Episode 6: Listener Mailbag!

00:00:06
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Away And my name is Danielle Alercone. My co host, John Green is indisposed at the moment, and we're going to do something a little different, do an episode without him, and sitting in for John Green is our producer Sean Titan. Hello. Sean, Hey, Daniel, how you doing. I'm doing great? Sean. You are renowned and celebrated around the world for your encyclopedic soccer knowledge, which will surely be on display in today's episode. And what we've decided to do, well, what'd you explain what we're gonna do today? That's just a little bit different.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess we're The bulk of today's episode is going to come from listener emails, which is not necessarily something completely new to the show, something we normally relegate to the end of the episodes, but we are gonna make it the full episode because we've been getting so many thoughtful.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: Emails from our listeners, which again, you guys can email the show at a wayendpod at gmail dot com. Thank you all so much for everything you've sent in. But yeah, I think we're going to just go through some of these questions for today's episode.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I should say our next episode, John had prepared a deep dive into the US men's national team, which I'm excited to hear. I have a storytell which is related to that, and we're going to just table that discussion until next week. But in the meantime, here's Sean and I answering some questions. I think mostly me answering the questions.

00:01:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, that would probably be best for our listeners.

00:01:49
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, all right, so let's go. Why don't you start with the first email. I'm so excited to hear what's been written. All right, here we go.

00:01:59
Speaker 3: First email, Dear John and Daniel. I am a Brazilian football fan and was very surprised to see that a Brazilian coach was announced as the new Peruvian national team coach. I'm curious to see what Daniel thinks about this. In Brazil, he is regarded as a reliable coach for helping clubs avoid relegation, but not much beyond that. He saved my team Fluminense from relegation in twenty twenty four, so I have a soft spot for him. Follows up follows it up with this news combined with Ancelotti becoming the Brazilian national team coach got me thinking about how strange it still feels when a national team hires a foreign coach. On the one hand, I'm very happy Brazil has a coach as great as Ancelotti, and it's making me a little hopeful for Brazil's chances for the first time in a long time. But at the same time, it still feels strange to me that he is not Brazilian. What do you guys think about this trend? Best wishes, Helena.

00:02:53
Speaker 1: Helena, thank you for your question. I love this question because it makes me think a lot about national identity and stylistic footballing identity as it relates to the personality and character of a nation. I think Ancelotti. I'll start with the Ancelotti question because I do think that if there's if there is a non Brazilian who can get Brazilian football, I think it would be Ancelotti. Having coached across Europe had many many Brazilian players. I think he, you know, in his most recent job was at Real Madrid, where he worked really closely with Vinessis Junior and we have a great relationship. I think that he sort of understands the need for Brazilian players to really express themselves and to take risks, and he trusts his players and I think that for those reasons he'll do well. Now. It does raise a lot of interesting questions. Helene is referring to the proven coach Manu Meneses, who's the new coach of the national team. I think it's really interesting because you say that he's an ex spurt in saving teams from relegation. Let's be honest, if there were a relegation for national teams, Peru would have been relegated in the last World Cup qualifying season, so we ended up second to last. It's the head of Chile and it's kind of brutal. So you know, it's not exactly the magic. You know that we're not necessarily need a coach who's going to bring us up, you know, and make us champions of South America. But to raise our level from the bottom, you know, there's there's almost nowhere to go but up. He's got to oversee a complete overhaul of the team, a generational transformation, bringing new players, and it's a it's not it's not gonna be an easy task. I will say this, while we as fans often want our coach to be from the country, to represent the country, you know, are Our most successful coach of modern times in Peru anyway, has been gad Eka Argentine, who took us to the twenty eighteen World Cup. And I do think there's something about having an outsider come in and sort of tell you sort of what you need to do without the kind of romanticism of being tied to the national project in the same way that that can be super useful. I mean it's almost like like hiring a consultant, you know, to come in and tell you who's the dead would And I think in that sense it can be useful.

00:05:27
Speaker 3: What do you think, John, Yeah, I mean I think, you know, I think about a team like Brazil, who just seems to always be a favorite any World Cup that they're in, paired with a coach who has such, you know, an amazing record, you know, working with so many different teams. Do you feel like this pairing puts them in a place to have to be a favorite heading into the series World Cup?

