Soccer
Ted Lasso Delivers Inspirational Messages USMNT to Players Ahead of World Cup
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sports7 in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterUpdated14 Nov 2022
There have been some great American soccer coaches throughout history. United States Men’s National Team and MLS greats like Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley come to mind, as do current USMNT leader Gregg Berhalter and Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch. However, as the U.S. team heads to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, each player (and Berhalter) received a special message — in the form of a billboard in their hometown — from the greatest (and most entertaining) American soccer manager of all time: AFC Richmond’s Ted Lasso.
‘Ted Lasso’ delivered encouraging messages to USMNT players on the eve of 2022 World Cup
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Ted Lasso, the fictional character played by Jason Sudeikis on Apple TV+’s Ted Lasso series, is a fish-out-of-water American football coach who gets a job coaching (the other) football for the fictional English Premier League club, AFC Richmond.
In the show, Lasso brings megawatt Midwestern positivity and outside-the-box American sports thinking to his Bad News Bears-esque team to help encourage The Greyhounds to victory.
As the actual World Cup approaches, the brains behind Ted Lasso combined the feel-good messages from Coach Lasso in the show with some good, old-fashioned marketing and created funny and inspiring billboards for the USMNT players and coaches headed to Qatar.
With the USMNT’s World Cup opener vs. Wales just days away, yellow billboards with handwritten-looking font are popping up in USMNT players’ hometowns. The messages on the billboards combine the sweetness, inspiration, and humor the show is known for.
For example, on goalkeeper Matt Turner’s high school, there’s a message that talks about the Arsenal player finding his true passion, soccer, as a “Tiny Tiny Turner.” In San Diego, the fictional coach wishes midfielder Luca del Torre the “Best of Luca” in the upcoming tournament and sends his “Best Greggards” to Gregg Berhalter in Chicago.
Users on Twitter also shared pics of the banner on winger Christian Roldan’s alma mater, El Rancho High School, and, in Seattle, Washington, the billboard that says “Hairdo your best” to the colorfully coifed full-back Deandre Yedlin.
Josh Sargent got an O’Fallon, Missouri shout-out because he’s an “O’natural” at soccer, Lasso implored Jordan Morris in Seattle to “Gimme Some Morris,” and he warned the competition to watch out for the “Tim Ream Beam.”
Time will tell whether the encouragement is enough for the USMNT to BELIEVE in themselves and go far in the World Cup. The team kicks off its 2022 tournament on Monday, November 21, at 2:00 pm ET vs. Wales, followed by a Black Friday (November 25) showdown with England and a Tuesday, November 29 tilt vs. Iran.
If the USMNT can finish in the top two of their Group B, the knockout stages begin on Saturday, December 3.
Ted Lasso is gearing up for Season 3 on Apple TV+ and is expected to return sometime in 2023.
