Beyond the 90 Podcast

We start a new weekly series at BT90 today with weekly Wednesday video podcasts.

Some of my best memories of the USMNT are from 1999… but let’s also talk Copa America 1995 and the World Cup qualifying for the 1998 World Cup as well as the 1999 Confederations Cup and some great friendlies.

In case you missed it and judging by much of the US SOCCER media you may have, Real Sociedad won Copa Del Ray with a manager many of us have followed his whole career- because he’s AMERICAN!

The third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup was an amazing two-matchday week as we saw two USL Championship clubs and one USL League One club knock out MLS opponents, and we also saw the dismissal of the defending League winners, the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, get knocked out.

We also have some tasty Fourth Round matches for you on the final week of April.

There has been lots of commentary about how the player protests in USL Championship haven’t worked - but that’s not the case from where I sit.

We give an update on negotiations where sticking points remain and management while fairly united might have some loose ends.

A full update on where we stand in negotiations as of April 13.

Fifteen years ago NASL 2.0 kicked off with four matches. As the league’s first employee I have some quick thoughts and observations about that night and what followed.

Apologies for not having separate matchday videos, as U.S. Soccer scheduled these games on a Tuesday & Wednesday, when they should’ve been played on a Wednesday & Thursday due to the International Break. But all the action will be discussed in this video.

Rise of the Villans: Inside Unai Emery’s Aston Villa Revolution(2025) is an acclaimed book by one of the world’s best football journalists, Guillem Balagué. We’re privileged to have Balagué to join us on the podcast to discuss his new book and Unai Emery’s career. We go through his tactics, methodology, man management skills, philosophies and also discuss the partnership with Monchi and why Spanish managers have been so successful in England through the years.

This work is particularly interesting because instead of chronicling a superstar like Maradona or Ronaldo, in this book Balagué examines Emery whose qualities are perennially underrated and often misunderstood by football critics.

I don’t like a 48 team World Cup- heck I never really liked the 32 team World Cup either.

But it is what it is, and 47 of the 48 countries played well enough in World Cup qualifying however it was constituted to merit an opportunity at USA 2026. But one side didn’t…

That’s Sweden who, despite their extensive international pedigree, have no business being in this tournament.

This is a big week for Lexington. If they continue to misfire it will be time to start asking questions.