How To Watch The World Cup Like A Regular At Eastern Market

A great World Cup doesn’t start at kickoff, it starts when you find the right bar and the right people to watch with. We’re recording from Thomas Magee’s Irish Pub in Detroit’s Eastern Market, talking through what it takes to turn a neighborhood spot into one of the best soccer bars in America, from Guinness-fueled mornings to the reality of hitting capacity and having to close the doors.

We get into the real World Cup watch party planning details: when to show up, why the vibe is built hours before the match, and how a place like McGee’s programs an entire tournament with food, giveaways, and all-day energy. Then we jump into a USMNT preview that sounds like every honest soccer conversation in the United States right now: big talent, big expectations, and big arguments about who’s in and who’s out. The Diego Luna omission leads to a wider talk about US soccer culture, casual fans, and how coaching decisions collide with hype.

From there it turns into pure tournament nostalgia: USA 1994 at the Silverdome, the day the OJ chase hijacked sports TV, Zidane’s headbutt, South Africa’s vuvuzelas, Suarez chaos, Germany’s 7-1 over Brazil, and the Tim Howard “saves everything” era. We wrap with favorites like Spain and France, a Dutch long shot, a few teams we’ll never root for, and a quick Michigan politics sidebar while we’re all at the table.

Subscribe wherever you listen, share this with your favorite matchday group chat, and leave a review with your World Cup champion pick.

Transcript

Happy Hour In Eastern Market

SPEAKER_00 0:16

We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar.

Jamie Flanagan 0:25

It is time for happy hour. It is the man cave happy hour, whiskey, cigars, spirits, and stories that go along with it. I'm Jimmy Flanagan. I'm August Kitchlag. August, we are in in fabulous downtown Detroit again. We are in Easter Mary. We are minus a fox, a sexy Matt Fox. Yeah, yeah. He said he's gonna he threatened to be tuning in. So did he either listen from his people called from afar, yeah, wherever they put him. But yes, we have some Wellport Guinness. I have a Wellport Guinness.

August Gitshlag 0:53

I have a well, what do they call it when they mix the Guinness and the cider? Isn't there a right word? That's the voice of Mr. Eric Olson.

Jamie Flanagan 1:03

Yes, because we're at Thomas McGee's in the Eastern Market. One of my happy places in the world, Eastern Market.

August Gitshlag 1:10

Oh my god, yes. All the things are coming, there's things opening up down. A brewery opened down here. Yeah, and they're all closing all over the place. The place is wonderful. Robocop statue. You do have Robocop status.

Jamie Flanagan 1:20

Welcoming you in by the Eastern. I love that that movie is only vaguely about Detroit. And one of the first one of the three, I think, was Detroit, right?

August Gitshlag 1:30

The first one called Detroit.

Jamie Flanagan 1:31

It's kind of vaguely about Detroit, and then we add this new statue. I love that.

August Gitshlag 1:37

And speaking of things that are vaguely about Detroit, vaguely about Detroit. Uh, we are joined by uh your old pal.

Jamie Flanagan 1:44

There we are. ML Aurick.

August Gitshlag 1:45

Hey!

Jamie Flanagan 1:47

I like the squared-off tie. Getting older every minute, too. That's a thing, the squared-off tie. That's I like that. It's called a rooster. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 1:55

Only for cocks.

August Gitshlag 1:57

So we're here at McGee's today. We thought it'd be a good spot to do our World Cup preview. And since this is my favorite sidebar, football bar, whatever you want to call it. And I've spent uh many a morning here, even though I'm not a Liverpool guy. I have spent plenty of time here on Liverpool Saturdays and Sundays. You're a charming guy.

How McGee’s Became A Soccer Destination

SPEAKER_05 2:16

Well, well received.

Jamie Flanagan 2:17

Eric didn't have to be a little bit more cracking up over at the bar over there. Did you not just receive like some sort of uh uh notoriety as the destination for soccer? We did.

SPEAKER_05 2:25

We just got uh Men and Blazers, the uh the number one shocker show in America. Uh they ranked the top 200 soccer bars in America, and we got the top 100 badge, but watch out next year I want top ten, man. Yeah, okay. This is uh blazers.

August Gitshlag 2:44

Have a little trouble, a little trouble, a little chuckle a loyalist of the Men and Blazers uh newsletter. That's where I get all the things. Yeah, he does a great job, and people are great.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

So well, congratulations, thank you very much. And we also did that, we also filmed a Guinness Global commercial here this year due to our our uh soccer uh uh notoriety, our status and whatnot. So it was cool. It was called the away derby. And Guinness flew uh some folks here from London, and we did a home and away with a with another soccer bar in Ghana. Ghana. Yeah, it was pretty cool, man. So now I so now I gotta now I gotta go to this bar in Ghana now again.

August Gitshlag 3:25

You see that uh that that Irish pub that uh you know Ireland didn't make the World Cup, so we flipped, they flipped the flag upside down and goes, we're now the first Ivory Coast bar in Ireland. Yeah, they made a whole joke about how they're gonna do this uh all this food and the music and all this stuff. And then they said it came on and goes, we're just kidding. And people were furious. So we're like, okay, fine, we'll do it. And they came back on and did a whole other post. Like, we booked this band, we're gonna have just music from the Ivory Coast on the TVs. We got a we got uh a chef who's gonna make you know a pop-up of just you know uh Ivory Coast music. Every Ivory Coast game on. We thought it'd be funny, but now we have a crowd for it. Now we're committed. That's Ivory Coast pub.

SPEAKER_05 4:03

There's an old story. If I I think I gotta get this right, but there's an old story. It was a in in in some track competition, there was an Irish runner that wound up winning or or hitting the podium completely unexpected, right? Had no idea he was gonna do it, and they didn't have an Irish flag. So the Irish host gave them their flag and turned it into Irish.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Because of course Irving House is prepared with a flag and a track and a track understanding.

Jamie Flanagan 4:30

Yeah, oh my god, that's fabulous.

SPEAKER_07 4:32

That is the Irish flag looks a little bit like the Italian flag, and they didn't make the World Cup either, did they?

August Gitshlag 4:38

No, uh no, Italy didn't make the world.

SPEAKER_07 4:40

How does Italy not make the World Cup?

August Gitshlag 4:42

Yeah, that's a great question.

SPEAKER_07 4:44

I mean, the only time they win, they say something about your sister.

SPEAKER_05 4:46

Yeah. Twice. They make it twice and then win a win a euro in the middle of it.

Jamie Flanagan 4:51

Yeah, I don't get it. Not again. But so it's Thursday, people

Smoke And Vinyl Night Culture

Jamie Flanagan 4:55

listen whenever, however. But we're here live on a Thursday, and you have events going on all the time. Thursday, the regular one is vinyl and and smokes. Yeah, smoke and vinyl.