00:05:53
Speaker 1: I think you never discount Brazil and I wonder, however, as you know, his pedigrees you mentioned is incredible. He's coached at all the biggest clubs in Europe, but he's never coached the national team, which is a different beast altogether. You know, when you coach a club team, you work with the players you know, ten months a year, you know, six days a week. You see them in training every single day. You see them in games, you know, and at those top leagues you're watching, you know, they're playing two games a week. For a national team, you get camps that are one week long, you know, in the middle of the season, and then maybe a longer camp in the summer for a tournament, you know, in preparation for a tournament. But you're basically you're you're sort of like a scout because you're always going to the stadiums or watching the games to see how your players are doing. But they a player might be playing badly because they're in a bad team with a bad coach with bad tactics, but they might still be a good player for you, right or your best player might be you know, had a falling out with their manager of their club team and their not playing and they need to be playing to be at you know, tip top shape for the tournament. So it's like this really interesting balancing act that's so different from what Angelaties used to and I think that's gonna be really interesting. But to Helene's question, I think Brazil will do very well this time. They're they're just too good to have too many good players, too many talented players to not pull it together. I'm not saying they're gonna win. And actually, one of the problems I think with Brazil is that if they don't win, it's a failure, right, because they're so historically such a powerful team. But I think, you know, getting to the Semis would be incredible for this Brazilian team, considering the kind of disappointments they've had in the past.

00:07:39
Speaker 3: All Right, well, thank you Hilen for such a great question. Should we go to that? Should we go to the next one?

00:07:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, let's do it.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Let's do it, all right, Dear John and Daniel. Really enjoying the pod, looking forward to hearing more. Well, thank you last episode admids to your criticism of the away goals rule, which it admittedly deserves parentheses theirs, you neglected to mention the rule's greatest upside. It was the only way a team could go directly from losing to winning. In a single kick. While the game is probably better off without the rule, many of us will miss moments like Andreas Niesta's goal against Chelsea in two thousand and nine or Lucas Mora's goal against Iyaks in twenty nineteen. Both goals took teams to the Champions League Final directly from losing positions, a beautiful level of drama that is unfortunately no longer possible. My question is do either of you support or follow any clubs here in the US. That's a pivot from that. It's quite a point.

00:08:38
Speaker 1: Let me, let me, let me address the first one. I completely agree with you. There there was such drama in you know, in one goal changing everything, and I agree that the Lucas Mora goal for sure. I remember then there's the goal. I remember mostly for the image of of Chelsea's captain, the German guy running after the ref shouting uh in his face, demanding that the goal be called off for a foul. And I can't remember the German players name actually, unfortunately, Yeah, no, that's gone. That's gone. I just don't think it's as fair as it used to be, you know, it's it's it's no longer necessary and it's not not super fair anymore. Okay, the other question, do you support a follow new clubs here in the US? Yes, I uh. In the first episode, so longtime listeners of the away and will know that I made fun of MLS a little bit in the very first episode and made fun of Red Bulls New York Red Bulls. But I actually ask my team, I actually really love them. They're they're not great, but the stadium experience is so lovely. People there are so so nice. We have a nice little rivalry with ny CFC. We have a new player. I remember watching, for example, Tyler Adams play there, who's now one of the best players on the US men's national team, when he was like seventeen, and just thinking he was the best player on the pitch. So I feel like I've had really great experiences watching that team. There's a new kid now, Julian Hall I think his name is scored Brace in the first game of them last season the other day, and so yeah, it's good. It's a good academy. They have lots of good young players. They don't have a huge salary budget, and that's one of the reasons why they never do as well as you would like them to do, being theoretically a big market team. But yeah, they're fun to watch and I like teams who are red. So there it is the New York Red Bulls. I can't answer for John, but we'll pose that question to him when he gets back. Sounds good, all right, Moving on, next email here, love the podcast. I fell in love with soccer as an adult and probably will never catch up the growing obsessions. So this could not have come at a better time. Maybe you've noticed, but a lot of media around soccer is super lame, toxic, ultimately really depressing and all that noise. It's lovely to hear the uplifting bits highlighted and the tough realities of the sport discussed thoughtfully. Thank you, that's so nice. That's so nice. Yeah, very nice, very nice.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: All right, they go on. I was lightly devastated by your Uruguay analysis. As a Bielsa appreciator and Darwin believer, Sue me, I do appreciate getting the chance to quash hope in advance and can root for the best case project get out Argentina. Prompted by your talk on Hames Rodriguez, I'm curious if there are any other standout players who play notably better for country than club. I'd love to hear more of their stories. And then my side and equally important question is why do players hate Mark Kuquarella so much? He seems like an alright guy who doesn't reach even close to Bruno Fernandez. Love of annoying anyway, I love the pop Let's go Columbia, Uruguay and never England. I don't have a name for that email, so I don't know. Thank you to whoever wrote that.

