Rooster and the Villain: An American Soccer Podcast

The Prem is back and so are we! We drink too much beer and talk about the state of the Prem. 

The OneGoal guys interview Sebastian Saucedo for the website a few weeks back.

In 2019, Sebastian Saucedo (23) surprised many US fans when he left Real Salt Lake, his hometown club, for Liga MX side Club Universidad Nacional, more commonly known as Pumas. Following his move south of the border, Saucedo started scoring goals for his new team as early as January thanks to the scheduling of his new league. Come March, Saucedo was named to the yet-to-be-postponed USMNT Olympic Qualifying roster. 

With no games coming back in the immediate future, we took some time to catch up with the former RSL Academy stand out turned Liga MX winger. 

In nearly an hour of complete honesty, Saucedo talks about his early days playing soccer, his success at Pumas so far, why leaving RSL was the right decision, a call from USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter in January and why more American talents out of the ‘97 age group could have made it in Europe. 

Why come to Rooster and the Devil to learn about the Bundesliga when literally every soccer podcast that exists will talk about Bundesliga? Well, you probably shouldn't.

The three morons are back at it trying to piece together the Bundesliga while thinking out loud. Somehow it devolves into an all-Premier League conversation by about a half hour in. But, as usual, we had fun and it seems that some of you out there have enough fun to tune in with us every week.

Soccer is back!

Joey DeZart is a defensive midfielder for Orlando City SC.

Joey is originally from New Jersey (shout-out to my home state). While playing youth soccer in NJ, he was recruited by the Philadelphia Union Academy. He had some pretty amazing experiences with that academy, including playing in the Generation Adidas cup in games against Eintract Frankfurt, Athletic Bilbao, Palmeiras, and other youth squads from around the world.

After that, he went to Wake Forest to go on to have a prolific NCAA career. Then in the last MLS SuperDraft, he was selected by Orlando City with the 31st pick. After earning a spot on the team, Joey was on the cusp of his rookie season when Covid-19 gunked up the world.

But Joey was gracious enough to spend some time on our podcast. For that we are thankful.

Luis Argudo has been in the MLS since 2018. 

After 2 seasons with the Columbus Crew (39 appearances), Luis was drafted by Inter Miami with the seventh overall pick of the 2019 MLS Expansion Draft. Prior to this, he played for the Wake Forest Demon Deacons after he transferred from Elon University. Great conversation with another Wake Forest product.

Early in Spring 2020, the OneGoal.us guys sat down with Schalke U19 striker Matthew Hoppe. Formerly of the Barcelona Residency Academy in Arizona, the California native discusses his move to Germany in the Summer of 2019, tactical trainings with Schalke, and his transition from the midfield to a forward.

Audio edited by the Rooster and the Devil podcast (@roosterdevil).

Early in 2020, the OneGoal.us (subscribe to their USMNT newsletter) sat down with promising New England Revolution fullback Brandon Bye. A top ten draft pick from 2018, Bye has featured as a regular for the MLS side and shared about his career and the transition from college to professional soccer in the USA. 

Leading the interview was OneGoal's head of content Ross Hall, who actually was classmates with Bye back in his college days.

Audio edited by the Rooster and the Devil podcast (@roosterdevil).

The interviews on this channel have been amazing. Shocking that we've been fortunate enough to have some amazing guests lately.

But this started with three middle aged men rambling about soccer in their basements on the internet and by god, it will always be some of that. We somehow fill an hour and 6 minutes with soccer talk, as we always do. I believe we sprinkle in some Coronavirus shit too because it's really hard not to right now.

But we talk about Bundesliga coming back. Soccer documentaries. USMNT drama. And more.

Logan Gdula was gracious enough to spend an early afternoon with us on a Skype interview during our quarantine.

Logan is a young player that's on the brink of MLS. He was drafted #13 overall by FC Cincinnati in their first year as an expansion club (last year). He was loaned to Phoenix Rising and sustained an injury. Came back to FC Cincinnati and made the 18 but never saw the field. But was then loaned to Hartford Athletic to play in the USL close to home. In the offseason, he signed with Charleston Battery to play Right Back.

The MLS is still very much in the picture for Logan. With a fresh start at Charleston and the expectation of seeing the field a lot, things are looking up whenever we get this thing going again.

Logan tells us all about his soccer journey up until his current position. Another great guy with a bright future!

On this episode of Rooster and the Devil, we interview Bruno Lapa of the USL Championship's Birmingham Legion FC. 

Bruno has a great soccer story. He grew up playing the game in Brazil, spent some time on trial in Portugal, and eventually ended up playing for Montegverde Academy in Florida.

From there, he took a path that is traditionally blazed by American soccer youth. He committed to Wake Forest and spent 4 years playing for the University (2016-2019). He was the #10 on the squad, a captain, and a First Team All-American during his time there.

After College, he ended up in the USL Championship and was set to begin his first season with Birmingham Legion FC. And then Coronavirus happened. So, like the rest of us, he sits and waits for soccer to come back. Great conversation with a great young man! Am I old now if I start saying great young man?