that club. And it's one of those clubs that man, they just they could scout anyone and then they knew that they would turn into somebody, but ultimately it comes down to the bad decision making behind the scenes, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: I was I was reading into it that their man they're just so in debt that they just had to call it quits. But hopefully

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: just one of those things where you get a new investor, for example,

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: that happened with with with Parma and then over here, Deadpool with with Wrexham, right? And

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: they they they bring it back because these clubs they mean a whole lot to to the cities, to the people across Italy, and ultimately it created a lot of idols and and legends. for the sports not only in in serie but all over the world. So definitely bitter. Don't like to see things like this happen, but ultimately, so we were talking about earlier, this game is also a business and the businessmen aren't too savvy sometimes.

Project 90 Soccer: They are not, man. It's another iconic club going bankrupt, but I have I have a strong, strong feeling we will see them again. It's another episode, Marco. It's another episode.

Marco: Hey, next episode, man. Let's talk about some of these transfers that we got going on. yeah, a lot of them

Project 90 Soccer: Lot of Jordan Henderson to Chelsea. I mean, we've seen Real Madrid going dumb, spending that money. Marco Palestra speaking of Italians going to Chelsea. I mean, there there's moves

Marco: Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: all over the place. A lot of rumors still, but a lot of transfers have already been done. Is there one that stands out to you real quick

Marco: Yeah, and

Project 90 Soccer: before we before we close this out?

Marco: Yeah, and some of them in the some of them in the pipeline still negotiating or the case may be, but one of the standouts and sneak peek into the next episode, Sebastian Berhalter, man, he's off to the championship. something

Project 90 Soccer: Yes, that's right.

Marco: yeah, something I would like to see the Liga Mekis players do, and the owners like just let these guys go, you know, even if it's in the second division. But we'll talk about in the next pod. Mexicans like to charge a lot for their players. But shout

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yep.

Marco: out to Sebastian Brohalter. He's gonna get a lot, a lot of experience playing the championship, right?

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: yes, is right under the Premier League, but man, that league is so competitive. The championship

Project 90 Soccer: It is, man.

Marco: league is so competitive. And you're playing with guys who were just in the Premier League, teams are just in the Premier League the previous season, who sometimes keep a base of their players. So

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah.

Marco: yeah, shout out to him. and wish him the best of luck.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, man. Quality player. We mentioned that I remember we went to the Earthquakes versus Vancouver game and we were just talking about how he was clearly like the best player on the field, you know, in terms of his midfield performance. And we thought, at least I thought, and I'm sure you did too, that a move was coming, right? And after the World Cup, he kinda cemented that. I'm glad he got a move for his own career and it's good news for the US, right? So we'll yeah, next episode, talk about some of these transfers. If you listened to this entire episode, if you're here at the end, we really appreciate it. If you want to find us on all of our social streaming platforms, go to project90 soccer dot com. You'll be able to find everything there. Like, subscribe, it helps the channel. Leave a comment. We want to hear what you think. And yeah, man, it's been another episode of Project 90. We appreciate you listening. Marco, any last words?

Marco: Give us a follow, like, comment, and we'll catch you on the next one.

Project 90 Soccer: Ye, peace.