SPEAKER_05 5:04

Smoke we do. We do uh Delroy's uh barbecue pit out front, great Jamaican food and American barbecue as well, and uh vinyl records and maybe a couple cigars, and some of the uh some of the neighborhood locals come out, and uh it's uh it's like a block club meeting.

Jamie Flanagan 5:18

I'm looking I'm looking forward to uh a little smoke after after we're done in here.

August Gitshlag 5:22

He gets to do the cigar part of our podcast that kind of went away when I got here. Yeah, it was you know uh cigars, you know, cocktails. Name my thing. No, we don't do them often. I don't do them often. But I just bring bad hair to the table.

Jamie Flanagan 5:34

Yeah, wicked awesome. Wicked awesome. That's wicked away.

SPEAKER_07 5:38

Well, the good thing is they do the cigars outdoors. If you're not into cigars, the smoke doesn't get into you. That's why I sit out there with them, and that's

World Cup Watch Party Game Plan

SPEAKER_07 5:45

how it works.

August Gitshlag 5:46

Yeah, uh so what's uh what do you have coming up for those you know, the World Cup games? This is gonna be a hot season for you this next uh month and a half, two months, right?

SPEAKER_05 5:54

Yeah, it's it's massive for us. So we'll we'll we'll start a little early. We'll start this Saturday with the USA Germany. Yeah, the USA Germany, which is our our final friendly, but we would traditionally call that a send-off game, but we're in America, so it's not going anywhere. We're gonna do that. We've got some really cool giveaways that we're gonna do. So I I didn't advertise exactly what it is, and I won't, but I just kind of told all the McGee's loyalists, I strongly suggest you're in the house for this game. It's it's gonna be pretty cool for some time. So we'll start there, and then in the next Friday, USA game one. Uh Thursday night will be the first night. That'll be the Mexico's that night, right? That's the first day is Mexico, South Africa at three o'clock. Yeah, yeah. So that that'll be good, because uh uh like Jim said, like Jimmy said, there's it's a great Thursday's always great anyway. So that'll be a great shove right into that with barbecue out for the first game, and then Friday's the late. USA Paraguay is like is it a late game or Canada? It's a it's where we're yeah, it's a 9 p.m. game. 9 p.m. Yeah, yeah, 9 p.m. But we'll be rocking all day. Canada plays before that, it's the first game. So I'd like to tell everybody assume that our parties start three hours before kickoff, yes, and then get there early.

August Gitshlag 7:02

Yeah, as you want to see. Right. That's how it was for the uh the Olympic hockey quote medal game. Yeah, we're gonna close the door and 645.

SPEAKER_05 7:10

We do have we have a lot of games. We'll move we'll hit capacity in every single world.

Jamie Flanagan 7:14

So we will have to close the door. But uh what what's what is uh capacity and what's capacity? What's capacity?

August Gitshlag 7:20

Well, you know, uh uh the the Indianapolis Motor Speedway doesn't tell you their capacity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_05 7:29

Yeah, I don't know, right? It's posted to have barbecue.

August Gitshlag 7:34

It's next to the, yeah, it's posted up there next to the. There will be no 7 a.m. games. That's for sure, because it's it's the earliest we're gonna start is noon, I believe.

SPEAKER_05 7:42

Yeah, but then they'll also be around the games like a midnight to 2 a.m. Yeah, during the week. But you'll have F1 in the mornings that'll take up some spots. Yeah, we have uh we we're always good with F1, and we have actually have an F1 simulator coming in for the game, like on the World Cup final day, our Formula One Club, we have a F1 simulator competition coming in, and then we have like a three-hour turnaround to flip it and then get ready for the World Cup final.

SPEAKER_07 8:07

What's that like? Do you sit in it? I mean, is it also it's not like uh you're not sitting on it's not a video game you're gonna do. Yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_05 8:15

That's pretty there's gonna be a long live for that, I think. Yeah, it's like 10 bucks and you take three laps, and then I guess we'll probably a bunch of us know knowing McGee style, it'll be a side pot.

August Gitshlag 8:28

Uh having just come back from the indie 500 and the Detroit Grand Prix, yeah, we chatted last year about Fox taking over indie coverage. Incredible. It's such uh it's so much better than what NBC was doing. They sell it better, they uh they made they're making stars out of these drivers, and these drivers like Pillow is gonna have an F1 car in the next six years. Sure. If not sooner. And those drivers are going faster than uh, he'll be the first guy in. You think so? He's already he's already applied for an unlimited license. Okay, he'll be in a Cadillac program. Oh, right. Okay, yeah, because Alice Pillow is already doing testing in F1s, he's a test driver, but he's not uh doesn't have a car in the track, so that's awesome. So, yes, this is gonna be where I'm gonna be watching games when I'm not watching them at home the late night ones. Yeah. How are you, man? Good, just running around a lot.

SPEAKER_07 9:20

It's just a busy time of year for me. Why is it a busy time of year for you? Well, there's always an election, you know. There's always somebody running for something, which means there's always somebody for us to chase. But uh, but when the weather gets good like this, you know, Detroit City Football League starts playing at Fort Wayne. You know, we got softball on Belle Isle and hockey year round. So I probably will only catch the late games with the World Cup. I think they're at decent times for us on like the Olympics, right? Because we're the host.

August Gitshlag 9:49

Yeah, well, the the next Olympics is be great. LA Olympics, that's all in the evenings will be late. I'd say I finally retired from softball this year. Oh, I said at age 51, 30 years in the same league. Yeah, my league folded, they bounced to a league in Madison Heights with a bunch of whippers snappers on. Nope. And I gotta, I'm gonna, I'm gonna wear the uniform, I'm gonna show up my cleats in case I gotta play first base on a random Wednesday, but not putting myself out there anymore. Just gonna donate your time and a hamstring? Yes, and uh and a couple bottles of Boons Farm. There you go. I would equip a lot sooner. That country quench you'll get you off. We just don't we avoid the blue one, it tastes like

USMNT Expectations And Roster Debates

August Gitshlag 10:30

suntan lotion. Uh okay. So yeah, so United States in the World Cup, we missed one in what 2018. That was the one we missed. I remember we lost to Trinidad and Tobago, and then it was like a weird combination of Panama winning and Mexico losing.

SPEAKER_05 10:47

Panama and Costa Rica won, right?

August Gitshlag 10:49

Panama. Honduras beat Mexico too, which you don't expect. That's right. And it's kind of just the math, it was only one of 27 chances that we would get booted, and it was that one of 27. I hope everyone played the lottery on that team. Yeah, would we have qualified if we weren't the host country this year? Yes. I think so. Absolutely. I think so. I honestly believe that we are entering, for what it's worth, the United States' first golden age of talent. Yes. Okay. I I do. I think that these guys are talent-wise that good. Whether they play together and they play like it, I don't know. I don't know. Did you have any story out of this team? Any complaints? I only have one observation about this team that I thought was weird.

