Thankful for Fútbol

Cover Art Credit:

Cover designed with Canva

'Football free icon: Flaticon.com'. This cover has been designed using resources from Flaticon.com

Transcript

Jerrell 0:00

It's the Thanksgiving podcast. Christian, what do you thankful for?

Christian 0:06

Oh, so much soccer. Not Premier League soccer, but a lot of soccer and it was great. Just before Turkey Day.

Jerrell 0:13

Woo. All right. This is episode 56. Today is Wednesday, November 19th, 2025, and I am Jarre Christian's with us and. Will is prepping the Turkey early, so he will not be joining us for this episode.

Christian 0:29

Nah. Nah too much soccer. You said Arsenal or bust?

Jerrell 0:33

Do.

Christian 0:34

How you been, man? How's how's your premier legalist weakened?

Jerrell 0:39

It was okay. We went to the, um, the pride game hoping the pride would make it back to the finals for second straight year. It wasn't in the cards. Um, got them, played a really good game. They snuck out that goal in the stoppage time towards the end, same as they did against the current the previous week. And I'm just proud of the pride for making top four two years in a row. And honestly, like they lost, it's hard to repeat, but this team is gonna be so much stronger next year.

Christian 1:09

Yeah.

Jerrell 1:09

I'm excited for that.

Christian 1:11

Speaking of probably not being stronger next year, let's move on to the men, Orlando

Jerrell 1:15

yeah. Trash.

Christian 1:17

We lost, we're we lost Rajo. Goalkeeper. So who's gonna be a keeper for us next season? Who the fuck

Jerrell 1:23

I think it was a third string though. I don't think he was. Next up.

Christian 1:27

Oh, thank

Jerrell 1:27

I think I will have to I saw him and I was like, I don't recognize this man. I think he's from Orlando City B

Christian 1:33

Is going to the B Tier League two. Oh no, I'm sorry. That's France. He's going to whatever. B League is in Italy

Jerrell 1:41

in Peru.

Christian 1:42

to him.

Jerrell 1:42

Wait. He's going to Italy.

Christian 1:43

I'm pretty sure that's what I saw.

Jerrell 1:46

Ah, you know what? I'm happy for him. He gave us sixth grade years. As long as he didn't go to inner Miami. Yeah, if he went to inner Miami, I'd be like, unforgivable everything I said, all the good things. I take him back. But yeah. Okay. Going to Italy, I thought he'd go back to Peru, but no. Good for him.

Christian 2:04

them. Balling

Jerrell 2:05

Yeah.

Christian 2:07

but

Jerrell 2:07

Good folk. ISA, yeah. Orlando City's was talking to fiance earlier actually last week. She's is Orlando City gonna be good next year? I was like, I got news for you. No, this is a team that's constantly overperformed on based on their wages

Christian 2:21

Yeah.

Jerrell 2:22

to make six straight playoffs in a row, it's it was, it is good, but like. We've never spent enough money to like justify where we finish and with the talent leaving the players that like kept that ship afloat.

Christian 2:33

Yeah,

Jerrell 2:34

Oh, it's gonna be really tough going for seven straight playoffs.

Christian 2:36

it's only a matter of time before Alex Freeman leaves us.

Jerrell 2:41

Oh yeah.

Christian 2:41

Special.

Jerrell 2:42

it'll probably leave in the winter window, let's be honest.

Christian 2:45

Shout out to the brace. He scored over the international break.

Jerrell 2:48

Oh, yeah. Against or guy, right?

Christian 2:50

Uruguay was beautiful. Red, white, and blue all day, baby.

Jerrell 2:55

How heavily rotate, was it full squads or

Christian 2:58

I think they had about eight of their starters. So it wasn't full squad. You didn't see like the usual Verde wasn't on there. I don't even know if squad is still placed for them, but what's the Nunez wasn't on there but they did have some starters like in and stuff,

Jerrell 3:12

I think Kudo was there.

Christian 3:14

I don't think he started. I saw the lineup after the third goal. Oh yeah. And Shout out to

Jerrell 3:19

I think he

Christian 3:20

shout out to the MLS players because the ugu head coach was talking Matt Crap about only lazy people go play in the MLS. Every goal scored against Uruguay was scored by an MLS or former MLS player. So

Jerrell 3:33

damn

Christian 3:33

stick

Jerrell 3:34

shit. Awesome. How was, how did Columbia do on the international break?

