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Ask Luca....and Nina 3.0 · Premier League Playground: Lad and Dad

0:05
All right, and welcome into another episode of the Premier
0:08
League Playground. I am the dad.
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Bjorn with me is the star of our show The Lad.
0:14
Luca Miller. And how are you today, Luca?
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I'm doing good. How are you?
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Doing really well. How was your weekend?
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It was good. How was your weekend?
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It was good, it was good. We spent a lot of time watching.
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You have a couple soccer games this weekend.
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How did your soccer games go? We won both.
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Yeah, we want 17 nothing and yeah, 7 nothing.
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Another 2/1. Yeah.
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So 2 nice wins to sort of round out your regular season, your
0:39
seasons kind of coming to an end.
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So you round out the regular season, you have a A tournament
0:43
this upcoming weekend, but no more regular season games.
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So yeah, nice to kind of end on two wins.
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You guys played I think, pretty well.
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How did you think you did? I think I did pretty well.
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I had the wait for warmups on the first game because I had to
0:57
do this big test for Porter Goud like middle school.
1:03
But yeah, I think I did good in both my games.
1:07
Good, good. All right.
1:08
Well, we have no Premier League games to talk about this
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weekend. We are on an international break
1:13
and our tradition has been on an international break to do a
1:16
podcast. But since there's no games to
1:18
talk about, we're going to talk about, we're going to do an Ask
1:21
Lucas segment where we ask you some questions.
1:24
But we have a very special guest.
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In fact, we have our first guest, Luca of the Premier
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League Playground. OK.
1:33
All right, a guest star here, a big friend of the pod, a sister
1:40
of the pod. We've got Nina Miller here with
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us today. Nina, how are you today?
1:46
Good. Good.
1:48
We're excited to have you on our podcast, Nina.
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We know you're a big listener and we're excited to bring you
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onto the pod and talk to you. How are you today?
1:55
Good. Good.
1:56
Yeah. And how was your weekend?
2:00
Well, a lot of soccer, but it was pretty good.
2:03
You're a you're a pretty good soccer sister for sure.
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You, you come to a lot of the games and you watch the games
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and you are, you know, a good supporting soccer sister, I
2:15
would have to say. What do you think?
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Yeah. Yeah, they got a lot of his
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games. All right.
2:19
Well, Nina, the reason why we have you here is because we're
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not just doing Ask Luca. We're going to do a little bit
2:26
of Ask Nina here too. So we're going to ask you a
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couple questions before we dive into our S Lucas segment.
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Does that sound OK? Yeah.
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All right. Well, Nina, we are a soccer
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podcast. You know that we talk about
2:38
soccer. You live in a household with
2:41
some pretty big soccer fans. So I think you have a lot of
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soccer around you. We just said this weekend you
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went to two games, it's on and TVA lot.
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So I'm curious, Nina, my first question to you is what do you
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like about soccer? Well, I I have two reasons.
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And 1st is what girls can play and 2nd is it's a teamwork game.
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Like you pass and score and there's this thing called
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assists. So yeah.
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OK. So I like that.
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You're right. So it's a sport that easily boys
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and girls can play, right? There's plenty of girls and
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girls teams, and they play really, really well.
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And you like that it's a team sport too, huh?
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You've played soccer before, right?
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Yeah, I was when I was like 5 years old.
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Five years old. Did you enjoy it when you did it
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well? I guess not really because I was
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like younger and I never really scored, but I kind of want to
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start again. OK, All right.
3:41
Well, you know, listen, there's not every position and player
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scores all the time, right? As you said, it's a team sport,
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so some people score the goals. The goalie never scores, right?
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He's got to keep the goals out. And the defense a lot of times
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doesn't score. So.
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But I like what you said. It's a team sport, everybody
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working together for a common goal.
4:01
So I kind of like that, yeah. So is there one thing when you
4:04
watch soccer that is like your favorite part of the game when
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you're watching a game? My favorite part is when they
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have a penalty shot because it's like interesting, like would
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they score or not? So that's like one of my
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interesting things because you never know what will happen.
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OK, so a penalty kick for you is one of the most exciting things
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to have happen. Why?
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That's for a lot of people, penalty kicks are pretty
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exciting, right? I mean, it's a good chance to
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score, but you're right, you never quite know.
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So yeah, I like penalty kicks too.
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All right, Nina, my second question as we're doing our
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little offshoot, our Ask Nina segment, my second question to
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you is you like fashion, right? OK.
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I think you dress very well for a nine year old.
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So I'm curious, Nina, soccer kits.
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All right, your brother wears a soccer kit almost every day to
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school. You see soccer kits all the
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time. There's lots of different kinds
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of soccer kits. But I am curious if you were to
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design A kit, let's say if Arsenal or Barcelona came to
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Nina Miller and said design the perfect cool stylish soccer kit,
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tell me about what you would design.
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So I would do purple and then it would have white stripes on it.
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And for the shorts, it would be pink with purple stripes and it
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could come with cleats, OK, and it would be purple, pink and
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white. OK, so we've got a lot.
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OK, so the main colors of this kit are purple, pink and white.
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OK. And did I hear you correctly
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that the the shorts have stripes?
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Yeah. And the the top had stripes too.
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Yeah. OK.
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Are they thin, thick stripes? Thick.
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OK, kind of a thicker stripe. Now, Selena, some kits have a
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collar, some do not. Is this going to have a collar
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or no collar? I don't no collar on this kit.
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OK, all right, I like this Nina. This is a pretty nice kit.
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Now what it now most of you know they were have like a the badge,
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a logo of the team. OK, so we're in in this world.
