Latest / Premier League Playground: Lad and Dad / Ask Luca 2.0

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Ask Luca 2.0 · Premier League Playground: Lad and Dad

0:03
All right, welcome into another episode of the Premier League
0:07
Playground. I am the dad.
0:09
Bjorn with me, of course, is the star of the show.
0:11
The lad. Luca Miller.
0:13
So how are you doing today, Luca?
0:14
I'm doing good. How are you?
0:16
Good, good. How's your weekend, Ben?
0:17
It's been good. How was your weekend, Ben?
0:19
Rainy. Yeah.
0:21
We've had pretty much non-stop rain all weekend, haven't we?
0:25
Yep, it's not been fun. I had three games that were
0:28
cancelled. Yeah, we we thought maybe we
0:30
could do the podcast and we could talk about some of your
0:33
games. But three games, all of them
0:34
cancelled because of the rain. Yeah.
0:36
So we're just sad having to make the best of it this weekend.
0:39
But what did we do? Yesterday was pretty fun.
0:41
We went to a card show. I'm really being it in the
0:44
cards. So that was like, it was so much
0:45
fun. We got some really cool ones
0:47
too. What were some of the good ones
0:49
you got? I got a bunch of Kai Haverts
0:51
cards. They had like an entire section
0:53
of Kai haverts cards. I got like 6 or 7 cards that I
0:59
new cards, new Kai Haveridge cards I have not had.
1:02
It's crazy to think about because you would think that I
1:05
have all the Kai Haveridge cards in the world, but I don't
1:07
apparently. It's most people listening
1:10
probably know that Kai Haverts is your favorite soccer player.
1:13
Again, we say this a lot. Not not the traditional.
1:16
If you asked probably 100 kids your age who their favorite
1:19
soccer player is I. Don't think.
1:20
Anything nobody else is going to say, Kai haverts.
1:23
Yeah. So he's your favorite.
1:25
Most people like I didn't know this.
1:26
So it's amazing that we can still find any Kai Haverts cards
1:30
you don't have, but somehow we did it's.
1:31
Crazy. Yeah.
1:33
So, yeah, it was a fun show, something good to do in the
1:36
rain. It was a rainy day, so we could
1:38
go to the mall, do the card show.
1:39
You are big into sports cards. You love soccer magazines, you
1:43
love soccer cards, but you also like football, basketball cards.
1:46
You got some good ones there too.
1:47
Yeah. Yeah, I guess from like Tyrese
1:49
Halliburton cards. He's my favorite basketball
1:51
player. I got some Eagles cards like
1:54
Devante Smith, Hertz, AJ Round. It was in Saquon too, but yeah.
2:00
And I even got to open up a pack or two, yeah.
2:03
So it's good. All right, Lucas.
2:04
So we don't have any Premier League to talk about this
2:07
weekend, right? International break, World Cup
2:10
qualifiers are going on. I don't know.
2:12
I'm kind of barely peripherally following along, but so no
2:16
Premier League games. So we're gonna do what What is
2:18
at least one of my favorite segments.
2:20
Yeah. Ask Luca.
2:21
We've done one of these before. Done.
2:23
Done. Done.
2:25
Yeah, our our audio quality was not great when we did it before,
2:28
but I think we've got some audio issues figured out here.
2:30
Our last couple episodes have been good.
2:32
So hopefully everybody's gonna be able to hear your answers,
2:35
hear your take on different topics about soccer.
2:39
Yeah. So I think this is a fun thing.
2:41
I like doing it. So we kind of do this as our
2:43
international break fill in segment.
2:45
So yeah, Luca, Are you ready for me to ask Luca?
2:49
I. Am all right, Luca.
2:51
So all right, Luca, my first question to you is who do you
2:55
think is the best soccer player in the world right now?
3:01
Like if you could, like if you were starting A-Team or like you
3:04
know right now if there was a game tomorrow, like who do you
3:07
think is the best? And it's tough, I get it cuz
3:09
there's different positions, but in your opinion, Luca, who's the
3:12
best soccer player in the world right now?
3:15
I think what mean Yamal is what? Mean Yamal.
3:19
OK, tell me why. Why do you?
3:21
Think he finished second in the ball.
3:23
He finished second in the ball on door, right?
3:24
Yeah. I also think Ruffini is up there
3:27
too. I think he then too, I think are
3:30
the best players in the world right now.
3:31
Only reason Usman then ballet got the ballet there is because
3:35
he won a bunch of trophies. He didn't win the Champions
3:37
League, so that's good. But like you want a bunch of
3:40
other trophies that no other team could compete against that
3:42
team. Like because they have so many
3:44
good players and a really good goalie.
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Now they don't. Well, they have a good goalie,
3:49
but they don't have Donna Ruma anymore.
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But they also have really easy league against like Barcelona
3:56
have like Real Madrid, Athletico Madrid, even like Girona Villa.
4:00
Real are pretty good. And also they have like harder
4:05
tournaments too, like the Copa del Rey, which forget what
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they're like other kind of cups are.
4:11
But I think those two are the best players in the world right
4:15
now. OK, I think it's hard to
4:16
sometimes in soccer. Soccer is a team sport, right?
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So clearly success comes from the team.
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So when you're it it sometimes it's hard.
4:24
Like in tennis, you know, you can say like who's the best
4:26
tennis player in the world? It's like an individual sport.
4:29
You just have one person like doing something on a court.
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So you can be like, all right, Alcoraz is the best or Sinner,
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but soccer is tough because you have individual players doing
4:38
things, but it's a team game. So you're right, like PSG to me,
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we're definitely the best team last year.
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You know, they deserve to be considered the best team.
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They won their league, they won the Champions League.
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But and and I think Dembele to me is a deserving winner of the
4:52
Balon Door, which is for the best player.
