Planet Fútbol With Grant Wahl

Grant and Luis Miguel break down a busy week, including Tottenham's decision to fire Mauricio Pochettino less than six months after making the Champions League final and replace him with José Mourinho; Man City's important 2-1 win over Chelsea; Flamengo's thrilling come-from-behind 2-1 victory over River Plate in the Copa Libertadores final; and the Chicago Fire's controversial rebrand (and why Grant thinks a real Chicago turnaround, Kansas City-style, would help fans get over a not-great badge switch). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant sits down with Yael Averbuch West, a former USWNT player, University of North Carolina star and 10-year club pro who these days works as the executive director of the NWSL Players Association and owns the soccer training app Techne Futbol. She talks about how she's able to wear so many hats, why she had to step aside from playing in the NWSL, and what daily life is like for the rank-and-file NWSL player. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You'd think things would be quiet during a FIFA window, but that's hardly the case this week. Grant and Luis Miguel break down the USMNT's 4-1 win over Canada (which could have been Gregg Berhalter's last game); Earnie Stewart's strange all-is-well-here press conference; Mexico's 3-0 win at Panama; El Tri's run to the Under-17 World Cup final; Zlatan Ibrahimovic's MLS legacy; MLS moves involving Thierry Henry, Darwin Quintero, Brian Fernández and Darlington Nagbe; the fight for the final spots in Euro 2020; the reported switch to England of longtime USWNT high-performance coach Dawn Scott; and Saturday's Man City-Chelsea game, which is huge for City. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant sits down with Landon Donovan to talk about why he decided to become the manager of the new San Diego Loyal USL team that starts play in 2020, why he wanted to name a woman (Carrie Taylor) as one of his assistants, what his aspirations are as a coach and what he'll do if owner Landon Donovan has issues with coach Landon Donovan. Donovan also shares his frank opinions on the state of the USMNT under Gregg Berhalter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Luis Miguel break down a huge soccer weekend on both sides of the Atlantic, including Liverpool's 3-1 victory over Man City in the game of the season (so far) of the Premier League; Seattle's 3-1 win over Toronto to win the Sounders' second MLS Cup title; Christian Pulisic's fifth goal in the last three Premier League games for Chelsea; Arsenal's continuing troubles after a deserved 2-0 loss at Leicester City; the remarkable scoring form of Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, who now has 23 goals in 18 games this season; and the first two victories of Vlatko Andonovski's tenure with the USWNT (with Carli Lloyd being the main storyline). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant has a lively conversation with The Guardian's David Squires, the world's top satirical soccer cartoonist, about how he creates his biting (and hilarious) weekly cartoons that have focused on the English Premier League, the men's and women's World Cups and soccer in Australia (where the Englishman is based). Squires tells the story of how he got started in the business and why he loves tweaking the absurdities of the modern soccer world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Luis Miguel break down the come-from-behind wins by Liverpool and Manchester City and look forward to Sunday's showdown between the Premier League leaders. They also discuss another goal-scoring performance by Christian Pulisic in Chelsea's victory, this Sunday's MLS Cup final between Seattle and Toronto, the U.S. Under-17 World Cup fiasco, the departure of Niko Kovac from Bayern Munich and two more incidents of racial abuse in Italian soccer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dan Altman, the creator of the free soccer data site SmarterScout.com, speaks with Grant about data analytics and goalkeeping, answering a bunch of intriguing questions. Who are the best shot-stoppers in world soccer today? Who are the best goalkeepers with outfield skills? Which keepers are overrated and underrated in the data? What makes Brazilians Ederson and Alisson so good? And who are the top keepers in MLS and on the USMNT? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Luis Miguel hail Christian Pulisic's breakthrough hat trick for Chelsea and Sergiño Dest's decision to play for the USMNT and break down Liverpool's comeback win against Spurs, as well as the misery at Southampton (9-0 home losers to Leicester) and Arsenal (where the home fans booed captain Granit Xhaka). On the MLS front, they discuss two mouthwatering semifinals in LAFC-Seattle and Atlanta-Toronto, and Grant shares from his experience covering the NWSL final in North Carolina, where the host Courage beat Chicago 4-0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant interviews Kashif Siddiqi, the player/diplomat who co-founded the NGO Football For Peace. Siddiqi, whose organization has drawn support from Prince William, Pelé, Ronaldinho, Mesut Özil and the United Nations, explains the soccer and non-soccer reasons why he decided to go on loan next week to the team Real Kashmir, located in the region disputed by Pakistan and India and the site of recent unrest as India has moved to exert control there. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Luis Miguel break down a memorable weekend of MLS elimination-game playoffs, look ahead to a monster El Tráfico playoff in Los Angeles, explain how Manchester United pulled off its 1-1 tie against Liverpool and dissect the NWSL semifinals that have set up a North Carolina-Chicago final.