SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
And now it's time for soccer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
SIMON: World Cup time, and the U.S. is having a great time. In fact, all the host countries are having fun. Sports reporter Michele Steele joins us. Morning, Michele.
MICHELE STEELE: Good morning, Scott. I'm ready to talk some futbol.
SIMON: Futbol. Listen, France, England, Argentina still considered the leaders, but the U.S. men's national team is going to the knockout round - 2-0 victory over Australia. Not much was expected of the team. What happened? Can they keep it up?
STEELE: (Laughter) Well, a couple of weeks ago, Scott, I should say, your esteemed colleague, Eyder Peralta asked me on air, you know, no one really expects anything out of this U.S. team, right? And I told him there - then, hold on. We're going to stay optimistic. Now, if you ask me, would the U.S. clinch the group with another game left to play in the group stage, no, I did not have that on my bingo card, nor did I have offense being the story for this team. Now, one of last night's goals against Australia was an own goal on the part of the Socceroos, but we'll take it.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: What is great about this is the position that it puts the U.S. in. They've clinched early. They potentially can rest their stars. Remember, Christian Pulisic's calf needs to heal up before it matters again, and the rest of us can kind of dream about how far this thing can go.
SIMON: Mexico and Canada, two other host countries, are both doing well. Mexico has goals to go now to the knockout round. Canada, not yet, but, boy, 6-0 against Qatar. They're doing pretty well, too, aren't they?
STEELE: I'll say. You know, I've been watching some of these games, Scott, on Spanish television. I don't know if you have at all. But when the announcers start talking really fast, I know it's time to start paying attention. And these Mexico games have been so much fun for me. Now, for their fans, getting to the knockout stage, it's great, but it's not a victory. They're trying to break past that infamous round of 16 wall. They've got a lot of talent. But there's a lot of pressure on their shoulders. Now, as for Canada, they haven't officially advanced yet, but they just dismantled, like you said, Qatar, 6 to nothing. That's a six-goal margin...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...Of victory. You don't usually see that from the polite Canadians up north. That's an elbows-up kind of score.
SIMON: Yeah. They go, let's not embarrass these fellows. Yeah.
STEELE: Yeah. I should say their coach is American. He's from Racine, Wisconsin.
SIMON: Well, then you have the - yeah, certainly, metro Chicago. Now we have the answer.
STEELE: There you go. Jesse Marsch, and I bet you he brings that kind of aggressive pacing into the final group match. Home continent advantage, Scott, very real.
SIMON: Brazil fans, they've got more victories than anybody. Wasn't happy with the 1-1 tie with Morocco last week. But 3-zip over Haiti last night, right?
STEELE: Yeah. You know, I live next to a very nice couple where the wife is from Brazil, and I ran into them last week in their Brazil jerseys, as you can imagine, leaving our local pub at the half, absolutely despondent at what ended up, like you said, being a 1-1 draw. This is a country that considers anything less than absolute dominance...
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: ...A national emergency. So a 3-nothing win over Haiti - it's not a celebration. It's a sigh of relief. It doesn't erase the panic from last week, but it certainly does buy their coach a few more days of not getting yelled at on Brazilian sports radio, I presume. But these Brazilian fans - I know her pretty well, my neighbor. She's not going to breathe easy until she sees her team hoisting a trophy.
SIMON: Let's end with a love story. Boston and fans from Scotland, who, by the way, seem to have drained Boston dry. The Boston Tea Party succeeded by the Boston Scottish Beer Fest.
STEELE: (Laughter).
SIMON: Have you ever seen anything like this?
STEELE: If it's not Scottish, it's crap. So Boston was my home for three years when I was covering the Patriots.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: And I lived a five-minute walk away from the only Scottish bar in Boston. It's called The Haven. And according to the owner of that bar, Scottish fans personally finished off 65 kegs...
SIMON: Ooh.
STEELE: ...In six days. That's a lot. You might have seen pictures of them. They walked - the Tartan Army walked en masse to a Red Sox game. A lot of fun. The founder of a dating night held a mixer at a bar next to Fenway this week where Scottish men could meet American women. And one local Boston girl posted a TikTok. I may not be happily married, Scott, but at least I'm single while the Scottish are in town for the World Cup.
SIMON: Ooh. Ooh.
STEELE: Amazing. Amazing. As someone who's not living in a World Cup city, I'm a little jealous.
SIMON: Yeah.
STEELE: The mayor of Boston calling it a peaceful invasion. Everybody seems to love it.
SIMON: Michele Steele, thanks so much. Talk to you soon.
STEELE: See you next time. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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