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But do I think he's like the best soccer player on the planet
4:59
right now? Like I don't, you know, so it's
5:01
a little bit of a disconnect where you say like somebody
5:03
deserves this award, but are they literally like the best
5:06
soccer player? Like I think there's more
5:07
skilled players than Dan Ballet, although he's of course an
5:12
amazing. I think Collins up there too.
5:17
Yeah, I think it like you got to think about it like from like
5:20
even even like from each position, you know, like the
5:22
best, you know, like, all right, for goalies, you know, you'd
5:25
think Donna Ruma a block, you know, for being Courtois, I
5:30
think would be like up there for best goalies.
5:32
I think Rye is up there. I don't know that I'd consider
5:35
him. Yeah, I think he's probably like
5:37
8 to 10. You know, I think he's he's very
5:39
good with his speed. He's a great he's great at
5:41
collecting balls in the air. He's a great shot stopper.
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But I mean, like to me like, look, if you would like if you
5:46
had the Champions League final tomorrow and I told you could
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start like Courtois, a Block, Donna, Rumor or Raya, I may lean
5:53
towards those other guys. But one player that just the
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best player better than all of them, Kai haverts the goat.
6:02
The goat. Well, I'm gonna edit this part
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of it out so he's not the goat, but.
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You deny it. You know, defenders you've got
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like Hakimi, Nuno, Mendez to me, Saliba, Gabrielle from Arsenal.
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Timber. I think Timber's getting up
6:17
there. I, I don't know that he's quite
6:19
there yet, but he's he's on his way.
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I love him as a player. I think he just needs to develop
6:23
his offensive game a little bit more.
6:25
You know midfield, you know forwards to me, probably Holland
6:28
setting the standard right now for us, I agree with.
6:31
You being really doing really good, but he just got hurt.
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Yeah, I think that's a great call.
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I think in Boppe almost flies like a touch under the radar for
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being such a superstar because we're just so used to how good
6:41
he's been for so long for France and for, you know, PSG and now
6:45
Real Madrid. But he's having a great start to
6:47
the season. And I mean, you know, I would
6:50
have no problem if somebody told me like in Bape is the best
6:52
player in the world. Yeah, he's in form.
6:54
I mean, he's just like on a different level.
6:57
Yeah. Holland's form.
6:59
I mean, he I think he had another hat trick from Norway,
7:01
you know, you know, a couple days ago when their World Cup
7:03
choir fire. He's leading the Premier League
7:05
in goals. I mean, again, if somebody's
7:07
like, you know, I want a striker, I want somebody who's
7:09
going to score goals, I have no problem if you like Collins, the
7:11
best player in the world. So yeah, a lot of good players.
7:14
And I'm trying to quick, real quick to think of like, you
7:16
know, midfielders. Bettina was up there for Colin
7:19
Door consideration. Declan Rice and Arsenal.
7:22
Yeah. Was you with Wendy?
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Yeah, I mean, I I put Rice above those two guys.
7:29
Pedry. Yeah, that's a good call.
7:31
Pedry is a great player. I think he's in the
7:32
consideration. Yeah.
7:35
I mean, it's great. Look, I mean, there's so many
7:37
great players, you know, across all these different teams.
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It's fun to watch them, but All right, so wait, who was your
7:44
final? You said Laminia Mall.
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Best player on the planet right now.
7:46
OK, All right, I like it. Luca.
7:48
Best soccer player in the world right now.
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Pretty amazing for a kid that young so.
7:52
Yeah. All right, Luca, my next
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question to you is which skill would you like to master?
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Free kicks, dribbling or headers, you pick pick one of
8:02
those three skills. There's obviously a lot of
8:04
skills in soccer, but tell me, I think this thing, if you could
8:07
just master one of them, which would it be?
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I think I mastered dribbling because then I could like be
8:12
like messy and be like dribbling everyone and then scoring
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because I already pretty finishing free kicks and
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headers. Like I'm not very tall so I
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don't think I need to master headers really and free kicks
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that are cool but like I don't know if I need to master those
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but I'd like to master dribbling.
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Yeah, I think that's probably a good call.
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I mean, you, you do well, any soccer player does more
8:36
dribbling than the other ones. So I, I, I think if you could
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master dribbling, first of all, I think anybody that does master
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that's going to be an amazing player.
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That is sort of what makes Messy great.
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He's probably like the best dribbler of all time.
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But Neymar? Maybe.
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Neymar, come on, look, you always bring up neighbor at all
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these conversations. Prime Neymar Neymar.
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Neymar had some flash and some skill, but Messy could just
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carve right through you a little bit better than OK.
9:00
But like Neymar. We're talking about Messi and
9:02
then you throw Neymar into the pics.
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They don't even deserve to be in the same conversation.
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I don't know, maybe. I don't know what it, what is it
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about like, like kids love Neymar?
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Like why do kids always love Neymar?
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I feel like kids are like people.
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People my age like don't like Neymar and then kids are and
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you're not the only one. I think cuz I think he's
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overrated and he flops and that he's kind of been a bit of a
9:27
disappointment. But kids your age love them.
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What is it about Neymar kids love?
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I don't really know. I just like him because I think
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he was really good for Barcelona and I'm a Barcelona fan, so I
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don't even know why I like him. It's just some of them players.
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I just don't know why I like. I like Ronaldo because I think
9:45
he's the GOAT in my opinion or other than haverts, but he's my
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second favorite player and then probably the most interesting
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top five ever. It was like #1 However, it's #2
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Ronaldo #3 ederson #4 and Neymar #5 Messi.
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These are these are your personal like favorite soccer.
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Players #5 Probably, probably soccer #5.
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OK. All right.
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So that is my top five. They're top five.
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All right. Yeah.
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So I like that in terms of mastering a skill that that, you
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know, dribbling, I think would be a good one.
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All right, look, the next question for you.
