The Blazing Musket Podcast

It's hard to believe how far Hartford Athletic have come since July, when we last devoted an entire episode to the club. Since then they've invested in their squad, got healthy and got on with winning a Cup, locking in a playoff spot and going 13 straight unbeaten on the road. It's an incredible turnaround for a Club normally associated with being USL bottom dwellers.Chris Behlke, President of The Bonanza, a Hartford supporters group, and Oliver Scholes, who covers Hartford for The Blazing Musket, joined this week to revel in all the good fortune of the last three months. Get caught up on everything Hartford Athletic, just in time for their upcoming playoff appearance.Check out The Bonanza at their tailgate at any Hartford Athletic home game or their website, right here.And be sure to keep with Hartford thanks to Oliver's coverage on The Blazing Musket.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There are millions of youth soccer families across the US but only a handful have had the experience of not one but two members of the family becoming professional players. The Buck family is one of those families, with Noel Buck out in San Jose after breaking through with the Revolution, while his brother, Joe, is gearing up for the playoffs with Revs II.What was this journey like, when did Stephen begin to think his boys could make it and how did a family tragedy bring the whole Buck family closer to together? Stephen joined us to talk about it all.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Each month or so, several members of The Blazing Musket and our podcast network get together to talk all the biggest topics affecting soccer in New England. This month we talk about the racism row in Hartford, a big private equity investment in the USL and a general discussion on the fate of coaches.Our guests join from:United in Green podcast covering the Vermont GreenFrom the Forest to the Tide podcast covering Portland Hearts of PineRaising Anchor a podcast covering Rhode Island FCAnd contributing writers for The Blazing MusketYou can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution RecapWe hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sam Lattof pops into the show this week as the playoffs are on the horizon for three of New England's five pro teams. What's in store for RIFC, Portland and Hartford as they wrap up their regular seasons with playoffs expected to follow. And what of the New England Revs, who are officially out of the playoffs for the third year in the last four, what's left for them in 2025? And finally, the Boston Legacy continue to step closer to taking the field in 2026, apparently on grass at Gillette!We'll go through it and get Sam's thoughts on everything to get you ready for the year's most consequential season.You can follow Sam on BlueSky here.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The New England Revolution finally parted ways with head coach, Caleb Porter, after nearly two full seasons of little to no success. It's a momentous occasion that has us breaking new ground once again! Listen in to a special Revolution Recap/Blazing Musket Podcast crossover episode as we discuss Porter's tenure, the fallout and the future of the New England Revolution.You can keep up with Revolution Recap wherever you get your podcasts from!If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The USL Championship and League 1 are headed towards the playoffs, Hartford Athletic are in a Cup final, RIFC and Portland Hearts of Pine are chasing the playoffs and USL expansion is set to continue in 2026. It's all happening and John Morissey of The USL Show and Backheeled.com is here to give us the lowdown on all of it.You can follow John on BlueSky, checkout Backheeled.com and get The USL Show on YouTube.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With John Morissey, co-host of The USL Show and writer for Backheeled.com, having one of the busiest schedules of anyone covering the USL, we're putting the main show out on Friday morning this week. And recording it live on YouTube on Thursday night!Today's show is a quick one from Thomas, taking some time to share appreciation to all of you loyal listeners and our great guests, highlight some shows you may have missed this summer, a super quick preview of the USL Cup semi-finals tonight and some other general rumblings.Enjoy Thomas' one and only monologue since the show started (thank goodness for that!) and make sure to catch us live on The Blazing Musket YouTube channel Thursday night at 6:30.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Summer of 2025 may just be ending but the USMNT only has a handful of games remaining between now and next summer's World Cup. Only friendlies await the team between now and then and everyone following the team seems to have a different opinion on how everything should be going. Donald stops by to give us his takes on the importance of the fall friendlies, a review of 2025's results so far and all the narratives surrounding the team being fueled by past and present players.You can keep up with Donald as the World Cup approaches on BlueSky and be sure to checkout Stars and Stripes FC's site for more on the USMNT as well.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's the August roundtable and there's a lot to talk about! Vermont Green are USL League 2 National champions, Hartford are in a playoff position, RIFC and Hartford are in Cup semi-finals and the Portland Hearts of Pine are in search of a playoff berth. How is it all going to shake out for these teams a summer turns to fall?We also talked about how teams must deal with the reality of being a selling team, just a cog in the global soccer market and how teams should approach building their rosters each year.Our guests join from:United in Green podcast covering the Vermont GreenFrom the Forest to the Tide podcast covering Portland Hearts of PineRaising Anchor a podcast covering Rhode Island FCAnd contributing writers for The Blazing MusketYou can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution RecapWe hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Both the Boston Legacy and New England Revolution's stadium plans are impacting the Boston Mayor's race between Mayor Wu and challenger, Josh Kraft. It's made for an interesting summer in Boston as the 2026 World Cup is on the City's horizon. Hayden Bird is working and living in the center of it all and he stopped by to share his thoughts on how both stadiums are developing, the political theater around it all, how Boston is getting ready for next summer, and a bit about his work and love of soccer.You can find Hayden's Rev coverage on Boston.com and follow him on BlueSky. If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ben Clements has spent his summer covering USL League 2 for us here at The Blazing Musket while also doing play by play in the same league for the Boston Bolts. Before he heads off to Syracuse this fall, he joined the show to talk all about his experience, how he started down this path and why he's so excited about soccer in New England (Revs aside).You can keep up with Ben's work on his Instagram page!If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jackie covers the Boston Legacy for us here at The Blazing Musket and has had an incredible busy summer keeping up with all their moves for 2026. The Legacy has put a GM, coach and players in place, added an owner, changed playing venues for 2026 and more in recent months.If you haven't been keeping up with all, we've got you covered!You can follow Jackie on BlueSky and check out her coverage of Boston Legacy on The Blazing Musket.