Hello! I am Mike Steenstra, the host and producer of Rooster and the Villain: An American Soccer Podcast and Owner of the imaginary soccer club, “Footy Club FC”.
I grew up playing club Soccer in Northeast New Jersey for the Midland Park Ajax but stopped playing the beautiful game in 8th Grade when I decided to focus on Basketball (probably not a great call as I stopped growing at a diminutive height of 5’8”). My dad played College Basketball for an NAIA School in the 1970s and I was consumed by the sport through High School and College. I even spent some time post-College covering the NBA for a basketball magazine based in Japan. Through that experience, I had some amazing opportunities, including a weekend following Kevin Durant around the DMV and playing pick-up with him at Sidwell Friends. But it was also during that time that I became disenchanted by the way the game had changed. The loss of the inside-out game, the 7-seconds-or-less offense, and the pronounced importance of the long ball. In other words, I think there’s just way too much scoring in basketball.
Then the 2010 World Cup came around. The vuvuzelas, the South African atmosphere, and a last second drama of that winner by Landon Donovan changed my sports watching hierarchy for life. A single goal meant so damn much.
I started following the USMNT relatively closely after that. Paying attention to “The Hex” for qualifying. Forming opinions on Jurgen Klinsmann, dual nationals, and Michael Bradley. Then hopping on that emotional rollercoaster of watching Tim Howard’s epic performance against Belgium and suffering the heartbreak of Kevin De Bruyne’s extra time breakthrough for Belgium in the 2014 World Cup. But the truth is that outside of the World Cup and Concacaf qualifying cycle, I didn’t really have much of a clue about what was going on in the world of Soccer at that time.
That all changed following the debacle in Trinidad and Tobago preceding the 2018 World Cup. I was crushed that we wouldn’t be represented in Russia but still was excited to watch what had become my favorite sporting event. It was during this time that I was becoming aware of the club pedigree of the top players in the Tournament. I started investigating the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A. When the tournament wrapped up, I still wanted more soccer.
At the time, I had a good friend that was a Tottenham supporter and he started to feed me information about the club. I began tuning into Premier League games and fell in love with that Tottenham squad in the Fall of 2019. Particularly, I fell in love with Christian Eriksen. His flawless technique, his incredible ability to break down defenses, and the way he controlled the game in the offensive half. Throw in Harry Kane, a high-performing Deli Alli, and a young Son Heung Min and I was hooked.
In January of that season, in a WhatsApp group, myself, the other Tottenham supporter, and our friend Jimmy (a Manchester United Support at the time), concocted the idea of a podcast that would help me grow from naïve soccer fan to informed soccer supporter and that’s how “Rooster and the Devil” was born. The podcast was an exploration into European club soccer and a learning experience for me as I dove into club soccer for the first time. It was also well timed with Tottenham’s unlikely march towards the Champions League finals in 2019 and all of that together cemented my status as a certified soccer nut.
From there, my love of the game trickled down into America’s lower leagues. I was enamored by Europe’s concept of locally supported soccer (how many teams are London!?) and searched for that concept in the US. Luckily for me, the Maryland Bobcats are right down the road and were fresh off of a National Title in the UPSL and the General Manager of the club at the time, Evan Raimist, was a willing guest for the podcast. When they joined NISA, the podcast took a pretty big turn and “The Maryland Bobcast” started up with Alex Windsor and Jake Kenneke of the “Old Bae Brigade”.
Having the club down the road is awesome. My 6 year old daughter is quite possibly the world’s biggest Maryland Bobcats fan and I love how affordable the games are for us. Throw in the fact that the Maryland Soccerplex is a beautiful soccer-specific stadium with epic Maryland Summer sunsets and I’ve somehow turned into an evangelist for the game here in my adopted home state. It has been a long time since I’ve worked on my sports writing muscles and I’m excited to become a small part of the Beyond the 90 family. I look forward to preaching to you all about my beloved Maryland Bobcats.
Is there any chance the Bobcats will eventually migrate to USL League One or Championship? You are right regarding the fabulous Maryland Soccerplex. There is an immense pool of Maryland soccer talent, as well as financial and political power that should sustain a durable, thriving Pro Soccer side and afford the franchise fees and Soccer Specific Stadium requirements that guarantee sustainable success!