I type with fingers filled with Arsenal awe. Ninety minutes stand between their players and immortality. Ninety minutes, and the staggeringly potent, defending champion Paris Saint-Germain. What a prospect. What a clash of styles. What a blessing to anticipate and savor this spectacle together. I have found the outpouring of Arsenal celebrations this week around the globe so very moving. From Kenya to Uganda to across London. The kind of mass-scale shared joy and memory making that my friend Brené Brown called “collective effervescence.” Hundreds of thousands are now descending upon Budapest for the final, then a million or more are estimated to flood North London for the bus parade. I know, if you are not an Arsenal fan, you are meant to hate it. But humanly, that kind of unhindered ecstasy is in such short supply in the world right now that I just look at it with a sense of reverence and gratitude. This is what football can do at the kind of global scale that compares only with religion. It’s the good stuff. 

We break down the Champions League final with Rory Smith right here.

Also: Join the MiB Discord tomorrow during the final for the matchday conversation. It's our digital pub that never closes. I'm grateful for this sanctuary of equally football-mad individuals to get me through the highs and lows of matches like these. Get involved tomorrow and be there for the summer ahead. 🏆

ii. The U.S. World Cup squad are also in action, showing us their best for the first time on Sunday against Senegal, please God. I can see a Christian Pulisic goal that is going to change all that narrative… Join the great Clint Dempsey and I at the final whistle, and come and ask him all your questions on a live YouTube edition of “The Deuce.” Full breakdown of the Pochettino-Milan dalliance and the actual game itself below.

Also: My World Cup book, “We Are the World (Cup),” is in bookshops now. Grab your Copy HERE and be ready to savor every second of World Cup wonder. 

More: Tim Weah joined me in Marseille to talk about the arc of his career, the World Cup to come, and reveal the musical tracks that have defined his journey. Watch that here. 🇺🇲

iii. I went on “First Take” this week to talk World Cup with Stephen A. Smith. I also did “Morning Joe” and “CBS Mornings” the same day. What is fascinating is how few people out of our soccer bubble know a single U.S. player by name. This World Cup is the critical chance to change that, but it is so sobering to have the pre-production call and have the producer’s eyes glaze over once they ask what their viewers should know about the squad selection. 

More: We have an interview with the magical Brenden Aaronson debuting on Saturday, and Ricardo Pepi and Christian Pulisic joining us next week. Send us your questions for both and we will ask the best. 🙌

iv. TALKING ABOUT THE WORLD CUP — HERE IS THE BIG NEWS…

Brace yourself, we are about to head out on the Men in Blazers Great American Road Trip — a 39-day tour of our country. We’re going coast to coast in a bus stopping at host cities along the way to celebrate with all of you at our Match Day Live events (think free “College GameDay”-style pregame broadcasts). This summer, we are your headquarters, from our “Morning Cupdate” each morning, to our live streams of the big matches as they go down, to our “Night Cup” with recaps of the monumental moments from the day's matches. Come be with us in person or from afar, I cannot wait to raise a pint with you.

Also: Did Bosnia just win the World Cup with this banger of a song? 🤔

v. Lastly, want to win a $100 gift card to the MiB store? We just dropped some incredible Supporter Tees. Take a quick survey HERE. Three winners will be chosen! ✅

Courage,
ROG

P.S. Here it is, your official Premier League goal of the season. 🚀

UCL Final: Arsenal 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 vs. Paris Saint-Germain 🇫🇷 (Saturday, 12 p.m. ET, CBS/Paramount+)

A clash of clashes between the undoubted two best teams in Europe. Arsenal, your reigning Premier League Title Holders™, are a meatwall of controlled physicality, set pieces and squad depth. Defending European champion PSG are a whirling, fearsome collective who can press and punch out your teeth in a vicious second. The Champions League is the one massive trophy Arsenal have never won. It is 20 years since they even made the final, a dank 2-1 loss to Barcelona who also prised Thierry Henry from the Gunners in the wake of it. PSG are seeking to become the first back-to-back champions since Real Madrid in 2018.

Here are the questions I find interesting ahead of the game:

1. Will Arsenal play with freedom or with hangovers now that the title is won? 

The burden has been lifted. The title win has silenced banter once and forever. Will this final feel like a free hit? Or is there a separate weight of expectation that lies upon them as the biggest club in Europe never to have won the Champions League big-eared trophy?

2. Can Arsenal’s vaunted defense parry Kvaratskhelia? 

Arsenal have conceded just six goals total in their undefeated Champions League journey. Vincent Kompany decided you cannot keep a team with PSG’s bombastic firepower at bay. You have to attack it. The 5-4 first-leg shootout was the result. Arteta-ball is risk-averse at its heart. He will line up his giants and fancy his chances. Who Arsenal play at right-back may determine the outcome. Jurriën Timber has just returned to training for the first time since mid-March. Is a half-ready Timber better than a 100% Mosquera? Kvaradona will be salivating irrespective.

