Roger sits down to talk with Freakonomics Radio host Stephen Dubner about the 2018 World Cup, including the U.S. team’s failure to qualify for the tournament.

What do you do after you’ve just crashed and burned in a World Cup?

So far, the 1998 World Cup was going pretty badly for the U.S. men’s national team. The next two games, against Iran and Yugoslavia respectively, now mattered more than ever.

On June 15, 1998, the U.S. men’s national team was waiting to kick off their first World Cup game.

When the U.S. men’s national team departed JFK International Airport for France on June 5, 1998, many players assumed they were headed straight into the heart of World Cup action.

The U.S. men’s national team had done it. They’d qualified for the 1998 World Cup. Now it was time to find out which teams they would face.

Does soccer deserve our love? If there’s one person host Roger Bennett has to convince, it’s Dan “Big Cat” Katz of Barstool Sports. 

Two months before the 1998 World Cup, captain John Harkes is abruptly kicked off the national team. Twenty years later, the team opens up about what really happened.

Soccer’s version of Survivor begins as the U.S. national team struggles to qualify for the 1998 World Cup.