This is The Guardian.

Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.

It's a month until the World Cup and we're getting lots of questions like, when are you going to talk about what's happening in the US?

Well, even if we have covered it a lot in passing, consider this an official start. We're joined by two experts in the US

to discuss ticket prices, Iran, visas, ICE, Trump, Gianni, public transport, and general enthusiasm

for the tournament. We'll also discuss the US side and their chances, grassroots football,

all that on a bonus episode of The Guardian Football Weekly.

On the panel today, Alex Abnoff, senior sports editor at The Guardian, our friend from Austin,

Texas. Welcome, Alex. Hello, Max. I mean, not from Austin, Texas, but that's when we had our wild times together. Leander Shalakins, a soccer author of The Long Game, U.S. men's soccer, and its savage four-decade journey to the top or thereabouts. And we'll get to Leander, whether it's got to the top yet or whether it'll get to the top this summer in a bit. Hey, Leander, how are you? Hi, Max. Barry is here, as always. Hi, Baz. Hi, Mac. As with every major tournament, we have that tricky balance of wanting to enjoy the football without ignoring the political climate. We've talked about it before. We'll talk about it again. No doubt. I'm going to start with this email from George who says, Hey, Max, Barry and everyone else, Monday marks one month before the World

Cup begins. Usually it feels like there's a lot more buzz around the tournament. Is it just me or

does it feel very flat this time around? Any thoughts on why? Is it general apathy towards a

grotesquely large competition being run by grotesquely shameless men who are turning it into an

inevitable vanity parade? Is it because the Premier League title race is still interesting? Is it the general negative news stories? Do you ticket prices that are streaming out from across the Atlantic? I also wonder how Mexicans and Canadians are feeling about it all. They're supposed to be co-hosts, but being treated like bit part players. And I suppose in the UK, like it is still the football season, right? We're not thinking

about the World Cup and we won't for a couple of weeks, I guess. What's it like over there?

It's not the football season. I mean, it is your football season that many people are paying

attention to. I think, as with many big events in the US, you know, the ramp up hasn't

really started yet. I think you often find with

tournaments like this, you see this with the Olympics too. It's very much not happening until it's

on the absolute most eve of it happening. And then it's all that anybody is talking about. And it tends

to go that way for the entire length of time that it exists. So, you know, is everybody on the street here talking about the World Cup?

Not really.

I mean, you know, you get, I certainly have more conversations about it in the last month or so than I have in the month previous,

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