Episode 253 - It's Time to Take the Fight to USSF

We're back!  After a couple of months of not podcasting, we have returned.

Since last we published a podcast, the following has happened in US soccer:

• A federal appeals court denied the NASL an injunction against the USSF's (less than warranted) decision to deny the league D2 sanctioning (in favor of the historically inept USL), effectively killing the league.  However, the league's case against the federation continues.
• The USSF has a new President, but sadly it is not Eric Wynalda.  It is instead Carlos Cordeiro, a former Goldman Sachs executive (some of you may recall another Goldman Sachs exec, Eric Grubman, playing a hand in the NFL's LA disaster) and vice president of USSF.  So, there is no chance of any meaningful reform for at least 4 years.
• It gets worse: Cordeiro publicly referred to the sick joke that is USL as "the world's best second division" - discounting every open second division in the world, including the arguably superior EFL Championship - and said the USSF's primary responsibility is to secure hosting for the 2026 World Cup (along with Mexico and Canada).  This.  Is.  Bulls@#$!
• The CAS case brought about by the owners of Miami FC and Kingston Stockade FC to force USSF to play by FIFA statutes and institute promotion and relegation (which was read on this podcast) will be heard soon.
• Two phrases you need to be aware of: Alt(ernative) Fed(eration) and Division Zero.

Watch this space.

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Congrats to Philly on winning the Super Bowl!

Congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles on winning Super Bowl 52, 41-33 over New England.

And they did it on the backs of former St. Louis players, namely quarterback Nick Foles and D-lineman Chris Long.  Which gives further credence that Mike's former team were intentionally tanking games from 2011-2015 to justify the nonsense claim that St. Louisans don't care about football.

Philly's victory also makes the NFC East the only division in the current 8-division setup to have every team win at least 1 Super Bowl.  Dallas has 5, the New York Football Giants have 4, and Washington has 3.  The Eagles' first makes it 13 out of 52 (exactly 25% of all Super Bowls) going to NFC East teams, which leads all divisions.  Observe:

NFC East: 13 (Dallas 5, NY Giants 4, Washington 3, Philadelphia 1)
AFC North: 8 (Pittsburgh 6, Baltimore 2)
AFC East: 8 (New England 5, Miami 2, NY Jets 1)
NFC West: 7 (San Francisco 5, Seattle 1, Professional Liars 1 [that was won in St. Louis])
AFC West: 7 (Denver 3, Raiders 3, Kansas City 1)
NFC North: 5 (Green Bay 4, Chicago 1)
NFC South: 2 (Tampa Bay 1, New Orleans 1)
AFC South: 2 (Colts 2)

The Craziest Election In America Is In U.S. Soccer

The Year That Broke U.S. Soccer - MUST WATCH!

Saints Done, Keith Gets First Batsu Game

Keith's pick to win the Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints, have been knocked out of the playoffs.

Keith therefore will be issued his first batsu game!

The conference finals are as follows:

AFC: New England and Jacksonville
NFC: Philadelphia and Minnesota

When Villa & Forest Ruled the World (And Where It Went Wrong)

In the interest of providing some content until our next podcasting session, here is a great documentary on the only two past European Cup (now UEFA Champions League) winners who are currently not in their country's top flight: Aston Villa (1 European Cup, in 1981-82) and Nottingham Forest (2 European Cups, won back-to-back in 1978-79 and 1979-80).



Presently, Villa are in 5th place in the Football League Championship (in the promotion playoff spots) and were knocked out of the FA Cup by League One side Peterborough United, while Forest are 14th and knocked out defending FA Cup champions Arsenal (cue the new version of Senor Stan).

How did the football picks go?

Before the NFL season started, Mike and Keith made their picks.  How did they do?

Division	Mike's Picks	Keith's Picks	Actual Results
NFC North	Green Bay	Green Bay	Minnesota
NFC South	New Orleans	New Orleans	New Orleans
NFC East	NY Giants	Philadelphia	Philadelphia
NFC West	Arizona	Seattle	Professional Liars
NFC Wild Cards	Philadelphia Seattle	Carolina NY Giants	Carolina Atlanta
AFC North	Pittsburgh	Baltimore	Pittsburgh
AFC South	Houston	Houston	Jacksonville
AFC East	New England	New England	New England
AFC West	Raiders	Raiders	Kansas City
AFC Wild Cards	Denver Indianapolis	Kansas City Miami	Tennessee Buffalo
NFC Champions	Green Bay	New Orleans	TBA
AFC Champions	New England	Raiders	TBA
SB52 Champions	Green Bay	New Orleans	TBA

Mike's picks: 4/12
Keith's picks: 5/12

Mike, BATSU GAME!!!

That's 2 pending batsu games for Mike.

