As much as I admire Tobin and Christen as players I have to admit their podcast and takes are not it. Their bias is very obvious which is fair since you can’t expect from an American player to be objective about a European club and it’s players. I have watched it in the beginning out of pure curiosity but I found myself baffled at some of their opinions and perspectives. In general, I don’t think Americans value club football as much as playing for the national team. Veterans like Heath and Press played so many tournaments with the national team and club football at that time in the States was not that great. If I recall correctly Press had a short stint in the Swedish league, who was considered one of the best during this time period. In other parts of the world, we mostly consider club football just as important as international football if not even more important. There’s so much history and culture behind a club that makes people so connected to it. That’s not the case with the States (yet). As for Barça, there’s mix of journalists, pundits and podcasters that hate on the team and disguise that as criticism. Some openly express their dislike, others silently. Is it jealousy? I could actually see that. It feels like so many are waiting for Barça to fail. They criticized Barça more in the first half of the final than they ever did Arsenal when they failed to defend their title. I’d even go on to say that they want their beliefs of the wsl,nwsl and lyon being superior validated that they can’t stand a catalan like Barça being on top.

I need someone to design a shirt that says “Leave a Mewis open, I dare you” or “Have Viv, will score.” I would buy both LoL.