Hello,

Hello, everybody, and welcome for the Total Soccer Show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell.

And today I'm joined on location in Columbus for MLS All-Star by the All-Star himself.

Hello, Joe Lowry.

Hello, Taylor.

I'm recording with lower.com field.

No, I'm not.

I'm in the loft Airbnb that I rented. It was the least expensive one I can find. And the room is actually quite nice. It's got a little wood, rustic, cabiny kind of feel to it. Life is good out here on the great state of Ohio. And in keeping with tradition of All-Star Joe, you're running on what, like five hours of sleep? I appreciate you being up early to talk all things Olympics.

That's what we're going to get to. We're going to talk a little bit of MLS at the end of the show. But right now, Joe, how's All-Star been so far? Sleepless? Mostly, yeah, this is a peek behind the curtain. We started recording at about 9 a.m., which is far later than we usually start recording in my time zone out in Arizona.

And I don't feel like we started recording at 9 a.m.

Because I was... which is far later than we usually start recording in my time zone out in Arizona.

And I don't feel like we started recording at 9 a.m.

Because I was up till 2 or somewhere in that region last night.

But it was a good time hanging out with people from around the MLS world,

got to see some of the folks that I do work with on occasion with MLS and got to see some of the Apple TV folks and we be in some of the old extra time crew and just nice to spend time with them and kind of catch up and just shoot the breeze.

And is there enthusiasm for this All-Star game or is it sort of an event that's happening while everybody is socializing?

Well, let me put it this way, Taylor. Last night, Bobby Warshaw asked, is the skills challenge relevant? And then we had a long conversation about the relevance of the skills challenge and decided that its goal was not to be relevant. Its goal was to be fun. And all of us at that table thought it was fun. And so that was satisfying enough for Bobby. The All-Star game itself never once came up. Did Bobby agree that it was fun?

I don't think Bobby ever stated his opinion. I think he was happy to sort of go with the group once we laid it out. Bobby's aware of fun, yes? I think so. I'll ask. As a concept. As a concept. And I'm sorry, I stepped on it. And so what was the conclusion regarding the game itself? or did it not just not come up? It was completely undiscussed.

I think the League of Nekkes All-Stars

were brought up once.

Gotcha. And so what was the conclusion regarding the game itself? Or did it not just come up? It was completely undiscussed. I think the League of Nekkes All-Stars were brought up once as part of maybe like a punchline of some sort. But like, yeah, it was it was not a discussion.

...