SPEAKER_05 11:28

Okay, so this uh real, real hardcore is gonna kind of debate what I'm about to say. But I'll I'll I'll say it from a casual fans perspective, which I think we're about to show most of America is casual fans, right? So leaving leaving Luna off the team. 100%, that's my number one, too. And and having having Gio Reyna on the team, right? No, they didn't replace each other.

August Gitshlag 11:59

No, they didn't.

SPEAKER_05 12:00

Right, right. But if you've got you've got Reyna and Burkhalter on the team, and the knock on U.S. soccer is that it's an elitist soccer model sport, and the biggest controversy surrounding our team over the last three years is the soccer dads, the dads of the mom burger. So it's really hard to see those two walk on the team, and then you got Luna, who could have played for Mexico, and is the biggest talent recently. But he was the face of every Fox Ball leading up the World Cup. He's the biggest talent that could have played for Mexico and opted to play for us. Yeah. And and and we snub him.

August Gitshlag 12:34

Oh who did we leave uh uh there's uh the kid from uh Lyon that was pedigre test the guy on Leon?

SPEAKER_05 12:42

However that means before the nerds get mad at me, yeah. It wasn't Luna wasn't left off for that. He was left off because they picked the De Has De Has is on fire in Mexico.

August Gitshlag 12:55

Right. So yeah, I thought the Diego Luna not being on the team when he was the in every ad leading up to the World Cup. Yeah, was a little weird.

Jamie Flanagan 13:04

But someone didn't someone on coaching didn't talk to the marketing people, right?

August Gitshlag 13:10

Well, that's actually uh it gives me a little bit of faith, maybe, that it's not all run by money.

SPEAKER_03 13:15

Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because like literally Fox has to scrap it time, give it time. Fox has to scrap every ad that they pre pre-made on real. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:26

So why didn't he make it? That's that's the the whole thing.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

They had to pick one at the position, they picked up the two amazing guys, well, one of the and one young guy that was on a hot streak, and and called John.

August Gitshlag 13:40

Someone can get hurt if someone pulls a hammy or does something, they can bring a colored guy on and they have that little contingency list.

SPEAKER_05 13:47

Okay, and then Musa didn't make the team, and he shouldn't. Well, he is a skipped the gold cup, yeah, yeah, right, right, he was hurt, yeah. No, because he wants to spend time with his family, which is valid, but uh his dog up.

August Gitshlag 14:02

Yeah, yeah, but uh there's some really talented guys like Hunji Wright who might not see the field, you know, unless we're playing a really physical team, they want a bigger guy in there. He's a little banged up, but yeah, but I think this is a this is a fun, this is gonna be a fun team. We have we're we can come out of the group, I think it's worthwhile. I mean it's worth watching.

World Cup Memories From 1990 On

August Gitshlag 14:20

I think we're gonna be competitive. So my first I mean, I I'm a man of a certain age, I'd had no soccer exposure, and so my buddy gave me a ticket to the Switzerland Romania game in 1994, and we drove out the Pontiac, and I'm like, why is there a whole corner of Brazilians banging drums when they're not even playing today? And I'm like, there's a certain kind of weirdness to this. Yeah, and then everyone fell in love with Alexei Lawless and those uniforms, those are like you know, the Lawless Mania and the Kobe. So I would when did Albert, when was your first? Like, was that the first time the World Cup was on your map? '94.

SPEAKER_07 14:56

Well, I think the first time I really started paying attention to the World Cup, I wasn't even here. I had just moved to Ireland, and Ireland under Jack Charling had this amazing run. And so everybody was singing about, I think they made the quarterfinals, so that was a big deal. So what year would that be? That was probably 90. And then and then when I came back here, there was all the talk about the grass at the Silver Dome that was engineered by Michigan State. Yeah, yeah. And that grass, you can still see it over on Bell Isle. They have a field there where it has the actual grass from the World Cup. Did not know that transplanted it. And there's a sign out there, it's on the south side of the island. You got Windsor to your right, you can see it on your left, and there's a little sign. Still, I hope Carl's keeper was in on that. Your dog. It's actually the geese over there. That's what you don't have to worry about. Canadian geese nine and Bernard uh St. Bernard's of birds. But uh yeah, I mean, uh, you know, it's fun to be, I think, a World Cup fan if you're an American, because most of the drama with the team involves the coach and who's gonna play and who gets cut and who doesn't. And are they gonna go? And is this the first time we've had a foreign coach with the city? We had Clinsman for years.

August Gitshlag 16:13

Uh the the German stud. He brought all those, he brought a whole bunch of young European kids in that were like well, they were German kids, but they had like American dads that they had never met. Yeah, and then we have in the end of Texas, we went all the guys. Like Johnson Jones with McCartney, and they were all like uh they were all army brass. That's fabulous. We brought a bunch of German kids in. But yeah, the one thing about 94, and see if the opening ceremony of the 94 was in Chicago, right? At the same time, there was a Knicks Houston Rockets NBA Finals game. Thank you. And the Rangers were celebrating the Stanley Cup parade. Oh, yeah, it was all at the same time, and it all got interrupted for what thing? You should get this right away.

SPEAKER_07 17:03

OJ Simpson verdict?

August Gitshlag 17:04

Okay, not the verdict, the chase. Oh, the chase, the chase, the OJ going down the highway.

SPEAKER_07 17:09

The the only thing is, the way that goes slower than soccer on TV is the OJ Simpson chase.

August Gitshlag 17:15

Yeah, that's that's not all completely false. But I would I would say but there's a great 30 for 30 on ESPN just called, I think it's called June 17th. Okay, that's all it's called. And it's like, and it's there's no narration, it's just all these sportscasters and news people interrupting the other events to talk about OJ.

SPEAKER_07 17:32

That's funny. Well, soccer on TV has come a long way. Oh, it has. I have a friend who played uh stock at Michigan State, and he said if they could get the cameras down the field and you could see how fast it moves from the ground level, people would lose their mind over hockey. I mean, over soccer, because and I've always thought that if if they could sub in soccer on the fly like they do in hockey, the game would go even faster because everybody would be fresh. Frust your legs, yeah. And the moves these guys make and and the tricks they try, the things they do. It's it's uh they really are amazing athletes, and it is it is a great sport to watch.

August Gitshlag 18:09

Watching DCFC games live when they were in the NPSL gave me my amazing appreciation of watching Premier League and European League soccer, and just how smooth and organized and the perfection that there is. Yeah. So but I went through 1994. I that's when I got on the on the on the bandwagon. I drove up to that Georgia's soccer shop.

SPEAKER_07 18:28

Oh, yeah, and Southfield Road in Troy. Yeah, or uh no, no, no, no.

August Gitshlag 18:32

Later Village, maybe it's Later Village. It's not like is it the John R. De Quinn or right off the freeway?

SPEAKER_07 18:36

It's right off the 690s.