00:12:13
Speaker 1: Though, Oh shoot, we'll find out who that was. But that's a great question, okay, Jamas Rodriguez. Players who notably play better for a country than club, I mean, the first one that comes to mind is Landon Donovan. Unfortunately, like I remember watching him when he'd come play every few months, you know, once a year, every few months, play a few months for Everton in the Premier League, and I never thought he was up to much. Yeah, honestly, that's the one. But you know, he scored some incredibly important goals for the US in major competitions, including that glorious last second winner against Algeria, which I'll never forget and I celebrated vociferously and frightened my neighbors. So yeah, he's the one that stands out for me. Okay, Sean, Before I answered Mark co corella question, can you google Mark Corella to just sort of see what we're talking about? Who we're talking about hair?

00:13:09
Speaker 3: Yes, let me do that right now.

00:13:14
Speaker 1: Okay, So now you're looking at a picture of Mark co Corella, do you want to know? I want you to just guess. Why do you think people hate him so much? I mean, he has glorious hair. He has glorious hair, he does.

00:13:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I can't imagine they would hate him for his flowing locks. That can't be any reason to for somebody to hate somebody.

00:13:43
Speaker 1: I don't know. Okay, I'm gonna suffer there. I think my theory is that it does have to do with that. I feel like players with long hair stand out so much and long and he has beautiful hair, like gorgeous hair, you know, And I think that, uh, he stands out on the pitch so much that he draws a lot of attention to himself by having that hair. There was a player for Arsenal a few seasons ago, last name Gwendoozi and uh he also had He had similar hair, and I think he also sort of became a pantomime villain for other teams. So there's something about the long hair that just is like, hey, look at me, and other teams fans, uh, sort of don't take kindly to that. Look. I'm sure he seems like I'm sure he's a nice guy. I have no question, And I'm sure Bruno Fernandez is also a fine human being, like I have no reason to think otherwise. I think that players hate Mark Cucurella in part because he is very good. He's a very good defender. He has that long hair that calls attention to him and uh, and he does do a lot of like to me, I mean, Chelsea players, Chelsea fans love him the same way that that that man. United fans will love Bruno Fernandez. But Marco Gorilla is uh, you know, he he does a lot of like fowls, like Nigley fowls, and then falls over and flops a lot and complains a lot. You know, he's a very passionate player, and he has that you know, beautiful mane of of of curly hair that I think that combination just makes you'll hate him, you know, And it's probably not fair. Nothing about fandom is fair or logical. But there it is. There it is. You should take a quick break. Uh, come back and read some more emails. Sounds like a plan. All right, we'll be right back. Okay, we're back on the away end on the nil alert Sean Titan. Our producers here sitting in he got called up to the first team, subbing in at the last moment for uh, for John Green. This is a question from Andrea Voss. You want to read this one. I'd really like this question.

00:16:02
Speaker 3: Andrea says, if Kurusaw can field a team with the quality for the World Cup, could the Upper West Side? It's about the same population, referring to New York City, the Upper west Side of New York. That is a callback to our last episode. I think when Daniel was talking about playing on a playing on a team on the Upper west Side. That check out that episode. Thank you for the high quality of humor and quality and your take on the game. Middle age expat who spent the first half of his life in Germany, in the second half on the Upper west Side.

00:16:34
Speaker 1: All right, so this is andre Loss. I wonder if I've played with Andreas, So I've played a lot on the Upper west Side, in Riverside Park, in Morningside Park, at Booker T. Washington Park, Annunciation Park which is up over by City College, basically anywhere green that has a soccer pitch between, like fifty ninth Street in one hundred and forty fifth Street. I've played there at some point. Now, could we put together a team that could play against Coursau because let me rephrase the question, because you know, could a team from the qualify for the World Cup? Like if we had been in the place of Courrosow, could we have beaten, say Jamaica or turn it down, Tobago, you know, those teams that Coursau would have been playing against. I don't think so. I don't think so. It's an interesting question. It's not just a matter of population. I feel like players on the Upper west Side very in quality, age sort of how seriously they take the game. Fitness, Uh, you know, I don't feel like I've seen I've played with a lot of really quality old people on the Upper west Side, like and multiple I mean like people of my age and older, and I always end up saying they're very good for their age, which I can't even say about myself. Anymore. But I don't think that we could do it, at least not the players that I'm coming across. The younger player. You know, maybe there's a there's a kind of undiscovered, you know, crew of players ages eighteen to twenty eight on the Upper west Side who could really put it together. But we'd have to find twenty two of them. No, no, I'm going to go I'm going to say no. I'm gonna say no. However, I have played some really incredible games with some really wonderful players and most importantly wonderful people on the Upper west Side. So in the World Cup of lovely people, the Upper west Side would be at least make it to the quarterfinals. Nice.