Christian 3:39

It was mostly friendlies. One of them, they played in Fort Lauderdale, my cousin went to, but we beat both games. The game yesterday was against Australia goals by Hammus and Luis Diaz. So usual suspects over here when it comes to goal scoring, but yeah. It was a good rotation. We had the first game, there was one of the. One of the best players for our U 21 team. name's Gustavo Perta. He had Amazing game. He scored a goal or he got an assist. I forgot which one it was, but he just commanded the midfield. And funny story about that, the meme that they have, it was like Gustavo Perta gusta is, Spain is worth way more money. And then at the last, if his name was something Gary Dore, he would've been worth a lot more money. It's just, you ever seen that meme

Jerrell 4:27

No, I haven't.

Christian 4:28

But yeah, he played amazing. It was a good time for Columbia. Yeah, some rotations in there. It was just a friendly match. But we did have some bangers for qualifiers though.

Jerrell 4:38

Yeah. So what all countries, which countries qualified over the international break?

Christian 4:42

We had a few. I want to give a big shout out, especially down here in South Florida. You got a big community. I wanna give a shout out to all my Haitians out there. Haiti finally qualified for the Second World Cup. Despite being ranked 88th in the world, they defied odds and qualified for their second World Cup in their history by beating Nawat 2, 2 0.

Jerrell 5:03

Nice.

Christian 5:03

So they were actually behind in goal differential, and they needed a lot to happen. They needed to beat Nicaragua by a lot, and hoping Honduras doesn't win. Honduras ended up choking and they, I believe they drew against Costa Rica. And the two goals from Haiti were enough to have'em qualify for the World Cup.

Jerrell 5:22

Nice.

Christian 5:23

and a crazy part about this is Haiti never played a home game during these qualifiers.

Jerrell 5:29

Really

Christian 5:29

Yeah. Unfortunately, because of all the ongoing struggles that's

Jerrell 5:32

concerns.

Christian 5:33

Yeah. In the motherland. They've played all their games in Cousel, their head coach was actually appointed 18 months ago, and he has not set foot into Haiti.

Jerrell 5:42

Oh wow.

Christian 5:43

Yeah. But something to be proud of, man. We've played with a lot of Haitians soccer around here that it's a big community and they definitely love their soccer and they definitely deserve to get this to, they get this stub. And switching gears, speaking of au also for the first time advanced to the World Cup. So that was pretty interesting. It's the smallest country to have ever qualified for the World Cup with only

Jerrell 6:07

It's amazing.

Christian 6:09

So it's a tiny island out there. But but shout out to them. They made it and they're on record watch. Their manager currently is 78 years old. He missed the game against Jamaica because of a family illness, I believe, but. If he's able to stay at the realms during the World Cup, he'll become the oldest manager at 78 to a World Cup team. Yeah.

Jerrell 6:30

Norway qualified. A couple a lot of the ufa. Qualifications. We're pretty much wrapped now. I think we're done. Huh? No more. Oh, there is more.

Christian 6:39

There are six spots left that we won't know until March of next year.

Jerrell 6:43

So the ones who qualified in November, France, Caria, Portugal, Norway, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Scotland, Panama, Haiti, and Au.

Christian 6:55

Yeah.

Jerrell 6:57

Nice. Yeah. Norway is now back since in the World Cup. First time since 1998. Holland will play in the world. It will lead his country in the World Cup.

Christian 7:07

Shout out to them. Shout out to them. speaking of Europe, let's see. They didn't qualify yet, I don't believe, but they advanced the playoffs. Scotland. Scotland.

Jerrell 7:20

They qualify. They're the UFA Group C winners.

