What to expect from new Commissioner Larry Berg, plus transfer window news | MLS Update

**Taylor Rockwell** (0:20)
Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Total Soccer Show. My name is Taylor Rockwell. I am doing the introductions, which means Ryan Bailey is not here, which is standard for a Tuesday show. Joe Lowry is also not here, which is not standard for a Tuesday show, but we do have our old friend, our young old friend, Mr. Jeff Rueter returns. Jeff, how's your World Cup hangover going, my friend? Hello, Taylor.

**Jeff Rueter** (0:43)
Oh, it is so good to be back. It's been, it's weird. You go like two and a half months without hearing that when you're used to every Tuesday. It's like, yes, I have my alarm clock, but this is what jolts me to life, is you saying hello and welcome. And I was missing that.
You didn't leave me voice notes during the World Cup saying, like, hello and welcome to day 46 of the group stage or wherever we were. So, good to be back.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:07)
Yeah, how was the World Cup experience for you with that in mind? Did it all blend together? Was it all just one blur? How much were you on the road? How much did you sleep, if at all? Take us through it, Jeff.

**Jeff Rueter** (1:17)
Yeah, it was a blast, right? And it's just such a privilege to be able to cover that tournament for The Guardian, an outlet that I grew up reading World Cup coverage in and to be able to contribute to that when it came back to the United States was just overwhelming at times, but overwhelmingly positive the entire time.

**Taylor Rockwell** (1:33)
A lot of travel.

**Jeff Rueter** (1:34)
I mean, I was in, I was mostly in the West Coast and so I would do kind of side quest between US games where I think I had one stretch where I was LA to Seattle to Vancouver to Seattle to LA in the span of five days, six days. So a lot of flights, a lot of points, but a lot of fun, like just incredible to have this. We were talking about this before we recorded, just like there's something so special about doing this and being really proud of the audience that loves us and respects us, right? And then all of a sudden you have all of these fair weather people being like, hey, your audience, like they seem like they're onto something. So what do you do? And what should I feel about the refereeing against Egypt and all these like other little questions that you don't usually get from the people in your lives who don't usually seem to get soccer. So that was fun. That was a very uniquely fun experience, for sure.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:24)
Did you have a favorite like memory that you think will live with you for a long time in covering the United States at the World Cup?

**Jeff Rueter** (2:31)
Yeah. I mean, the Baligan affair, I think is something that I'll never forget, right? Just the whole nature of that and being in line.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:37)
That's a way to lead, Jeff, with Baligan.

**Jeff Rueter** (2:40)
Okay.

**Taylor Rockwell** (2:40)
Didn't know we were going there right away. Let's do it.

**Jeff Rueter** (2:42)
Look, man, it sucks because we're so close to it, but that still is such a prominent part of this. I think that the night that's really going to stick with me the most is actually in Seattle after Australia. Yes, it's the Country Roads game, the first one where I ended up writing a column the following morning with a bit of a hangover on the flight to my next city.
But that whole atmosphere and just feeling like, it wasn't just like, wow, the US was doing really well at soccer, but people loved the fact that US were doing well. And even as many people were trying to incredibly pick-knit and say, oh, the performance wasn't this, that, the other thing. It was just like the crowd was still just like, yeah, okay, we won the group. It's great, we're having a great time. So there was just kind of that communal atmosphere that I thought Seattle did really well to bring out. That was very, very special on that day.

**Taylor Rockwell** (3:29)
What was the response from the media and the people you were around when the Balligan decision happens, when it's overturned? Because for me, from afar, my phone like exploded. I was at the beach at the time. And I like came back to just so many messages like, what happens? Is this AI? Is this real? Has this actually occurred? And I thought for sure it was all ridiculous because a red card being overturned at a World Cup doesn't happen.