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If you could design your own soccer cleats, what color and
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style would they be? So like what do you mean by
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style? OK, so First off, you know, you
10:41
can pick like a brand, OK? So obviously probably most
10:45
people out in the field are wearing like Nikes or Adidas,
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you know, there's Diadora, there's Umbro, there's, you
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know, Capilatos, you know, not as common, especially in this
10:56
country. So you get to pick like whatever
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brand and then you can go with like a style.
11:01
So do you like, you know, you got to give me like a color
11:03
scheme, you know, where you want some detail?
11:07
Do you want them to be metal studs?
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Plastic studs? Plastic studs I'm not sure I
11:14
want to I I wish professionals use plastic studs.
11:19
There's too many injuries with like these metal studs.
11:22
Well, yeah, I mean, you know, but it gives them a little bit
11:24
better grip and feel on. The I guess but.
11:26
All right. So First off, tell me like what
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what is what is your brand? Are you sort of which which is
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what brand would you pick? For your I'm doing Adidas.
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OK, you're an Adidas guy. You've mostly worn Adidas with
11:36
your cleats, so you're picking Adidas.
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OK, the three, the three stripes.
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Give me your what? What color scheme are you going
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for? I'm going for red and white.
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Red and white. OK, so is the cleat red or
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white? Both.
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Both okay. Like 1 no one cleat is red, one
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cleat is white. Okay, so like left and right we
11:59
have they're not gonna be the same thing.
12:02
No, all right, I like this. Okay, so the left or the right?
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Okay, so the left cleat is gonna be red or white.
12:09
The left cleat is going to be red and the right cleat is going
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to be white. It's going.
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To be white OK, now are we talking like a fire engine red?
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A deep red Arsenal red Arsenal red OK, so kind of a little bit
12:21
of a brighter not quite as bright as fire engine red, but
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kind of a brighter red. Got the white cleat.
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You have the three striped Adidas.
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Are you are you someone who likes laces?
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You like the slip insurance? Slippens.
12:34
Slippens OK, no laces you like. I don't have to tie them in the
12:37
middle of the game. OK, now what about you like,
12:40
like the sock? You know, some of them come with
12:42
like a little bit of a sock that comes up.
12:43
You like the sock or no sock? Sock.
12:45
Sock with it too. OK.
12:47
All right. Right, there you go.
12:48
Did the Arsenal themed Arsenal? It'll have like a little Arsenal
12:52
badge on the tip of it. OK, All right, Boost.
12:55
All right, so the Arsenal badge or the Canon?
12:58
The badge like the like the regular.
13:01
The traditional Arsenal badge. OK, I got you.
13:03
So you're gonna put that on the cleat, too.
13:05
OK. All right.
13:06
Any other little enhancements you wanna do to the cleat or?
13:08
That's that's good. All right, I like it, Luca.
13:10
All right, Yeah. How much are you gonna sell them
13:12
for? 100 bucks. 100 bucks.
13:15
OK, there you have it. You can get them.
13:17
This is pretty cheap compared to like some other cleats cleats
13:20
stuff. That's true.
13:21
I mean some of these, these top end cleats from Nike and Adidas,
13:25
you know, over $300.00 for some of these.
13:27
So yeah. Yeah, all right, look, I like
13:29
it. I might buy those.
13:30
They sound pretty sweet. Yeah.
13:31
Limited edition Adidas Lucca Arsenal cleat.
13:34
Yep, from from yours truly, the lad.
13:38
There you go. From the lad.
13:39
Yeah. All right, Luca, my next
13:42
question to you. Would you rather be the fastest
13:46
soccer player in the world or have the hardest shot?
13:51
So you have a choice. I would probably be the fastest
13:55
because sometimes you don't need hard shots, you sometimes need
13:59
placement. And I think being really fast,
14:04
you can dribble around players really easy.
14:06
So if I've mastered dribbling from that other question and now
14:09
I'm really fast, I'm going to be a very, very good player rather
14:13
than like having a powerful shot.
14:15
OK, well that's pretty good, but I'd rather be fast.
14:19
You'd rather be fast? OK.
14:20
Yeah, I think I'd lean towards that too.
14:23
It would be nice to like have a hard time.
14:24
You just can like thump it and just.
14:26
It's like Hulk, remember him? He's a really powerful.
14:29
Shot, yeah, a real powerful shot.
14:30
I know. I mean that that would feel
14:32
probably pretty good to like be able to just, you know,
14:34
absolutely crush a ball. But yeah, I think in soccer,
14:37
especially nowadays, I think speed is so important, that
14:40
being if you could be the fastest, I mean, you almost
14:42
could like just run by and dribble through everybody and
14:44
then yeah, like you said, you're just tapping it in because
14:46
they're like breakaways because you're so fast.
14:49
So yeah, I think that'd be more useful.
14:51
Like I said, it might be really fun to really smash a ball, but
14:54
I think being being the fastest would be pretty useful.
14:58
All right, look at this. This ties in a little bit.
15:00
We sort of touched on this a little bit, all right, but I
15:03
want to know who you think is the greatest soccer player of
15:06
all time. Kai, Harvard.
15:08
OK, again, we're going to have a lot of editing to do with this
15:12
job, but I'm going to edit that out.
15:15
So all right, let's take Kai Harvard down.
15:18
Who is the greatest besides Kai Harvard?
15:20
So, you know, think about this, you know, in terms of all time,
15:26
too, OK. And I know this can be hard
15:28
because we haven't seen, you know, even I haven't watched a
15:30
lot of the guys from, you know, it's not like I saw Pele play a
15:33
lot or you see me. Or things like that.
15:35
You never saw Pele play? No, I mean just in, you know,
15:38
little clips of video later on. But you're right, it's not like
15:41
you got to watch them on a regular basis, which I think a
15:43
lot of times skews our view a little bit more towards modern
15:47
day players. But you know, what you know
15:49
about guys in the past and what you've seen.
