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- [00:00]
Tracy Thomas
Foreign,
- [00:12]
Brady Thomas
Everybody. I am just so excited. Today is an extra special bonus episode of Stacks Unabridged. That is my content that is exclusive to paid subscribers on Patreon and Substack. If you're listening to this right now, and it cuts out after, like, 15 minutes, it means you're not a paid subscriber. Please go do that. But if you get to hear the whole thing, what you're going to get to hear is like an hour long conversation between me and my favorite soccer analyst. Not Alexi Lawless? No, no, it is my dear brother, Brady Thomas. Brady, welcome to the Stacks.
- [00:47]
Tracy Thomas
Longtime fan. Great to finally be here.
- [00:50]
Brady Thomas
Long time, first time. Brady has been begging to come on this show for eight years. Um, and I just turned 40 this week, as you're listening. And I thought as an elder in the community, I should be more mature and I should allow my fans to have more access to me. So welcome again, Brady. I'm so honored.
- [01:09]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, thank you. I mean, I've been following your stuff for as long as I can remember. You've had a big impact on me, and so I'm great. I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my knowledge.
- [01:18]
Brady Thomas
Okay, we're gonna do a World cup recap. The plan is to talk about what we just watched for the last five weeks, to talk a little bit about FIFA and unfortunately, Trump. And also we're gonna kind of end this with what you, dear listener, who just became obsessed with Erling Holland, Jude Bellingham, soccer in general. What you should be looking forward to moving forward, because now you're a die hard soccer fan like the rest of us. So let's just start kind of at the beginning, big picture. Brady, what did you make of the 2026 World Cup?
- [01:55]
Tracy Thomas
I was honestly a big detractor heading into it. I think I was acutely aware of the issues that were coming into play with having Donald Trump represent the United States on a grand scale. And so the Faustian bargain that was struck between our president, Donald J. Trump, and the head of FIFA, Infantino, was something that I was very nervous about. But after what was that, a month and a half of. Of sporting brilliance, I came away with it relatively excited about what I just witnessed. And I think it lived up to what I was hoping it would be. And it didn't hit all of the negative points that I was really fearful of.
- [02:36]
Brady Thomas
Only some, like. Only just, like, minor sort of infractions, like calling FIFA to get our star player back in the game, which, like, was good for us, and so we liked it. I'M going to be honest, I liked it. We sucked it up after that. It's the trumpet, you know, Trump poisons everything he touches. But, okay, we just got off the final. Spain won the World Cup. You did predict it. I don't want to give you credit, but it's true that you did, and there are text messages to prove it. So I guess congratulations to you.
- [03:06]
Tracy Thomas
Thank you.
- [03:06]
Brady Thomas
But also, my big takeaway from this World cup was, like, it was so much fun from a fan perspective. It was so much fun when it started. We started the World Cup, We've got more teams than ever. We're getting an extra round. People are discovering. My beloved Scotland, like, Norway, is making this great showing. The group stages are shockingly fun. Like, I was interested in, like, Slovenia or whatever, like their soccer team. Sure. But as the World cup went on, I actually feel like it got less and less fun at every. Every matchup later in the thing, it was like, round of 16. Oh, my God. USA, Belgium. And every time I wanted a team to win, they lost, which meant that Argentina made it to the final. So I feel like I loved watching people discover the World cup, but also then was reminded of how less and less fun it gets because there's less and less games. You like less and less of the teams. And in this case, there were so many African nations that made it to the knockout, and then only I think one made it. Of the. Of the. There were 10 teams that went into the World cup, nine made it to the round of 32. And I think was it just. It was Morocco and Egypt, so two made it to. And so that was sort of a bummer for everyone who was just rooting for black people.
- [04:21]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. I mean, I think underlying all of that is just the pressure involved at this level. So I feel like the group stages are fun. You know, you have Curacao, you have K Verde, you have South Africa, you have all these countries that might not have an opportunity to showcase, and so they're just happy to be there. And they're going to oftentimes play free and open. Then you get to the knockout stage, and that's where the rubber meets the road. And the best example of that was. You saw how tight, how absolutely in their own heads the English national team was for the whole entire tournament. They get knocked out to Argentina in what is going to be a very memorable matchup for a number of reasons.
- [05:04]
Brady Thomas
Justice for the Falklands.
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Tracy Thomas
And then the next game, they come out and play free Open. They're having a blast. Because there's no more stakes in. And it was pretty interesting to see that. I think that's what the difference was between the group stage and then when you got to the knockout stage, everybody. It's literally life or death.
- [05:20]
Brady Thomas
Right. I think England is an interesting team specifically. Cause they have so much pressure at home. And they have, like, the media and the tabloids there are just so ruthless in a way that I think, like, here, even though our team really stunk it up in the round of 16, it was like on ESPN for 20 minutes. And then everyone was like. They were like, carl Pulisic, we love him. Was like, no, that's not even his name. And he sucks. So I do think, like, watching, knowing what I know about soccer as a fan, outside of just like the World cup, and knowing the kind of pressure that happens in the UK specifically, England was a fun team to watch because they sort of. I felt like they seemed looser than normal until the Argentina game.
