Good Soccer/Bad Soccer Vol. 3

Welcome back to Good Soccer/Bad Soccer, our weekly roundup of exciting, distressing, and/or otherwise interesting soccer new from around this weird and wild soccer nation of ours. If you have a tip for GS/BS, drop in the comments or find me on Bluesky.

Give That Man A Peace Prize

St. Pauli, the German Kult club that is as much a symbol of leftist politics and radical inclusion as it is a sports operation, might be headed back down to the 2.Bundesliga this season. On the field, the Hamburg outfit has found its return to the biggest stage of German football to be somewhat difficult.

But wherever it plays, the club will remain a beacon of hope for people who see the power of our sport to do good. For that reason, GS/BS is thrilled to pass on the news that Wes Burdine is the first-ever recipient of St. Pauli's newly created "Peace Prize", meant to recognize the efforts of "individuals and initiatives that actively stand for solidarity, togetherness and respectful coexistence”.

Wes is the owner of the Black Hart bar in St. Paul, an establishment that welcomes the queer community and soccer fans.

While the bar and his efforts to support Minnesota soccer are what most people know Wes for, he has also been one of the loudest voices working to resist the horrific ICE incursion into the Twin Cities and surrounding areas in Minnesota.

“This means a lot to me, and to this bar,” Burdine told St. Pauli’s official website. “Our job is to create communities and bring people together. The Black Hart exists because we wanted a queer soccer space - a place where people from all walks of life can come together, celebrate and build a community.

That's what soccer is all about. Congrats, Wes.

How To Attend The World Cup Using This One Weird Trick

The World Cup is coming and we're all Larry David. Nothing is going to be easy about attending this year's tournament, which is already being touted as a bust in certain corners. I need not bombard you with all of the reasons this is shaping up to be a World Cup of avarice because every day brings new news about the pockets FIFA intends to loot this summer.

Some of the latest to land on the pile include jacked up prices for trips from New York to New Jersey on New Jersey Transit. My sympathies lie with soccer fans, but I'm finding it difficult to be angry at New Jersey governor Mikie Sherrill. The bad actor here is FIFA.

With the hiked prices for public transportation to the Meadowlands and a non-existent parking situation (that practically, if not technically, kills the idea of tailgating) NYC-based alternative news site Hell Gate has an idea for all the New York soccer fans anxious to get to at least ONE World Cup match:

Go to Philadelphia.

Seriously, that's the hack. And the numbers work out. Between lower ticket prices for Côte d'Ivoire v. Curaçao and the train ticket/subway cost to get to Philly, NYC fans can save $200. Sure, there's that whole "leave the greatest city in the world for a second-rate metropolis inhabited by people who revere a fake boxer and have questionable taste in sandwiches" but most of the country can't tell the difference between New York and Philadelphia culturally anyway so go to Philly and save the cash.

Okay, Nonno

Aurelio De Laurentiis is a legend. The Italian film producer saved Napoli in early aughts when the club was in dire straights and remains chairman of a team that serves a vital role in the identity of often forgotten Italians in the southern part of the country (they should quit with the Confederate imagery, though).

But while Aurelio might be a visionary when it comes to film and as vital as his stewardship has been in returning Napoli to relevancy in Serie A, he lost me with his wack-a-doo ideas about how to improve the beautiful game. And to think its us Americans who get called defilers of the sport.

From Adam Crafton's interview with De Laurentiis at The Atheltic on how he'd change the game:

“Number one: I will reduce from 45 minutes each (half) to 25 minutes,” he says. In his 50-minute game, the match will be tracked for in-play time, rather than match officials recovering minutes through stoppages at the end of each half.

Clock stoppages and no more added time.

“But also you cannot stay down on the field and play around like an actor!”

“AGHHHH!” he moans, feigning injury. “NO — you will go OUT! What I will do also — I will never use a red card and a yellow card.”

Instead, he likes a sin-bin concept. “I would say ‘YOU — get out for five minutes (for a yellow card)!’ And ‘YOU — get out for 20 minutes for a red card!’

Apparently Aurelio thinks players will be better behaved if they understand that there's an immediate cost to bad actions. Every yellow card putting a player off for 5 minutes of a 50 minute game is awfully draconian, though.

Most of the piece isn't actually about Aurelio's ideas on how to improve soccer (which he think should be more aimed at 6-year-olds), but on his relationship with Napoli, its fans, Antonio Conte, and the his ideas on who should and shouldn't be included in the top leagues of Italy and Europe (spoiler: Aurelio is a Super League guy).