August Gitshlag 18:39

It may be on Southfield or the only place I could buy like a German soccer jersey. Yeah, I used to wear that really weird aqua one all the time around my friends. Like, what the hell are you wearing?

SPEAKER_05 18:47

Yeah, like, well, I'm I'm German, I'm an American suspect then. You know why it's weird? You know why it was weird? It's German. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:55

Okay.

August Gitshlag 18:59

That is really weird. And then in my notes, I like wrote down in 1998, and I was like so excited about '94. '98, I remember nothing. I remember absolutely nothing about the 98 World Cup. Easy one, go. Apparently, I'm supposed to remember that Michael Owens came on from England. He was a big phenomenon, he was only 18. And David Beckham got kicked out of a game for kicking a player, and all of UK turned on him. And they all hated his name. I thought he missed a PK or something, but I think before the PK, right at the end of the game, he got frustrated, kicked a player, and got thrown out. Oh. And then they lost that game in PK. Oh, okay. That's what the internet told me I should remember about the 98th World Cup that I don't remember. That makes sense because if you were taking penals, he's the guy who would want to take the page. Yes. I did go down the rabbit hole of watching some old free kicks with David Beckham today. And oh, the hype was real.

SPEAKER_07 19:51

It was real. Well, all you have to do is listen to Roy Keane talk about David Beckham. And Roy Keane's a guy who suffers no fools. And if he says something good about somebody, it's probably true because he's more likely to say something shitty about somebody.

August Gitshlag 20:06

And it's probably also true. So the 2002 World Cup was in Korea and Japan. And I just remember this being the Ronaldo Ronaldinho. Did we miss 98? We didn't talk about 98. No, I didn't remember anything from it, except for that stuff about. I missed the kill. The 98 was my big one. That was your big one.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

Okay. Yeah, 98. I was uh 94 was cool. My cousins were in the soccer, and me and my brother were. So there was a little bit of a connection there, the Detroit thing, um and the drums in the streets and stuff like that. It uh it reminded me like the F1 when the F1 was originally there in the Brazil when Nelson B.K. was running those. So that was cool. But 98, I uh I was in um I was in uh Southeast Nation. I was in uh Bangkok and Saigon. And you go there for the summer.

SPEAKER_07 21:04

And uh and the World Cup Cup was going on. Missionary work or position.

SPEAKER_05 21:12

And uh the World Cup was going on, and it was just cool as well. That was then that was only that was the Korean Japan. That was the W. He actually opened his bar one morning to play the Red Links game for us, too. Oh wow, yeah, it was sweet. But um they um we wound up waking up with this group of African dudes, right? Nigerian dudes, and that's the year the first year that the Super Eagles made a run. I think they went to the they got through about 16 or something like that. That de facto we came to our team. We guys we just we dumped these guys and go out. And um we met these guys in the second, yeah, we're going back. We just can't go back back, we're going back, and we just linked up back there. Same bar game time, and they were like there wasn't a popular tourist desperation designation at the time, so wasn't a whole lot of English speaking. And these guys were like, Yeah, there was four we were four friends, there were four friends, and they spoke English, and so we just hung with these Nigerian dudes, and it was like that's that that you watched it from a different perspective.

August Gitshlag 22:18

So that one is in that yeah, I can see how I'm sorry you missed the cue on that one. That's a that's outstanding story. Yeah, that's that's that's how it happened.

SPEAKER_05 22:26

So to this day, one of my surrogate teams is the super egos of Nigeria.

August Gitshlag 22:30

I think a lot of Americans really love that Nigerian team. They always have great uniforms for one, they always look great on team. The kids divide them, always outstanding. It's always like they always speak English really well. Yeah, and so I think the Americans take to the Nigerian team. They always really have. Oh, yeah. There's that prince that always sends me emails. I finally had to block that asshole. I don't believe what it says. Yeah, you gotta be careful. The 2002, that was the the one thing that I remembered is uh Zenadon's the name headbutt. And the Italian guys are trying to watch. I remember watching that, and they headbutted that guy. I'm like, what is he doing? But him in the chest, he headbutted them like in the chest. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 23:17

That's one of those things where I was I was pulling for France. I'd lived in France for a little while, and I really like that team. That's one of those things where I don't know where to land on that. There's part of me that says you're the captain, it's all on the line, you gotta keep your cool. And there's another part of me that says, if you're the captain, it's all on the line, somebody says something about your mother or your sister, you're still gonna beat their ass. I kind of feel like I'm gonna go with the guy who says I'm gonna beat your ass if you say something about my my mother or my sister. I didn't miss the 98 one was in France.

August Gitshlag 23:49

It was 2002 that was in Korea and Japan. That's what I'm talking about now. So that's the word the headbutt was. Yeah, I remember distinctly remember Brian McBride and him just throwing himself on the American all over. He would just dive at every ball head first. Like he was just kind of a maniac. And I'm like, man, maybe I'm gonna have to become a Columbus crew fan. But then I'm like, ah fuck on how can't you do that? Yeah, I can't do that. I can't do that.

SPEAKER_05 24:13

Can we can we can we start naming squad members? See that we've got so who would have been our key for 2002?

August Gitshlag 24:20

That was the Claudia Rena Great Werhalter year. And I think the next year who was the who was it in that? Was that the Brad Friedel words? No, that would be Friedel. Friedel would be Friedel. I did not it's not on my notes, but I'm gonna check the internet's notes because I want to compare it every once in a while.

SPEAKER_05 24:34

Fun fact kick that kicked out of a Cleveland Browns team for fighting.

August Gitshlag 24:39

He's a guy. I love nothing about the American team comes in and notable except South Korean made it to the semis in that one in 2008. Howard would have had to be right in there. Was it the headbutt no set?

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Maybe Friedel would have been maybe 98.

August Gitshlag 24:56

91, 2002. Bill Howard was 2014 when the way all the memes came up with Howard Save actually everything. Right. Like having him in front of Bambi. Right. I remember all that coming out. It had to be Brad Friedel. It wasn't Tony Mayola. He was older. He was gone. He was 94. Yeah. It had to be the Friedel years. Then I also remember 2002 was my first David Beckham was first hyped in America. Like he also prime Beckham years. Prime Beckham years. Yeah, and then South Korea beat Italy and Spain to make it to the

From Vuvuzelas To The 7-1

August Gitshlag 25:31

2006 was 2002 the family stories.

SPEAKER_05 25:34

My dumbass cousin Freddie went over there. Got them. Had a couple jars of them, that uh Korean rice whiskey and the juice box thing. Yeah, slept through a game. Oh, that's funny.

August Gitshlag 25:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 25:47

Brought some of it home to a tailgate.