- [06:07]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, I mean, I think. I don't think it's just England. You saw the absolute meltdown in Germany, in Brazil, after they got knocked out early. I think the pressure.
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Brady Thomas
Right. In South Korea.
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Tracy Thomas
I mean, in South Korea, great example.
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Brady Thomas
What a nightmare.
- [06:22]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, that. Yeah. So you see in countries where people care about soccer, football is not the fourth or fifth biggest sport in the nation, that there's so much riding on it. Whereas in the United States, they're already worried about, you know, LeBron's next.
- [06:37]
Brady Thomas
They're worried about football. This is football season. The other football. Do you feel like, were you excited by what you saw from American cities as we hosted the World Cup? Do you believe, as people say, every year now a new generation of children will be into soccer? Or do you think it's the same stuff? It's just the social media of, like, Scotland in Boston is, like, more fun than when we didn't have social media for it.
- [07:05]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah, I mean, I think that travel is the best thing that you can do to become smarter. Like going different places and seeing.
- [07:14]
Brady Thomas
And read books. And reading books.
- [07:16]
Tracy Thomas
Yes. But going other places and seeing that there's not just one way to do things is really illuminating. And so getting to import that into the United States was powerful. And hopefully there are people that are going to take to the sport in a way that they wouldn't if this, you know, would have been hosted in any other nation. But the fact of the matter is, I think the joy was brought from abroad. And I don't know how long it lingers in a world where all of these matches all of these players that people have now grown to love over the next month or last month or month and a half are going to be playing their 9 to 5 soccer in a country that you might not know much about or in a league that you might not be in tune to watch. And so that's. That's the part that's tricky.
- [08:00]
Brady Thomas
I feel like what was fun about the World cup, and I think, like, particularly meaningful for Americans who maybe don't agree with the Trump administration, is it was sort of a reminder of, like, we're fun, we're cool. Like, the people on the ground are lovely. Like, we could all get along if our leaders maybe weren't such fucking assholes. And it was also, like, a reminder that as much as everyone hates America, rightfully so, Like, I get it. Like, please, like, we're in the middle of bombing countries just, like, for no reason and, like, rounding up people.
- [08:32]
Tracy Thomas
Sure.
- [08:32]
Brady Thomas
Like, I understand why you would hate us. It was a reminder that, like, we do have good stuff here. And, like, watching people discover Chick Fil A sauce is, like, so much fun. And also, so many people like being open to foreigners in a way that if you just, like, read the headlines about America, you would think that, like, anyone from another country, we would automatically hate. But seeing, like, people from Cote d', Ivoire, like, dude. Dancing in American streets, dancing in the streets of America while, like, like, white boy Americans are dancing with them, and you're like, right, yeah, we actually could have a great time together. And, like, we actually do appreciate each other. And obviously that's, like, sort of soccer's biggest tagline. I feel like that's FIFA's the worst, but, like, soccer sort of is the sport that brings people together in that way. So I. I was heartened by that. And also, again, watching people eat, like, burritos for the first time, amazing.
- [09:28]
Tracy Thomas
I. I feel like the stuff. Mexico City and Guadalajara was the most fun.
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Brady Thomas
It was definitely Mexico City, like, because they. Because it was, like, a bunch of Korean people in Mexico City. Japanese. Where were the Japanese? They were somewhere fun, too. Also, maybe Mexico.
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Tracy Thomas
I think they had a couple of games in Mexico.
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Brady Thomas
The Scottish in Boston, the Norwegians in Boston and New York City. And then the Germans, I think, were in, like, Texas, which was, like, amazing.
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Tracy Thomas
They were, like.
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Brady Thomas
They had that guy Freddie, like, in the South.
- [09:58]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. I mean, that's the thing is it's like, you have the unity. You have the patriotism. That is beautiful. Not that discussing nationalism or racism, but you have the patriotism that you want. People to show for the pride. Right. And then you also have the contradiction, which is nations that are in the same competition are bombing one another in real time, denying people visas, political leadership. I mean there was the situation with, I think it was the Paraguayan congresswoman.
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Brady Thomas
Oh, and Mbappe.
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Tracy Thomas
And Mbappe that was almost too racist to believe. Happening in real time. So you bring people together, you get the best and the worst. But I think for the most part it was pretty beautiful all in all. And it didn't descend into some of the worst fears that I had at least starting.
- [10:52]
Brady Thomas
Yeah. What do you, what do you make of like, what do you think people who don't follow football don't understand about like FIFA, its history, the racism? Like, I think a lot of the, A lot of people watching maybe heard like, FIFA, so corrupt. FIFA so corrupt. But maybe don't know what that looks like. And obviously they saw what happened with Trump and Balogun or Balogun or people, you know, the Nigerians on TikTok are telling me to say Balogun. So anyways, what, what we saw with that. But like to me, that didn't feel out of place. Right. Like, to me I was like, of course this is going to happen. So can you explain to people a little bit of like why everyone says FIFA is the worst and they're corrupt and like how that's maybe different than other soccer.
