World Cup Mania With The Empty Nesters E143

Rick Denton (00:00)
This week on the Loud Quiet World Cup Mania with the empty nesters.

Clancy Denton (00:04)
Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of The Loud Quiet. It's Father's Day, so happy Father's Day to you and to all the fathers out there. I guess if you're listening to this, you're probably a father because you're an empty nester. So technically I guess you have to be a father to be an empty nester. So happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. Today we wanted to talk about the World Cup. Unless you don't own a TV or you don't own a phone.

you know the World Cup is going on. So we thought we'd tie that into some discussion today around that.

Rick Denton (00:41)
Yeah. And it's reminds us of an event as big as the Olympics. Right. It it's and I think many would argue it's it's actually bigger than the Olympics. And the Olympics were actually a part of our book. We had an episode about that and it's a chapter in the book about empty nest Olympics and we rank each other on the medals with that. So if you want to check out the book, you can find that over at theloudquiet.com. Would love to

Have y'all grab a copy and there's some free bonuses there as well for anyone who buys a copy.

Clancy Denton (01:13)
So yeah, so the World Cup, we have been viewers of the World Cup for for a lot of years now because we have a son who has played soccer since he was three. And so with that, we got sucked into the soccer world. But you when the World Cup was in the US the last time you win, but tell us, you know.

Rick Denton (01:39)
The the the the World Cup was something that you kinda heard about. It's like, okay, this thing's coming to town. What is this t and and I say to town? I grew up in Austin. It was up in Dallas, was the closest one. There were ⁓ matches, maybe. I just know at least a match in the cotton bowl. It was Germany versus South Korea. And I was a I was in college, the year was nineteen ninety-four, and so I'd had some friends who were soccer players in high school, but I didn't really care about it.

And I think it was through their eyes that they're like, yeah, no, it's it's coming to the country. Let's let's go see it. So we drove up to Dallas, and I was blown away by the experience. Had no real concept of what this was. I there was one little taste of it that I'd had before the World Cup, but experiencing it there live, the fans were I don't want to say crazy because they it was just they were so vibrant. That's what it was. What I remember were the colors.

The expressions, the excitement associated with it. And I I'd had a little taste of it back in 1990 when I was in the Soviet Union and there were some Dutch fans there. And ⁓ I saw how much fun they were having, but it wasn't the same as walking into the cotton bowl, drums banging from the South Korean, the Germans were chanting, and what a blast that was. Now I think my ticket was like thirty dollars.

That and I probably thought, my gosh, I have to pay thirty dollars for this.

Clancy Denton (03:09)
So what a change because okay, I was in college in Texas at that time. I didn't even know that was going on.

Rick Denton (03:19)
Really.

So it's zero awareness. You were in Dallas, right? At that point you would have already been up in Dallas. ⁓ we still

Clancy Denton (03:21)
Awares. No. Not

ninety four

Rick Denton (03:31)
I mean your family but you

Clancy Denton (03:33)
I would have been here during the summer for sure, but I had no idea what was going on and I had a brother that played soccer. So I had no awareness. But again, that was you know, people say US people don't know anything about soccer during that time that probably, you know, I it wasn't as big as it is here now.

Rick Denton (03:58)
And i I'll use not only the word big, I'll use normalized. Right. It was it was the fringe group. It was the alt group. It was and I'm I I'm painting that with a very broad brush, but in my friend group, the ⁓ what you'd call sort of the traditional sports, the traditional jucks, the traditional kind of culture was not as embracing of it. It was always the alt, the alt music.

Clancy Denton (04:23)
The

bad the soccer boys were the bad boys.

Rick Denton (04:26)
Yeah,

you know skaters the skater culture and soccer culture were very hand in hand in the nineties.

Clancy Denton (04:31)
Uh-huh.

Very true. And so now it's back in the US and North America and before when it got announced, there was some hate going on on Twitter. You know, Tanner was talking about he said, you know, everybody was saying, ⁓ the US isn't gonna do it right. It's not gonna be good. It's you know, there were there were

Rick Denton (04:57)
They

didn't even have the right stadiums for it, right? Even our stadiums don't fit the field requirements that exist for a World Cup match dimensions for a field.

