The Blazing Musket Podcast

May 2026 Roundtable!

We’re just weeks away from the World Cup, in the midst of a women’s soccer revival in New England, while another USL team folds and MLS Next Pro embraces private equity investment to go to war with the USL. We’ve got the usual crew here to talk about all of it… Our guests join from: United in Green [https://unitedingreen.podbean.com/] podcast covering the Vermont Green The Friggin Soccer Show [https://www.frigginsoccer.com/] podcast covering Portland Hearts of Pine Raising Anchor [https://www.raisinganchorpodcast.com/] a podcast covering Rhode Island FC The Average Fan Podcast [https://shows.acast.com/the-average-fan-hartford-athletic-podcast/episodes/early-season-success] that covers Hartford Athletic You can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution Recap and The Swan Dive. We hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Boston Legacy Finding Their Footing

Jackie covers the Boston Legacy here at The Blazing Musket and has been keeping up with them during their five game unbeaten streak. We talked about their slow start, the recent run of results and what to expect headed into the summer. We also talked about the switch in their home venue as they will now transition from Gillette Stadium to Centreville Bank Stadium in Rhode Island. You can keep up with the Legacy here on The Blazing Musket [https://www.theblazingmusket.com/tag/boston-legacy-football-club/]and follow Jackie on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/jackiedigital.bsky.social]. You can follow Thomas on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/tpinzone343.bsky.social]. Let us know what you think about the show, send us your suggestions and anything else at thebentmusketig@gmail.com. If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

MLS Next Pro and the USSF Changing Soccer's Investment Landscape

Wes Burdine is a co-founder of the community owned, Minnesota Aurora FC, a women's team competing in the USL W League in 2026. Wes joins us to talk about MLS Next Pro taking a big investment from private equity, namely KKR. We talked about what is MLS' overarching goal with this new partnership and is this really the direction we want to see soccer leagues going? We also talked about US Soccer changing a key standard of now only requiring a principal investor in a Club to own 15% of the team, instead of the previous 35%. What does this newer, lower threshold mean for future investment in US Soccer? Does this have any potential positives like unlocking more chances for fan owned teams? You can follow Wes on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/wesburdine.bsky.social] right here and check out Minnesota Aurora FC in more detail here [https://mnaurora.com/]. You can follow Thomas on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/tpinzone343.bsky.social]. Let us know what you think about the show, send us your suggestions and anything else at thebentmusketig@gmail.com. If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Exploring the Sportwashing, Greed and Corruption of the 2026 World Cup

Jules Boykoff is the author of Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine and Kicking, a memoir about his former life as a professional footballer and his current life as a critical academic of sport. He has also written six books on the politics of the Olympics, most recently, What Are the Olympics For?. He teaches political science at Pacific University. Joining all the way from Helsinki, Finland, Jules talked all about how the World Cup is and has been used by authoritarian leaders for sportwashing and by FIFA, a supposed non-profit, for greed. We take a close look at everything going on around the 2026 World Cup and its parallels to previous editions as well as the Olympic Games. Jules also spoke about his career as a professional soccer player in the US and how he transitioned to becoming a professor of political science. If you're interested in Jules' work please consider picking up a copy of one of his upcoming books at the links below: Red Card: The 2026 World Cup, Sportswashing, and the FIFA Greed Machine [https://orbooks.com/catalog/red-card/] Kicking [https://t.e2ma.net/message/tt4y9o/5m3u8e] You find all of Jules' work here [https://julesboykoff.org/] and follow him on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/julesboykoff.bsky.social]. You can follow Thomas on BlueSky [https://bsky.app/profile/tpinzone343.bsky.social]. Let us know what you think about the show, send us your suggestions and anything else at thebentmusketig@gmail.com. If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

April 2026 Roundtable!

We touched on the situation with the Vancouver Whitecaps possible relocation and what that might mean for the Las Vegas Lights of the USL. Given the amount of attention given to Landon Donovan pointing out the blatantly obvious that there are issues with youth soccer in America, we thought we'd talk about what New England's leading teams are or aren't doing in the youth soccer space. We also talked about some of our own personal experiences with youth soccer and offered a few ideas as well. Our guests join from: United in Green [https://unitedingreen.podbean.com/] podcast covering the Vermont Green The Friggin Soccer Show [https://www.frigginsoccer.com/] podcast covering Portland Hearts of Pine Raising Anchor [https://www.raisinganchorpodcast.com/] a podcast covering Rhode Island FC The Average Fan Podcast [https://shows.acast.com/the-average-fan-hartford-athletic-podcast/episodes/early-season-success] that covers Hartford Athletic You can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution Recap and The Swan Dive. We hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.