Is Folarin Balogun good enough for Barcelona? | USMNT Weekly

**Taylor Rockwell** (0:21)
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell, and the World Cup is dead. Long live the World Cup. We are a scant four years away from the 128 team World Cup, played on 12 continents, hosted by 13 countries. I think I have those numbers right. So now is as good a time as any to continue keeping an eye on potential USMNT players around the world. Here with me to do so are two fine friends, honorary American Graham Ruffin, who earlier this summer was awarded the Congressional Medal of Disney Freedom for theme park knowledge. Graham Ruffin, how are you this fine morning?

**Graham Ruffin** (0:54)
Finally, Taylor, I must have missed that. You must have been deep in World Cup duty at that point, but that is genuinely my greatest achievement. I've been trying for that one for years.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:03)
It was a very solemn ceremony, Mickey, placing the medal around your neck in full military regalia. You wouldn't have expected that, but here we are.

**Graham Ruffin** (1:11)
Giffey, the salute.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:15)
Pluto also saluting. We're still unsure of what the situation there is.
Either way, congratulations to you and rounding out our crew, our resident Carmen San Diego ever in a new location. Joe Lowry, Joe, where are you this week?

**Joseph Lowery** (1:27)
I'm home. Hooray. I'm home. I counted it up the other day and I think I was away from Phoenix for close to 40 or 50 days this summer, including the World Cup. Actually, that dates back to the late spring, but in Phoenix, late spring is the dead of summer. So it kind of is a dream, but I'm also just so thrilled to be home. Graham gets a congressional medal of freedom and I get squat? Is that? No freedom for you, Joe. Mickey Mouse can't get that medal on anyway with those gloves. There's no chance. There's no chance that sucker got over Graham's neck. Take it all back. Grimstone medalist is just like me.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:57)
It was the congressional medal of Disney freedom, to be clear, to an even more elite category.

**Joseph Lowery** (2:03)
I see you.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:04)
I'll find you some sort of civil war.
But in the meantime, I should say, I should note two things. First, we do have a Patreon. Over at TSS Plus, you're getting bonus episodes, bonus videos, access to the Discord, so much more. We're doing a transfer window update of sorts later on today, so be sure to check that out. Secondly, a few of you out there could soon have an opportunity to live your dream, if your dream is specifically to go with me to visit Graham in Scotland. Graham, a whole bunch of people is houseguests. I'm assuming, though, regardless of the number, there will still be one screen per person, even if it's a hundred people attending.

**Graham Ruffin** (2:37)
That's right. Yeah. What else would you expect from a trip to Scotland with myself? Yes, we are doing a Total Soccer Show trip to Scotland. We announced this on Monday. There's already been a lot of people in our Discord, I believe, signing up for interest. So if you are interested in our trip, go to the URL EarthlyDelights.club forward slash TSS. That link will also be in the show notes. Basically, this is a trip that is planned for either the end of October or for spring next year. You can register when you sign up which one you'd be interested in. But the idea is to give you a real taste and a real sense of Scottish soccer. Warts and all, it's a weird and wonderful place as Celtic demonstrated in the Champions League last night for the whole world to see.
So the idea is we'll take in a few top division games at clubs like Hearts and Hibs and possibly Rangers. And then we'll also take in a lower league game. The plan is to take in a game at Brecon City at Glebe Park, which is the only stadium in Europe with a hedge running along the side of it. I think it is the quintessential Scottish lower league stadium. And we'll also be doing some other non-soccer things like going on a hike in the Cairngorms, maybe visit a distillery or two.
We'll be eating well in restaurants and stay in a nice, comfortable and clean hotels as well. So just to reiterate, if you are interested in any of that, EarthlyDelights.club forward slash TSS.

**Taylor Rockwell** (4:03)
I know that was well done, first of all. But second of all, I know that was kind of a generic conclusion there, but we'll be eating well in restaurants. Sounds suspicious to me now. Is it all just deep-fried pizza?