United Soccer Coaches annual convention is a big deal. Every year, thousands of soccer types from across the country (and turns out, the world) show up to learn, share, pitch, and hang out with at the convention. This year, Knights Who Say NISA podcast was invited to be on Podcast Row and we decided to attend. The convention is in Philadelphia and this is my travel log.

Day One (Travel Day)

Everyone picks who they fly with for a variety of reasons. Some choose budget carriers because of price. Some choose a big name for safety. Some choose based on seat availability. I would guess some choose for the snacks. Regardless, I generally choose Delta or American because, in my personal experience, I’ve never had any issues. Plus, since my day job is in an airport, I see less cancellations from those carriers than some of the budget guys.

So I booked with Delta, telling my wife, “they never have delays.” Annnndddddd of course it happened. The morning I was traveling the FAA shuts down air travel for 3 hours due to computer issues. So I got to sit an airport a bit longer than I planned. The flight routed through Atlanta and predictably the flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia was full of soccer coaches. You can tell by the tracksuits and backpacks (you guys need to update your look!).

Upon arrival in Philadelphia, a city I’ve never visited, I called an Uber and stood by the curb waiting. My Uber was a Tesla, which isn’t rare in El Paso, there’s plenty, I just happen to have never been in one. Two things. 1. The doorhandles are not obvious if you’ve never used one. 2. The trunk has an auto close feature which I was unaware of. Needless to say, the driver must have thought I was a complete idiot.

John had beaten Dan and I to the Airbnb and met me at the front door. We’re staying in Philadelphia’s Chinatown and the whole area feels like a big city. While El Paso is not small (700,000 people), it is spread out (as all cities in Texas) and it’s easy to not feel the size of the city. In bigger cities, particularly on the East coast, I feel like you FEEL the city around you. For someone like me, I’m down for that. Creel arrived soon after I did and we headed to the Convention Center to pick up passes and figure out where we were we would be podcasting from.

The Pennsylvania Convention Center is MASSIVE. It’s big big. Once inside, we picked up our media badges and wandered a bit, but on Wednesday evening, little was open for visitors, so we just wandered around looking like tourists. We even got into the room where they would be holding the NWSL draft (pretty cool!). More than anything else, getting to know the two guys I podcast with twice a week is a big part of my choice to attend this year’s conference. Dan and John are good friends, but we’ve never met in real life until this week.

We’d planned to have a meet and greet at a local bar (Bar-ly) and headed there after our aimless wandering in the Convention Center. When we arrived, we grabbed a table because I was starving. I had eaten little on the trip, so we ordered some mango habanero wings (6/10) and some bánh mì (8.5/10). While the bar had the general appearance of a sports bar (lots of tvs with sports on, lots of beer taps, etc), the kitchen was a bit more eclectic. The menu seemed to specialize in Vietnamese, but also featured fajitas, pizza, and more traditional pub food. The sandwiches were the right choice. Delicious. Side note, the fries that came with the sandwiches slapped (9.5/10).

Robby and the Icarus crew showed up and hung out with us. Sometime contributor and internet buddy Tim also visited with us (also purchased me my first Yuengling 4/10). As we began to wind down, Jef Thiffault and a friend sat down so we extended the evening a bit. Jef is the COO of NISA expansion side Savannah Clovers and has made the rounds in soccer. Guy has some stories! If you can say one thing about the three of us, we love a good soccer story, especially from the MLS 1.0 years. Jef has them. The night ended with me more buzzed than anyone else at the table and we headed back to the apartment to crash for the evening.

- Dan Vaughn