Illustration: Sarah Kilcoyne
Roger Bennett is the founder and co-host ofMen in Blazers, which, since getting its start as a soccer podcast in 2010, has blossomed into an independent media company. Unsurprisingly, the past month has been busy, as his team has relentlessly chronicled the World Cup from a base in Atlanta, shuffling between host cities in an orange bus outfitted for broadcasting. “We have spent the 39 days of the World Cup working 18- to 20-hour days in a windowless hotel basement commandeered into a situation room,” he says. They have largely subsisted on delivery food, but after admitting to his wife he “had not seen sunlight in over 96 hours,” Bennett realized he should probably start picking up some meals, just to get outside. “I want to be clear that the Special Forces do slower lightning raids than I do when I go to a restaurant,” he says. “These are not leisurely visits. They are slightly sociopathic. We’ll be like, ‘How quickly can you cut this? How quickly can we get out of here?’” There’s no time to lose; there is soccer to be played, and billions of people are watching.
Thursday, July 2 I have my first cup of coffee at 5 a.m. I drink coffee all day — a massive Americano is my weapon of choice. I don’t have many superpowers, but I believe perhaps my greatest life skill is my ability to drink coffee at any time of day and not lose any sleep
The taste of it fools my system into thinking it has life. A World Cup campaign is all about convincing your shattered body and mind that you have energy and can do anything. For me, coffee is like the sound of a bell to Pavlov’s dog
I prepare to do the morning round of shows: Morning Joe, CNN, ESPN’s Get Up, and First Take and have Icelandic Provisions coffee-flavor skyr for breakfast. My taste for it comes from a film I made about soccer in Iceland a decade ago. There are about 400,000 people in Iceland and they had a football team who genuinely believed they were Vikings and anything was possible. They proceeded to beat England. I try to channel that same spirit, deluding myself that anything is possible if I attack the day with their ferocity.
At a certain point in the day, I am on coffee and beers. Michelob Ultra is the pint of choice. Still, the coffees keep coming. I love opening a beer the second a game kicks off. It is a reminder that what we are about to see — a World Cup football game — is an immensely precious moment. As a kid, you feel you have an infinite number of them, but as you get older, you realize just how finite a number we all have
I have a second breakfast around 9:30 a.m., some eggs to keep the energy going. Food just keeps being ordered throughout the day. This is a post-sleep life on a DoorDash-fueled diet. Without DoorDash, I would be like Natalie Imbruglia, cold and shamed and lying naked on the floor
For lunch, I hit Daily Chew, a nearby café, for like four minutes and leave feeling happier for being there and guilty I could not stay. I have a salmon pita that the salmon probably feels honored to be involved in
We also have two dinners. The first one is around 7 p.m. from El Tesoro — a great taquería right by our bus that operates like a staff canteen. Family recipes, mother-and-daughter run — the kind of place that just feels like love pours out of it. Chicken-tinga burros are the Messi of burros
We eat again around midnight, which has been when we tape our big show, so that everyone revs up and is ready to deliver at Messi levels. (Or at least above Jordan Henderson’s level — the England player who had just six minutes, still managed to get a yellow card from the bench, and then broke his arm mistiming a celebratory jump over the advertising hoardings.)