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This is your team. This is not any team like.
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Would you put any kind of cool things on your badge?
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Yeah, I guess I would put like hearts and stars to like
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decorate it and like sometimes they have like a circle around
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it. So I would do like hearts stars
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like a pattern like around it the logo.
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OK, I like that hearts and stars kind of in a pattern on the logo
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there. I I like this kitney and I think
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I think this would be a a good kit.
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I think this would be one that Luca would wear too.
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I think he'd wear this one. I like it.
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All right, Nina, we loved having you on as a guest.
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I love a little bit of the Ask Nina segment.
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So thank you for being the 1st guest ever on the Premier League
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playground. You're welcome.
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All right. Well, thank you.
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We're going to now turn it over to our add back our ask Luca.
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Everyone. Thanks, Nina.
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All right, Luca. So we're going to transition now
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back to Ask Luca. I like the Ask Nina.
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That was a good segment. I think she did really well.
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Yep, yeah. All right, all right, Luca.
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Well, let's start off. So they ask Luca people if
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they've we, this is the third time we've done it and you don't
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know any of the questions and we're just kind of getting a
7:28
peek inside your brain all kind of talking about different kinds
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of soccer things. And so it's just kind of a fun
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thing we do to kind of run through and we don't have games
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to talk about. So Luca, my first question to
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you is, if you could create your own soccer celebration, what
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would it look like? Oh, that's hard because I like
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to do a lot of like I like to do Suey a lot and I like to do the
7:55
James Madison dart throw and sometimes even the Yokrez like
8:02
like the Bane. Mass celebration that he does.
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So I guess like I don't, I don't even know what to say like how
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to like do I mix them all or? Something, well, I don't know.
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This is your celebration, Luca. This is.
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My like go to celebration is usually the dart throw.
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But these are other people's celebration.
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I want to know if you got to if you were to create your own and
8:26
I guess you can take elements from other people's
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celebrations, but this is not just you doing.
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Everybody doesn't run all those suey like.
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And now that I want to know, like if Luca had to create sort
8:35
of his own, you know? I think.
8:43
I stumped you right off the bat here.
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Well, this is hard because like creating your own celebration,
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maybe the the gritty. Gritty.
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Yeah, if. Anyone really does that?
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I was going to say that soccer though, did I feel like Doku did
9:01
a little bit. Doku do?
9:03
Do that anymore. I was going to say it's I don't
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feel like it's anybody's go to celebration.
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So that could be my go to go to but I usually do the dart throw
9:12
my games. You know what, I, you know, one
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thing I always think like in the in the NFL and American
9:16
football, a lot of times they do like team celebrations, you
9:20
know, like a like a dance or, or like they all get down and like
9:23
snap a photo or something. I'm like that would be made.
9:25
So that would be something maybe like, even though because like
9:28
someone person scores a touchdown, but the whole team
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celebrates this. In soccer, one person scores a
9:32
goal, maybe like a whole team celebration.
9:35
You sometimes the Brazilians dance together.
9:37
Yeah. But maybe like taking an NFL
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style celebration of like, you know, when one person pretends
9:42
to bowl and all the players knock down like bowling pins or
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something, maybe they can take like a whole that's like the
9:47
next level. I'd like to see that.
9:49
Yeah. Like so maybe the celebration is
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like next level team celebration where they have something like
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choreographed before. Maybe even though like let's say
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you know, Yokores or soccer scores, the whole team does
10:00
something. Yeah, I'd like to see that.
10:02
OK, All right. So that's what we need.
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We need some NFL style celebration.
10:06
Yeah, we got we got to get the NFL teams to go give the Premier
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League teams a lesson on how to celebrate as a team.
10:14
Yeah, there you go. I like it.
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OK. All right, Luca, my next
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question to you is what position do you think is the hardest to
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play in soccer? And so we can take this to it.
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You can, you can if you want to think, if you want to think real
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specific, you can tell me specifically like every single
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position on the field or if you want to kind of think like
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goalie, defense, midfield, striker, slash forward, or you
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can tell me very specifically. But what do you think is like
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when you think about it doesn't have to be a position you play
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or that you do a lot, but when you think of like a soccer game
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or a match or in your experience, what is the hardest
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position to play? Think.
10:53
I'm going to go goalie. I say this because if a goal
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gets let in that let's say it just about it deflects off of
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one of his defenders and goes in, the goalie gets blamed for
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it. All the fans are going, oh, what
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is he doing? He messed up, but he didn't
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really do anything more. I I think it's not easy to keep
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the ball out every every shot, every shot out and defend the
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because he's the only one who could use his hands on the
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field. He's the only one who like can
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really protect the goal other than maybe the defenders.
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But yeah, I think that's, I think goalie is the hardest to
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play. Yeah, maybe the center back or
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something. Like a center defenseman, center
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back. Yeah, yeah, I'm when I thought
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of this question, my initial thought was goalie too.
11:46
Oh, really? Well, I think you're right, but
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I don't know if it's because I think it's, it's like the most
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pressure. I feel like goaltenders in some
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ways have the most pressure because like you said, I mean if
11:56
you give up a goal, the fans are.
11:57
Going to hate you for that. Yeah, and goal and the goalies
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get too much blame because, you know, a lot of times it's a
12:03
defense in front of them or just the whole team in front of them.
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But it it tends to sort of all fall on the goalie and and look,
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giving up one goal can cost you an entire game.
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So I feel like certainly if I had to say, like what position
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has the most pressure? Eileen, goalie strikers, I
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think, you know, if they don't score, there's a lot of pressure
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that comes with that. They tend to be like in the
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professionals, the highest, you know, the the highest transfer
12:28
fees are with strikers. And so they immediately come in
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and everyone wants them to start scoring goals.