August Gitshlag 25:49

That I did. No, in 2006, I have a personal story. I didn't travel there, but I got into a debate in Mike Moyanis' backyard. Mike O D owns uh small. We worked together for when we were real young. And Mike's backyard at a 4th of July tailgate, or not 4th of July barbecue, with Tony Vegas from the Hi-Pi Tangranes, whatever band he was playing with at the time. And he's like, it's Italy. I'm like, no, it's Germany, it's Italy. We buy whoever wins, whoever loses between the two of us, you gotta buy me a shot of Jameson every time you see me until the other team wins. So I'm like, deal. And fucking Italy won that year. You own the man some shots? I've been buying them shots. And then Germany won two years later. Okay. But now it's just a great thing. Whenever we see each other, because we're a little bit older, we don't do the bars as you know, we don't see each other as much. You know, he's got kids and stuff. Whenever we see each other, it's whoever sees each other first now. Right. Who could go meet them with the Jameson about that World Cup that's cool we won? That's cool. And we try to find the other guy first. So that was a David Beckham and and uh uh Wayne Rooney. Wayne Rooney was also being sooney happily. Yeah, he came in at 16, scored his first goals in the Premier League, and like we put him on the team, they put him on.

SPEAKER_07 27:03

I think he scored more World Cup goals for England than any other player.

August Gitshlag 27:08

Uh not now. Now now it's Kane.

SPEAKER_07 27:10

It's gotta be Harry Kane. Yeah, I think Kane and Rooney passed Lineker, but I'm not sure who leads.

August Gitshlag 27:16

So certainly Kane is still playing. So the things about 2006 in Germany was that in Italy won that one, was that it was Lionel Messi's debut. He was 19. Okay. Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo's debut at 21. And also there was the game that had 16 yellow cards and four red cards that was played in Nuremberg. Were they playing Uno? That was between uh Portugal and the Netherlands, they call it the Battle of Nuremberg, is the name of the game now. That's funny. So that's the 2006, and I actually remember like that that conversation with Tony Vegas in the backyard. 2010, that was South Africa, those fucking Buvazuelans. Yeah, remember that humming cicadas on your TV the whole time?

SPEAKER_05 27:57

The player sold was Matt Booth. The white boy on South Africa. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Only white boy.

SPEAKER_05 28:04

Okay. Married married a black South African supermodel. But grew up in the townships. His dad didn't want him playing rugby, he wanted him playing soccer. And every time he touched the ball, the whole crowd would go boo. It's not like you were booing him.

August Gitshlag 28:17

Yeah. You were saying booth. Matt Booth. Okay. Now, what I remember is why are they booing this that Lou Whitaker guy?

Jamie Flanagan 28:24

He's so good.

August Gitshlag 28:25

Oh yeah, Lou. He's so good. Why are they being mean to him? I was in my buddy's basement in Madison Heights when Landon Donovan scored that 90-minute goal, 90th minute goal against uh Algeria. Algeria. It was a cross and he like it got saved and landed down.

SPEAKER_07 28:47

Okay, we're at 2010. You know why Landon Donovan wouldn't do a header now? He's wearing a hair piece. He's wearing a peak.

SPEAKER_05 28:55

He went to Turkish Turkish hairline. Yeah, it's the Costanza. He doesn't want to stand.

Jamie Flanagan 29:06

The ball has a head on it. Yeah.

August Gitshlag 29:08

I remember Twitch. Josie Altador was supposed to be the next big thing for American soccer. It was Josie Alvador. Oh, yeah. Wasn't he the 16-year-old kid from Washington? Yeah, nothing really came, you know. Yeah, I wanted like I wanted to too. I back back then I remember doing that.

SPEAKER_07 29:24

Sounds like the kid from Ipsilan. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated playing basketball a few years ago. Amani Bates, remember him? Oh, yeah. He was supposed to be the next LeBron James. And now it's like eh, what happened?

SPEAKER_05 29:35

U.S. soccer's pretty good at that. They they they promoted a lot of hype guys.

August Gitshlag 29:39

Freddie Ado. Freddie Dew, it's the other one. Yeah. Freddie Adoo. Yeah, right. I mean, like I'll still play. He was on the 10 team. Yes. Okay. He was. I remember Spain won that one. There was a big morning. 14 was Brazil. Where was 10? 2010 was in South Africa. That's right. The cicitas with the background another game that you watched. My other notes I have was uh Luis Suarez handball save. So he saved a goal with his hands. It got thrown out. Not allowed. And then they ended up winning that game. And it didn't get because they they they finished it out with 10 men. And that was kind of a big deal. Then he and they everyone hated the ball that year. According to the the things I should know, the ball was screwy, it was like a knuckleball ball that used in some that way. Everybody hated it.

SPEAKER_07 30:26

And then it's gobblina or something. Everybody said it wasn't stitched together properly. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying. Well that's what happens if you have Chinese prisoners who are six putting your footballs together. There's no quality control.

Jamie Flanagan 30:38

And that's where he's been playing.

August Gitshlag 30:42

This is the fight. This is where Luis Suarez bit the guy. That's what I'm decision. And they didn't, but he bit his shoulder. And I remember the guy, I remember the guy pulling his shit. He's like, look, I'm got a chunk on my shoulder, missing. And they did not, there was no call in the game. They banned him from like nine months of international play after that. He's hit BT.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

He almost made this year's team.

August Gitshlag 31:07

Um that was oh, it's like Germany beat Brazil 7-1 in a semifinal. It was 5-0 in the first 29 minutes against the defending champs because Brazil had won the one in South Africa. And that's the Tim Howard saves everything here.

SPEAKER_05 31:26

What landed down the sideline, right? Yeah. That was the first year I had the fire open, and you can YouTube McGee's beer showers when it went. It was crazy.

August Gitshlag 31:39

Yeah, so that's yeah. Germany won that year, and that's when I finally got Tony Vegas had to buy me shots. But we never enforced it. You know, we just kind of did it. Let's see what else.

When The US Missed 2018

August Gitshlag 31:55

All right, so a little ambient news. All right, so now we go to 2018 when the United States didn't make it. So it didn't happen with the Belgian, that was Belgium's golden age. And I thought that that's a golden team with uh Lukaku and De Bruina and Hazard and Company, Vincent Company. That I'm like, this is the thing. I want Belgium to win. As a cafe guy, I wanted Belgium to win.

SPEAKER_07 32:18

Yeah, that was that was the underdog, the Cinderella.

SPEAKER_05 32:22

So as a as a as a world sports bar owner who's renowned as the number one stock bar in Michigan, you know what what the stamp on 2018 was for me. First and foremost, it was it was I'll never forget the energy leaving this building when that happened. Because we had a full house for that game, and it was just every lost truck, right?

SPEAKER_07 32:47

Well, I remember that because I think you said something like this is gonna cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars.

SPEAKER_05 32:55

Millions of dollars, but uh Trump coin. Yeah, uh it was during history presidents. But what 2018 meant to me is none of these other so-called soccer bars did anything about it. Yeah, you know what we did? We rocked because it's a fucking World Cup and it's a soccer bar. Yeah, everybody else was opening for the World Cup because it's USA and it's World Cup and it's in America and all this crap, right? No, 2018 when the US wasn't in it, we were still rammed wall to wall, every game doing our thing. So shout out to nobody else in this city. We're doing it. I love that.