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're back for July's roundtable to catch up on how RIFC, Vermont Green, Hartford Athletic and Portland Hearts of Pine's seasons are going so far. We also talked about El Clamico heating up, supporters groups role in bringing the atmosphere to games but also keeping the peace, welcoming our Canadian brethren to the US for soccer tournaments and how the USL could show MLS how an All Star Game should be done!Our guests this month:Mike from United in Green a podcast covering the Vermont GreenShawn from The Blazing Musket and From the Forest to the Tide podcast covering Portland Hearts of PineMatt from Raising Anchor a podcast covering Rhode Island FCNathan from The Blazing MusketYou can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution RecapWe hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jason Davis is back! He checked in to talk about what he's been covering on his US soccer focused show, Morning Kickaround. We talked about overwhelming amount of soccer to watch this summer, continued expansion in the USL, the return of the New York Cosmos, NISA's revival and much more. Jason brought his unique perspective and insight from decades following soccer in this country and what's it like to live soccer 24/7.You can follow Jason on BlueSky and checkout Morning Kickaround on YouTube if you haven't already.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been an often challenging experience to support Hartford Athletic, a team that has rarely found success on the field in its history. Chris Behlke is the President of The Bonanza, one of Hartford's supporters groups. It's a group that's been through a lot, has voiced and protested their displeasure in recent weeks but through it all has found ways to enjoy soccer together.We talked about the groups formation and growth over the years, what they'd like to see from Hartford, their relationship with the team and the experience on game day.You can checkout The Bonanza's website and find them over on BlueSky.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Victor Matheson is the sports and gambling economics professor at The College of the Holy Cross and an avid soccer fan. He's also a soccer referee who's called games at the pro and international level. He brought his wealth of knowledge and passion on the shifting landscape of college sports, the effect of gambling in sports, what's it like reffing the beautiful game and more!It was an engaging conversation and the perfect guest to kick the show back into gear after our summer break!You can follow Victor on BlueSky and read more about him in this feature story from Holy Cross Magazine.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our crew of writers and podcasters got together to talk about how New England soccer is doing as summer arrives.We focused this month on discussing the role of the teams, leagues, their sponsors and supporters groups in the current challenging situation in our country. Should teams and leagues do more to speak out against the actions of ICE? What enables the Vermont Green to openly support climate, social and immigrant justice while the New England Revolution do nothing more than tokenism?It was an engaging and important discussion about how what's happening outside the stadium sometimes comes inside the stadium.Our guests this month:Mike from United in Green a podcast covering the Vermont GreenShawn from The Blazing Musket and From the Forest to the Tide podcast covering Portland Hearts of PineMatt from Raising Anchor a podcast covering Rhode Island FCYou can find all these podcasts on The Blazing Musket as part of our podcast network along with Revolution RecapWe hope you like this episode and be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review if you do wherever you get your podcasts from! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's hard to keep track of all the soccer tournaments, leagues and qualifiers going on this summer. In the midst of it all is CONCACAF's Gold Cup tournament featuring the top teams from North and Central America, the Caribbean and even a sportswashing entry from Asia!Jake Catanese is more prepared than anyone we know for this tournament and he's here to walk us through the groups, the key talking points and how he thinks it'll shake down over the next month as part of his excellent work for The Blazing Musket.You can follow Jake on X.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with the Gold Cup and all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ever since fascism first took power in Italy in the 1920s, soccer clubs, players and their supporters have found ways to resist against it. Chris Lee covers the whole history of that struggle in his book, The Defiant, and joined us to talk all about it.Chris has written two other books and maintains a site called Outside Write that as self-described, "avoids talking on-field matters, we’re about travelling the world, and learning new things from clubs and the people we meet on the way. We get under the skin of football culture and history.”.You can follow Chris and Outside Write on BlueSky or their site.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

After a disappointing Nations League setback, that the saw the US men lose both the semi-final and third place game, the Gold Cup awaits. It's a last opportunity for competitive games for the US before the 2026 World Cup, which the US is already qualified for as hosts.There's plenty to talk about, be it team selection, who needs to perform this summer, is head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, fully committed, is he the right person to lead this team?Jonathan's got thoughts, opinions and insight on it all!You can follow Jonathan through the Gold Cup and World Cup on BlueSky.If you're enjoying the show be sure to like, subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts from!To keep up with all the soccer in New England, head over to The Blazing Musket! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.