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And when they don't, I feel like the pressure ratchets up there a
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little bit. Like on Eucharist, but he's
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doing good right now. Yeah, yeah.
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And you know, all all the guys that cost a lot of money, you
12:42
know Cesco and you know, both Amade and Esac, all these guys,
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you know, I. Think Yokrish has been better
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than both of those? All of those guys.
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They mentioned, yeah, he Sacks barely played.
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He's been. In YEAH and Cesco and Baltimore,
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they've done like a few goals. But I think it like, you know,
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center back's a pretty good one too.
13:02
You know, that could be, I mean, they're all they all positions
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are have some easy parts and hard parts, but.
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Yeah, because if you mess up and give up an easy goal and thought
13:11
like miss a header and then they get on it and score, you're
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gonna get blamed for that. Yeah, I think all positions are
13:17
hard, but I think goalie's the hardest in my in my opinion, OK.
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I like it. I like it.
13:22
All right, Luca, my next question to you is if you could
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build your own dream team right now, which four or five players
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would you pick? OK, so this is like your dream
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team. And you know, I guess you can
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think about this in two ways. It's just like you're picking
13:37
your favorite players or you can be like, I'm picking the team,
13:41
like the best players because I'm sometimes your favorite
13:44
player isn't like a best player. So you can think about it either
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way. So you want me?
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To do you want me to just give a 5A side team or whole 11?
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No, no, I want you to, you're just sort of starting to build
13:55
your team, OK? And so I want you or if you want
14:00
to think about like a football team, you know, what 5 players
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do you want for your dream football team?
14:08
I I want Kai Havarts. OK.
14:13
I want. Why Kai have it?
14:17
He's my favorite player. He's your favorite player.
14:19
Fair enough, Fair enough. Fair enough.
14:23
I think I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go Ryah for a goalie,
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OK? I'm gonna get now tell me why,
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Ryah. He's just, I feel like he's an
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outstanding goalie and he's so good.
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He's a big part of Arsenal's defense and yeah.
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OK, Do you think he's the best goalie in the world?
14:44
I think he's up there, he's close.
14:46
That wasn't my question. My question is, do you think
14:49
he's the best goal in the? World, I don't think he's the
14:50
best goal in the world. I don't rumor might be right now
14:53
OK, but I definitely think he's up there.
14:55
OK, Cortois, in that conversation?
15:00
Maybe, OK, I don't know. I don't know if I've heard a
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bunch of of him lately. OK.
15:05
I feel like he's just been injured.
15:07
Cortois. Yeah.
15:09
He's been, I mean, I think last year is more injured, but I
15:11
think he's been pretty healthy this year, so.
15:13
Far. OK, well yeah, he's definitely
15:15
up there for like all time goalies.
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OK, all right, all right, So back to your team.
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You've got Raya, you've got Haverts.
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Who else is filling out Luca's dream?
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I'm gonna get a defender. I'm gonna go, Gabrielle.
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You're OK, So 3 Arsenal players so far.
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We know. We know who you're where your
15:33
favorite team is it? Ice F there is all right, I
15:37
gotta get rice. OK, so we've got Rice,
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Gabrielle, Ryan, I think. I'm going to get one more
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striker and go. I think I'm going to get, I'm
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gonna get Killian and Boppe. Killian Boppe OK, so that's
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good. All right, I.
15:57
Was between Harry Kane and Early and Holland but I don't even
16:00
want those guys. No, just don't even.
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Not even the question. I do.
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I cannot take Holland or Kane in my dream team.
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Now this is because you just don't like the players, the
16:09
teams to play on. Well, one Harry Kane played for
16:13
Tottenham and Holland is just so unlikable.
16:17
As an Arsenal fan, I could never take him.
16:19
OK. I'm sorry, I just can't.
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But you recognize that they're amazing.
16:23
Yes I do I I definitely unbelievable form and Papa has
16:27
also been really good though. He's had a he's had a great
16:30
year. Yes.
16:31
I I don't think anybody would argue with Steven Papa.
16:34
Yeah, I'm not saying something because he's he's been really,
16:37
really good, but he sort of has a bit of a next level, right.
16:40
Now I think I want to get like Yamal on the bench or something
16:44
and get rotate him in and like Rifenia OK for the bench.
16:49
This would be a fun football team to watch, yeah.
16:51
They would. Be they would be good and they
16:54
they'd win a lot so. Yeah.
16:57
All right, Luca, I like that one.
17:00
All right, Luca, I have a question to you Speaking of sort
17:03
of the football thing and you're getting into, you know, football
17:07
season for you as your outdoor soccer winds up and you're going
17:10
to do football in the winter. What do you like better?
17:14
Indoor soccer or football or outdoor soccer?
17:19
I think I'm going to go outdoor soccer because I play it more
17:22
and there's there's like there's.
17:31
But what is it about outdoor that you like more?
17:33
I just I've. Said you play it more but.
17:36
I've had more experience on it and I, we usually we don't, I
17:42
get to do like more, more things with outdoor soccer.
17:45
Like I get to go to for my team, they don't have like football
17:50
practice. So and I have, I have that we
17:53
have outdoor soccer practice, obviously.
17:56
And for my team, there's no football tournaments and there's
17:59
tournaments for outdoor soccer for my team.
18:02
So I feel like there's more opportunities with outdoor
18:05
soccer than indoor soccer. OK, now what about like just the
18:09
actual act of playing the game? You know, if you, you know, had
18:13
a choice, you know tomorrow morning Luca, you can either go
18:16
play football game or an outdoors game.
