Welcome to Soka 101, the podcast where we scratched the soccer riches you never knew you had. Listener,

if you're familiar with the album Rumors by Fleetwood Mac, you may notice it's front-loaded.

All the big hits come on the first side of the LP. Well, in the context of major soccer tournaments,

2022 is the opposite of rumors. Most of the big stuff is coming up from this summer onwards.

To use parlance that Gareth Bale would appreciate,

all the action is on the back nine.

So on this episode, we're looking at the soccer schedule for 2022.

What's coming up, what you should pay attention to,

and why this year is a slightly strange one.

My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me today,

we have Tater Rockwell. Hello. Graham Ruffin, hello. Hello, Ryan Bailey.

Hello, Graham. Did we all appreciate my Fleetwood Mac analogy at the start there?

So backloaded, kind of like a No Gallagher or Glassenbury set then? Yes, quite. I should

have made that analogy, Graham. Yes, Noel Gallagher playing seven solo songs and then seven Oasis songs to follow up. And basically all the while playing his solo stuff saying, just wait, we'll just get through these and then we'll get to the ones you like, I promise you. Basically, was his banter in between songs. Very good stuff, Graham. So let's get back to the soccer, though. Taita,

um, 2022. I mean, lots of years lately have been weird, but 2022 is weird in a soccer context,

isn't it? It absolutely is. And now you have me wondering, Ryan, if that, uh, Noel Gallagher,

for people listening to this like six months from now, we're recording this in late June.

Uh, that analogy feels like maybe it's appropriate for how this year might go, because it does seem like we're going to get maybe some teams not quite as focused on the front half of the season and maybe less inclined to play the hits in the front half of the season as they will be in the back half after that World Cup, because that winter World Cup, or the fall

winter World Cup, is definitely disruptive and going to make things pretty weird.

It will indeed. Of course, the World Cup coming up in November, bisecting the European summer

schedule. I just wanted to say bisecting. It's a nice word. I'd say often enough. Thank you.

Thank you. But let's get to that soon, but let's start off with this

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