Five Takes On The Five Stripes

1: Fatigue and frustration was the theme of the day. This was just sluggish ugly football from both sides with a moment of brilliance from Amaya. Clearly the heat and match time played a role. I’m not using either of those factors as an excuse but they are factors. I’m not a fan of these 9am games. I don’t think the conditions lend themselves to entertaining football. There is no clearer example than the fact that you saw a side up a man, and no attack or press came from them.

2: Mulraney’s sloppy foul changed the entire game. He’s a professional and he has to be aware of where he’s at on yellows. That’s not rust, that’s just really poor decision making. Surprisingly enough Cincy did not press us when we went down a man. They continued to sit deep and really not threaten us consistently. If I’m Cincy I would have gone for the knockout blow in the first half, but they eventually got it but it wasn’t from organized play or a high press. It was just a flash of brilliance.

3: We still don’t look organized in our attack, even before the second yellow. I don’t want to believe it but we look lost without Josef. I really thought given the length of time we had to train without him we would have worked out a system to produce goals without el Rey.

4: For me, that was a penalty. I don’t think there was anything conclusive in the video to call that back for offsides. Maybe there’s a camera angle we didn’t get to see but from the angle we saw on ESPN it didn’t look like anything was conclusive to me. It certainly was not clear and obvious.

5: I don’t see this match or even this tournament as a referendum. We’re missing Josef, we had a 3 month stoppage, the time is weird, the weather is stifling, we were down a man. I just don’t see this as indicative of how the rest of the season (if there is one) will go. We just haven’t had a chance to really get anything going so I’m going to refrain from the sky is falling fire FDB #’s.

In today's episode we talk about soccer and not about unemployment! We dive into the beautiful game's return stateside and how we balance enjoying the distraction that is soccer while dealing with a global pandemic and civil unrest. 

In this pod my friend Kazz Walding go over the complexities of the Georgian Unemployment system. We have invested a tremendous amount of time in understanding all the complex issues, digesting them and then spitting them back to you in easy to understand language. 

Much like distillers across the country adapting their businesses to stop producing the booze and start producing the hand sanitizer, we are adapting the pod. 

In this episode we decided to break down the "Stimulus Package" that was passed and signed into law last week. We go over the points that are most important to the average every day American, translating complicated bill language into small easy digestible bits that we hope will inform you about the aid and support that is coming. There's a lot of uncertainty right now and many people are stressed about how they're going to meet their basic needs for themselves and their families. We hope this pod will alleviate some of that stress and offer up a little bit of hope for people in this very trying period. 

1: Josef had his surgery! And he went to the best surgeon on the planet for ACL’s! Thank god they snuck him in. I hate being right all the time but I said he’d have plenty of time to recover. 

2: Covid-19 will have a domino effect on the sport around the globe. Some leagues will suffer more than others and not every club is going to survive. It’s going to affect everyone from player to stadium staff. 

3: Parents, I got nothing but respect for you. How you get through this and keep things positive and upbeat for young ones during all of this I have no idea. I know that shit has to be draining and my hat’s off to you. 

4: it’s very cool to see ATL UTD replaying old games. The San Jose match was 🍌 🍌. It was a crazy turn of events and even came complete with a Josef brace and a Tito patterned outside the box banger. 

5: Soccer is my comfort food. Whenever I’m dealing with something, whatever it is, I turn to the sport to help me get through it or just offer a little reprieve. Now that my comfort food is gone, I’m struggling to find a replacement and I’m struggling with even having a positive distraction right now because I know so many people are suffering big time. What are you guys turning to during this time? Tweet at us @five_takes with #comfortfood 

We talk about the loss of Josef, the affect of Coronavirus, and how the team is going to have to play in order to stay competitive without our key striker.