Christian 7:23

I dunno if they're their group C winners. I think I was reading that they qualify for a playoff one.'cause Europe is weird on how they set up. So Uafa features 54 teams broken up into 12 groups. Automatically qualify for the World Cup while the second place finishers, with the top four uafa nations who didn't win their qualifying groups, a lot of information will. They will enter a final playoff game set to a play playoff in March, 2026, and I think that's what Scotland is set up to. So Scotland had no. It was a thrill level game. Sorry, I confused them with another team. But they had a thrill level of a game against Denmark. It was a four two banger, just bangers after bangers. Amazing goals. And it's gonna be Scotland's first appearance led by M Tomney and McLean. First appearance since 1998, and another one that's going, which I don't remember if they're going for the qualifier. Yeah no. They're going, yeah, they're going for the qualifier, so they haven't. Qualified fully yet, but was Republic of Ireland, which they had no reason to be hopeful. They were on a bad stretch of forms, but in their two international games, they will be Portugal two Zero they beat hungry three, two, say they were really hungry for those wins. But the reason I point out this specific game is because in those two games there was five goals scored. All five goals came from Troy per parrot, you want to say his last name. But he had a brace against Portugal and he had a hat trick against Hungary. It was just amazing.

Jerrell 9:08

This was Ireland.

Christian 9:10

Yeah. Republic of Ireland.

Jerrell 9:12

Geez,

Christian 9:12

Yeah.

Jerrell 9:13

man said I'm gonna the World Cup. I'm getting there. No one's gonna stop me.

Christian 9:17

yeah. It was it was amazing. not to leave out. Our African listeners, shout out to Dr. Congo. This one hurts a little bit because one of my favorite African teams is Nigeria, because I think I've mentioned it before in the past. Nigeria has an ama their kits are always top-notch. I always love the kits, I love the green on them, but unfortunately, Dr. Congo did defeat them to advance to the inter confederation playoffs next March. It came off of a penalty shootout where they tied one, one at full time and they brought in specialist goalkeeper, falu to,

Jerrell 9:57

Specialist.

Christian 9:58

yeah, specialist goalkeeper specifically for this penalty shoot. And he was able to block one or two, I don't remember off the top of my head, but this, these international qualifiers, man, there, they, there was a lot of soccer, a lot of friendlies, but a lot of games that had a lot on the line. And it was pretty solid.

Jerrell 10:14

All right, when when is our next international break and will that break also fill up the remaining six spots for the World Cup.

Christian 10:23

Potentially. So there's, excuse me. Like I said like we mentioned, there are six spots left and I believe the intercontinental playoff will be in March, 2026, and then the Europa playoff would also be in March, 2026. Yeah.

Jerrell 10:38

Okay.

Christian 10:38

we will know every single team that will be playing. So if you're still trying to buy FIFA tickets for these games too fucking bad because we don't know what the schedule looks like yet because fuck FIFA and the

Jerrell 10:50

Also very expensive.

Christian 10:52

yeah. Oh, but it's the first World Cup with$60 seats. Yeah, there was four tickets per

Jerrell 10:58

Yep.

Christian 10:59

Ah

Jerrell 11:00

it's for the people, Christian, that's what they keep telling me.

Christian 11:03

I've reached the fuck FIFA episode of the part of the episode here.

Jerrell 11:09

No, I feel the same. It's'cause what, when Qatar or Cater when that World Cup happened, the most expensive part of that World Cup was getting there. And your hotel like, I think your tickets were like$200 or something like that.

Christian 11:21

Yeah.

Jerrell 11:22

Now it's, you still gotta pay and lodge and then spend. You are not going by yourself, most people.

Christian 11:30

Yeah.

Jerrell 11:31

it probably ended up spending$3,000 for tickets to go to one game. Just one game,

Christian 11:36

And you don't even know who's gonna be playing that one game.

Jerrell 11:38

and you don't even know who's there. The only ones you know are the host nations. You know where the host nations are playing, but that's it. You have no idea where Argentina's gonna be. You have no idea where Spain's gonna play.

Christian 11:48

Or you can Package and not know where they're gonna

Jerrell 11:51

oh, yes, by your NFTs.

Christian 11:52

You're gonna have to go to Miami, LA, and New York in a week's period. Good luck with that.

Jerrell 11:57

Have fun. You see the NFT for your country making it to the finals?

