City SC Posse - Ep19: CITY Is Back, But Wrexham Stole the Show

Bright: All right, first episode in a while because we've been on the World Cup break, which I've enjoyed. I've enjoyed the World Cup. You know, we're not necessarily gonna get into all that as we head into the semifinals, watch the games yesterday. It's you know, it's helped fulfill my my soccer itch, if you will, but I'm excited to get back to some City S C soccer.

Kev: Yeah, it was it was a lot of fun for a while until it wasn't fun, you know, for for the Americans. But we're back in action on Thursday night at Energizer Park and I'm excited to get back to the stadium. get back to the the team that I I've been rooting for for a while now, so not that I haven't been rooting for the US, I guess, for forty one years, but right, like we go through little breaks, so it's a little different.

Bright: Yeah, of course. Yeah, I mean wasn't the the best showing from the Americans during the the last game, obviously, against Belgium. And you know, it is what it is. It's pretty typical, I think, for for Team USA. We can never quite get over that hump, can never beat a big European team when it really matters, can't win the knockout stage game. I mean, yeah, we won against Bosnia, but there's never been a round of thirty two before. We sh we were supposed to win that game, and we did.

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: And then we get to the round of of sixteen and you know, that's the game that you need to win. That's the one, you know, to get us to the next level. And and we just can't do it. You know, it's no surprise. And now wait another four years and the standard talking points of like, this is good for soccer culture and all that. Yeah, fine and dandy. you know, let let's just get back to to some MLS, some and some city, some t city talk. We don't even need to talk about team USA right now.

Kev: The stage was fun though, wasn't it? The atmosphere in the cities has been a lot of fun, but traditional US, so traditional US soccer.

Bright: it's all been fun, don't get me wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All all good. All good. Good showing. Good showing for America, you know, soccer. You know, there were forty two million people watched the game the other night. So all good. All good. We'll chalk it up as a as a successful World Cup for you know, for the tournament, not necessarily. I I think a pretty average for for US. So yeah.

Kev: the US team. Yep, I'm with you.

Bright: All right, well what do you remember about City? Where do we stand? What who who we playing? What what's coming up? Do you remember anything? I feel like it's been what it's been what, almost two months?

Kev: I think if I remember correctly, we are at the top. are leading the pack at number one. No, it's been a little bit of a rough and tumble type of season, but we have been on the ascent, I guess, in terms of both play and I think the standings, although we haven't climbed up much. I think we've got what, two or three teams behind us right now?

Bright: Ha ha This is not four years ago. Yeah, so exactly. So we're currently sitting in twelfth place with sixteen points. you know, that's tied on points with Colorado, one point behind San Diego, and four points, just four points out of a playoff position, the Galaxy are in are in ninth place. And we play Kansas City, of course, on Thursday night and we'll talk a little bit more about that game in a minute.

Kev: One of them being who we are playing Thursday. It's a good opportunity.

Bright: but we then we go on the road and we play the Galaxy on the twenty second in LA. So, you know, that's an opportunity. And then we come home and we play Colorado, right? So the next three games are all teams that if you beat, you can start putting some some distance between you or catching up to the teams are that are right in front of you. So we're we've got a an important stretch I think coming up here. Just just in the next three. And if you look at our our recent form, our last five games, we had a nun one nothing win at Colorado on the road, which is great. A two one win against LAFC, a one one draw against DC, a two two tie, and then we win on PK's in the open cup against Houston, and then the three zero win against Austin. So, you know, our last five games, you know, we're We're coming away with points. We we've made some progress. You remember that one one draw at at DC was you know, it was lucky. I remember that, but yeah. But yeah, but we're, you know, we're doing okay here. We have some some opportunities. you know, we've we've climbed the table and now the next three, you have to beat Kansas City. That is a requirement.

Kev: bit of a luck, yup. Lucky game.