August Gitshlag 33:40

So then uh 2022, then I mean that's that's the team that first world cup. We're in the world cup. I mean, that was the beginning of no, it was in November, December.

SPEAKER_05 33:53

Oh, that's right. And overwhelmingly, I don't care how you slice it when we come to the World Cup with the American team. We have to rely on some casual sports fans. We have to do it. It's like Olympics, it's like Olympics, it's like Olympics, right? It's like NBA finals. You're gonna get an element, and you need that, you need that for energy, you need that for for everything, right? And that crowd just split because that crowd was watching NHL, NBA, and NFL at the same time, right? So it was I I remember that.

August Gitshlag 34:22

It was really strange. American games being really early, though. Remember going to a bar at like 8 a.m. to watch USA Netherlands. So there's some early, early games in that one.

SPEAKER_05 34:34

It was in Qatar, yeah, so it was like the other side of the world. We were it was the big one was USA England, yes 3 p.m. Black Friday. Yes, yeah, absolutely murder.

August Gitshlag 34:44

That great yes, Black Friday. There's everything there's there's college football, there's everything going on. So it was it was it was just different.

SPEAKER_05 34:53

Where is that could stay in 2018 in here because the USA wasn't in it, nobody else was presented to be a stocker bar during the World Cup, so we could just be a stocker bar. There was huge, the absolute focus in 2022. The most hardened of fans was completely distracted, yeah, because of business, the wings, and the lions, and and and we're also on.

August Gitshlag 35:17

Right, you know. Yeah, I neglected to mention in 2018 that was in Russia for one. Oh, and Germany gets didn't even make it out of the out of the they're the defending champs, yeah. They got hammered, and it's the uh Killian Mbappe arrival. He was 19. Yeah, he showed up on the on the scene in 2018. And that's the only thing that they say is worth noting. And France won that one in 2018. Uh and yeah, 2022 was the cutter. Yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 35:44

Does the US have their last game tomorrow against Germany before the customer begins? Saturday. So is it is it an important game? I'm just I know nothing about it. No, it's the final three seasons. It's a tune-up. Oh, yeah. Yeah, all right. And every day I didn't know if that plays into placements or anything.

August Gitshlag 36:02

You can get friendlies between good teams all this week. You can watch a game at noon, watch a game at you know, there's three o'clock games. You know, it's some of them are like you know, Croatia versus Ireland and Albania versus Argentina, but the things like that. But there are there is watchable soccer this week. If you have you know Fubu TV

Favorites, Long Shots, And Who We Root Against

August Gitshlag 36:20

and that again, so none of them are being like terrari, you know. Just go to a practical stock.

SPEAKER_05 36:24

Yeah, one or two for uh you got uh one or two they're out there pretending they're not gonna have it. Uh do you have one or two picks for the top of the pops? Um uh man. Jimmy, you know you're not supposed to take my picks. If it's not boxing, don't take my picks. Fair plan. Fair plan. I'm gonna I'm gonna say uh who looks good. I don't know. I know nothing about I'm gonna say Spain.

Jamie Flanagan 36:43

Spain looks good to you.

August Gitshlag 36:45

I'm gonna say I uh the the Spanish and the French are the two best teams. Okay. I myself have put the only money I put on any of the teams, I put $15 on the Dutch. Yeah, the odds are the longest shot. The longest shot, okay, but they're the best soccer country to never win a World Cup. So you're saying there's a chance. I think there's a chance, and I think they have some talent. I think they they're gonna come out of their group, they can they have a good route. Yeah. A couple upsets if they hit if not really rich, it's fifteen dollars. You don't get really rich on fifteen dollars. But that's like the long enough to touch was like I like the number, I like where they're wearing the odds on the on the whatever app you know that I was using at the time. And I put that on there. But I think I mean you you can't get away from Spain and France and their talent level in this World Cup. It's unavoidable. I don't know if there's gonna be another Croatia-like run out there, you know, like a team that has less people in it than you know, Michigan and made it to the semi, I mean to the finals, right?

Jamie Flanagan 37:43

Yeah, ML, you got anybody you like?

SPEAKER_07 37:45

You know, I'll just whatever's on when I'm at McGee's, I'll watch it. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

Who did the cherry cats? I watched the Detroit Express. I I I saw the Express in the Silver Dome. That was a lot of fun. That was they had two teams, right?

SPEAKER_07 37:59

They had the team that played regularly, and the team that played when Trevor Francis could get over here, and the team that played with Trevor Francis was amazing, and the other guys were you know running around. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:13

Clyde Glyde Watson. Uh you can remember Keith Kirby, but I don't remember Clyde the Glide. Clyde the Glide.

August Gitshlag 38:20

The first name Clyde was an athlete, get the glide.

SPEAKER_05 38:23

Yeah, he was Jamaican dude, man. He was he was our scorer for a couple years. Yeah, when when uh Ma kicked Dad out, dad's first apartment divorce, Clyde the Glide lived down the hall. Oh shit.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Oh, that's fabulous.

SPEAKER_05 38:36

Cool suit. Well, I who do I work with wound up going to co wound up going to be a coach at the Charleston Battery? Oh, no kidding. Oh, in the USL. Okay.

SPEAKER_07 38:45

Nice. So I'll cheer against Russia. That's easy. No, no, no. That's easy. I'm still gonna cheer against them. I honestly I will not cheer. What about Iran? Is anybody cheering for Iran? No one's cheering for Iran or Iran.

August Gitshlag 38:55

Well, there's two. Iran, Iran. Don't like Portugal, and I don't like the.

SPEAKER_07 39:08

They can go back home because they pissed off their own.

SPEAKER_05 39:14

Well, they have to defect the Mexico because they're all directed for the campus. That's cool. That's fine. They got guys for Dennis. Yeah, he won't let them check. Didn't we get serious Montreal? I cheer for every team from the Americas almost versus every team from Europe almost. I never cheer for Uruguay or Argentina. Sure, sure. And I never cheer for England or Germany.

August Gitshlag 39:37

Fair enough. Well, those are the two that I do cheer for England and Germany. I'd never cheer for Germany.

SPEAKER_05 39:40

August gives we'll cheer for Germany. What do you say? What do you see? What do you see the shirt I got for whatever England's big game is? I'm gonna break a nice piece out. Okay.

August Gitshlag 39:51

I I I do find England always losing to be so much charming. It's kind of fun, it is fun. I will root for Scotland. Uh they're not gonna beat. Is Canada playing Mexico in this?

SPEAKER_07 40:02

Yeah, yes. Are they facing Mexico? I would take mine? Yeah, which year for Canada or Mexico? I would take Scotland actually now that now that we're speaking of it.

