Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our review of the 2026 Champions League final

in which Paris Saint-German became back-to-back champs after defeating Arsenal on penalties.

It was a cruel end for the gunners and the defender who maybe was the best player in the pitch.

More on that in a minute.

And of course more glory for who are surely Europe's best team.

My name's Ryan Bailey joining me today.

Hello, Taylor Rockwell.

How are you on this fine Saturday?

Angry, and you know that?

Can to expand on that? I mean, this game was just not very fun. I'm going to be totally honest. I'm going to start us there. I'm going to start us with the awkward pause. I'm actively texting an Arsenal friend of mine who has the audacity to be like, that was a really entertaining game. I don't know what you're talking about. That's your bias showing.

And my response to that is like, that's my bias showing? You, the Arsenal supporter, who's saying this game was captivating and back and forth. I found this game to be somewhat punishing. There were moments that were very interesting. There were some variations and changes and adjustments and two managers screaming the whole time. but it's notable to me that

some of the major talking points

thus far in our chat have been like Kavaradana's bleeding leg and the referee calling halftime when a corner was about to be taken. Icon. Which to me is not the spectacle you're looking for for a Champions League final. End of opening rant. There will be more. Very good. Joe Lowy, how are you?

Do you have any stats on the record for drop-off on podcast lessons after the start?

I think our XD expected drop-offs are quite high.

Maybe we'll just go back and scrub everything that Taylor said

and we'll just pretend that this was the greatest game ever.

This is a game that I enjoyed more for being in the Discord, Hanging out with our Discord folks. I was chatting with them throughout a bit of the extra time period, where some were lauding and some were not my theory that Extra Time Soccer is a tragedy, which it is. And it was in this particular game. But there certainly were lots of different things to dive into in this game. the referee main character, iconic call to just blow the whistle at halftime, that made me so happy. I think that guy needs to be the Champions League winner. You're taking 26 seconds to take this quarter? Not on my watch. Thank you very much. Graham Ruffman. Hello. How are you? I'm good. I didn't think this game was that bad, but I might have been conditioned by the fact that I was at Hamden Park to watch the Scotland national team before watching this game. So I guess anything after that was entertaining. I've seen worse games this season, which is a low bar in the Premier League and with Arsenal, perhaps. But I do think there is a beauty to a slow build of tension over 120 minutes. so I enjoyed it for that reason. So British of you, Graham. You know it's better than a good game? A game that has a slow build of tension for two hours, yes. I didn't say it was better than a good game. I just said, it's better than a kicking the teeth. It really is like being forced to confront the fact that we just spent three hours watching that and then having to be like, it can't be a waste of time. It must have been a good game. I have to find a way to say this was fun and captivating. A slow build indeed, Graham Ruffman. A slow build when 30 minutes of a game are basically a foregone conclusion, you know we're going to penalties. There we go. It's better than the kick in the teeth, says Graham Relson. We found our episode title. There's that at least. Very good. Joe mentioned the Discord, which makes everything more fun. Thank you very much to bring that. Joe. If you want to join it, Patreon.com slash Total Soccer Show is the best way. It's the best way to support us. You'll get bonus episodes video and it's good fun.

So it makes Champions League finals better. That's just facts. I'm like Raffinidis. I'm just talking in fact right now.

What's also a fact, Graham, is that we are going to be on stage in Los Angeles very shortly indeed.

June 11th TSS World Cup Live. Can you believe it?

Can you? No, I can't. A week and a half until we take to the stage at the El Ray Theatre in Los Angeles. I am buzzing for it. The killers have given me some ideas on how to get a crowd going. Turns out if you just start performing Mr. Brightside, that does the trick. So maybe we'll... but that the highlight of the championship final actually was Mr. Brightside, which for, I think we had this discussion, I know we had this discussion in our slack, for all the cynicism in us, it works every time, doesn't it? We're Arsenal fans singing along to Mr. Brightside inside the stadium. So maybe we should just do that at the live show and everyone have a great time. I think you're right there, Graham. I think if the world had a national anthem, we should make it Mr. Brightside, because any room it's in, it makes that room better. That's my theory. Isn't that one of those songs, though, that's, like, actually, like, a really depressing and sad song, but it's all, like, punchy and poppy so you don't notice it.

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