18:20
Forget practice and all the other stuff like the actual when
18:23
you are out there playing the game, which do you enjoy more?
18:25
I think I enjoy outdoor more and I think we get more success as a
18:29
team and I like when I have all my teammates, like not just like
18:34
5 people out out there on a small court.
18:38
But yeah, I think I would pick outdoor soccer over indoor.
18:42
OK. All right, All right, Luca, my
18:45
next question is if you are a coach, All right, this is Coach
18:48
Luca. All right, What would be your
18:51
first rule for your team? So obviously coaches have rules
18:55
and and coaches prioritize different rules.
18:57
You know, some coaches are very much, you know, you know, these
19:01
are sort of my, you know, three things that we've got to do.
19:03
And other coaches are a little bit different, right?
19:05
You've had many coaches and there's different coaching
19:07
styles and, and you probably get a sense of what your coaches
19:10
have sort of prioritize and what's important to them that
19:12
they're trying to relate to you. So I'm curious, like if you are
19:14
a coach, you know, and this is, this is going to be rule #1
19:17
obviously going to have a couple rules, but we'll be the first
19:19
rule for your team, for your players.
19:22
My first rule would be no drinking and no fast food.
19:26
No drinking and no fasting? You mean no drinking alcohol?
19:29
Yes. OK, why?
19:30
And so why no drinking alcohol and no fast?
19:32
Food, I feel like that can mess you up, like you can have a big
19:37
impact on your gameplay, OK, And same thing with fast food.
19:41
That can also have a big impact on your gameplay.
19:44
OK. So I think those are two like if
19:47
I, if we take those away, everyone will be in better shape
19:52
and better endurance and it they'll be more fit and could
19:59
play better. OK, so you know, that's
20:02
something that I've seen in my lifetime change a whole lot is
20:05
like the the concentration in the, you know, about sort of
20:09
what you do off the soccer field.
20:11
You know, back when I started watching soccer, these players
20:14
would play a game and then like all head to the pub and drink
20:16
like 6 or 7 beers. Some of them had a little bit of
20:19
a beer belly. You like what I did there, Luca?
20:21
That was for you, that was for you.
20:24
Try to slide a 6-7 into every. Episode Oh my.
20:27
Goodness. So yeah.
20:28
And that has changed over time. And certain managers like Arsene
20:31
Wenger for Arsenal sort of was real big on sort of nutrition,
20:36
you know, the fitness aspect of it, like what you do off the
20:39
field, how you eat, how you sleep, you know, affecting your
20:42
recovery and things like that make a big difference.
20:45
And, you know, especially at the top level, the difference
20:48
between some of these teams of these fine, fine margins.
20:51
And you're right, you know, staying healthy, staying not
20:54
injured, you know, that's like a big part of it is really
20:57
important. So, all right, I like that
20:59
Olivia, you're like stressing sort of like fitness for your
21:01
team. Kind of like Arsene Wenger.
21:03
OK, All right, give me another. Give me like your second or
21:06
third rule for your team. All right, so you've got your
21:08
guys got to stay in shape. No beer, no fast food.
21:11
My second rule is no hero soccer.
21:14
OK, so no, I don't want one person trying to take on every
21:18
single player on your team because it's just not going to
21:20
work. You're going to end up beating
21:22
like one to two guys and then lose the ball and your teammates
21:26
are going to be angry with you because they're going to be wide
21:27
open. So I don't want and my my
21:30
coaches kind of say this too. They don't want us to do here.
21:36
Here are soccer. And I I kind of agree with that.
21:38
I don't. Even if you're super skilled on
21:40
the ball, I still want you to find the open pass and if you're
21:45
thrown goal and there's one, like one-on-one, you can take
21:48
him on and try and have a shot. But if we're in the middle and
21:52
you got like five guys on you, don't try and take them on.
21:55
Try to just tribble everyone. Try to be messy.
21:58
Don't do that. Yeah, and that that's, that's a,
22:00
that's a good one, too. It very rarely works, right?
22:03
I mean, even in the pro game, how many times you see somebody
22:06
dribble through three or four people?
22:07
I mean, if prime Messi and Ronaldo could do that, and maybe
22:10
Neymar, but I don't think anyone else could.
22:13
Yeah, I I think when when I watch your level, Luca, you
22:17
know, where like your games. I think some of my favorite
22:20
players to watch, whether it's you, your teammates, whether
22:23
it's even people you play against, are those players that
22:26
know when to dribble and take their space and when to take a
22:30
guy on. Of course, you know, sometimes
22:31
you do take somebody on and the player that, but they also know
22:34
when to pass and distribute. Those are some of my favorite
22:37
players to watch when I see a kid around your age that's able
22:40
to sort of do both where they don't just put their head down,
22:43
try to dribble through everybody and they don't just pass every
22:45
time, you know, they find that balance where you're like, yes,
22:48
now's the time to take somebody on.
22:49
Now's the time to pass. Those are some of my favorite
22:52
players to watch. And and and again, sometimes
22:54
it's you're playing against somebody and you look and you're
22:56
like, wow, that player is really good on the other team.
22:58
Like I love the way they, you know, play their game and that
23:02
sort of blend. And I think those are the best
23:03
players. I think as you get older you'll
23:05
find, you know, knowing the right time to take somebody on
23:09
and the right time to pass. Not everybody has that.
23:12
And that's that's almost like a skill in and of itself.
23:14
Yeah, all. Right, you got one more team
23:16
rule for me for this team. All right, my last team rule is
23:25
can I say. Show up on time.
