Good Soccer/Bad Soccer Vol. 2
Now Are We A Real Soccer Country?
This week's GS/BS can't help but start with the most talked about story in American soccer: Christian Pulisic's Raya profile. Why are we talking about Christian Pulisic's Raya profile? Because Christian's ex burned him on Instagram.
I know what you're thinking. What the hell is a Raya profile? Well, it's even more ridiculous than you're probably imagining.
I want to be clear: Your friendly neighborhood Soccer Eagle was just as clueless as most of America about Raya, a dating app for celebrities and other notable people that requires a) an application and approval process and b) payment of not-insignificant amounts of money to maintain a profile, before very recently.
Pulisic's public roasting about his now ex-girlfriend is very of-the-moment and is now the talk of the American soccer world. It's being parsed as a reason for Pulisic's poor on-field form and although it's impossible to know if one definitely has to do with the other, the timing—just a few months before the most important even in the history of American soccer and the biggest stage Christian will ever have in his life—is serving as an accelerant to the chatter.
Friends, it's all making me a bit uncomfortable. Soccer media is making a thing about the Pulisic's "found" Raya profile, but that profile does not appear to be recent or even reveal much.
Christian Pulisic is a public person because of his job and celebrity and Alexa Melton's choice to air her grievances on her Instagram naturally opens the door for anyone and everyone to have an opinion. But some of the comments (because it's the internet) have gone well past good taste and lots of people in my orbit seem to be engaged in a degree of schadenfreude I don't love.
There's an innate belief, I think, that Melton's comment that "mans [Pulisic] was on Raya before it even ended" means we have the right to cast Pulisic as the villain without knowing any other detail of the breakup (which, of course, we have no right to know). Pulisic was clearly looking to cheat because Alexa told us as much, right? No reason to interrogate the trustworthiness of her one-off comment on an Instagram post. Dive right in and drag the man.
Anyway, I hope Pulisic scores goals at the World Cup this summer. His personal life is none of my business and unless he committed a crime, I don't quite grasp while so many feel so free to get off shots in his direction.
Is the saga over? Will we still be talking about this as the World Cup gets underway? I doubt we'll hear anything about it from the notoriously buttoned-up Pulisic and Melton has since locked down her Instagram profile.
Route One On Two Ready Break
At Backheeled, Joe Lowery has an interview with first-year Colorado Rapids head coach Matt Wells in which Wells describes how he calls plays from the sideline, NFL-style.
How long until soccer’s first sign-stealing scandal
— John Muller (@johnspacemuller.com) April 8, 2026 at 10:07 AM
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Maybe Wells isn't the first coach to conceive of directing his team with signals via dead balls moments like goal kicks, but this is the first I've seen anyone admit to doing so. I think it's notable that Wells is a) English and b) very young for a head coach (37). The former because it's a mild upset an American didn't do this first and the latter because my guess is that a coach as young as Wells has fewer hangups about what is and isn't proper.
The more you think about it, the more it makes sense that a guy who grew up in London as the internet and the NFL's push into England (Wells was 18 when the NFL International series began) eroded the barriers between American sports and English football decided he needed a way to bring some Bill Belichick to soccer.
Or maybe this is all down to Ted Lasso.
Now that called plays are here, I'm really excited for this era of American soccer.
Peeing For Poppy
Preston Judd is having himself a moment as the point of the spear in Bruce Arena's remodeled San Jose Earthquakes team. The Quakes are off to a hot start in 2026 and while German DP Timo Werner will grab most of the headlines, Judd's overall play and goal threat are a significant part of the story by the Bay.
After scoring his third goal of the season on Saturday in a statement 3-0 win for San Jose over San Diego FC on Saturday, Judd proceeded to do an eye-raising celebration.
Look at this celebration. MLS is the best league in the world. #Quakes74
— Seth (@sethman31.bsky.social) April 4, 2026 at 11:35 PM
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I'm an open-minded guy when it comes to cellies, so after chuckling a bit, I didn't think much of Judd's leg-raising act.
Then MLS fined him for it.
And now we know that miming urination in the style of our four-legged friends is considered "inappropriate" by the league office. But Judd didn't do the celebration just for the comedy of it. He was attempting to draw attention to the plight of his beloved dog, Poppy, who has a life-threatening intestinal issue.
Not surprising but Preston Judd has been fined for doing the dog peeing celebration. It was apparently done to bring attention to a good cause. www.gofundme.com/f/from-poppy...
— Jeremiah Oshan (@jeremiah.sounderatheart.com) April 7, 2026 at 4:06 PM
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A dog I had as a kid suffered from what I assume was the same malady facing Poppy. I was in high school at the time and recall my parents needing to drop thousands to save her only to have the initial surgery prove unsuccessful. The vet generously agreed to do a second surgery for the cost of supplies only, ultimately saving our dog's life. My heart goes out to Preston and I'm hoping for a similarly positive outcome for Poppy.
I also appreciate Judd giving us reminder that MLS remains a top level professional American sports league where players are often regular people when it comes to their finances. Here's to Preston's GoFundMe getting to his goal.
Activate My Butt
There's a new item up at Men's Journal of Weston McKennie as the Juventus man gets ready to be on the big stage at the World Cup this summer. Good for Weston. He deserves more shine for what he's done in Italy and I think he's primed for a monster World Cup (as does Doug McIntyre, who said so to me on last week's episode of The Best Soccer Show).
But man. We're just using the word "activation" like that now?
Leading up to the event, McKennie is headlining Truly’s “Believe, USA” campaign, which allows citizens to nominate their towns or communities to be recognized for their U.S. soccer fandom.
“I think that’s a pretty cool activation that we’re trying to do right now,” McKennie said. “And yeah, we’re truly taking over the local town bar and updating it to “Believe USA” and adding light bulbs and essentially just making it the coolest spot to watch the World Cup in the U.S.”
Adding light bulbs?
Speaking of The Best Soccer Show, I'll be live tonight (Thursday) with a new episode. We're doing a USMNT DEFCON check-in, so get your thoughts together on how you feel about the state of the national team with a little more than two months before kickoff for our guys at the World Cup.
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