Also: Does Arteta start Viktor Gyökeres with his five goals in 11 UCL games or the more technical presser Kai Havertz up front? 

3. Will PSG’s box freshness be the killer app?

PSG beat Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate in last year’s semi-final. The core of that team, which went on to obliterate Inter 5-0 to lift the trophy, remains intact. Dembélé and Hakimi are back in training after knocks. This squad is so incredibly box-fresh that manager Luis Enrique has been able to rest his players entirely from Ligue 1 matches on the regs. Ballon d’Or winner Dembélé started just 11 of their 34 Ligue 1 games; Neves, Mendes, and Fabián Ruiz made 13 starts each; Kvaratskhelia 18. Compare that to an Arsenal core for whom this will be the 63rd game of the season and gulp.

More: How Luis Enrique has rotated his squad gives PSG an incredible edge.

Here is how Rory Smith and I think the game will go, and explain how Arsenal can win it, including our score predictions!

News broke yesterday that Mauricio Pochettino took a meeting with AC Milan to discuss the management role there. The U.S. manager is under contract until mid-July. The story was broken by my friend James Horncastle in The Athletic. My inbox has been flooded by English football agents and writers dropping lines to laugh at our predicament. One quipped, “Watching you American fans is like seeing someone dating a partner that is way out of your weight class. Even though the relationship is bad for you, you stay in it and they are just able to do whatever they want and you can’t do a thing about it.”

American fan sentiment has broken two ways. There are pragmatists who have persuaded themselves that Poch was a shiny big hire who was never going to stay past the World Cup and in football, business is business so this is what we signed up for. Then there are many others for whom Pochettino’s welcome has worn thin—his actions and words feel mercenary, for whom this is further proof that the manager of the United States is not focussed on the team on the eve of the most consequential men’s World Cup in U.S. Soccer history. @nickstoffel wrote something which split the difference on our Instagram: “Pochettino has always been a band aid and not a cure for what ails us.”

You see what you want to see. The trouble with the pragmatist argument is that it ignores that football locker room cultures are fragile entities. Optics matter. Commitment matters. A World Cup is an intense journey for which every member has to be all in. Words have consequences, and so do actions. In yesterday’s press conference, Poch muddied the waters, both denying the story, admitting his agents were in Milan, then hinting he himself might have gone. (“If I met someone, what happens? What is going to change?”) 

Yes, the players interviewed shortly afterwards said they did not care. Read zero into that, and ask yourself, what do you think they are going to say publicly about a man who has the power to grant them World Cup playing minutes? But this is how football works. Poch may dismiss U.S. journalists and hold them at arm’s length, but this is a global story and global journalists are going to dig into this and ensure it is an ongoing distraction the U.S. team do not need as they charge into this campaign. 

Secondly, the optics are immensely self-destructive. Right now the U.S. Men exist in a small fan bubble. They are yet to make noise and seize the wave of interest surrounding football in this nation and cleave themselves to America’s hearts. The squad of 26 has just been announced. This is meant to be the moment the switch is flicked to “Good Vibes Only.” For the diehards who do care, they have seen the man who selected Pochettino, U.S. Soccer’s technical director Matt Crocker, abruptly defect to Saudi Arabia a month ago, and now this. Poch has spent the past six months declaring “Trust the Process.” This is on him now to shut out the noise, lock in and do what he has proven at Tottenham. Lift a team that needs a big coach to take them to the next level. To be like Rick Pitino at Iona or St. John’s, taking us to the big time. And not like Bill Belichick at North Carolina, just bringing the noise, shattered hype and tabloid distraction. 

Ultimately, the Pochettino experience is going to be judged solely on the number of World Cup games we play. Five matches and we are dancing. Three, and we will rue the warning signals we have ignored over the past year or so. (The Gold Cup no shows! The Brentford dalliance! Speaking out about the weakness of American football culture….) These two games against Senegal and Germany are a chance to change the narrative to a positive, and begin to build the energy this moment cries out for. 

More: Herc Gomez and I broke down the Poch news and the Senegal game. Watch here. 🇺🇸

The Game Itself: USA 🇺🇸 vs. Senegal 🇸🇳 (Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET, TBS/HBO Max/Peacock)

1 - This is Pochettino’s Moment

Make no mistake, Poch can do this. He can think this through. The Senegal game will be evidence of whether he wants to. Mauricio has been clear over the past year – he is in charge, not the players. This is his team. They must represent the values he demands, and play the formation he dictates. The leadership council of old is no longer needed. Poch is the leader. These are his two games to show that. Poch has picked the personnel. Now show us the way they will line up, the idea of football they will play, and the depth chart at key positions as he sees it. 