But De Laurentiis did give Crafton one thought on how to improve our little local soccer league, as Aurelio is at least a part-time resident of our grand country.

Give De Laurentiis a topic, and he will give you an opinion. How to fix Major League Soccer? They should make a pan-Americas league, merging the continents of North and South America.

On the one hand, Aurelio think Serie A should be limited to 16 teams and only those will more than a million fans. On the other hand, MLS needs to join with leagues in Brazil and Argentina somehow.

At least he's thinking. American soccer needs an Aurelio De Laurentiis. Hey, Aurelio, want to buy the San Jose Earthquakes?

Getting Real Sexy In the CCC

Wednesday night proved to be less auspicious than Tuesday night for Major League Soccer clubs in this year's quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, but GS/BS is thrilled to celebrate the success of LAFC and Nashville SC down in Mexico a few nights ago.

Not only did LAFC and Nashville SC advance past Mexican opponents to reach the semifinals, Nashville did something no MLS team has ever done before: Win in el Estadio Azteca in el DF.

Club America fans were not thrilled.

this Club America fan is going THROUGH IT been there

[image or embed]

— Douglas Reyes-Ceron (@dreyesceron.bsky.social) April 15, 2026 at 1:24 AM

American Soccer Heritage Is Multi-Use

The Round of 32 in the 2026 US Open Cup went down this week and while GS/BS is still smoldering over Major League Soccer's treatment of the tournament, the entry of a handful of MLS teams this round did give us a few magical moments.

USL League One side One Knoxville knocked off performance art project/bad reality show DC United in a wild game that ended in a penalty shootout. Colorado Springs dumped more woe on Sporting Kansas City by taking down the MLS side in the shadow of Pike's Peak.

And Westchester SC versus New York City FC in the suburbs gave us a heartwarming bit of American soccer culture: The multi-use high school field with a panoply of sports lines dense enough to scramble your frontal lobe.

Nirvana.

The Stadium Boom Rolls On

It's easy to be cynical about American soccer, what with the pay-to-play problems in the youth levels, the questionable economics of professional teams, and labor strife over basic employee benefits.

But man, every time we get news about a new stadium getting a green light, GS/BS gets a buzz. It's not that long ago that any soccer stadium getting built in American could be called a miracle and now we're putting up mini cathedrals to the game in midsize cities and towns across the country.

Omaha just approved a portion of the funding for a planned, 7,000-seat stadium, pushing that project closer to getting underway. GS/BS is generally skeptical of tax breaks going for sports stadiums, but GS/BS is also a sucker for a rendering.

Look at this:

So pretty.

The Fountain of Oh No

Remember the infamous 2002 USMNT World Cup photo shoot that gave us sexy Kasey Keller, smoldering Pablo Mastroeni, coquettish Brian McBride, steamy DeMarcus Beasley, spicy Cobi Jones, and Landon Donovan drinking suggestively from a water fountain?

Sure you do. How could you not. It's burned into the deepest part of every American soccer fans memory, never to be dislodged. We'll be in our 90s, unable to remember our own names, but we'll still have Landon's glistening lips bouncing around our recall.

Which is why GS/BS was a little distrubed to see the Landon water fountain photo...invoked? on purpose maybe? in a story at Esquire about Indiana University quaterback and NFL draft prospect Fernando Mendoza.

For refence, here's Donovan back in 2002:

And he're Fernando:

Maybe in 20 years someone will take the time to write a piece remembering Fernando's water fountain folly and then make sure to secure the actual water fountain for posterity the way intrepid American soccer scribe Pablo Maurer did.

Today is the 20th anniversary of the Landon Donovan Water Fountain™ photo.

Look what’s in the back of my 1984 DODGE SHELBY TURBO RAMPAGE.

Time to drive it to Frisco, TX where it’ll live out its days at the @soccerhof.

Thank you, David & the @TownofCary, for keeping it safe! pic.twitter.com/ZcqFIn1wPK

— Pablo Iglesias Maurer (@MLSist) May 19, 2022

Or maybe not. Soccer fans are weirdos.

And that's it for GS/BS.

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The Best Soccer Show will be live tonight at 9 ET on YouTube, so come by and partake in the American soccer fun. We'll be talking about Matt Crocker, Javier Mascherano, MLS in the CCC, the US Open Cup, and more.