Trump's Delusional Year in Sports

Episode 252 - Updates in the Sports Legal World

Yesterday, a Missouri circuit court judge in St. Louis handed down an initial decision on St. Louis v. NFL (which we spent 3 podcast episodes reading and discussing when it was filed in April).

This is the big news on today's podcast.  We also talk secondarily about the ongoing NASL-USSF case and the related USSF Presidency race.  We call out the Eastern New York State Soccer Association's recent Twitter actions.  (Side note: the association's Twitter account has been shut down because they went too far.)

Fair use: Today, we unleash Senor Stan 2.0, so apologies to Arsenal Fan TV, Star Trek, South Park, HOTM, and Bernie Miklasz.



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Packers Done! Mike, BATSU GAME!!!

This evening, the Green Bay Packers were eliminated from playoff contention.

Mike - whose sister is one of the 360,760 fan-shareholders of the Packers - picked them to win the Super Bowl.  Since that is not happening,

Mike, BATSU GAME!!!

The batsu game will be issued next time we can get together for a podcasting session.

Mike could also be issued a second NFL batsu game had he formalized his assertion that the LA Chargers would at least finish with a better win-loss record than Senor Stan's Cadre of Professional Liars.  That will, sadly and very surprisingly, not happen.  He also calls major shenanigans on Stan's team's sudden success - which was EASILY ATTAINABLE WHEN THE TEAM WAS IN ST. LOUIS!!!

Regarding the guys' NFL picks:
- Mike currently has 3 confirmed good picks, with a maximum possibility of 6.
- Keith currently has 2 confirmed good picks, with a maximum possibility of 9.

Keith's Super Bowl champs - New Orleans - is currently leading the NFC South and will likely clinch a playoff spot.

Long-awaited Batsu Game Now In the Books

As we know by now, Mike had a huge batsu game to cover a lot of bad, bad picks from earlier this year: play a game of Twilight Imperium, a science fiction board game that is notoriously long (average game 6 hours).

It took a while, but it finally happened this evening at Mike's normal board game night.

To clarify, it was actually the newly released 4th edition, not the 3rd edition pictured above (which Mike actually owns but has yet to play).

It was a three-player game that was slightly shortened and played with a tremendous learning curve.  Mike was playing as the Federation of Sol (aka the humans - coincidentally, the one race he was most looking forward to playing as) and finished tied for first with 8 victory points.

Twilight Imperium is a very long game, but its gameplay justifies the length.  It is very complex with a lot going on.

So, those Champions League picks?

How did Mike's UEFA Champions League picks do?  Let's see:

Group	Mike's Picks	Actual Results
A	Benfica Basel CSKA Moscow Man United	Man United Basel CSKA Moscow Benfica
B	Bayern Munich PSG Celtic Anderlecht	PSG Bayern Munich Celtic Anderlecht
C	Atletico Madrid Roma Qarabag Chelsea	Roma Chelsea Atletico Madrid Qarabag
D	Barcelona Juventus Sporting Portugal Olympiacos	Barcelona Juventus Sporting Portugal Olympiacos
E	Liverpool Sevilla Spartak Moscow Maribor	Liverpool Sevilla Spartak Moscow Maribor
F	Man City Shakhtar Donetsk Feyenoord Napoli	Man City Shakhtar Donetsk Napoli Feyenoord
G	Besiktas Porto Monaco RB Leipzig	Besiktas Porto RB Leipzig Monaco
H	Borussia Dortmund Real Madrid APOEL Tottenham	Tottenham Real Madrid Borussia Dortmund APOEL

Mike's Picks: 13/16 - the three misses were courtesy of the Twin Satans of English football as well as the Shite Half of North London.

3rd Place Finishes: 4/8

Verdict: Mike BARELY receives SAFETY!

Now, it's up to Barcelona to win the whole thing.

Episode 251 - NASL v. USSF Update

Since last time we checked in on NASL v. USSF, the trial judge denied the league the preliminary injunction it sought to try to stay alive.  That decision has already been repealed.

Mike talks about this development and other soccer-related news that relates to this case, including the Columbus-Austin-San Antonio cluster-mess, the betrayal of one NASL owner, and the USSF Presidency being opened for business.

We at the WSC podcast support Eric Wynalda in his bid for USSF President.  He is the only candidate so far that has called for #ProRelForUSA and fixing the broken US soccer system.



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EPISODE 250!!!

Hooray for 250!!!

