Hi, I'm Grant Wall, and welcome to the Planet Football Podcast, where I go in depth with the most intriguing people in the world of soccer.

On today's show, NBC's Kyle Martino tells the story of how he went from an early playing retirement to

failed Wall Street Finance Guy to one of the most respected soccer analysts around.

He and I also exchanged stories of how we both got frozen out for

doing our jobs by former US coach Yergen-Klinzman. A few days later we got word at

NBC that there was a press conference coming up for US soccer and I was banned from it.

I wasn't allowed to show up at the press conference and there was no clear indication about when I was going to be allowed back to cover US

soccer and was going to be given access to the coaching staff. All that and my

thoughts on soccer coming up.

Take one. thoughts on soccer coming up. Here we go with my three thoughts on soccer. First

up the New York Red Bulls finally announced they had quote mutually agreed

to part ways and quote with sporting director

Ali Curtis all Curtis had done in two years on the job was help lead his team to the

2015 supporter shield and two straight first place finishes in the Eastern Conference.

He also fell on grenades from the moment he took over by agreeing with ownership to fire Coach

Mike Pecky, a fan favorite, and endure a hostile town hall

with the team's own fans over that. Curtis will be fine and in demand by other MLS teams,

but the profound weirdness of Red Bull New York and its

Austrian parent has been around for years, and this is only the latest chapter.

Ali Curtis deserved better than this.

Deserved better than a press release in which not a single Red Bull leader was quoted by name.

Deserved better than the still hanging cloud of questions over why he would be pushed out

...