23:31
No beards, no long haircuts. No parties.
23:36
No parties. Oh God, this team isn't very
23:38
much fun. No fast food, no alcohol, no
23:41
parties. Well, well, OK, never mind.
23:43
No, I take that one back. No, it's your team.
23:46
Don't. Yeah.
23:47
I don't like that one anymore. I'm gonna go no defensive style.
23:56
I don't want to just a defensive gameplay.
23:59
I want to be like quick on the counter attack and be
24:05
conservative of the ball and trying.
24:07
I want to keep the ball a lot. But I also I don't want to just
24:10
be a hugely defensive gameplay. I feel like it's kind of what
24:14
England national team did for a while when they have Gary
24:18
Southgate. I don't know if they still do
24:19
that, but I don't. I want to be an attacking team
24:25
but also have a good defense. Kind of like what Arsenal is.
24:28
They don't play a super defensive gameplay, but they
24:31
have a really good defense too. OK, I like it, Arley.
24:34
So you're going to play a little bit of an attacking style with
24:36
these, this team? Yeah.
24:38
All right, I like it. I'll join up for this team.
24:41
Yeah, although no, no more fast food and beer.
24:45
Yeah, I know, I know. It'll be a bummer, but I'll
24:48
adapt. All right, Luke.
24:50
And my next question to you is you got to hear the whole
24:53
question out. So the question is, what soccer
24:55
team do you dislike the most not named Tottenham Hotspur?
25:02
The soccer team I hate the most not named Tottenham Hotspur is
25:06
Manchester City. OK, I strongly dislike this
25:11
team. And why is that?
25:13
My best friend is a Man City fan and.
25:17
Yeah, now you don't hold that against him.
25:19
He's still your good buddy, but yeah.
25:21
But I strongly dislike this team.
25:23
They've so many unlikable players like him.
25:27
Bernardo Silva, my honestly, I think I hate them him the most
25:31
out of every single player. I just strongly dislike this
25:35
guy. Erlene Holland.
25:38
I've said this, I said this earlier on the pod, I do.
25:42
I can't stand this guy. I just can't and because he just
25:50
stay humble. Are we serious?
25:53
Come on. He famously yelled at at Mikel
25:56
Arteta at the end of the game. Stay humble.
25:59
Yeah, exactly. Because of Johnstone's tying the
26:02
game up, they didn't even win. They didn't even win.
26:06
And he's still going to stay humble.
26:07
And Mikel Arts. Also picked the ball up and
26:09
threw it at Gabriel's head. Game up.
26:15
It's a tie. Yeah, that was.
26:17
I just. I almost flipped out when I saw
26:21
that. I just.
26:22
Now part you, we have to admit as Arsenal fans, part of it is
26:25
because they've also finished. We've Arsenal finished three
26:29
second in the league three years in a row.
26:31
Two of them were to Manchester City.
26:33
The other thing is that there's 115 charges against this team
26:37
for possible you. Haven't been like whatever.
26:41
They still have not been sort of ruled on.
26:43
So there's this in the background of this team is that
26:45
they possibly cheated 115 times over about 10 years to create
26:50
this super team. Nobody's saying they're not a
26:52
great team. They have unlimited funds
26:54
because they're owned by a country in the Middle East and
26:56
so they have just unlimited money.
26:58
PSG. Exactly.
27:00
It is just like PSG. And so they they are, you know,
27:02
look, all soccer owners are pretty rich, but it is just the
27:05
next level of rich when you're owned by a country.
27:08
And so if they have unlimited money and they, you know,
27:12
basically circumvented and went around the rules or cheated,
27:16
there's going to be a lot of people that don't like that
27:18
team, you know, And so, you know, that is something that's
27:21
sort of out there that that will hopefully get ruled on soon.
27:25
And it's been dragging on for years.
27:27
It's absolutely ridiculous. I don't know one way or the
27:29
other. Like people just need to move
27:30
on. But you know, the, the, like I
27:33
said, it's the, the league brought these charges against
27:35
this team. It's very, you know, like it's
27:37
amazing that the league actually brings charges against one of
27:40
their own teams. So, you know, if you know, in my
27:44
opinion, you can read this article from a German newspaper
27:47
that goes into the whole thing. There's a lot of, you know, a
27:51
lot of the allegations seem to be pretty true.
27:55
You know, now what the penalty is or if they're even found out.
27:58
I mean, they've Man City has the best lawyers in the world.
28:02
Oh, yeah. Again, unlimited money.
28:04
So what do you do? You know, they've already said
28:05
that they'd rather they'd rather pay lawyers hundreds of millions
28:08
of dollars rather than paying of any kind of fine or being found
28:11
guilty. Like this is what they do.
28:13
It's what they did when they got charged for by UEFA.
28:17
You know, they got kicked out of, they got kicked out of the
28:18
Champions League and then they got that overturned because of a
28:23
statute of limitations that it ran out and then they got let
28:25
back into the Champions League. So it's like they've already
28:27
been sort of found. No, I don't think it was a year
28:30
they want. It was a couple years before
28:32
that they should have been out for.
28:33
I can't remember if they were kicked out for like a year or
28:35
two, but then that got overturned.
28:36
Somehow, because they just paid it paid them.
28:39
Well, no, it's just that you, you, there are better.
28:42
Like in every job, there's people that do their job better
28:44
than others. So you they hire the best, the
28:46
most lawyers in the world, and they just, you know, find
28:49
loopholes and find. Ways are they still like looking
28:52
at this? Yeah, it's still it's, it has
28:54
not been ruled on one way or the other.