Bright: they're they're dead last in the league. It's a rivalry match, a little bit of a trap match, which we'll talk about. But and then if you go on the road, you can do something against the galaxy. I don't know if Klaus will be back for that one or not. And then, you know, you got the opportunity to to come back home, beat Colorado. And now now we're talking about a whole different season, so

Kev: Mm-hmm. You know, you didn't talk about it, but certainly the first half of the season was a lot of away games. We mentioned it on past podcasts, a lot of away games, very tough part of the schedule. If you can just put yourself in place to make a playoff run, you might be in good shape. When we started getting there towards the end of that, you know, first half of the season. Now I think we're going to be coming up on some home games, right? Like you said, two out of the next three are home games here. Important games.

Bright: Three out of the next four.

Kev: Three out of the next four, there you go. So this is a good stretch to pick up some points and start making some headway within the standings. And I think it's gonna be key. This is be a key for games is, know, every game is key.

Bright: You know, we we t certainly talked about it earlier in the season on the pod, about the stretch of games to start the season. I mean, even the first first five games, first ten games, we had one stretch where he had three road games in a row. you know, we're going further in the open cup, which is great, but that adds some some games to your schedule. so yeah, we said if we could get to the World Cup break in somewhat decent position that the second half of the season

Kev: Burn them.

Bright: Definitely favors us a little bit more. There's still a lot of soccer left to be played. And you know, maybe we're starting to gel here. Now, the big thing is, you know, and and we have to talk about this, we've had n obviously no signings or no rumors of signings. So the the actual transfer window opens up on the thirteenth, I think. So so tomorrow as we sit here and record this on Sunday. But Not nothing. And we've lost a couple of guys, obviously, of which I'm fine with losing them. Cordova and Toyshirt both out. But but what what are we doing? What's Ray doing? Are we gonna sign anybody?

Kev: Yeah, there have been no signings and it's disappointing to this. I think, who was it? Somebody came out and said, as every team does, I'm sure, the number one priority here is an offensive goal scorer signing. Like we've got to sign somebody. Yeah. I thought it was the GM that said that, right? Which, who wouldn't say that? Every team needs a goal scorer, but to bring in nobody, to have no signings.

Bright: Yeah, we've said that.

Kev: has been tough to see. haven't seen the transactions from other teams at this point in time. don't know if like Sporting KC has signed anybody.

Bright: Now I mean we'll we'll see. Well, they've got the rumor of signing Salah, which would be a big deal. Now I don't know if that'll happen or not happen, but either way, it's not gonna impact, you know, our our game on Thursday. They they're not gonna be ready to play and and all of that stuff. And even if we made a signing, they're not coming in and and playing on day one. But yeah, when when Ray comes out and says like that's priority number one, we're going after a D P player, of course Cordova, who was a D P, he's he's out now.

Kev: Yeah. the game. Sure.

Bright: so you got two two of your strikers gone. So that leaves Betcher as the only real option to start, and then McSorley and Joyner kinda kinda waiting in the wings there. So like fine. Hopefully this means that they'll get a little bit more playtime coming in off the bench, maybe earlier in the games. But yeah, we need we need an impact player. They did make a signing, I guess. We acquired midfielder Zach. I don't know how to pronounce his last name, Zenge Zeng. on loan from Columbus crew, only fifty thousand bucks in general allocation money. This is kind of gonna be like a city two guy that maybe gets maybe gets some some first team minutes, at least a look, they said. and then we have the option to acquire acquire him. And now this is somebody that Ray, I guess, has been scouting for a while, even when he was with Columbus. So he's high on this kid, fine. But that's not gonna be any impact player.

Kev: Mm-hmm. City 2, I I was gonna say so I think this guy was drafted in twenty twenty four and he was what like pick fifty four or something, so I don't know, could be something, but yeah, city city two signing not gonna be impactful, you know, I think throughout this year, so nothing newsworthy.

Bright: Yeah, we'll just to wait and see. I I thought I thought when we came back to record we would have something to to speak to on that front. We don't, fine. So, you know, as we look to to the Kansas City game, you know, I'm expecting pretty much standard lineup. you know, Betcher up front, Hartle, Sangbin, you know, they both have to be beat in. You know, he's made a big difference. Berkey, I'm assuming. I haven't heard much. I'm I'm assuming he's kinda back and and ready to go.