Clancy Denton (05:08)
And y'all were so I mean y'all have been talking about this since it got announced. How are we gonna get tickets? We gotta get tickets. How are we gonna do this? We just have to make sure that we get this. But all I have seen is how great it's been. I really I really haven't seen any negative things except for well drinking all the beer and some places having to get shut down because it's reached capacity. Well

Rick Denton (05:37)
But reach it reached capacity hours before they kept jamming into it. And there was ⁓ not only did the world have a a big problem with it coming to the US, and you know not all of it. I still think FIFA absolutely gaffed and gouged the the Western market because of a pricing perspective. All of that though seems like it's in the past now that the pageantry has started. I still hate FIFA. But the pageantry and the matches

Clancy Denton (06:03)
Mm.

Rick Denton (06:06)
And the experience has been so much fun so far.

Clancy Denton (06:09)
Yeah, and I've loved seeing, you know, how amazed they are by all of our stadiums. This is this is a college stadium. This is a high school stadium. You know, it's just crazy how because, you know, we have seen some of these stadiums when we've been in Europe and like the one y'all just went to in Madrid. Okay, yes, it's an amazing stadium. But then we've seen some in like the Florence Stadium looks

smaller than our son's yeah. High school state.

Rick Denton (06:40)
And

especially when you talk about lower divisions, and obviously w Iceland is not Spain. But when we went to go see a professional soccer match in

Clancy Denton (06:51)
Middle

school stadium. Yeah. ⁓

Rick Denton (06:54)
It it is it is fun to watch your own country through the eyes of others. And it it gives you a fresh perspective on the things that we have kind of come numb to or the things that we gripe about. AT Stadium or I'm sorry now, Dallas Stadium during the World Cup. I re watched the first match that was played there and the announcers had their European accents. It was

clear by the words that they were saying that they had never stepped foot in that stadium before and they were just blown away by it. And I'm sitting there going, Yeah, I kinda think I hate the place. The acoustics suck and that screen is too big and they're the ones going gaga over look at the size of this screen. It is spectacular.

Clancy Denton (07:39)
And to know that we've been there for high school games and not just high school playoff games, we have pictures of our daughter close up dancing on that big huge TV. Just now I will say that is true. Yeah.

Rick Denton (07:55)
Pictures of us. Yeah.

We they captured us as a crowd shot.

Clancy Denton (07:59)
I will say one thing I do like about FIFA coming in is that now it's Coke products at Dallas Stadium. I wish that would stick around, although I don't go there anymore anyways, 'cause my kids are done, but

Rick Denton (08:13)
I'm sorry. I'm not sure that there's enough monies in the world to pay for all the Cokes and the Pepsi products given the prices.

Clancy Denton (08:18)
But it's star, that would be great.

Rick Denton (08:21)
Don't invite FIFA into our backyard. Not allowed.

Clancy Denton (08:25)
So you talked about, you know, watching the games and that kind of thing. So we watch the games a little differently.

Rick Denton (08:34)
The entire World Cup experience is experienced differently between you and me. It is. So I love watching the just the match. I ⁓ watching the Dutch fans crowd their orange bus as they come into the stadium and the singing and the noise and the Japanese fans and the play on the field has actually really been really entertaining. Even talking to be I'm not a soccer guy. I d pret I play one on TV. And

Listening to the actual soccer talking heads talk about how that first week was really interesting. There were some exciting matches that were only decided in the last few minutes.

Clancy Denton (09:14)
Sell

yourself short, you know a lot about soccer just because we've had to learn a lot about soccer over the years.

Rick Denton (09:22)
Fair point. I know more than others. Clearly the rest of the world and many others in that. Who would like even Tanner, I always have to go to him and say, Okay, I don't understand. What's this tactic? What are they doing? What does that shape mean? But the difference is I know what those words what does this shape mean? Yes. Others might not know what that means, but there's a lot that I don't.