Christian 12:03

No,

Jerrell 12:03

You, yeah. So you spend thousands of dollars. I don't know the exact figures on it right now, but you spend thousands of dollars for a chance if your team makes it to the World Cup final for a chance to buy the finals ticket. You basically pay money to re reserve your spot then buy the ticket. It does not mean you bought a ticket to the final. I don't know how FIFA got away with it. I don't know how they did it. It's crazy.

Christian 12:30

Why does Columbia have a growing NMT market and potential for both art and gaming? I hate it here.

Jerrell 12:35

Yeah, it's pretty awful. Can't wait to cover it.

Christian 12:39

On NFT Watch, wait.

Jerrell 12:41

Yeah. Anything else, any other news out there before we run down our, the slate of games that we have for the next two weeks?

Christian 12:50

No. That's pretty much all I got. There were also just a quick shout out to other first time qualifiers. Kate Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan booked their places the World

Jerrell 13:02

Nice.

Christian 13:02

so shout out to them. yeah.

Jerrell 13:06

A lot of teams, a lot of debutantes this year should be exciting. The US will still crash out in the round of 16 though,

Christian 13:12

Yeah.

Jerrell 13:12

or round of 32 I think it is now.

Christian 13:15

Yeah,

Jerrell 13:16

Oh, all right, so let's jump into it. We'll have this weekend before we get into the Premier League, we'll run through some European football. We'll have the Champions League next week. It's gonna be Marsai v Newcastle. Chelsea's taken on Barcelona, man, city verse lever, Cuson, Liverpool's, fighting. PSV, arsenal, verse Byron Munich. Huge game. And PSG verse Tottenham. I think it's obvious. Which game everyone's gonna be tuning into. Arsenal Byron Munich, one two on the Champions League table. Does defense prevail or offense that one's just, that could go either way?

Christian 13:57

Didn't Gabby get injured? Didn't Gabby and the beautiful man, Alia, didn't

Jerrell 14:02

Yes.

Christian 14:03

get injured?

Jerrell 14:04

Yep.

Christian 14:05

Are they down for the game?

Jerrell 14:07

I don't know. I think they're in doubt for Tottenham for sure. I don't know their overall status, but we'll get into that one later. But yeah. Arsal Byron Munich, is it gonna be a draw? Is it gonna be 4 4, 0 0?

Christian 14:23

How do you stop lucho? I

Jerrell 14:25

I think of just show, it's like how do you stop, how do you stop the, all the full words?

Christian 14:29

do you stop Lucho? Iss having an amazing, and yeah, it's the Colombian glaze here, but still like Lucho is having such an amazing, like just for club and country, if he's able to pull off just a miracle with not even a miracle, just like a good status

Jerrell 14:44

game.

Christian 14:45

Cup Colombia and also help lead Bayer Munich to a champions league. How do you not make a, an effort to, or just put him in the talks for the Bailor. He is having an amazing season for both

Jerrell 14:58

And he knows also

Christian 15:00

Yeah, he does no arsenal. So this is gonna be, this is gonna be a, it's gonna be a good game. It's gonna be a good game. And I'm just excited to watch Lucho play. He is like about 20, 29. So we have a few more good years with them.

Jerrell 15:12

a few more good years. I just wanted to point out as I'm looking at it, all of our Premier League teams are in the top 10. Top 12 Chelsea's 12th.

Christian 15:24

Chelsea,

Jerrell 15:25

Yeah. Chelsea's gonna slack in, but all six teams in the top 12. So Premier takes up half of the top 12. That's fucking crazy. And Chelsea's 12th, but it's like they, they have seven points still. Yep.

Christian 15:38

they're about to play Barcelona, who currently title with Seven Points. Yeah, it's gonna be tough. It's gonna be tough. It's usually so that, that's the way I see it. Like Premier League are always gonna have more top teams, but very rarely are they, in my opinion, the top team

Jerrell 15:57

Yeah.

Christian 15:58

during first or last.

Jerrell 16:00

Okay. Damn Arsenal. Guess you'll last.

Christian 16:04

Damn. No, this is our year, bro. I believe.