Jamie Flanagan 40:10

You mentioned a couple things twice already. We gotta check your passport. You've been you though you said you lived in Ireland, you said you lived in Paris, France for a little bit.

SPEAKER_07 40:18

Well, you just took a trip to the island, did you not? I was in Ireland and Iceland. I don't think Iceland made it this year, but they did beat England one time recently.

August Gitshlag 40:26

Well, was that a Euros runner was that uh that when they went when Iceland went berserk? Was that Euro it was World Cup that World Cup Cup when they had their run? Okay, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:36

There was a fell in love with an Iceland team. There was a young Icelandic fan that wandered in here on a recommendation from a restaurant that you want, you know, want to watch World Cup go to McKee's rolls in here and met a young lady who wound up being one of my servers, and uh then he married her and took her to Iceland. Oh hey, don't steal servers.

SPEAKER_01 41:04

One of the greatest servers we've ever had here. She she still has the keys, still has her computer codes and a shirt. When she comes home and visits, she rocks a couple of shifts. But we have a staff member living with Icelandics.

SPEAKER_05 41:18

That's great.

Jamie Flanagan 41:18

That's fun. We're not closing out your account. You're gonna do some shifts when you're down.

August Gitshlag 41:22

I love that.

Michigan Politics Sidebar With ML

August Gitshlag 41:24

So there's our World Cup preview. Uh ML, what's keeping you busy? Just chase an election of people?

SPEAKER_07 41:29

Yeah, everything.

Jamie Flanagan 41:30

I mean, looking at the jumping in and out of the gubernatorial race, right?

August Gitshlag 41:35

Just jump in a two of the license.

SPEAKER_07 41:44

Or somebody doesn't show up for three months. Yeah, like that one congressman. Yes. I'll tell you what's wrong with me later. I'm like, no, you'll tell me now.

August Gitshlag 41:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 41:52

Yeah, that's that's happening. You do it on your time. When I'm paying you, I call you off, I say, What's up, bitch? You tell me now. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 41:59

Is it a good thing or bad thing that we've send the herd?

SPEAKER_07 42:02

Uh it depends who you asked. I mean, I know a lot of people who are very interested in in Mike Duggan and they plan to vote for him, and now they've got to find another candidate.

August Gitshlag 42:10

But would he have won in a primary against Jocelyn if he ran it if he had run it as Democrat?

SPEAKER_07 42:16

So one of my totally unfounded theories or unsubstantiated theories is the reason he ran as an independent is he thought Buttig would run for governor. And he figured Buddje and Jocelyn with PDG and Gilchrist, I can't put together enough votes there. And so he did what he did. But that's a good theory. Yeah. But I think one-on-one with Benson, you know, it kind of depends on name recognition. Outstate, I mean, everybody's got Benson's name in their wallet, so he already got that. Uh Doug and how many people know him? But I do think, contrary to popular belief, that he was gonna hurt Republicans more than he was gonna hurt Democrats. I I have to believe that too. I think I believe that with votes to some degree, but mostly with money. Because a lot of his money was Republican money. Yeah, and the thing where he may help Democrats now is I think a lot of those people who wrote checks are not gonna write a second one.

August Gitshlag 43:13

That's right, but that'll hurt Democrats too. That's an important point. It'll hurt Democrats too. I, you know, I'm a I was, you know, you know, Michigan young Democrat. You can Google me, there's no way around my political allegiances. But I was voted for Doug. Yeah, and you know, defensive people called me and said, Hey, we want you on stage with Jocelyn. I'm like, I I I can't do it. Yeah, I'm with Doug and on this one. I just think he's the CEO. He's the right guy. And but but the union type, you never see that. You don't see a CEO who's tight with the union guys and on both sides of what I needed. I felt I needed for the state. So yeah. It's interesting to see interesting to see where he's going to land. Will he end up as president of Ullabama? I don't know. Uh huh. Yeah, I mean, uh, I think we got an opening carriage.

SPEAKER_05 43:54

Yeah, the line that I drew was for Detroit to be in a Fantastic position. Best possible position in this election season would have would have been with Mary in office with Duggan at Lansing and Detroit would have been in a good situation. Yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_07 44:13

He would have been advocating like crazy. I I I think that's possible. But I also think with Duggan, if the money was tight and it's gonna be tight, he's the kind of guy who'd say, Good luck, kid. Fair is fair. You know, I mean he's I I think I think he has affection for Detroit. I think he's proud of his time here. But but don't forget, he moved here a year before he got elected. And now he's I don't know where he's living now, but but he uh yeah, he had a house that we gave him and and he he lost that when he when he left the mayor's office. So it'll be interesting to see where he lands. But no, I I think I think wherever the next governor is, they're gonna find money's a problem, and they're certainly gonna see there's no help coming from Washington for the next two years. Not for the next two years, no.

SPEAKER_05 44:59

And he would have been, if it was anything at all, he would have he would have been opened up dialogue there.

August Gitshlag 45:05

I don't, I mean, I mean, I I can't believe that Gretchen Whitmer got the dialogue that she got with you know over something. Yeah, I know, but the fact that he listened to her after you know that woman from Michigan and all that crap, you know, that they she you know bit her tongue and said, like, I gotta go out there and do this. I thought that was a cool move. I thought that was good. Then hiding herself during the bill signing, but that's what it was a sabotage, it was a setup, and he he had her there, so he sat around.

SPEAKER_07 45:31

Yeah, and I think she's uh but it's she's not ready for the big stage, but uh she also can't make up her mind whether she wants to do it or not.

August Gitshlag 45:39

Well, I think she's running for vice president, as is Alyssa Slotkin. They're both running for vice president.

SPEAKER_07 45:45

Uh-huh.

August Gitshlag 45:45

All right.

SPEAKER_07 45:48

I'd rather run for a bus than run for vice president.

August Gitshlag 45:52

I think it's between Gretchen Whitmer, uh Alyssa Slotkin, and Mark Kelly. One of those three is going to be the vice president. If Mark Kelly doesn't run for president, he should run for president. He should run for president. I honestly believe if they if if Kamala Harris had picked him instead of Tim Walls, she would have won. Everybody loves a fucking astronaut, man. Everybody loves a fucking astronaut.

SPEAKER_05 46:15

I'm paraphrasing the deadline he had where he said, you know, I'm uh I've flown, I've flown fighter, uh I've flown rescue missions, I've flown fighter jets with missiles blowing up next to my next to my cockpit, and I flew a rocket ship around uh around our orbit built by the lowest bidder. Yeah, built by the lowest bidder, right?

SPEAKER_07 46:40

That feels a lot more dangerous to me. Oh yeah. Unless it's a SpaceX rocket, whichever one just blew up. That's the one I wouldn't want to be on the top. It was a test rocket.

August Gitshlag 46:50

Yeah, but you know, biggest IPO in the history of the world right now. So yeah, but we'll see.