Clancy Denton (09:42)
Well, and you know, I'm proud of myself when I know things like the other night we were at dinner and he said, Yeah, you know, they park the bus and I was like, Ooh, I know what that means because it drives me crazy when we used to play teams that would park the bus and it just is such a frustrating defensive tactic. But anyways, so yes, but now I like all of the pageantry and that kind of thing. I just

If my child's not playing or if it's not some I will get into it more when it gets closer to

Rick Denton (10:18)
You probably care when it's a knockout, when the one team's going home.

Clancy Denton (10:22)
Yes. The the this this cycle I've watched some of it, but I come in and out. I I cannot sit there for well now it's over ninety minutes. I can't do that. So I will start and then I go to the other room and I scroll through social media or I sit out there and scroll through social media because I like to see what all

The fans are talking about. And I've loved seeing, we're trying Whataburger. ⁓ the ranch, the ranch is so good. I mean, now I just walk around all day and talk about the ranch, the ranch dressing. And if you've seen TSA actually had to put out a thing that said, please, you have to put the ranch dressing in your checked bag because they're all trying to bring it back because they fell in love with it, which yes.

Our fatty foods over here. They're so excited about

Rick Denton (11:24)
What's the biggest American export? It's gonna be, you know, fat, lard, and diabetes. So enjoy that world. It is ⁓ it is funny how ranch hasn't made it across the although I bet it starts to

Clancy Denton (11:36)
But I will say like, you know, 'cause they have McDonald's, so isn't ranch an option there when you get a salad? When you get a salad it's not. No. You don't think so, really? No. I mean, I haven't stepped foot into McDonald's in Europe since I lived over there. But you really don't think that's an option?

Rick Denton (11:54)
Ranch is one of those I've heard this before when people go overseas. The things that they tend to mi miss, ketchup is something that they miss, ranch is something that they miss. no, not ketchup. No, no, ketchup, I'm Nope, not ketchup, peanut butter. Peanut butter and ranch are two things that I hear a lot of Americans that go overseas that they miss when they're living over.

Clancy Denton (12:15)
My mom used to send my brother big things of peanut butter. I do remember that. I did see another one that I loved that was an American that said, If I can tell the Europeans one thing to take back with them from the US is please put ice in your drinks. Yeah, so I have really enjoyed seeing them trying well yeah, when they were trying to cut their ribs with a knife and fork and the barbecue guy came and said

Rick Denton (12:36)
Barbecue one.

Clancy Denton (12:43)
No, no, no, no, no. You gotta pick those up with your hands and they shut that in. Yeah. And so I've I've enjoyed seeing them trying the new foods and you know, that kind of thing. And some there was a British guy living here and he said, I'm trying to tell everyone, you can't walk to the stadiums like you know, over there everybody walks to the stadiums because they're in your city and they're cla he said.

Yeah, you're not walking down I thirty five to get to wherever he said good luck.

Rick Denton (13:16)
Well that you know there's certainly some things that I'm sure they're discovering that our transportation system isn't isn't what they're used to. Let's just say it neutrally like that. Yeah, I have seen a lot of in it it's sort of the reverse, like how you're describing the enjoyment of the fans. Like we're going to miss them. We are going to miss I there was a picture of a the Japan has ⁓ going they're gonna have two matches here in this area and watching them

ride longhorns. And pictures. And it could be the Japanese fan. It could be the ⁓ the fans from Curaçao. It could be anywhere. It's it's so much fun to see them delighting in you know what? Delighting in some of our stereotypes. And I know that's something that can be a little bit maddening because I was watching a FIFA match and it was

In Dallas. And of course all of the B roll in and out of the match was cows and cowboys and all that and and that is a key part of who we are. It's not the only part of who we are.

Clancy Denton (14:24)
But then I've also seen them walking down Knox. I if you live in Dallas, that's like a very, you know, nice part of town that has nice shopping and and I you know, one thing about the Japan fans is that yes, they're so nice and they're so open to trying new things and and they yes, I love seeing their TikToks and all that kind of stuff.