Jerrell 16:08

They're tied on goal differential. Byron Muni, like everything they're even that team like Byron scored 14 Arsenal scored 11 Arsenal has not allowed a goal in Champions League. This is where we thought the record would fall. Not against Sutherland, but here we are. I'm excited for this one. I actually really am excited to see one, two, go at it, especially halfway through the group stage or the knockout, or the sorry, league phase. This one will be a fun game.

Christian 16:38

Oh yeah, for sure. I'm excited. What, 1125? What day does that fall on? Tuesday. Tuesday or Wednesday.

Jerrell 16:44

Tuesday. Yep. Tuesday.

Christian 16:47

Nice.

Jerrell 16:48

Tune in. I think it's on the 26th though. They might play on, we, they might play on Wednesday. Hang on.

Christian 16:55

I know you left them off the table. I get it. We're a Premier league pod, Madrid plays on the 26th.

Jerrell 17:01

Easy, right?

Christian 17:02

Yeah.

Jerrell 17:04

Yeah. Okay. Arsenal plays 20 on the 26th at three o'clock. They play on Wednesday.

Christian 17:09

Nice nice.

Jerrell 17:11

Alright. And we'll also, we also have Euro conference on November 20. Strasbourg versus Crystal Palace and Europa League will have Ashton Villa taken on the young boys in Nottingham Forest playing Malmo for any supporters of those clubs out there. I know we don't. Cover those leagues closely, but they're still out there. They got, they're going in match day four. Match day five respectively. Fa cup second round will kick off December 5th. That's gonna be mostly our League one, league two teams, I think some championship teams are in now. But we'll cover that more when Premier League teams start to enter that tournament. Carrabelle doesn't start until the middle of December. We'll talk about there. Christian, do you wanna give us match day 12 on November 22nd.

Christian 18:00

Oh yeah. Oh, we finally got some Premier League soccer back. We got be Lee versus Chelsea. We got the cherries versus Westham United. Excuse me. We got Brian playing Brentford. Versus Sunderland, Liverpool plays the tricky trees. I'm sorry the, what was it? The flacid forest. The wolves. Please get some kind of wind show that you're still alive. They play Crystal Palace, new cast Newcastle versus Man City

Jerrell 18:27

You? Yes.

Christian 18:28

Aston Villa and Arsenal versus shit. So

Jerrell 18:33

Yeah.

Christian 18:34

Match day 12.

Jerrell 18:36

arsenal in the span of five days, literally have probably the two biggest matches of the year in the North London Derby Environ Munich, so it's safe to say that. We will be watching these games, but are there any other games that have your eye?

Christian 18:53

I feel like now I just have to watch the wolves.'cause I they can't beat the record can they? So

Jerrell 18:59

Where on Wolf Watch?

Christian 19:00

We'll see. We'll see how that works out. We're gonna have two, two Colombians go at it. let's see. Cherries are on a two game losing streak, if I remember correctly, after getting re really hot start. So let's see how they fare off against bottom team Westham United. and then other than that, just pretty it looks off view, it looks like mostly lopsided comp lopsided games here.

Jerrell 19:26

Yeah,

Christian 19:27

City

Jerrell 19:27

it's either T versus bottom, right? We got Brighton versus Brentford. Brighton versus Brentford. They're 11, 12 on the table.

Christian 19:35

Okay. We got mid table matchup.

Jerrell 19:37

Mid table match.

Christian 19:38

do like my research on the games, I just fully skip b Brentford. I'm just like, he got it.

Jerrell 19:43

Now you're good.

Christian 19:45

He got it.

Jerrell 19:46

If Brentford win, they'll leapfrog. Brighton maybe making it into the top 10. So big match for brentford. Leapfrog implications, but you never heard that one before.

Christian 19:59

So early for it.

Jerrell 20:00

Yeah, arsenal, four point lead on the table, Manchester City, right behind them. And then after that everything is super close. So from second at 22 points all the way down, you can argue all the way down to 1222 points to 16 points. Six, six points separate. Two, two to 12 wolves are a distant 20th, seven point. Separate them. From non camp Forest forests seem to, I don't wanna say catch fire, because they like, they got a, they gotta win and they gotta draw, but it looks like they're getting it together. What do you think?