15:52
Just your opinion, OK, If you had to sort of think of or you
15:55
can give me a little bit of a rank, you know, I think the
15:57
greatest of all time. Messi and Ronaldo are tied for
16:00
first. OK, so you have.
16:02
So for you it's Messi, Ronaldo and they're tied.
16:06
Yes. And in second, Pele third, I'm
16:14
going to go Neymar. Oh goodness, here we go again
16:20
with the Neymar. Now.
16:22
Now let's use. His career and then kind of fill
16:25
up what? Did he ever do?
16:26
He went, he won a couple of good man trophies.
16:30
Oh, and tie with Neymar. Wellandowski.
16:33
OK, all right. Levendowski's a pretty good
16:35
call, you know. He he was really good.
16:38
He got robbed by the Balandor because COVID.
16:42
Yeah. So, all right.
16:43
So you know, the the the eternal debate, of course is like Messi
16:47
versus Ronaldo, right? That's it's like the eternal
16:49
debate is like which one's better?
16:52
They're they're both obviously amazing.
16:54
Pretty much I would call them both the GOAT.
16:56
They're both I, I know, and I think that's kind of a good
16:58
call. Like, I mean, just, you know, I
17:00
think, you know, Messi's won more Balandors.
17:03
He's won. All those won more Champions
17:04
League score more goals. That's fair.
17:07
Yeah, That's a good point. So I like that, you know,
17:10
Ronaldo, you know, has bounced around, done it on a bunch of
17:13
different continents. Messi never played in the
17:15
Premier League. Messi never played in the
17:16
Premier League, so I agree with you so, so far.
17:19
Like those are spot on points. Like totally agree.
17:22
I would have loved to have seen Messi at some point do it in the
17:24
Premier League. What he's doing in MLS right
17:27
now, you know, OK, it's kind of like whatever, like it's good
17:30
for MLS. It's like the Saudi League is
17:33
like Benzema. They have Marez, Seth, Monet,
17:38
yeah, Decent players that are like older now, but like kind of
17:41
legends, yeah. Sort of, I know I, I, I kind of
17:46
in some ways I, I, I don't pay as much attention to the Saudi
17:49
league or MLS, you know, and I feel like obviously this is the
17:52
tail end of both of their careers.
17:53
You know, the bulk of what they've done is before Ronaldo's
17:56
sort of like trying to get to that thousand goal mark.
17:59
Yeah, that'd be insane. I don't know.
18:00
No one's done. That no one's done that, you
18:03
know, so you know. So for club and country, he
18:05
scored more goals than anybody and he could how he well get
18:09
there. If he plays for like another
18:10
year or two, I can't remember. He's he could, he's like, he
18:12
could be 50 off or forty goals off.
18:14
I think if he plays for a good one more year, I think he'll get
18:18
it. Yeah, he will definitely get it
18:20
eventually. And.
18:21
He's in really good shapes shape still.
18:24
He is now Ronaldo. Like I said, he's never won a
18:27
World Cup. I mean, do you hold that against
18:28
him? Not really, no.
18:30
But I do think this year they have a really good chance of
18:33
winning. It looks like they have some
18:35
really, really good players on their team now.
18:37
Yeah, Portugal. Yeah, Portugal will definitely
18:39
be, you know, one of the top teams going into the World Cup.
18:42
You know them, France, England, maybe Argentina.
18:46
I don't know if they're going to do it back-to-back though.
18:48
Don't think so. Maybe Spain, I don't know.
18:51
Those are my like 3. Yeah, yeah.
18:54
And you know, so Messi, like I said, you know, he has won, he's
18:57
won Copa Americas with Argentina.
19:00
He's got he's got the World Cup, but that's like a big feather in
19:02
his cap for that now I would say, you know, it is it's like
19:08
you're splitting hairs a little bit.
19:09
Here's one thing I think that I would throw out there to defend
19:13
Ronaldo for not winning the World Cup.
19:14
Portugal is a country of 10 million people.
19:17
Argentina has over 40 million. So there's just less people.
19:21
Like there's less. It's a much, much smaller
19:23
country now. You're right there.
19:25
It's amazing that they have the quality that they do for a
19:28
country of that size. But it is a bigger advantage
19:31
having a bigger pool of players to pull from.
19:33
Yeah, and before Ronaldo came along, Portugal was not very
19:39
good. They were not very good after
19:41
Ronaldo came. They've won like 2 nations
19:45
leagues, they've won a euro. And in Ronaldo's defense, the
19:51
euro in my opinion is a lot harder to win than the Copa
19:55
America. There's more countries and
19:59
better countries like the top ones in Copa America, Argentina,
20:03
Uruguay and Brazil. So like in the EUR, it's just
20:08
harder. Yeah, that's, you know, I think
20:12
I agree with you like the top country, I mean Europe clearly
20:15
has more depth in terms of more countries that are good.
20:19
You know, the top countries in South America clearly are great,
20:22
right. Like you said, Brazil,
20:23
Argentina, other countries are doing well like Chile, Ecuador I
20:28
think finished second in World Cup qualifying.
20:30
So there's but they're yeah, but you know, you could just run
20:33
through Europe and not like, you mean, you mentioned, you know,
20:35
all the countries that are going to be fav, you know, be top
20:38
favourites in the World Cup. You know, Italy, France, Spain,
20:42
Portugal, England, Germany, you know, Belgium, Netherlands.
20:46
I mean, it's just like there's so many good teams and you look
20:48
at the starting lineups for those teams, they're just
20:50
littered with some of the. Top players.
20:52
In the world, like it's amazing, like you look at this even like
20:54
a country like the Netherlands, a small country in Europe,
20:56
they're. So.
20:57
Good. They're so good.
20:58
I mean, it's so, yeah, I think that's a good call.
21:00
I think I probably would agree with you.
21:02
Like winning a euro is probably harder than winning a Copa.
21:06
America and. That's big.
21:08
And like I said, a Portugal country of 10 million people, I
21:11
mean, think how small that is. the United States just put it
21:13
in, I think we're like 360 million people.
