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Hosted by John Cross · 🇺🇸 US · EN-US · 20 episodes
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Local Grassroots Stories (LGS) is a weekly companion podcast to the Soccer Shorts documentary series. Soccer Shorts is a YouTube channel that produces about 10-12 stories a year that shine a spotlight on local grassroots soccer culture. The LGS podcast will go behind the scenes on our Soccer Shorts episodes, allow us to further explore history, people, and events in our grassroots soccer communities, and give time to explore the current events that directly affect local grassroots soccer both in San Diego (our hometown) and across the globe.
John Cross hosts Local Grassroots Stories, a sports show with 20 episodes published.
Send us a text This year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1985 NCAA Men's College Cup final between UCLA and American University that took EIGHT overtime periods to decide the winner. It is usually referenced as the lon
Send us a text The 2026 FIFA Men's World Cup is approximately 200 days away. Forty-two teams have qualified. Six additional berths will be determined in March 2026. The draw will take place on December 5, 2025 in Washing
Send us a text After years of internal discussion, the MLS Board of Governors has voted to more closely align their calendar with many of the major European leagues. While much of the discussion this past week has been l
Send us a text The last few years have seem dramatic growth in women's professional sports. The NWSL and the USL Super League are growing and adding more teams. The lower leagues of women's soccer (USLW, WSPL, UWS, UPSL)
Send us a text Last week, John presented his Vision 2050 for the USL: four independent regional pyramids—East, Midwest, South, West—linked by a national, Champions League style tournament featuring the top first division
Send us a text Morning Kickaround (https://www.youtube.com/@MorningKickaround) asked and we delivered! On Oct. 1, the crew at Morning Kickaround published this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8l14J079nyQ&t=2s. In
Send us a text Last week, the NextGen College Soccer Committee in partnership with US Soccer dropped its new white paper: Ensuring College Soccer Thrives in the Modern Era of College Athletics and the Changing U.S. Socce
Send us a text Last weekend, was the premier of the brand new D2 Australian Championship (men only). Tonight (as we record our live stream) the USMNT take on AUS in a friendly. This weekend marks the start of the A-Leagu
Send us a text At the close of the 2012-2013 winter season, soccer was picking up in San Diego. Games were well attended and three locals teams dominated the adult scene: San Diego Soccer Football Club, the Nomads, and t
Send us a text A 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup match night in San Diego isn’t a fantasy—it’s a math problem. Tonight, John and Dylan break down exactly how teams qualify for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup and why the SDFC
Send us a text In regards to soccer, and specifically in regards to promotion and relegation, Canada is a country in transition. For most of it's professional sporting existence, many Canadian professional teams have par
Send us a text On the heels of the 1998 Men's World Cup, US Soccer launches a bold initiative called Project 2010: an attempt to give the U.S. a realistic shot at winning the 2010 Men's World Cup. An ambitious vision for
Send us a text Last week, in Part 3 of our Pro-Rel Series, John and Dylan looked at how Japan went from ZERO professional football teams in 1990 to (in 2025) a fully functioning 7+ tier football pyramid, tied together by
Send us a text Who says you need 100+ years of culture to build an effective football pyramid that links your local leagues to the top tier professional league? Don't tell that to Japan. They have managed to go from ZERO
Send us a text What happens when your *community* is not recognized by FIFA, the IOC, or the UN? Where do you play your international football? Recently, the Marshall Islands played their first international men's footba
Send us a text Tonight, John and Dylan bring you Part 2 of our Pro-Rel series where we focus on the bottom half of the English football pyramid: the National League System. We'll start in 1959 and highlight key events in
Send us a text As we all know by now, the USL looking to become the first professional soccer league in the USA to implement promotional and relegation. Over the next few years we imagine their will be much discussion, d
Send us a text Tonight, John and Dylan look at world football over the past three decades (post-Bosman), the consolidation of money and power at the top of the global football pyramid (mostly in Europe), and what affect
Send us a text John is flying solo tonight . . . so it's time for another deep dive into soccer history. After musing over the complicated MLS player acquisition rules surrounding the Müller, Vancouver, Cincinnati Discov
Send us a text Tonight John and Dylan share their thoughts on the new media platform, "Kickback Soccer," and how it could change the soccer media landscape in the U.S. And, as always, you'll get the latest cup, lower lea
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Local Grassroots Stories is hosted by John Cross. The show is categorised under sports (soccer) and has published 20 episodes.
Local Grassroots Stories has published 20 episodes.
Local Grassroots Stories regularly covers sports, soccer, society. It sits in the sports category, with a soccer focus.
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