Rick Denton (14:50)
And it's

old news now because ⁓ during the Olympics it had come out as well, how the fans and the teams do such a phenomenal job of cleaning up after themselves and the and so that's not new news. It you contrast the fans that are attending World Cup matches to shoot any NFL game on a Sunday and we're like, yeah, there was another brawl outside of the Philadelphia game. Yeah. And

I love how there's an intensity to this. These fans care, but it's a fun care. There's not the just anger and the the vi we haven't, at least so far, have not seen the violence that is so frequently associated with US sports and what was associated with soccer decades ago. That seems to have found its way, if not completely removed from the game, at least dramatically minimized.

Clancy Denton (15:47)
I think a lot of girlfriends whose boyfriends are really into soccer have gotten into it because of the very nice looking soccer players. I've seen several reels of like, yeah, I like soccer now and it's like all the

Rick Denton (16:03)
Are

Yeah. I could I could see that. It is it is

It is a reality. And some of that I realize that this is the world's game, but a lot of us associate Europe with soccer, so I can see some of that sort of fascination with the European man and in in these girlfriends.

Clancy Denton (16:23)
And I think that is one thing that it has brought a lot of non-soccer people into the soccer world. You know, we our son's girlfriend, his family, her family, excuse me, was not necessarily soccer people, but now they're getting into it. And so it's fun to see people who

weren't excited about soccer, just get excited because it's especially when it's in your city. Yeah. It it's been fun.

Rick Denton (17:00)
The

spectacle is drawing people in. The a lot of the fun, and we're talking about this, that you know, this the the fan experience and and that I think that's something that's similar to it was a couple episodes that we talked about how travel is so important to just understanding other people. There's something about jamming all of these cultures together into one place that you get a greater appreciation of it. It makes me think about you know, some of the stuff that we're talking about, my gosh, they're so excited about.

Chick-fil-A. Well, when we were in Spain, my gosh, we were so excited about Jamon Iberico. Well, that not that that's necessarily their Chick-fil-A, but it's something that they don't even probably notice. It just is part of the background noise of their culture. And us going over there and enjoying that, we get an exposure to things that are just sort of normal for them. Now these cultures are coming over and really enjoying what we have that we tend to think as normal. And

Clancy Denton (17:30)
Yeah.

Rick Denton (17:59)
All of that coming together reinforces that element of, yeah, well we are all kind of just humans. Maybe like a little different food foods. Maybe they don't have ranch but they're about to have raun. But we're all well kind of the same.

Clancy Denton (18:11)
I think a lot of people thought soccer was a boring game because it can end in a tie. It can it goes on for ninety minutes without any stoppage. I I understand you do, but some people don't understand, you know, it's just if you don't under and it and it's like any game, if you don't understand it, it can be

Rick Denton (18:23)
Ooh, see that's where I think it's a pro.

Clancy Denton (18:40)
boring or it can be ⁓ not not your thing. But I think with it being here and with it taking up so much of the TV time, people are starting to watch it and learn it and see that okay it is really an exciting sport because it's nonstop action movement. And yes, there is some acting in it as well.

Rick Denton (19:06)
Minimizing

that. No, that's something that needs to get removed from the sport. The the the flopping. Actually that's what's sad is soccer is exporting that to other sports. Now basketball has a flopping problem in the US. It it that that's something that I love. I love the lack of a clock, ⁓ or I l love the lack of any stoppage. And I know advertisers hate it. I know that TV ⁓ broadcast networks hate it because they can't sell ads. Well, guess what? That means I don't have to watch an ad. And watching college football has almost become

unwatchable live because of how much is filled with commercials. And so I love that part of how soccer treats it differently. Now you you're right. There when you're just seeing a team pass it back and forth, back and forth with no progress, I get that part of it absolutely. You have to understand the nuance of the game to really appreciate that. And when people start to say that, it's kind of like somebody going to a museum and saying, Well you have to really appreciate the nuance of this piece of art when the person who doesn't comes and goes, I don't care.