Kev: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Bright: so you know, we'll kinda see. We have no official lineups, you know, or really not a lot of talk, since we've, you know, started to take a look at this for this recording. But I'm kinda just expecting our our standard standard eleven.

Kev: Yeah, I haven't seen any news on on the players' health. I actually can't remember. Pompeii, was he out for the season? Cause I've seen nothing in terms of his status either. I I thought it was like three months or something. I I can't remember. shoot, it feels like it was three months ago when we last played. So yeah, I forgot

Bright: not not for this season per se, but yeah, he's it was it was a long term injury, so maybe he could be back. I don't remember. Yeah.

Kev: Berkey had his injury. I think that was in the the cup game, right? I I think I remember him jumping up and down on the sidelines. so I think he'll be okay, but yeah, we'll we'll find out, right? But Sign Ben's a must for me to blame.

Bright: Yep. Yeah, and and you know Yeah, he you know, and he's been good you know, over the last stretch of games with some goals and some assists and and things like that. R eleven should beat Kansas City's eleven, regardless of who it is. But what I'm concerned about is it's a little bit of a trap game, right? So yes, Kansas City is the worst team of the league, historically bad, actually. But you know, you come out of the break, you're maybe re energized. you know, City, maybe they have some rust. It's a rivalry game. So it's kind of like a blues, Blackhawks, like it it doesn't even matter where you sit in the standings. Yes, the Blues should beat the Blackhawks, but you know, the other team gets pumped up and it could be the same situation here where Kansas City is like, All right, we're going up against our rivals, first game out of the break. This is an opportunity to you know, to reset, hit the reset button on the season, right? So it it's more of a trap game for us than it is for them.

Kev: Yeah, they're probably excited to be playing us, quite honestly, thinking the same thing that we are. get that break in, get healthy, come in and and try to change that season. So we'll see.

Bright: Yep. Now you're going. You'll be at the game. I'm on the road, so I'm just kind of hopeful that, you know, maybe I I can watch the game. maybe maybe I'll have to record it, you know, while it automatically records, but watch the replay or something like that. Stay off my phone and watch it at night after my my work stuff. But you'll be down there, which is good on a it's it'll probably be a hot one, I'm guessing. I think it's supposed to be in the nineties this week. but it's what, it's a seven thirty game, right? So maybe it cools down a little bit.

Kev: Yeah, it should be late enough, right? Exactly. So I'm taking taking Pop to the game. First game with Pop this year. I am. so you know, hopefully it's not too hot for for him, right? taking a look at what this weather's gonna look like. But I did hear that we're gonna add another another spell of some heat, so we'll see.

Bright: you are. good, good. Yeah. Yeah, but no rain in the forecast, I think, for next week. So you should sh should be good to go on that front. you know, Thursday night game, you know, it's it's different. Normally they're Wednes Wednesday games and things like that, but I I like the Thursday game, right? 'Cause then you're, you know, easy day at work the next day, you know. Yeah.

Kev: Ninety one. I was gonna say one day yeah, one day to get through exactly. So yeah, it'll be nice, a nice day I think. So ninety one degrees by the way is the high on Thursday at the moment. So we'll see if it cools down a little bit, but

Bright: That's not terrible. So you're talking about, yeah, mid eighties or something like that by game time. So that's that's doable.

Kev: Get a couple of beers and yeah, you'll be just fine, you know?

Bright: Yeah. All right. Well, you know, next week we'll we'll certainly we'll come back. We'll have a little bit more to talk about on on that front, performance wise and and whatnot. The you know, I I do wanna talk about I do wanna talk about my Wrexham jersey before we before we sign off. Is there is there anything else city wise you know, that you wanted to bring up before we move on?

Kev: Get a win. You know, just go city and I'm hoping to win.