2 - Can we get Christian Pulisic back to his happy place?

Our most potent and recognized attacking player is on a 19-game scoreless slump. He has not found the back of the net for the U.S. since 2024. There can be no World Cup success unless he re-summons his joy. Christian at his peak can be a game-changing lethal dancer. For that, he needs to feel trusted and loved. This U.S. squad, where he is surrounded by players he’s come through with since his teens, is that place. It can also be the setting where the immense pressure leads to an overwhelming frustration. It is Pochettino’s job to ensure the love flows and then the goals will follow. 

More: Poch says Christian Pulisic will score in the World Cup. 

3 - How will we execute the midfield so we are not just mid?

The lack of defensive midfielders in our roster was a raised eyebrow of an issue upon its announcement leaking. Pochettino subsequently declared the likes of Gio Reyna or Malik Tillman could play there, which immediately upgraded its status to two raised eyebrows. Let’s see if Poch tries this late experiment or if Weston McKennie drops back. The unpicked Aidan Morris and Tanner Tessmann will be amongst those watching with interest.

4 - Which Senegal will show up? 

The Lions of Teranga are a good football team and are Africa’s greatest World Cup hope. The de facto AFCON Champions are awash in the end of the cycle of their own golden generation — Sadio Mané, Kalidou Koulibaly, Idrissa Gana Gueye and Édouard Mendy. This is the opportune moment. It’s now or never. An immense number of football academies, fused with smart diasporic recruitment from France and England, have created a squad who play with a lethal mix of physicality and transitional speed. However, they have their own chaos: Their manager Pape Thiaw is in a contract stand off and his whereabouts and commitment are currently unknown. Football is the ultimate reality show.

This week’s phrase is: “Mauricio Pochettino having talks with AC Milan is like _______”

Email us your submissions to be in contention to win a coveted MiB patch.

There were so many great entries last week, but sadly there can only be one winner:

Brett Muney: “Arsenal winning the Premier League after 22 long painful years is the sporting equivalent of the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets, Jets winning the Super Bowl (Actually Arsenal aren't as bad as the Jets, so maybe not).”

Brett, it could always be worse. You could be a Jets fan…. Send us your postal and we will get you a patch.

Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 vs. Curaçao 🇨🇼 (Saturday, 8 a.m. ET, FOX)

Former Rangers boss Dick Advocaat returns to Glasgow as manager of Curaçao, aka the smallest nation to ever qualify for the World Cup (you’ll never sing that), and is up against Scott “Money” McTominay and a relatively mighty Scotland side.

More: The World Cup’s oldest-ever manager is back to finish the job he started.

Mexico 🇲🇽 vs. Australia 🇦🇺 (Saturday, 10 p.m. ET, fuboTV)

Co-hosts Mexico haven’t lost a match this year, and ahead of his third World Cup in charge of El Tri, veteran manager Javier Aguirre is yet to name his squad, so it’s a late audition against the USMNT’s ultra-pragmatic Group D opponents, Australia.

Germany 🇩🇪 vs. Finland 🇫🇮 (Sunday, 2:45 p.m. ET, FS2)

Following subpar seasons from maestros Florian Wirtz and Jamal Musiala, it’s been a while since Germany have gone to a World Cup with less aura, but the shock return of mythical 40-year-old goalkeeper Manuel Neuer gives them an immediate glow-up.

Colin Myers writes: Does World Cup attention actually build, or does it just crash in all at once when the games start? Curious if your read has been similar — even inside the soccer ecosystem, some of the early buildup has felt quieter than expected even though we are somehow just two weeks out. Excited to see how it all unfolds once the tournament starts and can't wait to follow alongside you guys. Courage, Colin. 

Big Colin, worry not. I wrote in my book how in 1994, a poll came out two weeks before the tournament kicked off announcing that 71% of Americans had no idea the World Cup was about to happen. It ended up being the best-attended World Cup ever to this day. Americans love a circus. The challenge is, we are living in a peak world of sports bloat. One weekend, we are all obsessed with the Masters. Next, we become race-car drivers who live for the Indy 500. Then we remember we adore tennis and watch the French Open. The NBA playoffs, the NHL, the NFL Draft, and on and on. There is no ice for the World Cup to break through until it is upon us, then a giant switch will be flipped, thousands of Dutch fans will suddenly be bouncing through the streets of Kansas City in their oranje, and America will be like — HOLY CRAP, THIS IS AMAZING. The only unknown is whether the USMNT can write themselves into that narrative. The answer begins on Sunday and I can’t wait to watch with you. 

Keep sending your stories and questions to [email protected].

To better days ahead for all.

Let’s not take a moment watching football together for granted and make great memories.

Big love.

Courage,
ROG

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