Beyond the 90 Podcast

I will discuss the seven matches on the third day of the First Round in the US Open Cup. Tonight will be the last match due to being forced to be played as a blizzard was forecasted between Flatirons FC hosting Union Omaha.

Inspite of the anger you hear on social media about the United States Soccer Federation, the game has a whole is in a better place today in this country than it has been in the past when the Federation mismanaged the game or had a clear agenda in picking winners and losers.

The Federation is not just about the short-term results of the men’s and women’s national teams, but has a much deeper and greater responsibility. And the building blocks being put in place today will mean a stronger national team program tomorrow.

The USMNT dropped a late one goal loss to Panama in second half stoppage time as their attempt at a four-peat came to an end. Mistakes by Pochettino and once again Panama’s head coach Thomas Christiansen has done it again with the right game plan to stop the Stars and Stripes in big tournaments.

fourteen matches on day 2 in the First Round of the 20-25 US Open Cup. A few more cupsets and a couple of laughers, but of course the old men against the kids with the Des Moines Menace defeating Sporting KC 2.

So much to unpack in so little time!

We do a bit of a regression analysis on stadiums, attendance, markets, and clubs.

Is the infrastructure ready for this? Can it be made ready by 2028?

Can the D3 landscape be filled in to make it regional?

Are we going to see a calendar flip?

What about the uncertainty of launching this new structure in this economic climate?

But the hope is this brings in new investment, new sponsors, squares opportunities with local governments and businesses. Promotion and Relegation and linked leagues are good for the game- but can it work in USL in this short a period to launch? We ask the tough questions and discuss on this special episode.

A huge news week in Florida with more news set to come from Jacksonville later in the week. James and Kartik dive into all of it- we were both Open Cup matches Tuesday, we break down the PRO/REL push from USL, discuss Fort Lauderdale and Tampa Bay recording clean sheets in the USL Super League and unfortunately talk about lousy performances in the USL Championship from Miami and Tampa Bay.

Notes from Day one’s eleven matches, and previewing day two’s thirteen matches in the 2025 Lamar Hunt US Open Cup.

The USL Board of Governors voted earlier this week to approve plans for Promotion & Relegation in conjunction with the launch of a new First Division league.

At BT 90, we were working our sources to report on this story and it became clear in the last week that approval of this measure was imminent. We unpack some of the analysis related to this announcement in this video and will have much more content on this subject in the coming days and weeks.

The US Open Cup is back!

In this video, I discuss my articles on fixing all aspects of the US Open Cup and previewing the first round Day one.