If you're in traffic right now, look around. You'll see empty car seats. Nobody loves sitting in traffic. We don't. And neither do ESSO. Every filled passenger seat in this jam could mean one less car on the road. And ESO want to help with that. Carpooling could mean less traffic. Split fuel bills. And new friends. Are we friends? I added you on social media. We don't have social media. We're bobbleheads. No, I've got social media.

More journeys made together. That's thoughtful driving. S.O. See so.com.uk. All right. Yeah, it would be a bad look. This is Christian Policic. This is, you know, your Captain America.

What's the story gonna be?

Well, we just saw him running around and it looks great,

and yet he's not with the national team.

So I think it's really interesting the way that the USL is positioning themselves,

the catnip that is pro rel.

Dare I say, direct competition with MLS? An Argentina-Portugal final?

Yeah, I mean, it writes itself.

Hello, Sunshine. I'm Alexei Lawless, and welcome to the State of the Union podcast.

We look at the beautiful game on and off the field through the lens of red, white, and blue-colored glasses.

Now, this show will be talking, ooh, AI coaching, Cherry Adams, the World Cup draw, MLS playoffs drama, the Dodgers, Metalheads, USL president, cemeteries, and so much more. But first joining us always my friend, my colleague, my guiding light, David Mossy, a soccer savant and a Fox Soccer researcher and writer extraordinaire. Mossie, how are you doing on this? What are we looking at? Monday, November 3rd in the year 2025. I'm doing well, and you mentioned it, so let's go there first. We are in Los Angeles, surrounded by Dodgers fans, including some who work on this podcast, so we should congratulate them on their epic World Series triumph. I know you're not a big baseball fan, but did this hit your radar? It was absolutely incredible. Sure. I just saw the numbers that we got here at Fox, 24 million or something like that.

Who knows? It may be even more. So great, great numbers, great interest, even for someone like me

that doesn't know a whole lot about baseball. It doesn't care in the other 162. How many two games?

162. 162 games or anything. Yes, I was enthralled. I was into it just for the drama of it.

And I'm certainly no expert. As I mentioned, this type of finish was something to behold.

There is a bar about a 10-minute walk from my apartment, which is one of the Michigan bars in L.A. where Michigan fans congregate to watch the games. I never go. I get the email invite every week, but I don't like watching my teams play in bars. This Saturday, because we were playing Purdue at home, which I thought would be an easy game, I figured, you know what, why not? They have good food there. I'll eat some wings, drink some beers, watch Michigan play. So I went. Michigan actually played awful, but we still won. But then it rolled right into the World Series. When the Michigan game was over, it was like the fifth or sixth inning. They changed all the TVs, and you couldn't help but get sucked into that. So I stayed through the end, I ended up spending like six hours at this bar. I drank a disturbing amount of beer. Nevertheless, I was there surrounded by Dodgers fans who were jumping on tables at the end. It was incredible. Two things. One, you should definitely frequent this bar more. I feel like they would love you, and maybe do love you, so much so. I mean, there'd be a whole cheers thing where you walk in, Mosse, you know, and you come in, too, while the drama was undeniable in this world

series, and I think it will go down as one for the ages, you got to feel bad for, I mean,

they're Canadian, so you don't have to feel that bad, but you have to feel bad for Toronto,

anything like that, And Mossie.

The level of nerddom, baseball nerddom that came out of this final game, the amount of people that felt the need to tell everybody about how deep in the weeds they are and knowledgeable they are about base running and whether you should slide, you know, feet first or hands first or how far you should be off the bag. It was a little

ridiculous and a little hilarious from my part. Our director, Gabe, is Canadian, Blue Jays fan. He attended game five at Dodgers Stadium. He sent me a picture from that. He looked very happy because at that point, the Blue Jays had wrestled control of the series. I have not spoken to Gabe since Saturday. I'm not sure how he's doing. I did on Sunday. I was taking a stroll through Brentwood and I ran into John Marcus and his lovely wife. I met her. We chatted for a few minutes. He is a Dodgers fan, so he was very happy. A lot of people are very happy. And no load management, right? They played that picture. That just continued on, right? So he just continued on. They didn't have to worry about that. All right. So other than the baseball, did you watch or see or read anything you

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