Patreon Preview: Men’s World Cup check-in, with Shireen and Brenda

So I want to talk to you a little bit about storylines.

What have been the biggest storylines for you?

Wow.

First of all, that I got to see you in person in Toronto.

That's my biggest storyline.

And for those of you that don't know, Shereen and I did, in fact, make the Fox broadcast during the Panamanian National Anthem in Toronto when Panama played Ghana.

That was not a great game.

It was a frustrating game.

It was...

Lovely fandom, lovely fandom, which has been a story all along.

We've seen some great unifying moments, as we always do, which tend to block out the difficult moments politics of it, Shereen.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's something that Brenda and I were chatting about before this was that we kind of knew this was going to happen.

This isn't our first rodeo per se.

There's issues of urgency, timeliness, and issues that are very important socially and politically, but they get overshadowed by the beautiful game.

And Brenda, I'm not going to lie.

I am drinking this Kool-Aid.

Yeah, I mean, there'll be the occasional, hey, look, there's a Palestinian flag.

Hey, look, you know, some Mexican teachers protested at the inauguration.

That was, you know, really powerful.

I think it shows you a state that is not terrorizing protesters.

Regardless if you believe in their cause or not, like the freedom to protest such a thing is really moving.

And their version in Mexico of the World Cup allows for such a thing.

After Minneapolis in the United States this past year, I don't think it does.

You do see some labor unions like in L.A., get some concessions, right? One storyline for me is that I was very scared that ICE would be a bigger presence at this tournament.