Speaker 1: I am Jamie Rudd, and here is what is happening
in football right now. Last night was supposed to be
Robert Lewandowski's MLS coronation. Instead it was Louis Suarez's knight.
Chicago Fire versus Inter Miami at Chase Stadium Lewandowski's debut,
and it started perfectly. In the twenty third minute, into
Miami goalkeeper Roco rios Novo tried to play a back
pass to his defender Ian Fray. He got it completely wrong.
The ball trickled past Frey. Lewandowski was lurking, and rios
Novo panicked, rushed out and whiffed own goal. Chicago won
Miami zero. Lewandowski did not even touch the ball, He
just stood there and watched Miami self destruct. But Suarez
took over. The Uruguayan scored twice in the second half,
a poacher's finish in the fifty sixth minute and a
clinical strike in the seventy third, and into Miami won
three goals to two. Lewandowski had chances. He hit the
post in the sixty first minute, he forced a good
save from rios Novo in the eighty second, but he
did not score, and on his debut in a game
Chicago needed to win. The story became Suarez, reminding everyone
that he is still one of the best finishers on
the planet. Messi was not there. He is on a
post World Cup break, along with Rodrigo de Paul and
the other Argentina players who went to the final into
Miami one without him, which is either encouraging for Miami
fans because it proves they can win without their superstar
or worrying because it proves they can win without their
superstar and maybe they do not need to rush him back.
The other big MLS news is that Casamiro has joined
into Miami. The Brazilian midfielder who won five Champions League
titles with Real Madrid is now a Miami player. He
is thirty four years old. He is past his peak,
but he is Bill Casamiro. He still breaks up attacks,
he still reads the game two seconds before everyone else,
and now he is playing alongside Busquetes in a midfield
that has more European trophies than most national teams. Miami
are building a retirement home for legends and it is working.
In Spain, Barcelona are in transfer chaos. They want who
lean Alvarez from Atletico Madrid. Atletico's president Enrique Cerezo came
out yesterday and said Alvarez is staying. Quote Wholean will
play at Atletico Madrid next season. Full stop, end of story,
which means Barcelona need a plan B. Their plan B
might be Darwin Nunez, the Uruguayan striker, is in Saudi Arabia,
supposedly living the high life and reportedly dreaming of a
move to Barcelona. Dreaming is not the same as happening.
Nunez has a contract in Saudi Arabia. Barcelona have no
money and FFP rules mean they cannot register new players
until they sell someone. But the rumor exists, and in football,
rumors have a way of becoming reality when enough people
tweet about them. Barcelona are also chasing Emeric Laporte, the
Spanish center back who won the World Cup with Spain
this month, is being linked with a return to La Liga.
Athletic club's new manager Edin Terzich came out yesterday and
called Barcelona's pursuit disrespectful. He said Laporte is under contract,
Barcelona should show some class and the speculation is destabilizing
his squad. Terzick is not wrong, but Barcelona do not
care about being respectful. They care about signing players, and
if Laporte wants to leave, he will leave. And here
is a story that is genuinely wild. US Customs and
Border Protection seized four hundred and forty five thousand counterfeit
items during the World Cup. Fake jerseys, fake scarves, fake everything.
The total value of the counterfeit trade was thirty two
million dollars, and the most commonly seized item was the
Messi Argentina. Jersey Customs officials ran two operations. Operation Final
Whistle targeted sales around MetLife Stadium. Before the final operation,
Team Player covered all eleven host cities. They seized sixty
five thousand items in New York alone, sixteen thousand in Miami,
twelve thousand in Houston, and another sixteen thousand in Toronto,
which is not even in the United States, but Canada
decided to join the party. The fake jerseys were selling
for thirty to forty dollars on street corners near Times Square.
The official Adidas version costs one hundred and ten dollars. Fans,
when asked by the Athletic if their shirts were real,
freely admitted they were buying the cheap versions, because one
hundred and ten dollars for a jersey is absurd, and
because football fans are not stupid. But here is the
official line from Customs. They say the counterfeit trade funds
criminal organizations, terrorism, money laundering, forced labor. They say sixty
to seventy percent of the fake goods came from China
and Hong Kong, and they say they need to do
a better job educating the public on the risks. I
will say this, if you bought a forty dollars messy
jersey on a street corner in Manhattan, you knew exactly
what you were doing. You were not funding terrorism, you
were buying a shirt to wear to a football game.
And the fact that Customs seized four hundred and forty
five thousand of them tells you how massive this market is.
Football is a religion, and religion has always had a
black market. Quick note This show is produced with the
help of AI