Bright: All right. Okay. So you you know a little bit about this, but for our listeners, for our listeners, I wanted to wanted to talk a little bit about my trip to Wrexham. You know, so was was over in England, as you know, back at the early June. you know, we did London, we then we rented a car, used Birmingham as our home base. So you know, Birm Birmingham a big soccer city there too, so kind of cool and you know Tom Brady owns or owns Birmingham which you know was rivals with Wrexham and all of that. Yeah yeah. So we but we took a day and we went up to Chester, England, which is kind of funny because if you watch Welcome to Wrexham, that's where they used to say they were from, because nobody had ever heard of Wrexham. They were ashamed of their football team that was down in the National League. So they always said that they were from Chester, England.

Kev: Forgot about that. Uh-huh. Pretty new. Yeah.

Bright: Which, you know, is is funny 'cause, you know, Chester's in England. Re Wrexham's in Wales. but, you know, Chester was cool, it's got a lot of history, all of that. I was like, Now we go over to Wrexham. I never thought I was gonna never in my life did I think like, yeah, I'll I'll make it to Wrexham one day. Nor was it necessarily a goal of mine. It just happened to to work out where I was like, Okay, you know, like it's two hour drive from Birmingham, we could rent a car, you know, we'll go up there and see what it's all about. And I, you know

Kev: Sure.

Bright: I follow the the show. I follow the team and then I yeah, I will say I was an early adopter. I got on the show from the from the get go. and so, you know, I've been following throughout the back to back to back promotions, which has been fun. and I watched the show with my wife. So she was all on board too, you know, hoping that maybe Blake Lively would be up there. she was not. But

Kev: She was in Canada, in Canada.

Bright: Yeah. So so after Chester we left for Wrexham for lunch. and we started by going downtown. We went to the Fat Bore, which is right there by the cathedral and the smokestack and all of that. So you're seeing a lot of the you know, the things that you see when you know when you're watching the show. had a great meal. they had it was Fish Friday, so I got the fish and chips, which included a beer. we also had some

Kev: Nice.

Bright: some baked cheese and some sticky sausages that were excellent. I got the Wrexham Pilsner to start, 'cause we sat outside and then my wife got the Wrexham Lager, but I was waiting for the lager till we got got to the the turf. So after lunch we had a great lunch, then we got back in the car and drove down to the to the stadium, down to the race course. and I was like, well let's let's go to the shop first.

Kev: Mm. All right.

Bright: So we go to the shop. Callum, who was there working, was super helpful, super nice, talked to us the whole time we were there. We're probably in there for about half an hour looking around. Pretty much had the place to ourselves. A couple of locals kind of came in and out, but no other tourists. So it was just us, which was kind of cool. And we bought probably about a hundred and seventy five dollars worth of gear. I bought a long sleeve red Wrexham jersey. Not this one per se, not this one, and we'll get we'll get to that in a minute. and then we got a kit for my son, we got a couple of scarves, we got a a a jersey t-shirt kind of a thing, performance t-shirt for Caroline, I got some signage for the basement, I got some pint glasses for for the bar. so again, about about a hundred and seventy-five bucks, you know, it was good.

Kev: Yeah. Yeah, it's right.

Bright: Callum was super nice. We did that. We signed the guest book with a go city. and of course I was wearing my was wearing my city jersey when I was there too. So I was like, I have to represent. So after we finished up at the shop, we we dropped our stuff up at the car. Then we went over to the turf, had a couple of pints of Wrexham Lager at the turf. We saw Wayne, talked to him a little bit, but we didn't bug him. You know, it's not really my style to

Kev: Yeah, there you go. Pretty cool. Sure. Yep.

Bright: you know, to take pictures and and do all that. We we let him do his thing, you know, but he was super nice, poured our drinks for us. we were just taken in the atmosphere. At this point it was probably like three o'clock or something. and and pretty busy. I mean it wasn't like packed or anything. It wasn't game day, but definitely a decent amount of people in there drinking. Yeah. And and then we started talking to this this you know Welsh construction crew. they came up, they asked about my my kit.