- [11:37]
Tracy Thomas
So FIFA basically puts on the World Cup. I think it's 90% or 80% of the income they make in any four year period comes from the World Cup. They are supposedly nominally a nonprofit organization, if you can believe that. But it has steadily grown from what the World cup started as 100 years ago into this hugely a huge money making operation. And so you have the person at the top, Infantino, who is put there by all of the voters from these individual confederations, which are all also seemingly corrupt men.
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Brady Thomas
And the confederation is like concacaf.
- [12:15]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. Or the country. The country itself. So the, so the. Yeah. FIFA's broken up into different groups of different nations that are loosely around where the countries are located. So you have like a set of them that is South America, North America, Europe. Oceania is. How you say that?
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Brady Thomas
Oceania. And then Asia. But Australia plays in Asia now.
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Tracy Thomas
They move. Okay. And Africa. So each one of these feeds up into a larger group that is also just as corrupt and hungry for money. There's been documented cases of bribes and extortion and betting and all these other things that you wouldn't try to associate with something that is supposedly about the sport. But it also has a stranglehold on the most. I mean, there's a billion plus people that are watching these matches. There's nothing else in the world like that bar the Olympics. And I think even that doesn't get the same type of viewership or passion around it. So you have to take both. You get the dichotomy of disgusting corporatism and money grubbing. And then you also get what we got to see, which was passion and in some cases really beautiful soccer.
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Brady Thomas
And does FIFA. Because one of the things that FIFA does is they try to respond to people saying they're racist or corrupt. This year we had the new don't cover your face rule. Can you explain what that is about? I know that didn't actually come out of a FIFA match, but just like some of that, like on field fan, like they try to legislate the fan.
- [13:44]
Tracy Thomas
Yeah. Well, it's interesting what they focus on because some. So four years ago and six years ago when the United States was in the United States and Mexico were hosting, there was a lot of uproar around the anti gay slurs that the Mexican fans oftentimes were shouting during the game for whatever reason. The Mexican fans continue to do it, but it wasn't a point of emphasis this year and it didn't really come up. But there was something that happened maybe two or three months before this World cup where one of the best players in the world, Vinicius, who plays for Brazil, got into an altercation with an Argentinian player, go figure. On the pitch during a Champions League match, which is the, the club schedule, which is the 9 to 5 that these guys have. And, and the Argentinian fullback covered his mouth, said something, and the whole Real Madrid team in Vinicius erupted. They said it was racist. It turned into this whole thing. They couldn't really prove what he said was racist. He said it was actually an anti gay slur, which was his, the way he defended himself.
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Brady Thomas
And so they, they, I'm not racist. I hate gay people.
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Tracy Thomas
Hello. Yeah, exactly.
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Brady Thomas
What is wrong with you?
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Tracy Thomas
So that guy was suspended for a few games, but they couldn't really prove it. So now they came out and said, okay, cool. If you cover your mouth in an altercation with an opposing player, we're automatically treating it as if you did something that was the worst case scenario. So you're kicked out of the match and I think you're suspended for the next match or something like that. And so we saw that happen a few times. And even Messi tried to Tried to get somebody else embroiled.
- [15:19]
Brady Thomas
Okay, you guys know I don't like Argentina as a team. I have. I. I have a. I wrote a post on my substack, which I'm assuming you read because you're a paid subscriber, because you're listening to this, where I talked about, like, how to pick a team to root for in the World Cup. It's like, I think you got to root for your home country. Even if you hate America or wherever you're from. You got to pick a team that's, like, your underdog team. And maybe you don't know that going in. You discover it. A lot of you went with Cape Verde. You got to pick a team that, like, probably could win. I went with England because I know a lot of the guys from the Premier League. And then you have to have at least one team you hate. And I was like, I have two minor Argentina and Germany, like, you know, World War II related reasons. And it has been thrilling to watch Argentina just behave in the kinds of ways you want your enemy team to behave. Germany got knocked out early. A great celebration for me, watching Argentina, whether whether it was actually the refs were rooting for them because of FIFA or not, watching them play like fucking assholes. Yesterday in the final, Messi trying to bait someone, talking about a guy getting hit in the face by a ball that Messi kicked into this man's face by accident. And then his. The Spanish teammate went over and was like, touched his face and was like, oh, he had his face. And then Messi turns to the ref and is like, he's covering his mouth. We want him off. Watching another player get a red card, watching them after the match beat people up. Do you see Messi after that? They show a shot where Messi, like, looks over, sees them getting in a fight, and he just continues to keep walking. I'm just like. Even I feel like that's also a knock on Messi because, like, a real teammate would have gone over and got in the muck, tried to pull people off. He just looked and walked away. It was like, oh, I don't go here anymore. All right, that's it. If you want more of this episode of the Stacks unabridged, you must join the Stacks pack on Patreon by going to patreon.com the stacks or subscribe to my newsletter unstacked at Tracy Thomas substack.com and remember, by joining either of those places, you make it possible for me to make the Stacks every single week free to all thank you so much for your support, and we will see you in the stacks.