Phil Talks Footy

Time for a Good Ol’ Fashioned Crash Out

Phil Baki — Thu, 06 Feb 2025 20:13:24 GMT

El Paso Locomotive FC was the worst team in the USL Championship Western Conference last season. Despite catching up to the pack at the back half of last year, they finished with the most losses of any team not named Miami FC. This in and of itself is not the troubling part. Teams have good years and bad, and after a blistering start to life in the USL,…

Diminishing Returns

Phil Baki — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 13:31:10 GMT

There’s something so pure about going to a soccer match. I’ve been to games at nearly every level from local American amateur clubs in the NPSL, UPSL or USL League 2 up to being in Anfield for a Premier League match. But the common denominator is that as you walk from your car, train, cab or hotel, there is an anticipation in the air that is hard to des…

Danke, Jurgen

Phil Baki — Mon, 20 May 2024 12:33:18 GMT

Jurgen Klopp managed his last match for Liverpool today. It ended a tenure that included a 6th Champions League triumph, the first League title in 30 years, multiple domestic Cups and a Club World Cup. It also included two Champions League Final defeats, two of the most undeserved League title disappointments of all-time and the lone League title came d…

Phil Talks Footy Week 3/11-3/17

Phil Baki — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 21:13:52 GMT

US Open Cup First Round Kickoff

By now you’ve heard more than enough about US Soccer’s capitulation to MLS on the issue of the US Open Cup, which had operated without interruption until the COVID-19 pandemic. MLS somehow convinced US Soccer that they simply did not need all of its teams to participate and Don Garber, MLS’ commissioner later said the quie…

Phil Talks Footy - Week 2/18-2/25/2024

Phil Baki — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 14:02:22 GMT

Hey! So this format is a little different than what I’ve traditionally offered but I’m looking to stay more consistent here and in doing so I wanted to give a little weekly look into my soccer viewing habits and how I reacted to the week that was in soccer. This will be pretty loose, will include stuff from both European and American soccer and it will …

Thijs Dallinga: A Box Office Forward

Phil Baki — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 14:30:27 GMT

Thijs Dallinga took a touch with his right instep, shielded the ball with his body, turned toward goal and fired the ball home in off the inside of the far post. The movements, while subtle, had a coolness about them. A panache that suggests the striker that possesses it has far more years at a top level than he does. With this goal, coming at home in a…

Control: MLS, the US Open Cup and Crony Capitalism

Phil Baki — Sat, 16 Dec 2023 14:00:36 GMT

Friday night, Major League Soccer made the announcement that its teams would not participate in the US Open Cup (USOC). People reacted to the news in much the way you would expect. The shock that a League that has existed since 1995 could tell their governing body, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) that they would not participate in a competiti…

USL of the Future

Phil Baki — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 15:01:34 GMT

The United Soccer Leagues have been talking about potentially, one day, maybe, perhaps, potentially, in the future, if the opportunity presents, perchance, mayhap, pursue a connected system of leagues that feature promotion and relegation between the different levels present in the men’s side of USL.

Last week, we got the first real substantial interview…

The High and the Low: The 2023 El Paso Locomotive Season Review

Phil Baki — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 15:00:39 GMT

Categorizing this El Paso Locomotive season seems nearly impossible.

Three home losses to start the season, followed by twelve matches unbeaten, which overlapped with a subsequent ten match winless run, and finishing the season winning just four of their last twenty matches.

I honestly almost passed out typing that last bit. This season has been unlike an…

I Hate Watching the United States Men's National Team

Phil Baki — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 14:02:27 GMT

I hate watching the United States Men’s National Team.

There. I said it.