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant interviews Michelle Akers, viewed by many as the greatest women's soccer player of all time, about her decision to sell her memorabilia at GoldinAuctions.com to fund her horse and animal welfare work, her farm relocation and family time. Akers explains what she has been doing on her Georgia farm rescuing horses in recent years, how she has responded to USWNT teammates who have expressed their skepticism on the memorabilia sale and what she hopes to do with horse rescue work after she moves back to the West Coast. Akers also expresses a desire to get into media work and explains why she feels she has been left out in the cold by U.S. Soccer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant and Luis Miguel discuss Tuesday's Canada-USMNT tilt, a proposal to improve CONCACAF Nations League, Vlatko Andonovski's USWNT coaching candidacy, the Mexican MNT, CONMEBOL friendlies, a game-by-game breakdown of this weekend's MLS and NWSL playoffs, our favorite soccer books and our recommendations on the best recent soccer videos on Netflix and Amazon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant interviews Jason Davis, the host of the United States of Soccer on SiriusXM FC, about his path in American soccer media, the relaunch of his popular soccer podcast with Jared Dubois (JD & The Rod: America's Best Soccer Podcast), the transition from "Labor of Love" soccer journalism to a full-time media job and what he has learned about American soccer fans.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On their usual Monday look at the weekend in soccer, Grant and Luis Miguel break down Liverpool's last-minute win against Leicester, which combined with Man City's shock home loss to Wolves to give LFC an 8-point Premier League lead; the terrible weeks for Man United and Tottenham; the statement victory for Juventus at Inter and the smart choices by Maurizio Sarri; Jesse Marsch's breakthrough in European recognition after his viral video and Red Bull Salzburg's epic 4-3 Champions League loss at Liverpool; the record-setting day for LAFC and Carlos Vela; and two-time World Cup winner Jill Ellis's final game as the USWNT coach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant has a revealing conversation with Joe Mansueto, who became the full owner of the Chicago Fire recently when he bought out the majority share of Andrew Hauptman. Mansueto, a billionaire who founded the financial services firm Morningstar, explains why he wanted to buy the Fire outright, how it came together, why he thinks Chicago is a sleeping giant in soccer, why he's bullish on spending more money on Chicago and loosening the league shackles on spending in general, his thoughts on the futures of Fire president Nelson Rodríguez and coach Veljko Paunovic, and why he's in favor of keeping the name Chicago Fire. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In their new weekly Monday podcast, Grant and Luis Miguel discuss harder-than-expected wins for Premier League leaders Liverpool and Manchester City, another DNP for Chelsea's Christian Pulisic and the big win for Schalke (featuring Yanks Weston McKennie and David Wagner) at RB Leipzig. They also have share their thoughts on Asif Kapadia's fantastic new Diego Maradona documentary (out Tuesday on HBO) and preview this week's marquee Champions Leagues games, including Spurs-Bayern Munich, Barcelona-Inter and Red Bull Salzburg (managed by American Jesse Marsch) taking on Liverpool at Anfield. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant sits down in New York City with Uli Hoeness, who as a player won the World Cup and three European championships and then went on to become a formative figure as an executive at Bayern Munich over the last four decades. Hoeness, who's stepping down as Bayern president in November, speaks about a number of topics, including his thoughts on manager Niko Kovac and the new season, whether he thinks last season's Champions League loss to Liverpool was the "end of a cycle," the addition of Oliver Kahn to Bayern's board, Bayern's interest in Leroy Sané, how he was able to resurrect his career in 2016 after being jailed for tax evasion, what he and CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge actually talk about in the stands when we see them on TV, and how he feels about the possibility of a European "superleague." (Note: This was recorded on Tuesday before the news came out that Hoeness had said Bayern would refuse to send its players to the German national team if the coach picked Marc Andre Ter Stegen over Bayern’s Manuel Neue

In their weekly chat on the weekend that was, Grant and Luis Miguel break down Liverpool's 15th straight Premier League win (this one vs Chelsea), Christian Pulisic's struggle for playing time, Man City's 8-goal romp against Watford, the potential of Xavi to replace Ernesto Valverde at Barcelona, Josef Martínez's injury with Atlanta, Sam Kerr's goal-scoring binge for Chicago and Neymar making nice with PSG fans by scoring another winner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Grant has an enlightening chat with former SI soccer writer Liviu Bird, who left journalism to start a career as a professional soccer coach. Bird shares his story of coaching Kitsap Pumas to surprise success in the U.S. Open Cup, taking his current jobs with Sounders Under-23 and Kitsap Alliance and the work he's currently doing to earn his UEFA A and U.S. Soccer B coaching licenses. Bird also details the advice he has gotten from coaches like Bob Bradley, Caleb Porter and Darren Sawatzky and explains why he thinks American players can be coached by those (like him) who revere Pep Guardiola. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices