Welcome to the scuff podcast where we talk about U.S. Soccer.

Our guest today is a writer and editor whose work has appeared lots of places, including

The New York Times, Wired Magazine, and The New Yorker.

He's based in San Diego, and for our purposes, he is the author of New Kids in the World

Cup.

A 2002 book about the 1990 World Cup team, including Paul Calajuri, Tab Ramos, John Harks, Tony Miola, and Mike Windishman,

to name a few. It's a book really about a pivotal moment in the history of the game in America,

and I recommend it. The author, Adam, Elder, is here. Welcome, Adam, to scuffed.

Hey, thanks for having me. I'm really proud to be here.

Appreciate your time. So, I mean, first, a very non-socker question, which is probably

going to be almost impossible to answer, but I'm going to ask it anyway. One thing that

really sticks out for me from reading the book is how different the 80s were from today

and I want to get your thought I mean surely that's something you thought about you wrote about it

some in the book outside of outside of even soccer Adam elder what's the difference between

the 1980s and the 2020s?

That's tough.

And I do think soccer plays a part in the answer to this question.

But, you know, just the whole level of optimism, I think, and I don't know, political here or anything, but just the level of optimism that I think that, and I, political here or anything, but just the level of

optimism that I think Americans and us as a country had really, I mean, you know, the Cold War

was ending and we were obviously coming out on top. Yeah. And, you know, there were all these just

new sports coming along. Even the fashion was bright. The music And, you know, there were all these just new sports coming along. Even the fashion

was bright. The music was, you know, a lot of critics of the time and after would say that,

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