00:18:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would imagine if you are in that eighteen to twenty eight range, and you are actually really good and talented, you're most likely not playing in a league on the Upper west Side.

00:19:05
Speaker 1: Where I would be playing. Is that what you're saying. It's like we're like ships passday night. So there are good players that are World Cup levels, just that I would never see them because I'm playing with a bunch of old people with bad knees. That's probably true, Sean, That's that's that's a fair point. Okay, So how about Moving's question, No, Dondrew's question. You know, we'll have to do more research. We'll have to do more research. Just not sure.

00:19:31
Speaker 3: All right, thank you Andre. Let's see all right, this comes from Tyler. Hey, guys, loving the away and so far never listen to a football pod before. Well, welcome Tyler as a new fan. One thing that keeps confusing me about the tears of English football will be when I hear about some town I've never heard of, and then you say that they lost to Arsenal or some super world famous team coming from the world of American football. That's like hearing that some random suburb beaten by the New England Patriots. Is Arsenal playing random teams like this all the time? Do they ever lose? Is it a flatter competitive level than I think in Manchester? United just happens to have better pr people. Thanks Tyler.

00:20:16
Speaker 1: That is a great question. Okay. So these are kind of basic structural questions about how European leagues work, and I think it's kind of fascinating, especially if you are sort of a you know, if you're customed to American sports leagues, they're closed basically, and there's no promotion or relegation, and so you can you know, in the NBA now and I know there's only tangentially people are you know, like one of the big conversations about tanking in a European league or any sort of soccer league that has promotion relegation, there's no tanking because the teams are fighting to the last day to stay in the league, because the bottom three teams usually go down. Right. So now, how is it then that you know a team like you know, Arsenal is playing like some small suburban team. So in addition to regular sort of the season, the league that you know what we would call like the regular season, that is its own championship, right, that's its own tournament. Right, So every team plays every team home and away, three points for a win, one point for a draw. Whoever has the most points at the end wins, and that is the most coveted trophy in the land. Right, It's a very big deal. And my team, for example, Arsenal hasn't won in twenty two years, and it's the source of much anxiety and hope and expectation and despair. Every season will will just be the year that Arsenal wins, right, And it's just there's no playoffs at the end. It's just you know, who has the most points at the end period, right. So that's one thing what makes a lot of these leagues interesting I think. And this happens, you know, again not just in England or in what we call the Premier League, but all over Europe and a lot of national leagues in Latin America as well. Is it simultaneous to the regular league. They're playing cups, right, So in the UK they play the League Cup and the f A Cup, right, and that's where you're gonna get. So you might see Arsenal playing you know, a Wigan, you know a team like Wigan, right, And Wigan has been in the Premier League. They've they've fallen out of the Premier League and they're currently I think languishing and like the what would be the second or third division. But they get they the in the in these cups. Basically all the teams get put in the in the pot and they you know, they pick random teams and they have these playoffs and that is structured like a playoff where it's like a knockout tournament. Two teams play each other, the winner goes on and blah blah blah. And so that's where you get these these these kind of strange, exotic matchups of the team a gigantic team like Manchester United with a small team like Macclesfield or or whatever, Lowton Town, et cetera. And it can be really fun because that's when whenever people you'll hear the phrase and I've become very attuned to like English soccer cliches, which I love. And you know, people talk about the magic of the Cup, and I think that's what they refer to, is when you get these minno's beating up on these giants. So it isn't really that Manchester United has better pr people. It's that they have bigger budgets, bigger stadiums, you know, many more trophies, huge fan bases that are not just local but international, and and and those teams you know, will occasionally get drawn against smaller teams in these cups and they can be huge paydays for the small teams because they get you know, TV money, and they get ticket you know, ticket money, and they also a huge sense of pride. If a small team knocks out a big team, it's always really fun unless it's your team and then it sucks. Yeah, but I think it's fun. I think it would be fun to see the New England Patriots play against you know, I don't know, some Pop Warner Pee Wee football team. Will be fun to see what the upper west Side, possibly the upper west side you know in football, would be would be really great. Yeah, So I hope that answers your question, Tyler, and you know, welcome to the world of football and football pots. All right, before we go, we actually look this up and our apologies and our gratitude to Libia Mars who asked the question about Mark Upurella, which was my absolute favorite. So let's take a quick break. We'll come back with a couple more questions before we wrap up. Okay, this is the away end here with Sean our producer, Sean, how you doing man? Enjoying me his emails. We got a couple more questions before we wrap up this special episode.