Jamie Flanagan 46:56

Powell up in Mackinac, anything good come out of that? Yeah, you get to go to Mackinac. It's my dream to get up there one day.

August Gitshlag 47:01

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 47:05

You know, if we were a Spartan, the bad news that came out is that our president left.

SPEAKER_03 47:09

Yeah, and for less money at Clemson.

SPEAKER_07 47:12

Yeah, and if you're a Michigan resident, the bad news is that Gretchen Whitmer criticized the trustees when she had an opportunity to get rid of the bad trustees and did it. And then she said, I'm gonna keep an eye on this. I'm like, you maybe instead of an eye, you want to keep your foot on it like in their ass and kick them out instead of just I'm gonna watch.

August Gitshlag 47:30

Well, guess what?

SPEAKER_07 47:31

We we didn't pay to watch.

August Gitshlag 47:37

Really has it's it's there's a movement on both sides to get rid of that nominating at convention stuff. And they want to get rid of it for attorney general and secret. And as a clerk who's been running elections for 15 years in this state, people still call me all the time and ask why wasn't it on the ballot? It hasn't been in 40 years, yeah, 50 years, it's been closed, and it should be everywhere else. Not everywhere else, but it should be on the ballot.

SPEAKER_07 48:05

So yeah, well, it's it's gonna mean there'll be a lot more money going into politics as candidates try and sure raise their name recognition. But you know, the way the parties have been choosing these folks, it's hard to believe the voters would do any worse.

August Gitshlag 48:19

Yeah, I so you know why who was uh that guy at East Lansing's uh Grebner? Mark Grevner, yes. No worse than me, I'm no worse than the rest.

Local Plans, Plugs, And Where To Watch

SPEAKER_05 48:30

Anyone got any cool things that they're gonna do for uh World Cup? Anybody got any gates? That's cool. That's cool. I'm gonna do uh one of the Canada games and going over to Windsor. Oh my god, right on the street party. That's a cool.

August Gitshlag 48:46

I'm actually in Kalamazoo for the first week, then I got a crazy week of work, and then I'm in on late Kalamazoo with the family for the third week. So the whole month of June, I'm gone basically. Okay. So I just gotta like do it all on the fly. Um, I'll pop in here when I can. I'll try to pop into a local pub and say, hey, do you know where the World Cup game is? Uh you know, it's gonna be the thing. I know.

Jamie Flanagan 49:07

So on the website, all the guys. Do you got do you got on the on your website or on your Facebook, are you like posting like when games are and when people can come and when they should come and line up to get in?

SPEAKER_05 49:17

Yeah, I mean they're every game, every day. So we're open for every game. All right, start playing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're open for every game. And but I I in terms of cool stuff to do, actually, you know, if somebody does want something cool to do uh family oriented, which yeah, unless your family's all over 21, it's not McGee's before them, but there is a cool the city's doing a cool one in campus marches. Are there that's kids friendly and that's kind of a FIFA endorsed thing, so really cool that that for a not for an off-market city, for a city without games, yeah. We got we got that shining. Nice, nice, nice. That's cool. That's cool. I'm gonna hit one of the downtown business districts at Windsor, one of the Canadian games there, and then I always head over for one of the Mexico games. The boys will be getting it in over like Nascimiento or or El Mosque, normally those guys. So I'll I'll probably try and catch a game over there too.

SPEAKER_07 50:10

All right. So uh well, before I wrap it up, uh, you want to plug your podcast? Yeah, sure. If you want to check out ML Solo Detroit, we drop every Tuesday. We'll give you the latest comment going on with DCFC. And this week we're talking to Brad Galley, who after 15 years as the main sports guy at Channel 7 is gonna do something else. Yeah, I saw that. He's got a little YouTube show he's doing for now. Yeah, well, and I think you guys appreciate this. Uh, he's gonna try and make it on social media. The first question I asked him, do you not start a podcast now? He said, No, I'm like, good, there's enough podcasts. Or an OnlyFans.

Jamie Flanagan 50:42

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's building YouTube and an OnlyFans. Different strokes, different. He's speaking to the trading cards. Uh oh yo, cracking. Oh, he's a ripper? Yeah, he's a ripper. Yeah, he does like ripper videos all the time. Yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's been doing that for a couple of years. And it there, it's it's it's oddly fun to watch. It is. I go down a rabbit hole every once in a while. It's I again I know nothing about nothing about nothing about sports, so I have a sports podcast, but as people do, but it's it's just fun to watch because he he puts in the information. He's a good host, right? He puts in the information as he cracks them and why it's valuable and who they are a little bit.

August Gitshlag 51:24

So, yeah, it's kind of cool. It's yeah, so I will listen as I do.

SPEAKER_07 51:28

I'm a Patreon subscriber to your one of our soulmates and any case with your many good deeds, and of course, we do our annual St. Patrick's Day party.

August Gitshlag 51:38

So I will be contacting you in

Retirement Toast And Closing Notes

August Gitshlag 51:40

August when we uh get our magnum day. Sounds good. August and August. That's right. So I'll remember once again. Yeah. Oh well, gentlemen, thank you. Thank you for uh we'd be remiss that we did not mention that tomorrow is Jamie's last day of his day, Job. He's retiring.

Jamie Flanagan 51:58

He got out 25 years of teaching. Congratulations.

August Gitshlag 52:03

Going in with a slight hangover tomorrow.

Jamie Flanagan 52:04

Oh yeah. A little doozy, but you know, what's new? Thank you. It's like some vacation, except you don't go back. Yeah, it is, yeah. It's so it won't really hit till September. You know, when he did play full-time podcast studio stuff, yeah. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_07 52:23

That's we should all be so fortunate. Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 52:26

Oh, I'm not done working. Yeah, I'm just done teaching. Yeah. So yeah.

August Gitshlag 52:32

So the like and subscribe stuff.

Jamie Flanagan 52:33

Oh, yeah. All the podcast things and all the podcast places do it. Uh Eric, thanks for having us here at the Geese.

August Gitshlag 52:38

Always brother.

Jamie Flanagan 52:39

Yes. I'd love to see you.

August Gitshlag 52:41

ML, thank you very much for visiting. Always nice to have you on. We'll get you into you and Mark eventually.

SPEAKER_07 52:46

That sounds good. Yeah. So Mark's on vacation, and I'm sorry it's late. I was working on this Sunday's column, so uh check that out in the free pressfreep.com on Sunday. What's that? A dollar a month or something like that. What's the pitch? I think it's a buck for the first month, and after that, we get into your wallet pretty deep. So keep your eyes open. Yeah.

August Gitshlag 53:01

I like that with Sirius XM too. Yeah, I just call it it.

SPEAKER_07 53:04

Yeah.

Jamie Flanagan 53:04

I gotta have an auto pen, man. I just yeah, yeah. Less painful that way. All right, gentlemen, cheers. Thank you. Cheers for your voice USA. U S USA.