The Late Run

Christian "Bobo" Vieri - once the most expensive footballer on earth - pulls up to The Late Run and takes us inside the golden era of Serie A: training next to R9 and laughing out loud ("you can't stop him"), and the day he saw steel coming out of the Phenomenon's knee. He breaks down his world-record €49M transfer (about €335M in today's money), why all that money moved to the Premier League, and the four stadiums on earth where playing feels different - starting with 85,000 at San Siro: "that's where you sh*t your pants."
Then it gets honest: winning the top-scorer crown while going out every single night, the 40-goal season he believes he threw away, the 2006 knee injury that cost him a World Cup - and the wife who tells him to "go to the hospital" when she catches him reliving goals he missed 25 years ago. Ocho gets striker advice for Sunday League ("the green pitch never lies"), compares his New England what-if to Vieri's, and asks the GOAT question one more time. For one beautiful second, he finally has an ally… and then Vieri takes it back.

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Arsenal legend Sol Campbell pulls up to The Late Run and starts swinging: modern football is "too easy," the tough tackles are gone, and no striker on earth (not even prime R9) could ever say he had Sol's number. He takes us inside the Invincibles: training sessions that were "like matches," Pirès scoring 40-yarders with his instep, Henry and Bergkamp as a double act you had to out-think, and why that unbeaten record still stands 20+ years later.
Then it gets personal: the REAL hate between Keane's United and Vieira's Arsenal, and the retired United players who still hold the grudge. He shares how deep club tribalism runs in England compared to America, the day Thierry Henry tried to recruit Sol to MLS, and how Ferguson beat Wenger to a young Cristiano Ronaldo. Plus, Ocho asks the GOAT question and gets his heart broken in real time. Then Sol breaks down what Tuchel got wrong in England's collapse, and he closes with the three times he made history for the culture.

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He was named after Drogba, raised on a soccer ball, and now the phone won't stop ringing. US soccer's brightest prospect Zavier Gozo pulls up to The Late Run to talk Champions League dreams, the World Cup call-up he believes he deserved, and the credit-card sacrifices his mom made to get him through America's pay-to-play system.
Plus: Ocho relives the day he trained with Real Madrid in his NFL prime and got "embarrassed" in a 30-minute Rondo, and breaks down why young U.S. players need minutes before 2030. It ends with Zavier's Ronaldo take that makes Ocho almost jump out his chair!

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Emmy-winning sports "talker" Katie Nolan pulls up to The Late Run and answers the GOAT question before Ocho can even finish asking it. She explains why she'll "defend soccer to the death," why being flippant about the world's most popular game is a huge negative to you as a person, and how meeting the US Women's National Team in 2015 turned her into a believer.
Then it goes deeper: the $35-vs-$5,000 problem locking American kids out of soccer and the 50 million people who tuned into USA–Belgium confirming exactly why casual American fans don't watch. Plus, why it's unfair that Carli Lloyd catches more heat than every other legend when critiquing USMNT, and the infamous German fan who kissed Katie live on TV at the 2014 World Cup.

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Chris Paul pulls up to The Late Run Show with Chad Ochocinco and Raheem Taylor-Parkes, and the 12-time All-Star came with stories nobody else can tell: the trade to the Lakers that went through and got killed within hours, the league rules that blocked him from becoming a part-owner of LAFC, and the day Wembanyama pointed at the Paris apartment where he lived alone at 15.
CP3 gets into why retirement routines are harder than playing, what La Masia does that AAU can't, why super teams collapse in the locker room before they collapse on the court, his answer to KD's claim that small guards are done, the pay-to-play problem keeping soccer out of the hood, and how his TST tournament got Nani a pro contract and sent a million-dollar goal scorer to Angel City. Plus the GOAT question, and Ocho finally gets some company on his answer.

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Two days before the biggest World Cup Final of our lifetime, Trevor Noah pulls up to The Late Run. He tells the story behind the photo of Messi bathing baby Lamine Yamal nearly two decades before they meet in a World Cup Final, explains why the whole world is rooting for Spain on Sunday, and calls out England for playing scared.

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The Late Run goes LIVE for the first time ever, from House of Goal NYC in the middle of the World Cup, and Gronk pulls up a changed man. The guy who never watched a single soccer game in his life now has full World Cup fever: naming his comp (Erling Haaland, who else), breaking down how Serie A actually works, and arguing that America's best athletes playing football is exactly why the USMNT can't crack the world's top eight.

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Gregg Berhalter, a two-time World Cup player, former USMNT head coach, and current Chicago Fire manager, joins Ocho and Raheemovic on The Late Run. Gregg opens up on his tenure coaching the USMNT in Qatar, how failure can actually help American soccer, and the emotional reality of watching his own son play in the World Cup. He drops the line that sets the tone: “On any given day, we can beat any given team,” but states clearly that America isn’t a heavyweight in world soccer yet.
Plus: coaching Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie through their growing pains, the insanity of Swedish fans fist-fighting in the stands at Hammarby, and why a good coach never blames his players. Plus the crew talk about the infrastructure failings that hurt Youth Soccer development in the U.S., how Mbappé got benched and watching the second half with his mom, the economics pushing MLS to play 16-year-olds, and his GOAT verdict: Messi over Ronaldo, with Maradona in the conversation.

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In this week's episode of The Late Run, Landon Donovan—the most decorated American men's soccer player of all time—joins Ocho and Raheem. From the jump it's clear how different his road was from Chad's. While Ocho was a drafted NFL star with people lining up at his door, a 19-year-old Landon was being sent to a park to entertain 11 kids just to sell 30 tickets.

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CM Punk pulls up to The Late Run with the belt — and the WWE World Heavyweight Champion turns out to be a bigger football head than anyone expected. Ocho and Raheemovic get Punk talking Celtic loyalty (he's half Irish, and rival Drew McIntyre reps Rangers), why Celtic vs Rangers is "200 years of religious hatred," and why most Americans only wake up to soccer for the World Cup. Then it gets wild: Punk tells the story of the night in Brazil when an opponent disrespected the Brazilian national flag mid-match — and the ring got surrounded by armed men aiming straight at him.

Plus, the crew debates: who's the better actor, a diving footballer or a wrestler selling in the ring? Who trash talks better, WWE or soccer players? And the big one — Punk names his soccer GOAT (hint: a flying knee KO is involved) and goes Messi over Ronaldo. Ocho shares his dream WrestleMania entrance (Free Bird, oiled-up, cigar in hand), and Punk names which footballer’s would make the best WWE Superstars.

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