Talking to Grant Wahl is one of the pleasures of the Radio Sounders show. The Sports Illustrated columnist knows world and US football like he could write a book about. In fact he did, being the author of that Beckham blockbuster which blew the lid off the simmering war of words at the LA Galaxy, and may have inadvertently let to peace there.
Peace was on his mind when he spoke to the show, as Grant looked back on the reaching of a Collective Bargaining Agreement and concluded that looking deeper than the immediate, a great deal of good may have come from the tussle to the wire between the two sides.
He predicts that David Beckham will play MLS again and talks about Clint Dempsey’s rejuvenation. Indeed Wahl claims that the Fulham striker’s winning goal against Juventus may indeed be the greatest goal scored by an American in European football. It’s hard to disagree.
He expresses his biggest football wish for 2010 and tells us why he was in London and Greece. There was something Adu about the second part.
Finally, the RS team look forward to the MLS season, especially the Western Conference, and Grant calls Seattle ‘the Epicentre’ of American soccer, which assures him of an even warmer welcome when he next comes over.
Not talking about Juventus is the leader of the Emerald City Supporters club Greg Mockos, who took time out of his study of neo-classical Greek theology to discuss his relief about the reaching of a CBA, and his predictions for the 2010 season. Those library reading rooms can be noisy places.
And there’s an outtake. Right at the end.