21:16
Portugal has 10 million and there's this and they're this
21:18
good. So, and you do make a good
21:20
point, like Ronaldo is sort of ushered in this era of, you
21:24
know, Portugal really being a contender for EUR and and World
21:27
Cups and stuff. So yeah, I mean, look at any,
21:30
any love for like on this list for like Diego Maradona,
21:33
Xenadine Zadon. Yes, they're definitely top ten
21:40
up there with like Push, Gus and Usavio and probably like.
21:47
Kroy, yeah. Kroy, yeah, Kroy is definitely
21:49
up there. I think of him as like a, you
21:51
know, coach and player. He ushered in like total.
21:54
Shafi Iniesta. Yeah, Yeah.
21:58
I think those are pretty good calls in terms of like.
22:00
The Bruin. Yeah, you know, I mean.
22:03
Maybe Mahdrich the Bruin and Mahdrich Cruz, Yeah.
22:07
Yeah, I mean, I, I think, you know, probably not obviously
22:10
greatest of all time, but I think if we're talking like top
22:12
ten, top 15, yeah, I think that's like these guys were
22:15
difference makers on great teams and and had a lot of success And
22:19
yeah, I think that's a good list.
22:21
So. All right, so I like it.
22:23
Luca, Good, good list there. All right, Luca, my next
22:27
question for you is if you could invent a new soccer rule, what
22:32
would it be? Oh wow.
22:37
So if you can even invent a rule, or I'll even say if you
22:40
want to like change a rule or eliminate a rule, what's one
22:43
rule you would do? I would eliminate offsides.
22:49
OK, wow. OK, so there's no offsides.
22:52
Get rid of it. Yeah, unless you're like
22:54
standing right in front of the goal that will be counted as
22:57
offsides. But like if your toe, if your
23:00
pinky toes nail is offsides, I won't count that.
23:04
And if you're like maybe a foot offside and I won't count that.
23:08
So expanding the like kind of like easing off the rule of
23:14
offsides, it's like if it's super close, it's like a pinky
23:18
toenail offsides and I'm I'm not going to call that.
23:21
So I'm kind of eliminating offsides, but not technically.
23:25
I know, but don't you think though?
23:26
All right, let's say you've expanded offsides to give the
23:28
attackers, like you said, a foot a yard.
23:32
Don't we still bring in there? Still then a line, but then
23:35
we're going to start looking at pinky toes a yard in front.
23:40
I gave They shouldn't be offsides then because you're
23:44
closer to the goal. Yeah, but it's still like if you
23:48
have a line, it's just Mac. So right now we have a line and
23:51
it's basically the last offender for offsides, right?
23:53
It kind of starts at like their shoulder, you know, and you draw
23:56
that line and you're right. We, we get into this sort of
23:59
like nitpicking, you know, how close they are.
24:04
So if you say, all right, we're going to give the attackers a
24:06
little bit more than an advantage.
24:07
I mean, you could eliminate it entirely, but I feel like if
24:10
you, even if you draw the line forward, you we're still going
24:12
to be then saying, well, is it a yard?
24:14
Is it 3? Is it 1.1 yard?
24:17
I'm going to actually scratch that.
24:19
I I know, I know a new one. I'm going to allow refs to look
24:24
at VAR for a yellow card. OK.
24:27
You like look at it in case it could be a well, are they
24:31
allowed to do like if the yellow card they can look at it for a
24:34
possible red? Yes.
24:36
OK, well, I'm going to look at that.
24:37
I'm going to let them look at that in case like, but it
24:41
shouldn't have been a yellow. OK, so so a referee gives a
24:45
yellow, but then we're going to allow like VAR or replay to say,
24:49
hey, that that wasn't a yellow at all, man.
24:51
Like, come on, you got to like look at that to take away a
24:53
yellow, you know? So yeah, that that could be
24:56
good. I, you know, I find there's,
24:58
there's so many more yellows given out in soccer than there
25:01
were before. And you know, like it's, it's
25:06
too many yellows in my book. There's a lot of times, you
25:08
know, soccer you have fouls and the referee calls fouls, but it
25:11
feels like every 3rd foul is a yellow card.
25:14
And it, and to me, there's just, and it changes the game a lot.
25:17
You think of like a defender getting on a yellow card.
25:19
They're going to defend much differently.
25:21
They're going to be way more cautious.
25:23
They're going to back up off of players.
25:24
They're not going to take risks defending because they're on
25:26
that yellow. And what they're afraid is that
25:28
they're going to like, you know, go for a tackle and pick up a
25:31
second yellow and, and go out. So yellow cards like actually
25:35
impact the way people play. And so I, I'm much more like, I,
25:39
I, I feel like a yellow should be more, you know, really kind
25:43
of dangerous. You know, maybe not like, I
25:45
can't remember the terminology that they have for like a red is
25:48
like reckless and maybe a yellow is dangerous.
25:50
I don't know if I quite have that right, but I I kind of went
25:53
with you on that because I just see a lot of yellows and I'm
25:55
like, and believe me, teams that Arsenal are playing and they get
25:58
yellows and I'm like, that's not a yellow.
26:00
Like, yeah, enough with us. Like it's just, it feels kind of
26:03
soft. Yeah.
26:05
Yeah. All right.
26:05
Well, I like it. All right, Luca, here's one.
26:08
And this maybe ties in. You know, we have the World Cup
26:10
coming up next summer. And I'm curious, Luca, who's
26:14
your favorite national team? Or maybe I'll even give you 2 to
26:17
root for. OK, I wouldn't live for USA, but
26:24
I don't think they're going to win, so I'm going to be rooting
26:27
for Germany and Portugal. All right.
26:30
And that's because you. OK.
26:32
So you're looking at it from the standpoint?
26:35
Of my favorite players are on those teams.