28:56
So they've not been found guilty.
28:57
They've not been found innocent. It's still sort of out there.
29:01
All right, Well, going back to my question, I had a feeling,
29:02
you know, you would say that give me one other team.
29:05
So if you were to take Spurs out of the mix, City out of the mix,
29:07
if you were to say look at the next team you dislike the most
29:10
besides those two teams right now.
29:13
And again, this doesn't have to be Premier League.
29:15
It can be anywhere in the world, national team, club team.
29:19
What would be your #3 Because this is what I'm curious.
29:21
I had a feeling that it be go Spurs City.
29:23
But what would be your third on the list?
29:31
I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I don't really have another team.
29:43
Maybe Chelsea, because they're a big London, they're a London
29:47
rival of Arsenal and they've kind of kind of dominated them
29:52
for a while and big Arsenals and have a huge, hugely great record
29:59
against them. Okay, so yeah, I don't really
30:03
hate many other teams other than the first two, but I guess you
30:06
would be next. Had to pick one, yeah.
30:08
All right, they're an easy team to dislike too, I think.
30:11
Alright, look, my next question to you is obviously we're big
30:14
Arsenal fans and so I have an Arsenal question for you.
30:17
And who do you think is Arsenal's most underrated player
30:21
right now? Not ever, but just right now,
30:24
Who's a who's most underrated player?
30:26
I think Kai Haverts is underrated.
30:28
All right, all right, I'm going to take him off of the of the
30:30
two. Why?
30:31
Because he's your favorite player.
30:34
All right, well then, then tell me why Kai Haverts is the most
30:36
underrated player on Arsen. Well, he doesn't give get enough
30:41
credit for what he did last year.
30:42
He was like Arsenal's only option at striker and he didn't
30:47
do that bad of a job. He he came in as a replacement
30:51
for Jacques and was put at striker because we had no other
30:55
options once. Well, we came into the season
30:59
with no options and Havart had to switch his position for the
31:07
team and he didn't even do that bad of a job.
31:11
But he's he's not, I know he's not the best player ever, but I
31:16
think he's still kind of underrated for Arsenal.
31:19
Yeah, I mean it. It's I look, I, I, I, I don't
31:22
know if he's the most underrated player, but you know, he's a
31:24
little bit. He was hurt.
31:25
For a lot of. Well, let me just just to finish
31:28
up on Kai Habert's is, you know, right, Like you said, he was
31:30
brought in to sort of play the sort of midfielding role.
31:33
We had no strikers. He went to striker, which he had
31:36
played before at Chelsea and Bayer Leverkus and and and had
31:39
played for Germany. So it's not as if it's a totally
31:40
foreign position for him. But he did do well.
31:43
And I mean, unfortunately for him, he got hurt last year here.
31:46
So he missed a lot of time, but he did he was pretty productive
31:49
when he played before. But I also think, you know, the
31:53
reason why I don't think that he's that underrated is because
31:55
I think he actually does get some love.
31:57
Like he when he got signed, I think there was a lot of like
32:00
backlash because he came from Chelsea, came for the relatively
32:03
high price, didn't like hit the ground running because he's
32:06
playing this sort of midfield in position.
32:08
So I think all of a sudden everybody was sort of against
32:11
Kai Habert's a little bit, but then I think he started to play
32:14
better. He does a lot of little things
32:16
for the team. He leads the press.
32:18
He does like almost more running than anybody.
32:20
Arteta like loves him, plays him every chance he can get and I
32:24
think sings his praises a little bit.
32:26
And I think the fans of clearly warmed up to him.
32:29
And so that's why I don't know that he's like that underrated.
32:32
I'll tell you, look at my for me, maybe it's Trosard.
32:35
You know, talk about a guy that does not get a lot of love, You
32:39
know, almost got sold this winter.
32:42
People were like, oh, well, you know, they've signed Meadoweke,
32:44
they've got Martinelli, they've got soccer, they've got wingers.
32:46
Let's get rid of Trosard, the guy you know he's.
32:50
So good on the ball. He is so good on the ball.
32:53
He, you know, comes up with some big goals.
32:55
I mean you, I, I think everybody wants to.
32:58
As an example. Yeah, I mean, I was, it was a
33:00
great goal that he had and he's had some like clutch goals for
33:03
us. So.
33:03
And I think everybody wants him to be like that, you know, a 15
33:05
to 20 goal scorer and that's not who he really is, but he's a guy
33:09
that'll get some assists. He plays defense, tracks back,
33:13
like you said, he's very skilled on the ball for not being the
33:16
biggest guy, not being the fastest guy.
33:18
So I don't know. I just feel like he's one of
33:20
those people that's like he's a perfect guy to have on the team
33:23
because he can start games, he can come off the bench.
33:26
He doesn't seem like it when he doesn't play for a game or two
33:29
that he's really, you know, raising a stink in the locker
33:31
room. People seem to like him.
33:32
And apparently this year at Arsenal, he's taken on more of a
33:34
leadership role in the locker room.
33:37
You know, and of course, Arsenal were like loaded with big stars.
33:40
People talk about so many other people.
33:41
So I don't know, I feel like just Troy Star is one of those
33:43
guys. It's.
33:44
Like, yeah, I don't. I don't want Arsenal to sell
33:46
him. I think he's really good and I
33:48
want to keep him. Yeah, I just think he serves
33:51
like he's just one of those perfect sort of guys and look,
33:54
he can play like striker, he can play out on the wing, he can
33:56
play both wings. So yeah, I just think like a
34:00
versatile guy that I feel like is a little underrated.