00:25:04
Speaker 3: Okay, you want to hit me with this one from Jonathan? Yeah, this comes from Jonathan aunt Shryl. He asks why are China not a powerhouse? Why is why is China? Well it's not correct, Jonathan.

00:25:19
Speaker 1: Here, why is China. Why is yes? Okay, fine, it's why is China not a powers in football? Okay?

00:25:31
Speaker 3: Go on. It's a pretty big sport over there, unlike say India, where a few other sports are more popular. They have the amount of people and skill, they have money, they have good work ethic. I studied and lived there for a year. So what's up with that? What's up with that? That's a great question. And I am not a Chinese expert on Chinese soccer or an expert on Chinese anything. My first response to this, uh, you know, having said that I know nothing, I'm going to say something anyway. My first reponse this is that it feels to me like China is good at whatever they want to be good at. Uh.

00:26:09
Speaker 1: And so maybe they haven't just committed to this sport yet. I was just remember, I mean, just a couple of weeks ago, I was watching the or that might have been last week. I guess even a lot of these like snowboarding, you know, half pipe, lunatic sports in the winter in the winter Olympics that were amazing and there's Chinese athletes at the very top of those sports. And uh, and it's just really amazing to see I have no doubt that the the that if China sort of decides as a nation they want to be really good at talcer, they will be. There is a Chinese Super League, and and I wonder how much of it is related to the sort of boom and bus cycle that the Chinese Super League had. There was a time, and it wasn't very long ago, uh, you know, maybe fifteen, you know, twelve years ago or something, when the Chinese Super League was the equivalent of what the Saudi Pro League is now, where they just had, you know, gobs and gobs of money and were throwing crazy contracts at European based players and luring them away from top teams, you know, teams like Chelsea. You know, thinking of a wonderful Brazilian player named Oscar who kind of disappeared into China and I think, as far as I know, continues to play there. But it did feel like a fall off in skill and sort of technical level that players that went off to play in China kind of like were never heard from again because they weren't then called back to their national teams because they had dropped a level or two or three. My understanding is that the Chinese Super League has had sort of cycles. They no longer have the money to throw around like they did, so they're not bringing in that kind of talent. And in any case, I mean, those leagues end up thriving when they have you know, the eyeballs and the attention of local audiences, right, and sometimes bringing in a foreign player who's a star can jump start that process. Sometimes it can lead to a raising of the level that makes the local players better. Sometimes it can lead to distortions that don't really sort of lead to sort of grassroots soccer excellence. So I'd have to know more about, like how much are the Chinese clubs investing in their in their academies, you know, because that's where the next great generation of players are always going to come. And that sort of remains to be seen. But yeah, basically you're right. They have the people in skill and the money, so you would think they'd be able to do it. We'll see you did have You did have thoughts on that. See, I have thoughts on lots of things, man, It's one of the things that I do just sit around and think.

00:28:52
Speaker 3: All right, let's see, last but not least, we have a wonderful note here from Simon Simon Ben. He says, Hi, John, Daniel and Sean, thank.

00:29:05
Speaker 1: You for yeah, yeah spell three spelleries.

00:29:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, he got it right with one of the three, so that's good. Not sure if you'll be doing any deep dives into Australia for the podcast, but I felt compelled to email in due to Daniel being Peruvian and how we Australia came to qualify for the twenty twenty two World Cup. Perhaps Daniel can retell the story of the Peru versus Australia inter Confederation playoff from his perspective in Australia. The quote gray Wiggle was instantly enshrined in our footballing folklore thanks to Andrew Redmain's dancing antics during the penalty shootout, especially as he was substituted on just for the shootout despite Peru's ultimate loss. Sorry, I do believe that read, I do believe that Redmain did actually becomes sort of a cult figure in Peru following the game. I'd love to hear about how Daniel experienced everything surrounding that game, including the lead up and aftermath, if he can bring himself to looking forward to the World Cup and Australia playing the USA. Thank you, and you'll never walk alone shout out to John and his favorite song. So yeah, thank you Simon.