26:37
OK, so because that your favorite players play for those
26:40
teams, you're going to root for those teams.
26:41
Yeah. And then like a third would be
26:43
like England and 4th, maybe USA just because like they might
26:47
make it out of the group stage, but maybe not in the round of 16
26:50
or something, but Maine to Germany and Portugal.
26:54
All right, let me throw a hypothetical situation out there
26:56
then. That probably won't happen.
26:57
But let's say the World Cup final.
27:00
Luca, we're at the final of the World Cup next summer, and
27:02
Germany's playing the United States.
27:05
Who are you rooting for in that game?
27:07
So here it is, Luca. There it is.
27:09
It's a final. Like who you turn the TV on to
27:11
watch the game. Who are you rooting for to win
27:14
that game? Oh no, why did you do this to
27:16
me? I will actually not care who
27:19
wins. I'll be happy if either either
27:22
team wins. OK 'cause it would be crazy if
27:25
you were, say, makes it to the finals and wins it.
27:28
I would be like what just happened.
27:31
But if Germany wins, I'll be happy because I really want Carl
27:33
Haberds to win the World Cup. So yeah, I I will not care
27:38
either. If either team wins, I will be
27:40
happy. OK.
27:41
And I think that's fair. You know, I look, I think most
27:43
people. If that game would happen, I
27:47
would want a good game like 3, three goes to penalties like the
27:50
last World Cup final. Yeah, I mean, most of the time,
27:53
you know, that's what people want is like in a real exciting
27:56
final. I doubt the US will make it to
27:59
the final, but I think most people probably root for the
28:03
country they were born in, you know, But you're right, the
28:05
United States doesn't particularly give us a lot like
28:09
to to get excited about, you know, they're always a little
28:12
sort of up and down. There's players coming in and
28:14
out. I find sometimes it's really
28:17
hard to sort of like some of the players on the US national team
28:19
sometimes. Being a Sixers fan.
28:21
A little bit, but you know, like, it's not that they dislike
28:25
like some of these players, but I, I, I just find it hard to
28:28
sort of maybe because I've never really played for teams that I
28:31
root for. I, I don't know, I just whatever
28:34
it is, there's a little bit of a disconnect for me between some
28:36
of the players and the team. Of course, I generally do root
28:39
for them, but I'm with you. Like I, I kind of then tend to
28:43
root for some of like where the Arsenal players are, you know,
28:46
so Rice Saka as they play for England.
28:49
You know, I, I like haverts. He plays obviously for Germany,
28:52
the Spanish guys, you know, you've got Marino, Zubamendi,
28:55
Riot playing for Spain, you know, but I also think about it
28:59
too, like I have friends that are Spanish, you know?
29:02
Yeah, you know, you've met Javier.
29:05
You know, he's our friend, our Real Madrid fan that lives out
29:07
in San Diego big, you know, he's from Spain, obviously.
29:11
So clearly roots for Spain. So, you know, you know, so like
29:16
there's other and then there's other teams who you would like,
29:18
want them to do well because of maybe like you'd like Portugal
29:22
and Ronaldo to get a World Cup. So you may like root for them
29:25
from that standpoint. Or maybe like you said, you were
29:27
looking for Kai Haverts to win World Cup.
29:28
So, you know, there's other storylines that kind of follow
29:31
with these national teams where maybe you're saying like should
29:34
be great if they could. You know, some people are
29:35
looking at Brazil like Brazil hasn't won a World Cup in what,
29:37
over 20 years? And they have 5.
29:40
And so, yeah, but it's been 20 years.
29:42
Some people like, it would be great to see Brazil get back to
29:45
that because they were always like an exciting team to watch.
29:48
Or maybe if somebody is gonna be like, I want Nessie to go
29:50
back-to-back. Because I don't have Neymar.
29:54
Well, like, I feel like last World Cup, the story was like
29:57
everybody wanted messy to get the World Cup.
29:59
So there's a lot of people that get on board with Argentina
30:01
then, you know, so it'll be interesting.
30:03
I'm just I was curious like who you might sort of pick out.
30:06
I kind of figured it was based on like the players you like and
30:08
their teams. But I think it's the World Cup
30:10
rolls around next summer. It'll be interesting to see like
30:13
who people sort of gravitate to if your team is not going to win
30:17
it, who's maybe that team you're like picking to kind of win.
30:19
So all right, I like this for you, Luca.
30:22
That kind of makes sense. All right, Luca, here's another
30:25
question about maybe kind of rules or putting something in.
30:28
Do you think soccer should have timeouts like basketball or
30:31
American football? I do not it because, well, it it
30:37
depends. It was like a really hot day.
30:40
They can take a cooling break right now.
30:42
Honestly, I wouldn't change anything really.
30:45
I don't, I don't think. I mean, I don't, I don't think
30:49
you really need a break. You shouldn't need one unless
30:52
it's like really hot cooling breaks.
30:53
That's fine. I'm good with that.
30:56
But now I don't, I don't, I, I, what do you think?
30:58
I don't want to think there should be timeouts.
31:00
Yeah, I don't know, like I, I generally I would have, the more
31:04
I thought about this, I kind of found myself a little bit more
31:06
on the fence. I initially was, was sort of
31:08
like, no. So I, I think the argument,
31:10
maybe here's the argument for it maybe is that towards the end of
31:14
the game, you get a free kick or a corner kick and the coach can
31:18
then like call a timeout, bring the players over and like really
31:22
draw up a play almost. Because that's sort of what
31:24
happens in basketball and football.
31:25
You like call the timeout because the coach wants to like,
31:27
get everybody together, get you on the same page, maybe get
31:30
everybody to like, take a deep breath, OK, here's the play
31:32
we're going to call and they'd like, you know, to diagram up a
31:35
play and then the players go and do it.
31:36
That's, you know, even more than the rest aspect of it.
