Hello,

Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer show.

My name is Taylor Rockwell.

And with me today to talk about actual U.S. soccer, the USA's nil-nill-nill draw with Wales,

is a man who never is false about his love for a number nine.

It's Joe Lowry.

Hello, Joe.

Hello, Taylor.

That was just exquisite. Exquisite work. Yeah, Joe. Hello, Taylor. That was just exquisite.

Exquisite work.

Yeah, I think I did not pay as much attention to Twitter during this game, trying to focus on what was actually happening.

Check Twitter afterwards. And False Nine. It seems to be a topic of conversation.

Do you think we got that trending, at least nationwide? Probably not. But I don't know. I like to think that soccer's really made it if we can make that happen. I did enjoy Mike Whatella of Soccer America asking why everybody insists on talking about a number nine when the person who played that position today was a number 17. I like the specificity and the semantics, but we are going to talk about what the U.S. were doing, what whales

did, the overall game. But I'd like to start with a thank you to U.S. soccer and to Fox Sports

for their really wonderful messages to Daryl. U.S. soccer included him in their squad list with the

heart on the jersey. That was pretty amazing. But then for Fox to include him as well and kind of have a very heartfelt message, meant a lot to me. I'm sure meant a lot to TSS listeners. I know Shannon, his wife, and Julie, his mom were both watching and saw that. And I know it meant a lot to them and to his friends at home. So credit to them. Joe, you did not know, I think, that either of these things were going to happen. Were you caught off guard? Yeah, I wasn't necessarily caught off guard because I know,

I knew that you and Michael Cameron had been talking a little bit about some things going on.

But even though I was waiting more or less for something to happen, it's still,

it still hits here right here. Right. I mean, on a very personal level, I i'm missing darrell's voice right now like i'm missing hearing him on the total soccer show i think that's the worst thing about being on the show with you taylor i love being on the show with you it's that i don't get to listen to you do the show you know i don't get to listen to you and darrell do the show, I can't spend this evening listening to the show that you and I are about to do.

I could, I guess, but I don't really want to hear myself, you know? I miss that. I miss all that stuff. I miss Daryl's nuanced thoughts on soccer and his really smart, detailed analysis of the men's national team. I miss that stuff. And so seeing those tributes and listening to the one on Fox Sports and the pregame, it's great.

And it really did mean a lot. I know to people who are closer and were closer to Daryl than I am or I was. But yeah, it hit me. It really did hit me. Yeah, I'm going to try not to get overly emotional because that does not make for the best audio if I'm just sobbing into the mic.

But it's like when a person who's so big in your life passes away, there's the immediacy of it that really hits you.

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