It sucks. And so that's part of the learning that is gonna take place.

Clancy Denton (20:08)
Well,

and like, you know, when you see, Okay, ninety minutes is over, it says plus six. Well wait, they're at ninety eight. Why is it plus six you know, and so

Rick Denton (20:15)
I've

had so much fun trying to explain that to people. Well it's because of this and you don't actually stop the clock and all that. And then I've heard a rebuttal of, Well, they stopped the clock in college soccer here in the US. Why don't

Clancy Denton (20:26)
Well, that's the other thing is that there's different rules at every level. And we were talking about that the other night because our son's girlfriend's father was saying something about ties, and we were like, Yeah, but it's points based in this round. And, you know, but he's like, How do y'all know all this? We're like, Because we did this for so many years and every tournament has different rules, but it's all point based. And I was like,

Rick Denton (20:55)
⁓ And part of it was ⁓ the dads and the moms were looking the reason why we want to know that is because we were trying to figure out do we have to come back here on Sunday or not? I mean, I'm sorry, wait, I said that wrong. Do we get to come back and see our chat wrong? No, there was a lot of times of like, you know, if we lose this game, we can actually go out to dinner tonight, y'all. But but we didn't say that. No. No, no. Tanner, if you and your friends are like

Clancy Denton (21:20)
And again, another thing we said, you know, that tie in the last few seconds is so exciting because when you're the team that's down and you tie it, you're like, yay! And it's just like, but it's a tie.

Rick Denton (21:38)
It

you ha you do have to put it you do have to put some logic aside as a soccer supporter at times.

Clancy Denton (21:46)
It's it's just it's it's just a different game than anything else. And you know, the other thing we're talking about is, you know, you you had the NBA finals going on, which we were dialed into, but then you and I total totally forgot that the Stanley Cup. The Stanley Cup was even the finals was happening. Yeah, that I mean, yeah, Carolina. We're like, ⁓ whoops, missed that one. So

Rick Denton (22:07)
I should have been rooting for Raleigh since I

Well, even this weekend with the US Open in play, it's it's always associated with Father's Day. And and I was never really a golf guy. I've kinda gotten sucked into it in the last few years. I haven't watched a lick of it. I probably will today because it's the final the final day. But you know

Clancy Denton (22:32)
Yeah, but last year we would have had it on all you know, Saturday and Sunday because

Rick Denton (22:37)
This year the spectacle is in place. And I'm definitely looking forward to it. With this w episode will come out the day that Tanner and I are going to the match. And so it's gonna be a lot of fun. It the amount of logistical planning that we have put in place to make this something, i i you think about going to just a regular football game and you probably wouldn't do as much. We have spent hours figuring this out. I think we've got it figured out. It's going to be so much fun.

Clancy Denton (23:01)
Well not only that, the amount of lotteries that y'all entered to try to get tickets. I mean, I remember, like I said, how many ever years ago they announced it was coming, y'all were talking about it. And then what last year or even the year whenever the lottery started opening and you know, yeah, it just y'all were always putting your names in to even be able to get the option to buy tickets.

Rick Denton (23:28)
And now you're starting to bring back those feelings and emotions that I have about the very corrupt and jacked up FIFA ticketing system. I actually never cleared a lottery. Tanner's the one who did. Otherwise we wouldn't be going to this match.

Clancy Denton (23:42)
So yeah, that's gonna be exciting for y'all and it is significant because y'all are going to the Japan match and Tanner studied abroad in Japan. So y'all have your Japan jersey.

Rick Denton (23:52)
I so hope we're sitting around Japan supporters because I want Tanner to go ahead and flex on his his Japanese language skills, which he has admitted has faded a bit, but I guarantee he's gonna blow somebody's mind if he this absolutely blonde, blue eyed white dude, starts speaking Japanese.

