Mike Goodman and Michael Caley

We break down the big games, Leicester-United and a little bit on the others (Watford-Arsenal!) and then ask, well, what did we learn from these 90 matches since the shutdown? Kinda turns into a City pod. Support the show

We have actual final day drama in the Premier League. Six teams with everything on the time, five crucial matches. We tour the games with plentiful tangents, here's part 1 with Manchester United and our picks for the relegation chase. Support the show

We break down the ruling against UEFA from the Court of Arbitration in Sport, and how it crystallizes the fundamental issue here: there are no good guys, and UEFA got caught breaking its own rules, but nothing about the ruling exonerates City either. And then we have Real Madrid's title, how Zidane put together a title-winning team despite crucial things going wrong early in the season, and what the future of La Liga will look like -- maybe without a great Barcelona side for a long time? Sup...

Has the top five race ended? Has the relegation chase ended? We break down Leicester-Arsenal and look at the teams remaining in contention for the top five and there's not a lot left here. At the bottom things remain more in doubt, but the chances we're talking Europa places in a week are pretty high. Support the show

He's going to Chelsea! Probably! But the podcast works better if we treat it as settled fact! We break down what kind of player Werner is, how he might fit on this Chelsea side and within Lampard's style, and what this transfer indicates about the state of the football economy. https://thecorrespondent.com/517/three-reasons-the-football-season-is-starting-again-money-money-money/4240227200-05001e50 Support the show

We break down Bayern's victory over Dortmund and the effective end of the title race in the Bundesliga. And we discuss the new substition rules in soccer, how they're being used, and what we'd like to see from managers with this new resource. Support the show

Caley is joined by poet, scholar, activist and wikipedia-confirmed Arsenal fan Clint Smith (@clintsmithiii) to talk about why he loves and misses sports (even Arsenal!), and about his academic work in the study of education and the way people who have been incarcerated make meaning through education. Support the show

The Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has nearly completed its purchase of Newcastle United Football Club. We talk about what this means. Another ownership group in the Premier League driven not by a need to make profits but by a drive for soft power, sportwashing a reputation sullied by war crimes, murder and oppression. What will that mean for Newcastle and the Premier League? George Caulkin's report in The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/1759832/2020/04/21/newca...

We've reached the point of the pandemic where sports leagues around the world are scrambling to find ways to safely return to action. The Bundesliga is poised to make the first attempt in the soccer world, and the Two Mikes size up the odds against the Germans (and really, everyone else). Then they talk loosely about generational gaps and leaps before turning to lobsters and chocolate tortas (but not together, that would be gross). Support the show

Mike Goodman is joined by political scientist and Tottenham fan Brian Schaffner to go back over the season for Tottenham, because that's fun, and then they talk about the use of analytics in another field entirely, with Schaffner's political science / public opinion research. Support the show

The Double Pivot Interview Series continues, with Mike Goodman talking to SB Nation's erstwhile soccer writer and current e-sports writer Kim McCauley (@lgbtqfc) about the only kind of sports that people can play under pandemic, how to understand it, how to watch it, and more. Support the show

Soccer! Sort of! Michael interviews Meg Linehan (@itsmeglinehan), a reporter from The Athletic who has been covering all the drama with US Soccer, for a recap and analysis of everything that's gone down in the last month with the equal pay lawsuit filed by the US Women's National Team. There's a lot to cover, and it's about soccer, mostly. Support the show

What's this pod going to be during the pandemic? We have a plan! We will be doing shorter podcasts, several per week, on various topics. This week becuase things are nuts, we have a pair of podcasts directly on the news and soccer and coronavirus. We have a little soccer to talk about (Atletico did a soccer) but we're as overwhelmed with the pandemic as anyone and the question of what sports will be, so we talked about on this podcast. Support the show

We're back and the Premier League has now shut down, and it raises more specifically the question of what sports will be while we're shut down, so we talked about it on this podcast, too. Support the show

The COVID-19 not-yet-a-pandemic is already disrupting the Italian football season, and if the projections from epidemiologists are to be trusted, it won't be for just a few weeks and it certainly won't be just Italy. We dig into the newest example of how sports themselves don't stick to sports. Then we talk about relegation, honestly, pretty much as if there will be a normal Premier League season. It's hard to keep your brain in pandemic mode. Support the show

Manchester City have been banned from the Champions League for the next two seasons, and fined $30 million for breaching Financial Fair Play rules. City are appealing to the CAS. The Two Mikes explain what the hell CAS is and also sort through the rest of the mess to clear it all up for you. Der Spiegel article on Football Leaks: https://www.spiegel.de/international/manchester-city-exposed-bending-the-rules-to-the-tune-of-millions-a-1236346.html Tariq Panja on UEFA and PSG: https://ww...

The knockout stages of the Champions League are upon us, so the Two Mikes break down each matchup. In this episode, they talk Atleti-Liverpool, Dortmund-PSG, Atalanta-Valencia and Leipzig-Spurs. Support the show

The two Mikes race through the latest results in England (and what we've learned of late about the clubs in the thick of the most noteworthy results) before turning their attention to more of your questions. Support the show

We start with one of our "Mousa Dembele" pods where we scout a player using the stats. Here it's United's new signing Bruno Fernandes, an elite creator who may or may not be a possession sieve, and what to expect from him and why we're excited to watch him in a top league. Then we take listener questions about what "ball progression" means and why different measurements are proliferating, about the ongoing transformation of the fullback position and its knock-on effects on football tactics, ...

These were not two slates of matches that reward analysis. Chelsea-Arsenal and Everton-Newcastle actively defy any attempt to analyze them. But we find our way through, taking stock of the extent of Chelsea's decline, Wolves' rise, and whether there are any new takes we can wring out of Spurs and United anymore. Support the show