#199: Grant Wahl on covering the Octagonal

Scuffed | U.S. soccer, World Cup, Yanks Abroad, futbol in America

Adam Belz

Sports, Usmnt, Men's National Team, American Soccer, Us Soccer, Soccer, Mls, U17 National Team, U20 National Team, Youth National Teams, Yanks Abroad

4.8 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 13 September 2021

⏱️ 47 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Wahl has launched a new Substack and he's cranking out podcasts, and short and long pieces, as he covers all 14 of the USMNT's World Cup qualifiers in person. He joins to talk about San Salvador, Nashville and San Pedro Sula, and going it as an independent after decades at the top of the soccer reporting pyramid.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Scuff's podcast. I have Grant Wall as our guest. He needs no
0:19.6	introduction. He's the most famous soccer journalist in America.
0:23.0	Grant, how you doing?
0:25.0	I'm good. How are you doing? It's been a little while.
0:28.0	Yeah, I'm doing good. I'm doing good.
0:30.0	So my first question is, I mean we're going to talk about a lot.
0:32.0	We're going to talk about a lot, we're going to talk about your new
0:34.5	sub-stack and your coverage of the World Cup qualifiers in general, but let's just
0:39.2	start with some specific stuff. Which stadium had a more electric atmosphere the Kuskatan and
0:45.2	San Salvador or the olimpico in San Pedro Sula. El Salvador which I
0:51.3	wouldn't have predicted but I also didn't have any previous familiarity with so I hadn't been to El Salvador before.
0:58.0	That stadium was a lot more full than I expected it would be.
1:05.5	It was more full than officials said it would be
1:07.5	in El Salvador.
1:08.6	And just the anthem singing from the fans
1:14.0	blew people away inside that stadium
1:18.0	and I don't think people were expecting it.
1:19.6	I don't think the US players were expecting it.
1:21.8	It's one of the loudest anthems, maybe the loudest anthem. the
1:25.0	us players were expecting it. It's one of the loudest anthem I have ever heard inside a stadium.
1:28.1	And it made me think from the perspective of a Salvadoran, I think that was the first time they've ever, they've had a full stadium of any sort since COVID began.
1:41.5	And their team is playing its first game of World Cup qualifying so hopes are still high. They're playing
	...

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