Christian 20:42

After all the managerial problems that they had recently and starts at the top, let's look at their form. they, to draw, they drew against menu and they beat leads. They beat Porto. It's tough. We have to keep this run. Maybe it could be just a fluke, but when you shake up management so abruptly like that, you're probably gonna have issues. Let's see. We

Jerrell 21:05

They said third time's the charm.

Christian 21:06

yeah, they can jump from 19th all the way up to 14 depending on how the other games play out. Hey they're almost above water.

Jerrell 21:16

Yeah every team here could significantly move up outside of the wolves if the wolves win. It's still it helps, but it still doesn't get them out of 20th. Are we on? We're on Wolf Watch all season.

Christian 21:29

I think we're on Wolf Watch. I'm gonna try to watch a full Wolf game. Just to really just to see what the what they're doing,

Jerrell 21:34

Like what's wrong?

Christian 21:36

Yeah. And I was like, oh, this is it. Everything.

Jerrell 21:39

Yeah. Everything. That's probably what you'll see. Man United is another team that we. Will's, catfish another team that can move themselves up out of the relegation zone if with a solid performance this week. Who are they playing again? Bourmouth. Yeah. Oh, you could definitely pounce on a struggling Bourmouth team. Like you said, they've lost two in a row. Losing two in a row going into the international break. And Westham, mind you winning before going into the break are primed to steal one away from Portmouth. Anyone can get got.

Christian 22:12

Their two losses were against pretty solid team. It was against man city tough one there. And it was a hot villain team that just found all the goals So it is two losses against top, top contenders. So maybe they'll be able to get back into form against wolves, catfish.

Jerrell 22:28

All right. All right. And how we feeling about taking on Sutherland?

Christian 22:33

No Sunderland's, my, this year's Track

Jerrell 22:36

not even gonna entertain it. The Collegers get outta here,

Christian 22:40

I was the Sunderland Arsenal game and they played fairly well. It doesn't seem like they just got promoted, but they were

Jerrell 22:48

which is crazy because they had like the longest shot of getting promoted. Like they weren't even top three in championship. They had to go through the playoff and then. Just an amazing, I think it was two, one or something. They got the goals late in that final round to, to move on and yeah, so one was a huge surprise and yeah, you're right. Watching them play, you're just like, oh yeah, they've been here for years.

Christian 23:12

It's definitely a fun thing to watch. So I'm gonna

Jerrell 23:15

All right.

Christian 23:16

the black hats. That's my.

Jerrell 23:17

The black cats

Christian 23:19

That's

Jerrell 23:19

on the road.

Christian 23:20

Bet on it.

Jerrell 23:21

All right.

Christian 23:21

on it. Game, not a

Jerrell 23:23

the road this week, Sutherland can keep pace with Man, city, and Chelsea with the wind here and honestly looking pretty likely. Let's not, hopefully I don't jinx it.

Christian 23:35

I think I already did.

Jerrell 23:37

Yeah, maybe. Who knows? All right. And that's all we got. I was, another perfect pod.

Christian 23:45

Perfect.

Jerrell 23:45

hit us up on our socials, the football fellows Instagram, blue Sky, Twitter. X, whatever you wanna call it. Now, we have our website, football fellows.com. Gonna see some stats. We see our standings. We're working on adding the matches to the website, trying to make it a one stop shop for you, if you will. See our listen to our old episodes as well. Next week we're gonna be off. It's Thanksgiving in America and we're gonna be in Turkey. And we'll, we will come back and recap these games. In two weeks. If we not, if we don't do a special episode earlier we'll surprise you. I don't know you have anything else to add, Christian?

Christian 24:28

No, that's it from my end.

Jerrell 24:30

All right.

Christian 24:31

And, oh, one thing to note, I think December 5th, they announced the actual schedule the World Cup.

Jerrell 24:38

Okay.

Christian 24:38

granted, you're not gonna be able to see the missing six folks, but you'll, you're, you'll get an idea of the rest and where they'll play and when and again who, so I think that's December 6th if I'm not mistaken. So just be on the lookout for that. And other than that, I am good. It's like you said, another wonderful, perfect podcast.

Jerrell 25:00

All right, and with that, we'll send everybody off into the wild again to, to wait for us again in, in a week or two. All right. Peace.

Christian 25:10

Aios.