Kev: Still happening.

Bright: They wanted to know about the city jersey. they knew it was MLS, but they couldn't quite place it. So I told them we were from St. Louis and you know, they asked asked about the team, asked about the

Kev: Yeah. So they spotted you as an American right away is what you're saying. yeah.

Bright: yeah, yeah, yeah. Like it wasn't obvious, but yeah, definitely. Definitely. And you know, they wanted to know how much the kit costs. I told 'cause the jersey that I bought was, I don't know, maybe like fifty bucks or even if it was fifty pounds, that's like sixty five bucks. It's way cheaper than our our stuff. You know, it's like two hundred dollars, one seventy five, you know. So all the stuff that I got, I was like, This is a steal, you know, which probably why we bought so much, you know, scarfs for

Kev: So you know. I was gonna say so nice. Yep.

Bright: you know, twelve bucks or twelve pounds or whatever. So pretty good deal. And then when I told them how much my season tickets cost, they couldn't believe it. They're like, what? You know. Yeah, yeah. But it it was pretty cool and it was nice to chat with them. So we you know we wrapped up, finished our beers, and then, you know, headed back to to Birmingham. we did one more one more pit stop on the way back, but then we head back to Birmingham.

Kev: Yeah. I still have a hard time believing it, you know? I

Bright: parked our car.

Kev: How long did that tr how long did that take ya to get from Wrexham to Birmingham?

Bright: Two hours, maybe yeah, about about two hours, but it was an easy drive. easy drive all highway pretty much. so worked out, got back to Birmingham at I don't know, six o'clock or something like that, six thirty. And we were going out for the nights. Parked our car right outside the hotel, on the street, and you know, that was that. Came out the next morning.

Kev: Okay. Yep. Yeah. It's great.

Bright: load up the car, you know, getting ready to go back to London, where we'll drop the car off, you know, because we could you can take the tube in London. And the car's not there. It's missing. I don't know. It's gone. So I'm like, did it get towed? You know? Well and that you know, did did I park it somewhere else? Am I misremembering where we parked it? That all of those thoughts go through your head. I'm like, no,

Kev: Because you drank too much the night before. Yeah. huh.

Bright: You know, and even I even walked back out with Caroline, like she was like, we parked a little bit further down than we did the other day. Like, maybe you just didn't go far enough. I'm like, I don't think so. So we walk a little bit further. She's like, Huh. Like, where's the car? So naturally we kept all of our souvenirs in the car, and it and it was stolen, you know. so we called the police, made a police report.

Kev: Yeah. Yeah. god. Yep. Yep. It's money done the dream.

Bright: All of that stuff. So not only our Rexham gear, a hundred and seventy five dollars of Wrexham gear, but other stuff from our trip. All souvenirs. All of our important stuff was, you know, in our suitcases and the Yeah, and and we had it hidden. It wasn't visible. You know, it was in the trunk. Nobody could see it. but I you know, I don't know. They got off with the car. we did we followed all the protocols. We hopped a train back to London, but super bummed. you know, I filed an insurance claim, did all that.

Kev: With yeah.

Bright: And and that you know, that that was kind of that. They did eventually find the car. We were kind of holding out hope that maybe our stuff was still in there. It was not. so so that was that. But when I got back, I wrote a you know, a blog up wanted to talk about the experience. So if you haven't read the blog, definitely go check it out. It's a good read. and I go into a little bit more detail. but you know, I posted it on X and I tagged Wayne, I tagged the fat boar, I tagged

Kev: That sucks.

Bright: I I tagged Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhaney. I mean, why not? But yeah. Yeah. I tagged the tagged the Rexham AFC shop and and then I followed up with some emails just like, Hey guys, everything was great. I you know, go go give the blog a read. Well, Rexham responded back. Well, Wayne retweeted my thing, Fat Boar retweeted, so I got some got some

Kev: Gotta do it. You gotta do it. Let know.

