The Away End with Daniel Alarcón and John Green

I am new to the world of Football/soccer (apologies for my incurable American-ness) and attribute John as one of the people who inspired my interest in the sport. This is such a wonderful way to learn about the World Cup in a fun, thoughtful and informative way. Daniel, John and Sean are such a great team for this show. Thanks for fueling my passion for soccer/football! (PS Go Nashville SC!)

The Away End Podcast is fútbol in its most honest register, a conversation that refuses containment. It moves the way memory moves. Tactics give way to geography. A goal becomes a migration story. Someone reaches for a season that lives in the body like weather. Nothing is too small to matter. Nothing stays where it was supposed to. There is a producer who should remain behind the glass and never does. He is pulled into the light and asked to explain the unexplainable, to solve questions everyone already knows have no solution. His hesitation becomes part of the architecture. His voice enters like a witness called without warning. The room leans toward him. The laughter that follows is not cruel. It is ritual. The music arrives as if it has always been playing somewhere else. An outtake from a Fela Kuti session that somehow wandered into this one. It does not decorate the conversation. It understands it. The horns circle the same obsessions. The rhythm section carries the weight of the detours, the arguments, the sudden confessions about a left back who changed someone’s life. Whether by accident or by a choice no one remembers making, it mirrors everything. It knows when the talk will turn. It knows when to let the silence breathe. What you hear is not a show. It is a place. A long table. A border crossing. A night bus. The feeling of standing in an away end where the language shifts but the song does not. It is, against all logic and with complete precision, perfect.

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Regular Dear Hank and John listener here, so when I heard about this new soccer podcast I knew I had to come listen. Enjoying the stories, nuanced feelings about this year’s World Cup, and soccer terminology bit with your producer. In episode two you both mentioned you were a bit sad about only getting to experience 8 more World Cups in your life time. Alas! I have great news! Women’s World Cups are also every four years and the US team is spectacular! Hope for a world title isn’t so easily crushed as it is with the men’s team. :) Loving the pod and can’t wait to hear more!