31:39
So in soccer now, we talked about this a little bit last
31:42
week, how there's so many like now set plays and like
31:46
purposeful free kicks, corner kicks where everybody does have
31:50
almost like a football route tree.
31:52
You know, everybody's doing different things, so I get it
31:55
there a little bit. I I still would lean no, I don't
31:57
think soccer needs them. I think there's enough stoppages
32:00
and enough way to get that information out to the players
32:03
where a ball rolls out of bounds, right?
32:05
Somebody takes a couple extra seconds, the coach or the free,
32:08
even the free kick coach now gets up and is like, all right,
32:10
you know, we're doing this play and everybody kind of knows what
32:13
to do. So I I don't think we really
32:15
need it. I've always said one of the
32:16
great things about soccer is it's just like a running clock.
32:19
You don't have to worry about all these time outs slowing down
32:21
the game. There's a flow to it.
32:23
So I I think I'd lean no, but I but I get I could see where
32:27
nowadays maybe it would be kind of useful.
32:30
Yeah, maybe. Maybe.
32:31
All right, So are you a yes or no on?
32:32
That I'm a no. You're a no?
32:34
Yeah, I think I'm probably a no, too.
32:35
I just don't think we probably really need it.
32:38
All right, Luke, I like this question.
32:39
I'm curious your answer on this. What is the best Darby or
32:43
rivalry in soccer right now? Every people, some people might
32:47
not know, a Darby is essentially like a big rivalry.
32:49
It's spelled like Derby, but they pronounce it Darby.
32:51
So in all of soccer and Luca, I'm going to throw in national
32:56
teams and club teams. And what do you think is like
32:59
the best like rivalry? There's some good ones.
33:06
I know this is not easy actually.
33:10
I forgot I'm going to go. There's three that I think are
33:16
tied for club right now, El Clasico, Manchester Derby and
33:22
North London Derby. Yeah, those are pretty good.
33:24
All right. So El Clasico Luca, who plays in
33:26
that? Barcelona.
33:27
Real Madrid. All right, now of course,
33:29
Manchester Derby. United City.
33:31
All right, North London Derby. Arsenal Top.
33:33
OK, so all right, let's let's we'll unpack these a little bit
33:37
here. So in Spain, you've got the two
33:39
best teams in Spain forever or ever have been, Real Madrid and
33:42
Barcelona. Yeah.
33:42
Like they almost always still are.
33:45
They're like the two most glamorous teams, most well known
33:47
teams. They one of those teams
33:49
typically, not all the time, but you know, almost always wins the
33:52
league and. When was the last time it was
33:57
someone else who won the league? I think Athletico Madrid will
34:00
pop in there occasionally and win.
34:03
I mean, I want to say within the past 10 or 15 years, like it's,
34:07
it's not often. I know.
34:09
I mean, you know, but yeah, it's not, it's not often.
34:13
But it, it's been, like I said, I do remember there was a period
34:16
of time and again, I lose track of the years, but it hasn't been
34:19
super long ago. Like I I ventured to say, like I
34:22
said, 10 or 15 years. But.
34:24
Yeah, so then you've got Manchester Derby, which of
34:26
course Manchester United dominated for years and years,
34:30
the two teams in the same city. Now city.
34:32
Dominates. Now City dominates.
34:34
So there's been sort of that power shift there.
34:37
You've got north London, of course, Arsenal, Tottenham.
34:41
Usually Arsenal wins that. Usually Arsenal wins, like I
34:44
said that, which is good for us. You've got Merseyside, Darby's a
34:49
good one, Liverpool, Everton, you know, Liverpool's usually
34:53
had kind of the best of that, especially of course recently.
34:55
But those two teams, I mean, there's definitely like a fire
34:58
between those. Two teams El classy can you
35:00
something with the PSG Marseille?
35:02
PSG and Marseille in France is a good one.
35:04
That's probably the biggest one in France you've got like Dirk
35:08
Classicer. Oh, Dirk Classicer, Dortmund,
35:12
Bayern Munich. Bayern Munich.
35:14
So that's like a big one in in Germany, AC Milan Intermole
35:18
that's. Really good.
35:19
That's a good one. You know they playing this.
35:22
That's up there too. I think that might be #1 for me.
35:25
I know. And there's something about like
35:26
the Italian, you know, the like. They hate each other, same
35:29
stadium, like they do not like each other.
35:31
I was going to say there's an added level of that, too, that
35:34
you play in the same stadium, you know, obviously from a big
35:37
city in northern Italy, Milan. Yeah.
35:39
I think that's like an underrated one like And that's
35:41
on like. I try to find my way to watch.
35:43
That yeah, so especially if you're there, you're cooked like
35:46
there there's going to be like flares.
35:48
Did you there's like some picture from the Champions
35:52
League semi finals. It was like 2003 or 2004 and it
35:57
was a, what's it called, the Milan Darby or is it, I think.
36:04
They call like just the Milan Darby.
36:05
Yeah. I don't know if it's got like a
36:06
another different. And it was through the picture
36:09
cuz So these, one of the team's fans were I think the Inter
36:13
Milan fans were throwing flares and one of them hit the
36:17
goalkeeper. Dida, you know him?
36:18
Who's really good? Then everyone was running back
36:22
to the locker room. But then Matarazzi and Ru Costa,
36:29
we're just standing there, standing next to each other.
36:33
Where was it, Madarotti? Is that how you pronounce it?
36:35
I think, yeah, Madarotti. Yeah, and he's the one who got
36:39
hit head butted by Zidane. He he has his hand on his arm on
36:45
across his shoulder. And they're just looking at the
36:48
fans and it's just like a picture of it.
36:52
But you can just tell like because some of those fans are
36:55
throwing flayers onto the field. There's a lot of smoke on the
36:58
field. It was just, it was crazy.
37:01
Yeah, yeah, there's something about some of the like the the
37:04
passion of like the Italian league and stuff that just sort
37:07
of like ratchets up the emotions of it.