Bright: good traction, you know, I think we had like five hundred something, five hundred something impressions on X on the blog and whatnot. but Rexham went and they read the blog and they wrote back, you know, a very nice email back. asked for my my address and that they wanted to send me something because it it's such a bummer. Well on I get home from a work trip on Friday and there's this package sitting at the door. I'm like, I'm not expecting anything. Like what is this?

Kev: Pretty cool. Yep. Yeah.

Bright: You know, it's kind of beat up, you know, it had the DHL stickers all over it. I'm like, what? You know? I look at it and I'm like, I'm like, Rexum, you know, this, you know, Rexum sent me something. So I open it up. They've replaced our entire order. Like, it's super cool. I mean, I'm I'm blown away. They they went and they pulled up, they must have pulled up the credit card transaction. Everything that we bought, they set. So

Kev: Who uses DH? That is pretty cool. Found everything. Yep.

Bright: I have to say, like, you see the T V show and you're like, you know, it's they do it all up, of course they do. It's for T V, it's for motion. But when you experience it firsthand, of course being being there, I experienced it. You know, the people in the bar and at the shop and at the Fat Boar, everybody was was so nice, you know, welcomed us, even though I'm sure they get all kinds of tourists and Americans now, you know, but and then

Kev: Yeah.

Bright: to to replace the whole order. Like they could have they I thought they were gonna send a promo gear or or maybe a scarf, you know, but to send Yeah. Yeah. To send $175 worth of of merch and you know, that's pretty cool. And pay for international shipping. So I I have to give them a call out. That is very neat. You know, they've got certainly got got a lifelong fan

Kev: It here's a koozie, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. It's first class. Yep.

Bright: in me and and hopefully my kids too because they all have their their shirts and their kits and ecc we even got an extra scarf I think so so thank you. Big thank you to Rexham AFC. They will for sure be my number one team for from here on my number two team, sorry, from here on out. My number one team of course is is still City but but outside of City it'll be Rexham AFC moving forward.

Kev: Awesome. Different legs it plays. It's okay.

Bright: Yeah. Now this jersey's already out of you know, out of style, I guess, because they went and they signed a new deal with Firefox, to be their front jersey, you know, but so

Kev: that's awesome. So they were probably like for getting rid of these anyway. It's really awesome.

Bright: Yep, yep, yep, yep. So so just wanted to end with that story. It's a feel good story and now, you know, even though we're still out some other souvenirs, magnets and and the like, you know, the bulk the bulk was returned and you know it it'll continue to be a good story from here on out. So go give Rexham AFC a like, follow on X, support support them as they they're in their second campaign of the championship season. next year in the championship league. Maybe maybe they can get up to the Premier League next year or a couple years. So yeah, it's a good it's a feel good story. you could only only hope that that St. Louis City you know can could kind of do the same, although there's no promotion. We you know, let's get back into the playoffs. I did I did want to say that right now they are giving us a sixty seven percent chance to win.

Kev: That be something.

Bright: Sporting KC only has fifteen percent. So hopefully you hopefully you see a good one.

Kev: You just don't know with this bounce back, we'll find out, but

Bright: Yep. Yep. Like I said, it's a trap game, but hopefully hopefully we can pull it out and we'll come back next week. We'll talk about a a city win and then the opportunity to to go into LA, steal some more points, and then I'm going to the game. I'm I'm pretty sure I'm I've got the tickets for the next game, against Colorado, which is on Saturday, seven thirty game on July twenty fifth. So look looking forward myself to to getting back into the swing of things and going to a game.

Kev: And that is it another another Wednesday or or Thursday game after that?

Bright: The the Galaxy game is on the twenty second. so that is I'm assuming next Wednesday. Yes. So we'll play Thursday, Wednesday, Saturday, and then we play eight one. So then another Saturday game. So we just got these two midweek two midweek games here. So yep. So let's do some damage. Bring h bring home a winner.

Kev: Nice, okay. No complaints. I'm excited to be back.

Bright: All right. We'll catch you after the game.

Kev: I use