34:03
Yeah. All right, Luca, my next
34:06
question to you is you are a big soccer card fan.
34:11
Oh yeah. You love soccer cards, so I'm
34:13
curious, what do you love so much about soccer cards?
34:17
I just like the fun of getting a pack or a tin or a box and just
34:23
you never know what you're going to get.
34:26
You could get your favorite player or you could get absolute
34:28
trash. You never know.
34:30
It's always a mystery with packs and it's so much fun for me, in
34:34
my opinion, to get like a bunch of cards to say on Christmas and
34:38
you're like, wow, I wonder what I'm going to get.
34:40
It's just the excitement of opening packs for me.
34:43
And it's fun to trade cards, like if you have duplicates for
34:47
a player you don't like, you can trade them.
34:49
Like I traded most of my Man City cards to Charlie for like
34:53
Arsenal cards and Kai Haverts cards and all that.
34:55
And it's just the fun of opening and trading cards.
34:59
Yeah, so for you, you really like like the unknown element of
35:02
the right. You're holding a pack.
35:04
It could be just hopefully is not, but it could be a bunch of
35:07
just base cards, not good players, or you could pull one
35:09
of your favorite players or a super rare card.
35:12
It's sort of that unknown of like you don't know.
35:14
That's the excitement of opening it.
35:16
Now, so like when you you've been to card shows before,
35:19
obviously and and a card shows, there's lots of cards that you
35:22
see the exact card, right? There's a price on it and you
35:24
can just buy that card and have that.
35:26
It's like what is more fun like buying that card or is it buying
35:29
like a pack next to it with the unknown?
35:32
I kind of like your pack. It's more fun because you never
35:36
know what you're going to get. It's the mystery of everything.
35:39
It's like a mystery rack. So you could get like something
35:41
worth $100 or you could get something worth one.
35:44
But again, like I could buy a couple Kai average cards for
35:49
like 5 bucks which also would be nice.
35:52
But I think they both kind of even for me.
35:55
I I like it, I like them both. Maybe if I had to pick one it
35:59
would be opening packs. OK, but I really like both.
36:02
I like to do both. Now, what is your favorite brand
36:06
of cards? I mean, there's lots of
36:07
different, you know, obviously there's lots of different
36:10
companies that make cards. There's lots of different course
36:12
cards for different leagues. What is your favorite brand of
36:16
card? My favorite brand of cards is
36:18
match attacks. I really like how they have like
36:20
the special insert cards, the ratings like attacking the fence
36:25
on each card and the 100 clubs are really cool and unbeatables
36:30
are really nice as well. And I like they have really cool
36:34
packs and they've lots of options.
36:36
They're like tins, like big tins, small tins, bunches of
36:42
packs, all like booster like packets and stuff like that.
36:46
They have all kinds of stuff and it's really cool to collect
36:49
them. OK.
36:50
And so lots of different options and and match attacks.
36:52
Correct me if I'm wrong, Luca, that is for clubs all over
36:56
Europe. It's for Champions League,
36:59
Europa League and Europa Conference.
37:01
League, OK, so all the teams that have qualified for the
37:03
European tournaments have their teams and players in there.
37:06
OK, so Arsenal actually didn't. We wasn't in it for a while
37:12
until 2223 and they've been in it ever since because in 2122
37:16
they weren't in Europe so I couldn't get them.
37:19
But in 2223 they were in the Europa League and ever since
37:23
they've been in the Champions League.
37:24
So I've got to collect them now. OK, all right.
37:27
And I think the the cards have been fun for you too, because I
37:30
think it's really increased your knowledge base too.
37:33
Like, Oh yeah. You'll, you'll tell me about
37:35
players, you know, the years because you, you like that
37:38
they've transferred or changed teams, something like that,
37:41
because you've collected a card from one year and the next year
37:44
they're on a different team. So I think for you especially,
37:47
you know, looking through the cards, opening them up, looking
37:49
through your binder of cards, it's helped like your knowledge
37:51
base on like players and teams and where they've come from and
37:54
where they are now. I think it's you obviously have
37:57
like you talked about having fun opening them up.
37:59
You don't know what you're going to get.
38:00
But I also think, like I said, you like to kind of even flip
38:02
through your binders almost. A simple remind.
38:04
Yourself of the cards and of course you like seeing the cool
38:06
cards that you have, but seeing those names and those players
38:10
has helped you know recognize them and where what teams are
38:13
on. All right Luca, my question to
38:16
you is as you know, we have a World Cup coming up in 2026
38:21
hosted by Mexico, US and Canada. And so host nations for major
38:25
tournaments have typically been given like an automatic
38:28
qualifying spot in in the tournament they're hosting.
38:32
So obviously Mexico, US and Canada did not have to go
38:35
through any kind of qualifying to be at the World Cup the last
38:40
year. Where were the last EUR, do you
38:41
remember? EUR Yeah.
38:43
In 2024. That was in Germany.
38:46
Germany, so Germany did not have to qualify for the €2024.00
38:50
because they hosted it right now the next Euros in 2028 I think
38:56
are and, and I don't know that it's like Ireland, maybe
38:59
Northern Ireland, England, and, but I think they're going to
39:02
make those countries qualify. Oh, so my question to you, Luca,
39:07
is should host nations automatically qualify for major
39:10
tournaments that they're hosting like the EUR of the World up,
39:13
should they have to qualify or should they be automatically
39:16
qualified? I think they should have to
39:23
qualify because even though you're hosting it, I think it's
39:26
not guaranteed that you should be in it.