Today is a greatest hits edition of the podcast.  You will hear the following moments from the podcast:

• Tim giving Mike a certain batsu game (Tim's favorite moment)
• Tim (as part of a batsu game) enthusiastically yelling out "FUJI!"
• Ryland bestowing the nickname "Everyone's Favorite High School Team" to Preston North End FC
• "The List" on athletes who need to just go away, ending in a coin toss between Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Steve Smith
• The immediate aftermath of the Los Angeles NFL debacle
• Mike and Keith's discussion on whether the Arizona Cardinals should be Mike's new team (Spoiler: they are now)

One last thing: if you want to help out the podcast and other independent media projects, please consider donating to the podcast via Patreon at patreon.com/mikeczerniewski.  Thank you!

Fair use: Nothing that hasn't been used on this podcast before.



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Your 2017 World Champion Houston Astros!!

Congratulations to the Houston Astros on winning their first World Series title!!

Before the season started, Mike had picked the 'Stros (a team he has great affinity for) to win the World Series this year... and he got it right.

SAFEty never felt so good.  Especially since Twilight Imperium still looms large.

Fun fact: Astros manager A.J. Hinch was briefly a catcher for the Royals, where one of his teammates was outfielder Carlos Beltran - who is still playing and on this year's Astros roster.

Taylor Twellman: 'We cannot do soccer the American way' | SVP | ESPN

Episode 249 - October Potpourri

Next episode is a big one - 250!

Today, however, we have much to discuss:

- Mike got exactly 5 of his 10 MLB picks correct, and is SAFE from batsu game due to having no opposing picks and getting half of his picks correct.

- Mike talks about his decision on a new NFL team and why he has chosen to adopt the Arizona Cardinals as that team.

- We wrap up with discussing the US men's soccer team failing to get to the World Cup, which goes back to #ProRelForUSA and #GulatiOut.

Fair use: "Senor Stan."



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We may have found Mike's new NFL team

Thanks to exchanges on the Facebook page of St. Louis sportstalker Randy Karraker (whose voice has been heard on our podcast a few times), we now know who the two teams were that voted no in that infamous 30-2 Los Angeles vote that unconscionably ripped a team out of St. Louis, gave the Chargers an option (since exercised) to leave San Diego, and opened the door for the Raiders to move to a backup relocation city in Las Vegas.

Team #1: Arizona Cardinals

Team #2: Carolina Panthers

One of these two teams is on Mike's 13-team short list for new NFL teams, and the other isn't.

Here is what Mike has said about both teams in question.  Both are transcriptions from Episode 235 of our podcast:

Arizona Cardinals: "Okay, Arizona, I would consider.  That's another team, of course, they were in St. Louis for a while.  Originally, they were in Chicago - a lot of people tend to forget that they were in Chicago before going to St. Louis and now Phoenix.  The Cardinals are on my short list because, if for no other reason, Mike Bidwill, the current president of the team, is pro-St. Louis.  In fact, I've heard recently that he's picking up the slack where the Rams left off in terms of charity work in the St. Louis area.  It was fairly recently that their current stadium (University of Phoenix Stadium) opened (in 2006).  And, (another) St. Louis connection, they got to a Super Bowl with Kurt Warner at quarterback."

Carolina Panthers: "Absolutely not.  Look, I respect Jerry Richardson for what he tried to do for St. Louis.  But, we had this discussion in our last podcast (Episode 234) about Steve Smith (who, let's never forget, lost a coin toss on our List of athletes who need to STFU to Zlatan Ibrahimovic) being a thug and my overall impression of the Panthers is their players being thugs."

Thanks Randy for making this decision - a long, tough decision - an easy one in the long run.

Mike's new team: the Arizona Cardinals.  We will discuss on the podcast.

Episode 248 - NASL v. USSF - Commisso Speaks

Shortly after the NASL filed its lawsuit against the USSF over its loss of D2 sanctioning, one of the more important NASL owners, New York Cosmos owner Rocco Commisso, officially chimed in on the issue via legal brief.  Mike will be reading the brief on today's podcast.



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How did Mike's baseball picks do? And other housekeeping.

First off, there has been a recent influx of spam comments on the blog, mostly on some of our older posts.

The spam comments have been removed and comments have been disabled on this blog.  We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we cannot tolerate people posting spam on our blog.

Now on to something fun:

At the beginning of the MLB season that's about to wrap up, Mike made his picks:
 
NL East: Washington
NL Central: Chicago Cubs
NL West: San Francisco LA Dodgers
NL Wild Cards: NY Mets, St. Louis Arizona, Colorado

AL East: Boston
AL Central: Cleveland
AL West: Houston
AL Wild Cards: Toronto, Seattle NY Yankees, Minnesota

Since this is a solo, Mike needs 50% to avoid a batsu game.

As of 9/27/2017, Mike is 5/10 - all five of which would be division winners.  The season ends on October 1.

On the subject of batsu games, Mike still needs to get his game of Twilight Imperium scheduled.