Listen, I root for the team in international tournaments and I want them to do well but I simply cannot help but feel deep disconnection from the team due to how the United States Soccer …

UEFA Champions League: Losing Balance

Phil Baki — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 14:30:27 GMT

The opening week of UEFA competition kicked off this week, with some really exciting and intriguing matches on display. Lazio’s goalkeeper scored a last minute equalizer against Atletico Madrid, Milan absolutely battered Newcastle in a 0-0 draw, Bayern played with their food in Munich and let Manchester United believe they actually did something, and Ar…

Only In America

Phil Baki — Sat, 26 Aug 2023 19:06:10 GMT

Thursday, August 24th, San Diego Loyal and the USL Championship made the announcement that the club would cease operations at the end of this season. This news coming in the wake of the announcement that MLS side San Diego FC is set to enter the league in 2025. Publicly, the reasoning was based around real estate, with San Diego Loyal playing on the cam…

Invite your friends to read Phil Talks Footy

Phil Baki — Thu, 29 Jun 2023 22:50:03 GMT

Thank you for reading Phil Talks Footy — your support allows me to keep doing this work.

If you enjoy Phil Talks Footy, it would mean the world to me if you invited friends to subscribe and read with us. If you refer friends, you will receive benefits that give you special access to Phil Talks Footy.

Loȉc Badé : Home Away From Home

Phil Baki — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 14:00:50 GMT

The video is now notorious. Loȉc Badé, walking with an arm draped over the shoulder of Sevilla’s revered Sporting Director Monchi, pleading to the 54 year-old Spaniard to “Please, please sign me!” Monchi replied, “it is already done!” It turns out it is. Bade, who has had an absolute rollercoaster of a start to his professional career, is joining Sevill…

Join my chat

Phil Baki — Tue, 27 Jun 2023 23:18:20 GMT

Today I’m announcing a brand new addition to my Substack publication: the Phil Talks Footy subscriber chat.

This is a conversation space in the Substack app that I set up exclusively for my subscribers — kind of like a group chat or live hangout. I’ll post short prompts, thoughts, and updates that come my way, and you can jump into the discussion. This i…

Jeremy Doku: Rennaissance Man

Phil Baki — Mon, 12 Jun 2023 14:00:50 GMT

The way that Stade Rennais and Jeremy Doku have been performing you would think that these heights were typical for the Brittany club. European football is becoming the norm for the group and Jeremy Doku is becoming a bit of a microcosm for Stade Rennais.

Someone at home in a place that could be seen as overwhelming.

Doku is a footballer who has made him…

Are Sports an Escape?

Phil Baki — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 21:45:50 GMT

Sports are an escape.

That’s what we often say to ourselves as we enjoy games played across various different sports across different countries and continents week in and week out. It is a form of entertainment which so often connects to real human emotion. Elation, dejection, thrill, anxiety are just a normal weekend in many sports fans’ lives. There ar…

Moises Caicedo - Meteoric Feels Insufficient

Phil Baki — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 01:46:38 GMT

The night of December 21st, 2020, Moises Caicedo walked off of the field for the last time as an Independiente del Valle player. They had just suffered a 1-0 loss to CD Macara in the Second Phase of the Ecuadorian Serie A. Just a few days later, he was plucked from his native land to the Southern coast of England for £4 million to Brighton and Hove Albi…

Watching and Writing About Soccer in America

Phil Baki — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 13:44:23 GMT

*Author’s note: These times are all different now thanks to Daylight Savings Time. What is time anyway than an arbitrary number value we’ve assigned to this finite point in our insignificant existences

7am - Wake Up

Moving from El Paso, the lone Texan outpost in Mountain Standard Time, to Ohio has had one significant advantage when it comes to being a sup…

Josh Maja: Decanted in Bordeaux

Phil Baki — Sun, 08 Jan 2023 20:20:27 GMT

Many of those football fans who focus on England will remember Josh Maja. Viewers of Sunderland Til I Die in particular will have vivid memories of his story. He was the mercurial Sunderland youth product who attempted to turn around the Tyneside club’s fortunes before moving to greener pastures in Bordeaux. The thing is, the pasture was not that green.…