Stu Holden
speaker
484 appearances
5 recordings
4 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 6 Jul
Stu Holden’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 4 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 3.
Appearances
The attendance being second in the world, being where they are right now, the amount of soccer-specific stadiums, the in-game product, I absolutely agree with you. I think MLS have really figured that out. And they've really catered and developed these deep bases with supporters in their cities. And that's very important.
The challenge is going to be now, how do you go from regionally being so strong and relevant in your market to now making it a nationally... broadcast TV products. So it actually pairs back Tim to a conversation we were just having about like, how do you balance these stars and your products on the field and trying to win? But yet we all know on TV, like stars sell.
And when, when Ibra was playing for the galaxy, people wanted to watch that weren't really soccer fans or galaxy fans, but they wanted to see the main event. Yeah. People will always want to see messy. Um,
and I just think that's going to be kind of the continued challenge and evolution of like, still, do you have some super clubs that you're like, go spend money and spend a ton of money and get the big stars. And then everybody else tried to do it different ways, but there's no doubt. Like the attendance has been awesome. The in-game product is, is, is there for everybody to see.
So I voted for Lionel Messi as MVP. And I'm sure I'm going to get shredded after this. That's what we do on this show. You have no idea. But I did. I used my media vote and voted for Lionel Messi because I personally feel now...
it depends on how you want to define most valuable player or Landon Donovan, most valuable player, because really like I had this debate with John strong about this as well. He's saying, well, the most valuable player to me is that if you took that player out of the team, that team would not be nearly as good. And I get that. Like, and, and messy, uh,
In this case, Miami, without Messi, they still were pretty good for a large chunk of the year. Now, it does help that they have Suarez and Alba and Busquets and all these studs. But the reason I voted for Messi is because Miami were the best team in the league in the regular season. They set a record for the supporter shield.
I feel that the most valuable player in the league should come from the best team in the league. And Messi, when he was on the field... was undoubtedly the best player in the league. His stats were insane, the goals, the assists.
I mean, he was on pace at the beginning of the season to absolutely shatter every single record, and then he picks up the injury in the Copa America and had to miss some time. But he's the best player in the league, guys. I mean, he's the best player in the world. He's the best player to have ever played soccer. That doesn't default you into winning the Landon Donovan MVP award.
But it also, when you're scoring and doing what you've done on the field, he's the best player. You can't argue that. Kucho Hernandez is a phenomenal player, but the crew, you know, they didn't have as good of a year this year. They go out in the first round of the playoffs. Like the playoffs doesn't count in this award, but yeah, I'm okay with it.
Guys, I mean, remember the uproar when Pochettino and AC Milan requested Ballistic to come back for that second game? And I would have loved to have seen Christian play against Mexico. And I didn't think it set the greatest precedent, but I also understood...
these guys these days are being asked to play more minutes more games travel more miles than in the history of of soccer and there's a reason that like sports scientists and you know these these medical teams have a really hard job now to try to understand like how can we get a guy rest before they they hit that they're in the red zone right now can we push them a little more do we need them for the champions league do we need them for that international game and
Look, Christian had a period of a couple of years ago when he was at Chelsea where it was like he was in and out of the team. He'd get in the team. He was injured. And then his rhythm, his flow, everything was interrupted. And so my fear is that we get back to that again. I believe that's in Christian's past. He's played so many more games now. His body's... adapted more. He's more grown up.
He's grown into his body, but it is a little bit concerning and you hope that they handle this in the right way because he was in such great form. His fitness was off the charts. He was just, he's in that zone, you know, where you're just, you're playing game, playing game, you're feeling good. It's like the best feeling in the world. Nothing can go wrong.
And then now all of a sudden he's just picked up this little niggle. So I don't think this is like a huge thing. I just want to make sure that he gets this right and takes care of his body. And it's the hardest thing sometimes now to be like the advocate for your own body and knowing that like, you know, I'm tired because it's seen as, it's seen as a weakness, right?
I need to, I need to practice off. I'm, you know, I've got a little bit of a niggle. I've got a knock and it's, it's impossible to know like when that is coming and trying to avoid it if you can still play. So that's, that's what I'm a little bit worried about with Christian here.
Yeah, I live that, by the way, just quickly. My first ACL tear... Was the gold cup final 2013. And then I, you know, I went back to Bolton after that and I'd rehabbed here for in the U S for, for four and a half, five months, got myself to a really good point where I felt like, you know, I'm, I'm good to go back. I'm going to be on this kind of path to getting back to playing.
I went back and Bolton saw me and I, They were like, wow, I mean, you're flying. Your health, your strength is good. You look good. Your fitness is good. Let's run you through some tests. So I went through these tests and they're like, all right, we're going to get you back into practice in the next three weeks and we're going to put on this
uh this this this reserve game at the stadium and make it a big thing and it's going to be your comeback and in my head i was like wait that's not even six months since i tore my acl but then i started to believe myself and like convince myself but then it was also feeling the pressure of the world cup was three months away my coach was like we need you back in you know we're pushing to get promoted back to the premier league all this stuff i played my first
game back from that ACL, man. And I succumbed to that pressure, even though I probably was experienced enough. I just got emotionally invested in like, okay, I can do this. Like that's where I should be. 22nd minute against Everton reserves, bang, ACL goes again, you know? And that's me out for a year. And that was just like, that kind of was the beginning of the end.
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