Dateline: San Salvador
Here's the Type of Coverage You Can Expect From Me From Every USMNT World Cup Qualifier
Welcome to Fútbol with Grant Wahl — a newsletter about soccer. You can read what this is about here. If you like what you see, consider forwarding it to some friends. You can also click the button below to subscribe for free. And if you do like it, consider going to the paid version. I’ll be on the ground for all 14 USMNT World Cup qualifiers, and that type of quality coverage requires resources for this to be a sustainable operation.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador — Greetings from Central America! The USMNT meets El Salvador on Thursday in the U.S.’s first matchday of qualifying for World Cup 2022. I’ll be on location for all 14 U.S. World Cup qualifiers between now and March, and I can’t wait to bring you quality coverage.
This is my first time in El Salvador—the 61st FIFA country I have been able to visit; yes, I’m a nerd and keep track—and as you can see, I have already partaken of pupusas, the Salvadoran dish that comes highly recommended from ESPN’s Alexis Nunes, my Salvadoran-Jamaican friend who has been pushing me to try them. Holy smokes, they’re good!
Alexis wants to come on the pod and do a foodie recommendation list for the CONCACAF Octagonal, and who am I to argue with someone who’s an expert on so many of the countries in the tournament? All I can say is I can’t wait to get that fresh stadium ceviche again in Panama next month. (Yes, it’s not just edible, it’s magnificent.)
The USMNT arrives here later today on its charter flight from Nashville (Christian Pulisic has stayed in Tennessee getting back up to full fitness), and we’ll get some access to the team in a few hours. But right now I wanted to give you a sense of what to expect from my on-site coverage of every USMNT qualifier:
TODAY (Wednesday): In addition to this post, I’ll come back after the U.S. media access with an Audio Dispatch (basically a couple-minutes-long voicemail-type post) with any news and my takes from what I’m seeing here.
THURSDAY: In the morning, I’ll post a new podcast interview with an intriguing figure connected to USMNT World Cup qualifying. In addition to that audio podcast, I’ll also post the written version of the interview for those who prefer reading over listening.
At the game’s final whistle, I’ll write “My 3 Thoughts” with my quick opinions off the game. Then in the wee hours I’ll post an audio podcast with instant reaction to the game.
FRIDAY: At 9 am ET I’ll post my magazine-quality written story off the game. Back in the early 2000s when I covered World Cup qualifiers for Sports Illustrated’s weekly print magazine, I would have to write a story off a game that would still be a quality read the following Thursday when it appeared in your mailbox. That meant having good stuff in the story that you wouldn’t see in other outlets’ newspaper and website stories that were published an hour or two after the game ended.
In those old Sports Illustrated days, I would stay up all night writing and file my story at 8 am ET the next morning, whereupon it went through the editing process and appeared the following Thursday. SI eventually stopped doing those stories due to the four-day lag time, but it wasn’t the quality of those stories that was the problem. So what if, for this newsletter, I came on location for the most important games (i.e., every USMNT World Cup qualifier, World Cups, etc.) and gave you the quality of those old SI stories—on-site reporting, content you won’t see elsewhere—but you got it at 9 am ET the morning after the game instead of having to wait until the following Thursday?
I’m making a bet on quality and hoping you’ll be interested in reading—and even paying for—something special. (I even brought in my favorite editor from our old SI days, Mark Mravic, to edit these magazine-style stories.)
I’ll be doing this type of coverage for all the USMNT World Cup qualifiers, including the next two in this window. I may try some new things from time to time to see what works best, but please know that I want to make subscribing to this newsletter, free or paid, worth it for you, the readers.
I will say that one of my favorite parts of this job over the years has been traveling to new countries that I might not have visited without the sport of soccer being involved. You can literally get into a taxi anywhere in the world and have a conversation with the driver about the world’s game.
My flight landed around midnight Tuesday, and the driver, Carlos, and I had a fun discussion in Spanish about the U.S. and El Salvador teams; La Selecta coach Hugo Pérez (who played in World Cups for the USMNT); the Roldán brothers, Cristián and Alex, who play for the U.S. and El Salvador, respectively; the state of soccer in the U.S.; and Carlos the Driver’s love for the Boston Celtics of the 1980s (I’m not kidding).
I can’t tell you how happy I am to be here, and I hope that comes through in my coverage. Thanks so much for your support. Back soon to you from San Salvador!
If you read this newsletter and value it, consider going to the paid version. Doing quality soccer journalism and becoming sustainable requires people being willing to pay for it. If you’re reading this in your inbox, you can find a shareable version online here. You can follow me on Twitter here and Instagram here. Feel free to comment below, and thanks for reading.
Glad you're writing again. I've been on a steady diet of Jeff Carlisle for my soccer reading, which is great, but I've missed your three thoughts after big games.
Where's Wahldo? San Salvador, for now.
Papusa game looks strong. Hopefully, so do the US Nationals.