Clancy Denton (24:10)
Know

the he will know the phrases to say, but yes. Going back to, you know, that we didn't know the Stanley Cup was even on this is my, you know, beef with this is that I just got through the final four. ⁓ okay. It was. And now my shared T V time

Rick Denton (24:32)
It months ago.

Clancy Denton (24:39)
has been taken by this. You know, we were if any of you have watched Paradise, we were we had just finished season one and it's so good. And I was like, okay, let's start season two. No.

Rick Denton (24:52)
Well, I said, We need to let the seasons breathe. We're gonna channel back to the old way of watching T V and let it

Clancy Denton (24:59)
Like final I mean, this goes on until July. But

Rick Denton (25:03)
Six weeks.

Clancy Denton (25:05)
It will slow down. There won't be as many games. But they'll still be on nightly now. It just won't be all day long.

Rick Denton (25:13)
Well even that'll start to fade, right? And and you won't have four matches because you would be out of group play and all of that. It is even I it's like anything. You go into it and and it's an all you can eat buffet. And man, I've loaded up my plate and tray that first line to the buffet and well I'm going back and snacking a little bit, but I'm being a little more picky as to the items that I'm snacking on now. So we got a little T V time last night. The Martin Short documentary was very entertaining.

Clancy Denton (25:40)
But I do I I have enjoyed, you know, y'all are the kids have been okay, where where are y'all going to watch? Where are y'all going? 'Cause y'all have been going out and watching the games. Especially like if the US is playing, y'all went and watched and the kids went and watched somewhere.

Rick Denton (25:56)
The

kids went they they were they were intended to go to fan fest, weather disrupted that, so they still went to a bar. They accused Brian and me of going to the old people's fan fest at our bar up in Frisco. It was a fine and fun US watching experience.

Clancy Denton (26:11)
and not trying to get into the mobbed out fan fest, which then ended up getting cancelled anyway.

Rick Denton (26:19)
I

was very happy with where we were.

Clancy Denton (26:23)
Yeah, so it is it's just it's an exciting ti it's fun when you're the host and especially if you're in one of the cities that you know it's it's one of the host cities. It's just I I hope if you are in one of those cities that you're having a fun experience like like we are.

Rick Denton (26:42)
And even if you aren't and you're listening to us in the US, go USA having it advanced to the nine what you here ⁓ here is the biggest difference between nineteen ninety four and now. It would have been considered an absolute victory, end of message. Nobody needs to see another thing with the US advancing to the knockout stage. Now everybody's like, Okay, cool.

Clancy Denton (26:48)
I know. I mean they're

Rick Denton (27:07)
But there's an expectation of more. No one's ex well, some are saying yeah, maybe they'll win. No one's expecting that. But there's kind of a yeah, let's get to not thirty two, but let's get to sixteen. Ooh, if they make it to the round of eight. So the expectations have gone up in such a significant way between nineteen ninety four and I couldn't even tell you what US matches were played in nineteen ninety four. No idea.

Clancy Denton (27:29)
Tegan's already looking forward to she's like, the women's is next year. She's already looking forward to that because she's actually been into it more this year than she has been. And winning. She know yeah, well, that's what she's like, the girls win more than the boys. I'm like, Yes, they do. And she knows soccer too, because obviously she

Rick Denton (27:41)
That one we actually have a realistic chance of.

Got stuck on the sideline for her entire life.

Clancy Denton (27:54)
Hey, she played two seasons.

Rick Denton (27:58)
That is true. She was a a player. And she'd be the first to say that. We're not mocking her. She would celebrate this.

Clancy Denton (28:00)
Kind of.

He

was more of a cheerleader on the field.

Rick Denton (28:07)
She was very much an encourager of her teams as they went after the ball.

Clancy Denton (28:11)
She looked very cute though with her bows and Yes. So we do hope that y'all are enjoying the World Cup. If you are a soccer fan and you know, have yeah, has the World Cup fever hit you or hit your city? Just let us know. Drop a comment at our Facebook group and you can find out about that at theloudquiet.com. And thanks for joining us on another episode of the Loud Quiet.

Rick Denton (28:14)
Grass hogs.