37:09
So yeah, those are all pretty good.
37:11
I know I was thinking like national teams you have like US,
37:13
Mexico, that's I think that's like a, that's a pretty good
37:16
rivalry. England, France, Argentina,
37:20
Brazil. Brazil, Uruguay.
37:24
Brazil, Uruguay, yeah. I mean, there's, there's some,
37:26
there's some like great matches that like, you know, when
37:29
they're on, even if it's like a friendly, even if it doesn't
37:31
mean that much like like those two teams like want to beat each
37:35
other. You know, Portugal, France.
37:37
Yeah. I think Portugal, France,
37:38
Portugal, Spain, where I was going to say Portugal, Spain a
37:40
little bit more, you know, the two countries being like, you
37:42
know, so close there. So yeah, like I said, if you had
37:49
to pick one, all right, I'm gonna put you what?
37:51
I'm gonna make you pick one of all.
37:53
Those for the clubs. For club and national team, all
37:56
the ones we've said, club, you gotta give me one.
37:58
Milan Derby for the club. OK.
38:00
And no, it's Portugal, Spain for national all.
38:06
Right. I'm going to go with El
38:07
Classico, like Barcelona, Real Madrid.
38:09
Like I just feel like when that's on man and the games I
38:12
feel like tend. To be like, really excited.
38:14
Yeah, I was going to say, like it tend to be a lot riding on
38:16
them. They're tend to be real
38:17
exciting. I just feel like Barcelona, Real
38:19
Madrid, like when that's on, man, like I you put everything
38:22
aside and you watch. Yeah, that's that's going to be
38:23
mine. So.
38:24
All right, that's good. I like that one, Luca.
38:27
All right, Luca, if you could choose any company to sponsor
38:31
your your team, your shirt sponsor.
38:33
OK, so this is your club, Luca. You've got your kits, They're
38:36
looking all good, and you got to get a shirt sponsor.
38:40
Who are you going to get on the front of that sweet kid of
38:42
yours, Luca? I'm going to get Premier League
38:46
Playground. I'm going to get them to sponsor
38:49
our, my, our team and I might get Emirates.
38:54
OK, So I, I would do those two. We would sponsor my shirts and I
39:01
can basically pay myself because I'm part of the crew of the
39:06
Premier League Playground. And I'm going to put it on the
39:08
shirt. It will be like Arsenal and the
39:10
DS. And then I'll just have our our
39:13
symbol or Premier League playground symbol right in front
39:15
of it and I'll have Premier League playground.
39:18
Yep. All right.
39:19
So Premier League Playground or Emirates, Yeah, a little bit
39:22
different budget for the two companies.
39:24
Yeah. So, all right, I like it, Luca.
39:27
That would be a pretty sweet looking kid.
39:29
Yeah. All right, Luca, I got a couple,
39:31
maybe a little quick ones here was we before we wrap up.
39:34
But if soccer didn't exist, Luca, what sport would you play?
39:38
Oh, so there's no That would be a sad life if soccer didn't.
39:42
Exist. There's no soccer to watch,
39:44
there's no soccer to play. So then you've got a shift and
39:47
play another sport. What's it gonna be?
39:49
American football or basketball, Or maybe pickleball?
39:53
OK, so those are your your, yeah, other ones, so.
39:56
American. Football.
39:56
Basketball. Are pickleball interesting?
39:58
Three times. I don't know how my life would
40:00
be if soccer didn't exist. It'd be it'd be a very
40:03
different, I know we'd have a lot more time to fill with all
40:05
of our lives. But all right, Luke, I like
40:08
that. And kind of tying into that a
40:10
little bit, Luca, I want to know like, what do you love the most
40:14
about playing soccer for you personally?
40:17
Like what do you love the? Most I just love the thrill of
40:19
it where like, like if the game's tied 3/3 at the end and
40:23
pouring rain, the crowd's hyped through all like cheering for
40:26
your team. That's like the best moment in
40:28
soccer. Or like you're you just score a
40:31
winning goal in the final with like a second left in the game
40:34
on a corner kick. It's just the thrill of playing
40:37
it and like fun about scoring a goal.
40:41
Best feeling in soccer? Winning a tournament, It's just
40:43
really fun. OK, Yeah, those are all good.
40:46
So you like, it's those kind of those moments that you're having
40:48
like on the field, you know, where kind of anything can
40:52
happen, but especially like a close game where you have the
40:55
ability to influence the outcome of it one way or another.
40:58
Maybe you score, maybe you assist.
40:59
Maybe. Emotions are rising, everyone.
41:02
The crowds going insane, They're fighting with each other like
41:05
the Milan. Yeah, that's part of soccer.
41:10
Okay, all right, all right, Luke.
41:13
Well, I think that's a pretty good Ask Luca segment.
41:16
Anything else that you wanna want me to ask you or you wanna
41:19
relate to everybody? No, I think that's it.
41:22
All right, so looking ahead, Luca, we like I said, there are
41:25
obviously no games, but we we did got your predictions for
41:28
week 8. So next week we'll be back with
41:30
a Week 8 recap. We'll do our more traditional
41:33
show as we go through the games. We'll look ahead to Week 9.
41:36
We'll do, of course, our trivia shootout.
41:39
We'll have a did you know section.
41:40
So yeah, so next weekend everybody can buckle back in for
41:44
some good Premier League games. We've talked a little bit about
41:47
on the last show, your predictions and a little bit of
41:49
kind of previewing those and we'll be back with that.
41:52
But yeah, I hope this is fun. I like like picking your brain
41:55
and getting your thoughts on different soccer topics.
41:57
So we'll we'll look to do a few more of these moving forward.
42:00
So yeah. Anything else looking for the
42:03
audience? Oh.
42:03
I think that's it. All right.
42:05
Well, thank you everybody who listened and we'll see you next
42:07
week. Thank you for listening.
42:09
Bye.