00:30:23
Speaker 1: All right, well, if I can bring myself to answer this question, that's good. Thank you Simon for this and for reminding me of a truly terrible day. No, so okay, So for those of you who don't know, and I presume that most listeners weren't glued to their televisions watching the Inter Confederation playoff toe in Peru in Australia four years ago, but I was, and so were most of my cousins and family and many friends. So what he's referring to, what Simon's referring to is the goalkeeper Andrew Redmain, the second string Australian goalkeeper. They played, the game had gone to a zero zero fire remember correctly, it was going went to extra time, then went to penalty kicks, and it was decided on penalty kicks. They bring on Andrew Redmain specifically for the shootout, which is something that isn't often done. And when he says the gray wiggle, it's because this guy you've seen Sean these kind of like in front of a used car dealership. They have the air guy that they just like that inflates and its arms flap around. So imagine that in the form of like a six foot six Australian guy with a beard sort of flapping about, and you can't come off your line in a soccer shootout, like as the penalty is taken. When the penalty has taken, your foot has to be at least one foot has to be on the line. So he's moving side to side, flapping his arms like like a deranged giant, you know, pterodactyl or something, and completely freaked out the Proven players. I don't remember how many players missed or who missed. I've blocked it all out. I just know that as soon as he started flapping his arms, I knew that we were going to lose, and we did. So now how do I feel about that? I have a lot of thoughts about this. I happened to be at the twenty eighteen game when Peru qualified playing New Zealand, and there's a huge difference, and the difference and the core difference is in twenty eighteen, those games were played home and away, So the proven team flew to New Zealand played there zero zero, then the flew back to Lima. The New Zealand team flew to Lima and was completely overwhelmed by playing in a Peruvian stadium full of Peruvian fans. They must have been jet lagged. When they were trying to rest, the Peruvian Air Force flew a plane over their hotel to keep them from resting. There were fans camped out their home till all night long, playing and singing drums. You know. I remember being at the stadium and just I could tell how overwhelmed the Kiwis were with the with the atmosphere, you know, two hours before the game, the stadium was full and everyone was singing. I mentioned that because it's a huge disadvantage for us to play a game in a neutral territory. And I can't remember actually where they played, but when we played Australia on neutral ground, we lost all the atmosphere and that we lost it was like playing a man down for Peru. Having said that, we you know, we didn't we didn't do great. We didn't. We didn't we didn't get we didn't really deserve to get through. We didn't play with any sort of authority or attacking verve. And when it went down to penalties shootouts. You know, when it goes to penalty shootouts, anyone can win. And and as soon as Andrew Redman started throwing his arms around, it was obvious to me what was going to happen. So there it is. That's the story. Very painful to remember, but thank you Simon for your question and for making me relive that trauma.

00:34:09
Speaker 3: The gray wiggle reminds me of I know, we've talked a little bit about how John was sort of the ultra in our high school during soccer matches when he would come to watch. But I also have feel like I have memories of him doing that during basketball games to try to rattle whoever was shooting free throws on the other team, doing a similar dance, as well as yelling to to try to, you know, rattle the shooter.

00:34:42
Speaker 1: Does that bring all? Yeah, And I think these are the kinds of skills that the intangibles that John brings to any sporting sporting endeavor.

00:34:53
Speaker 3: You know.

00:34:54
Speaker 1: Uh, it's his ability to or his willingness to embrace the absurdity and his complete lack of shame that really make him the expector in all kinds of sports. But yeah, we having said that you know here we're talking about John. We miss him. We'll see him next week, I'm sure. And in the meantime, Sean, thanks for filling in. Man.

00:35:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, this was this was awesome. I appreciate you bringing me up to read through some of these emails. And yeah, I please everyone out there keep sending them in. We we love reading them and maybe yours will end up in a future episode. But yeah, we look forward to having John back with us next week.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: And thanks so much to everybody for listening. Thanks so much again. Our note is away endpod at gmail dot com, and we'll see you next week.