^{Stateside Banter}

🌄Happy Friday Crew. We were just blessed with an incredible week of soccer and have an exciting weekend coming up. Let’s catch you guys up on what happened and also preview what’s to come. Look out: We’ve got some overachievers for our first raffle 👀👀, check out the link at the bottom of the email to refer your friends and family for a chance to win our first giveaway!

Alright, back to business. Here’s what we got today:

• Who’s the title contender for Champions League this year?

• Playoff spots were clinched in the MLS, while others battle it out

• EPL Match to Catch

  

  Gif by wrexham_afc on Giphy

Who’s the Kingslayer?

⌚1,440 minutes of Champions League soccer were played. And in those minutes we got to learn a thing or two about the playing field. Naturally, we feel confident enough to make some bold predictions of how this season will play out. Take your screenshots now and if we’re wrong, full blame goes to Intern Jack for the hot takes.

👑Who’s real? Who’s mighty enough to challenge Manchester City for the trophy? We’ve got a couple contenders in mind. Whether you hate them, or love them, as long as Real Madrid are still scoring dramatic last minute winners, they absolutely have to be part of the conversation for title contenders. 90+ minute winners is in their DNA, just ask Jude Bellingham who got a taste of that himself this week. Bayern Munich, with their new talented #9 Harry Kane, also have a claim at the throne, although important to note that there were doubts about how convincing their win over a deflated Manchester United was.

🐴Dark Horse of the tournament. Who’s the Cinderella team that will win everyone’s hearts this year? We’ve asked our expert panel (AKA the Instagram group chat) and we have two candidates:

1. RB Leipzig

   Scoring in the third minute of the game is one way to catch our attention. Third place in their domestic league, attack minded Leipzig might have something cooking here. We’re also loving the rise of another young talent: Xavi Simmons, who went through the Barcelona academy but is making a name for himself at only 20 years old.

2. Arsenal

   Arsenal fans, retweet if you cried when you heard the Champions League anthem on Wednesday. It had been 2,300 days since they last heard that anthem, and boy was it an impressive return. Gabriel De Jesus called it a good warm up, and we agree- PSV really struggled to step their game up and make Arsenal sweat. With Ødegaard steering this ship and Saka in great form, we’re liking what we’re seeing from the Gunners.

Playoffs Clinched ✅✅✅✅

👍👍 Four teams clinch playoffs. Soccer action continued Wednesday night with a full slate of MLS games and playoff implications. Four teams managed to cement a spot in the post season: Columbus Crew, Philadelphia Union, Orlando City SC and St. Louis City (On their inaugural season 👀). If you support one of these teams, you can take a deep breath and work to secure some playoff tickets because the MLS does the end of the season a little different, and whether you’re for it or against, everyone loves the electric atmosphere of a playoff game.

🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️Battling it out. The rest of the field are still battling it out for their spot in the playoffs. A total of 18 teams make it, leaving 14 spots left up for grabs. Messi and crew are only 5 points away from a wild card game and still have 5 league games left to make some progress. Both Jordi Alba and Messi came off early against Toronto due to injuries however, here’s hoping it’s nothing serious and both are able to finish the season strong.

EPL Match of the weekend

⬆️⬆️The North London Derby. This is the match up where we find out who’s who in the Premier League. Tottenham have started out the season in their best form in years and have a real chance to prove they’re for real this weekend. Some may say they haven’t had a worthy opponent yet and this is what makes this Derby so exciting. Arsenal are coming off a legendary season, making a real run for the title battling it out with City. Any other year, beating Man United would be a proud badge to wear for both London teams, but United are really struggling to find form and makes it harder to really know the strength of either side.

Arsenal are favored for this one at -150 in the sportsbooks. One of those reasons is that Arsenal are 5 years deep into their project with Arteta and Tottenham are only 5 games into their new project, not to mention they recently let go of their leader Harry Kane. Spurs fans might say this Derby feels different, their team is finally playing with some passion (they also didn’t have a midweek game so should be feeling fresh). Excited for this one, you can find us at our local soccer pub watching the action.

Football without fans is nothing

In search of a pub? Ever find yourself in a new city and are desperately searching for a local soccer pub? Who would have thought that the premier league took time out of their day to create a bar finder. There really is nothing better than catching an early premier league game on the weekends with fellow fans of the game, and finding that bar that will actually have the game sound on just got that much easier.

USA Bar Finder. Bar finder, aka Intern Jack’s nickname in college. Easy to use search platform on the premier league’s website. It has most major cities included, and they’re even accepting updates to their list if you email them at [email protected]

Find your local soccer pub here.

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