The Blazing Musket Podcast

The World Cup has completed two knockout rounds and the final stages are nearly here. The quarterfinals begin on Thursday in Foxboro and conclude on Saturday night. Hayden Bird from the Boston Globe and Boston.com is here to recap the round of 16 and get us all set for the quarterfinals. You can follow Hayden on BlueSky and check out his soccer coverage on Boston.com . You can follow Thomas on Blu...

The roundtable has assembled for a World Cup special! We got together to chart the US's path to the quarterfinals, figure out who the real contenders are, who's in trouble and what individually have impressed the most so far. We’ve got the usual crew here to talk about all of it… Our guests join from: United in Green podcast covering the Vermont Green The Friggin Soccer Show podcast covering Portl...

It's only been seven days of games for the 2026 World Cup but there's much to dive into already! Oliver Scholes and Sam Latoff from The Blazing Musket is in fresh off the conclusion of England's first game to discuss the USMNT flying start, slow going for Canada, a setback for Brazil and more! Get caught up on all things World Cup as the tournament moves into the second week of group stage action....

The World Cup is here! We’re ready to dive into the local connections, teams to watch, players to watch and our best guesses as to how this whole thing shakes out. We're joined by none other than the leader of The Blazing Musket, Sam Lattof, and one of New England's best soccer journalists, Hayden Bird, from Boston.com, to get you ready for the biggest World Cup in the tournament's history. You ca...

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  podcast covering the Vermont Green The Friggin Soccer Show  podcast covering Portland Hea...

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 w...

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 cha...

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...

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 talke...

Valair Shabilla of 615 Soccer is back with us to tell a story that's forty years in the making, Iraq is headed to the World Cup for the first time since Mexico 1986. The moment qualification was secured was witnessed by Valair down in Monterey, Mexico a few weeks back. He's here to tell us how it happened, why they were away for so long, what to expect from Iraq this summer and who the heroes of t...

This week Thomas is joined by Sam Lattof to talk about FIFA's latest new way to drive US consumer credit use levels to ever newer highs, the MBTA joining in on the fun, the Revs playing RIFC and the bright light of hope emanating from Burlington, Vermont. You can keep up with Sam here on BlueSky and all our coverage of New England soccer at The Blazing Musket . You can follow  Thomas on BlueS...

Our podcast network covers all of New England's most popular soccer teams, you've heard a lot of their hosts right here on The Blazing Musket Podcast. This week we're giving you highlight segments from these great podcasts, have a listen and be sure to check a few of them out after if you haven't already! Heard a great segment from one of our shows? Download some full episodes below: United in Gre...

Hayden Bird is back just as qualification for the World Cup wraps up and the Revolution and Legacy's seasons are in full swing. We got Hayden's thoughts on how the Revs are doing early days with their new coach, the Legacy's slow start and how the final rounds of World Cup qualification shaped up. We also had a little more fun at Josh Kraft's expense. You can follow Hayden on BlueSky and check out...

The US Open Cup is delivering early season ups, downs and rivalries for the New England teams taking part. We discuss the first round and what to expect from the second. There's also Drumgate up in Portland and the upcoming last chance saloon to get to the World Cup later on this week. Our guests join from: United in Green  podcast covering the Vermont Green The Friggin Soccer Show  podc...

The Boston Legacy kicked off their Inaugural season this past weekend at Gillette Stadium with 30,000 fans in attendance. Two of those fans, Andy and Courtney, have a podcast called The Swan Dive dedicated to covering the Legacy. We've signed them up to The Blazing Musket podcast network to complete our set of podcasts covering every independent pro soccer team in New England! Andy and Courtney ta...

The USL Championship and League One seasons have just begun, which means it time to get John back on the show and get us ready. He's with us this week to get us caught up on what to expect across both leagues, contenders, upstarts, expansion sides, all of it. John also touched on the ongoing labor situation and give his outside perspective on how New England's pro USL stable of teams will do in 20...

Soccer and sports are supposed to allow us time to not focus on all the rest, the things we have to think about and deal with that we'd rather not. In the last week, however, we've seen the USLPA vote to authorize a strike, a World Cup host country attack one of the teams that qualified for its tournament, an MLS partner enabling people to profit from war and death and the brave Town of Foxboro ha...

The MLS Next Pro season kicks off this weekend and a revamped Revs II is back in action for 2026. They had a lot of turnover this past off-season and with a youth minded coach with the first team, Revs II are worth keeping an eye on this season. Literally no one follows this team like Josh Nye does for The Blazing Musket, he's here to get us all caught up and ready for the new season! Thomas opene...

It's the time of year where everyone makes their predictions for the season ahead, everyone offered up their best thought out predictions that will mostly turn out to be wildly inaccurate in a few months time. We also discussed the 1st round of the US Open Cup in New England and we tested the limits of how far off topic we can get and still get back on track. Our guests join from: United in Green...

It's almost time! The NWSL's return to New England with the Boston Legacy is drawing ever closer. Jackie is back to get you caught up on who the Legacy have got, where they're playing, when they're playing and everything to expect this season. The best way to follow the Legacy is with Jackie's coverage at The Blazing Musket and on BlueSky . If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe an...

The leader of The Blazing Musket, Sam Lattof, checks in to catch up on all the latest developments with soccer in New England. We've got preseason behind closed doors for the Revs, new players for RIFC and Hartford, the US Open Cup brings New England vs New England match-ups and Mauricio Pochettino puts his foot in his mouth. Sam's here to discuss it all! If you're enjoying the show be sure to lik...

With all the excitement around New England's growing USL presence in recent years, the strong presence of the UPSL may have been overlooked. The founders of one of the UPSL's newest teams, Boston Emeralds, are in this week to tell you all about their Club and why we should check them out in 2026. What goes into founding a Club, deciding on a league, name, badge and building a following, Kevin and...

The biggest obstacle to the biggest year of soccer in the US that isn't the Federal government is the USL Championship labor dispute. The USL and USLPA are three weeks past the expiration of the previous deal and it's an open question as to when a new one will be reached. Connor Tobin is fully involved in the negotiation process and joins us to tell the tale of how we reached this point, what an o...

We're back for the January 2026 Roundtable! The USL has an ongoing labor dispute, women's soccer is back in New England, new teams are joining the party in Maine, Vermont and Connecticut and the USL is going to play right through the World Cup. It's a lot discuss and we tackled all of it! Our guests join from: United in Green  podcast covering the Vermont Green From the Forest to the Tide &nb...

We're back up and running for 2026! The much anticipated biggest year of soccer in the US is finally here. It will be a year of soccer the likes of which has never been seen in New England as well. Sam Latoff joins Thomas to preview all there is to look forward to, we've got new teams in New England, the return of women's soccer, a new coach in Foxboro and the World Cup drama looms in the distance...