39:29
And I think you have to work as hard as all the other teams to
39:33
get in because it's not easy for other teams to get in when
39:36
there's like like there's three teams automatically qualified,
39:39
which makes it 100 times harder for other teams rather than 2022
39:44
World Cup, there's one team that qualified in.
39:47
I think if every team had to qualify, I think it would make
39:51
it like more fair because it's, it's a privilege to host it.
39:56
And even then, I I still don't think that you should just
40:00
guarantee qualification. Yeah, it's interesting now
40:03
because it used to be 1 country hosted the World Cup and 1
40:06
country hosted hosted the Euros. Now they've gone to this model
40:11
of like multiple countries hosting different major
40:14
tournaments and like this World Cup being a good example of
40:17
three big countries hosting it. I think in Asia, yeah, Japan and
40:23
South Korea host a World Cup together.
40:26
This Euro, like I said it in 2028, is going to be a bunch of
40:29
countries sort of coming together.
40:31
I think part of that is because you have to remember it cost a
40:34
lot of money to host these major tournaments.
40:38
And so yes, it brings in a lot of money because you have people
40:40
from all over the world coming to watch these great teams and
40:43
great players. So it's a bit of a trade off.
40:45
You know, it's like, it's kind of similar like the Olympics.
40:47
People say, like, is it worth it?
40:49
You spend all this money to get your stadiums ready, get all
40:52
your infrastructure like your roads and buses and trains to
40:55
get everybody to where they need to go and hotels and all this
40:58
like up and running. And is it worth it with all the
41:02
money that people come and spend time in hotels and eating at
41:05
restaurants and going to the games and buying all the
41:07
merchandise and things like that?
41:09
You know, it's a, it's a bit of a trade off.
41:11
So I, I kind of agree with you though, like if it's multiple
41:14
countries hosting, I think they probably all should go through
41:18
qualification. Now.
41:21
The downside would be like, you know, if, if your country, let's
41:25
say Germany in the world in the EUR last time in, in what, 2024
41:31
if they were not in it or a lot of Germans going to be
41:33
interested in going to the games.
41:34
Not really. Yeah, so I also think I feel
41:38
like nowadays probably people from all over the world are
41:41
coming to these tournaments. It's not as if it's like just
41:43
Germans going to watch the EUR and it's not going to be like
41:46
just Americans, Mexicans and Canadians going to watch the
41:48
World Cup. You know, people, so many people
41:50
from all over the world coming to watch their national team or
41:53
just the best teams play. So I think the idea that while
41:56
we need these country, the host countries, because we need their
41:59
citizens going to the games and filling the stadiums, I think is
42:03
is not the case anymore. These stadiums are going to sell
42:05
out. They're going to fill up.
42:06
So hard to get tickets to World Cup and EUR Copa America games.
42:10
Yeah. So I, I kind of like, like I
42:12
said that that, you know, I don't know if the World Cup will
42:15
go to it or not, but I like that the Euros are doing that because
42:18
I kind of like the idea of just everybody having to qualify
42:21
like. Yeah.
42:22
And that's sort of the beauty of like the World Cup or the Euros
42:24
is that every, every team has a chance to qualify for the World
42:28
Cup. And obviously some countries
42:29
have no chance because they're just not any good.
42:32
But they, they go through the process, they play games to try
42:35
to move up and to qualify. And that's sort of the beauty of
42:38
it. You can be like the smallest
42:39
country and, and what we have, you know, Curacao is on the
42:44
verge of possibly qualifying a small little island that's like
42:47
150,000. What's the African country that
42:50
disqualified? They have like 300,000 people.
42:55
Cape Verde. Yeah.
42:56
So Cape Verde, they only have like 3.
42:58
So like, that's like, awesome. I love stories like that, that
43:01
like any country can do it. So, you know, generally it's the
43:05
bigger, more populous countries that end up there.
43:07
But yeah, I'm with you. Like I say, let's do away with
43:11
it, man. Just everybody qualify.
43:12
Let's keep it equal. Yeah.
43:16
All right, Luca, I don't know. I think that's probably pretty
43:18
good for ask Luca for this this time.
43:20
What do you think? Yeah, that's pretty good.
43:22
All right, well looking ahead, Luca, we've got Premier League,
43:25
we got international break, you're finishing up, we have
43:27
some couple games and then next weekend we get back at it with
43:32
the Premier League. We, like I said, our last
43:34
episode, we previewed the games, you gave us some predictions.
43:37
Of course the big one next weekend is the North London
43:39
Derby, Tottenham and Arsenal, other big games though, so I'll
43:44
be excited to have the Premier League back.
43:45
I'm pretty sure there's no international break until March.
43:50
So we're going to be on like a big stretch of major games
43:53
coming up here. Lots of Premier League games,
43:55
especially as we get into December.
43:57
We're going to have some midweek games.
44:01
But yeah, no breaks. But maybe we'll we can always
44:03
slide another ass Luca segment in here and there.
44:06
But I'm ready for like full on the when the Premier League
44:08
comes back. I feel like it's crunch time.
44:10
What are we? What are we in the week 12
44:12
coming up? I think so.
44:14
I think we're 11 weeks down. Of course, there's 38 weeks in
44:17
the season and I feel like when we get back week 12, like I
44:21
said, it's going to be on. Like it's now time for like the,
44:24
you know, the big teams to step up, teams to start trying to
44:27
make some runs. You know, everybody's trying to
44:29
get some guys healthy and try to make a big run here.
44:31
So I'll be excited to talk about and have the Premier League back
44:34
next weekend. Yeah.
44:36
All right, Luca, you want to take us out?
44:39
That's full time and that wait, that's the final whistle and
44:41
that's full time for us.