This is a late-night pick up from Magic City: lemon-pepper wet chicken wings. Magic City is a strip club, and you cannot talk about lemon-pepper wet to anyone in Atlanta, from an NBA player to a church leader, without them being like, “Oh, you’ve got to go to Magic City to have the lemon-pepper wet, or you’ve not lived.” It’s genuinely the totem of this society. Lemon-pepper wet makes that city float
Friday, July 3Twelve cups of Dancing Goats coffee, which I love, from Haraz Coffee House. And Starbucks — I am 73 percent made up of Starbucks at any moment. My blood type may just be Starbucks Americano Venti
Skyr. Always
DoorDash breakfast from First Watch: scrambled eggs with cheddar and Monterey Jack and artisanal toast. ALL RIGHT, LET’S GOOOOO
DoorDash lunch is a Huli Huli chicken bowl from Mahana Fresh: basmati rice, pineapple, spinach, mushrooms, and coconut–sweet-potato sauce
For dinner, I take a rare foray out of the basement dungeon. Before the World Cup, we hosted a program called “City Guides,” in which we asked our fans in each city where visiting fans should eat and drink in each of the host cities. I want to get out to support one of the nominations that made my mouth water from afar: Antico Pizza. I charge in and out of there before a 6 p.m. kickoff like Cocaine Bear
I buy a dozen Naples-style pies for my team. All the ingredients come from Italy — the crust is the taste of heaven. As I bite into the San Marzano with Romano, white anchovy, and garlic, I realize this moment is the closest I’ll get to experiencing Italy in this World Cup. They failed to qualify. The tournament was all the poorer for their absence. But damn, Antico makes me feel like they are in our midst
Argentina plays Cape Verde tonight. The defending champions against the darlings of the tournament. It is one of the greatest games of the 2026 World Cup. I will remember the pizza just as much
After taping, we end the night at J.R. Crickets at 2 a.m. It is one of my favorite places on earth. To sit there in a booth with a beer and 60 lemon-pepper wet chicken wings, too exhausted to speak but feasting, is to feel alive. Barely. But alive
Saturday, July 4As I’m a new citizen, Independence Day is one of my favorite days of the year. It is also the day my dad passed away two years ago. So it is a day filled with joy and a sense of absence. I feel his presence in every football game I watch. I think about his voice and what he would think of certain players who would thrill him. I start the day with a double espresso, which was his drink of choice
Today is World Cup Round of 16 day. Life on the road and the lack of sleep — only three to four hours a night — blurs space and time. Something that happened three days ago feels like forever ago, and it is easy to forget what city you are in
July Fourth hits hard, though. I am cognizant my team is on the road and away from their loved ones. World Cups are normally 30 days, but this one is 39. It is an ultramarathon, and we are all getting runner’s nipple
It is a young crew, so we try to step it up. For the first game, we go to Cosm, an immersive auditorium, which is a crazy Imax-esque way to watch a match; the massive screens and special camera angles make it feel like you’re actually at the game. It’s amazing to sit in a sold-out crowd of Moroccans and Canadians losing their minds. We are very close to the Canadian team — their manager, Jesse Marsch, is a close friend of the show. It was an agony to see them fight but fall short; I compensated with more lemon-pepper wet, more Ultra, and more coffee.
On the way back, we stop off at Fox Bros., my favorite barbecue in Atlanta. We have been there a ton over the years and shot with the twins who own it a bunch. I love their founding story — that they were just cooking up meat around the Atlanta music backyard-concert scene for bands like Drive-By Truckers. I admire how they have lost none of that founding ethos
Today, the place is packed. I have a quick Everything Combo of four meats and two sides. The brisket is some of the best I’ve ever had. It is slow-cooked over hickory wood, so it remains juicy. The pain of the Canadian loss is mitigated
After taping our show on the bus, I take my co-hosts to Waffle House near Centennial Park around 1 a.m. for some “Smothered & Covered.” The line is around the block — so many Argentine fans lining up to savor this superhyped spot
This World Cup, global football has fallen in love with America, and America has fallen in love with global football. I’ve relished both experiences. As someone who fell in love with America as a kid from Liverpool — and who now travels the country savoring every Jucy Lucy, XXXL hot chicken wing, and variety of ribs — it has thrilled me to see the world go all in on Buc-ees nuggets and Whiz Wit cheesesteaks
Sunday, July 5I wake up early to do the TV hits, powered by Dancing Goats coffee and then a 404 coffee
Afterward, I go out to visit another “City Guides” spot I adore: Home Grown. Best breakfast in Georgia. Kevin, the owner, has lived out The Bear’s story line for real. He was a buzzy New York chef who burned out, came home, and just started to cook his family favorites. Grits, pancakes, and chicken, all to die for. I love sitting in a booth and shooting the shit with a torrent of regulars who shuffle through. I only had 20 minutes there this trip, so I scarfed down a Skinny Chicken plate and was ready to attack the day with an enthusiasm unknown to mankind, Jim Harbaugh–style.
Lunch is from Delbar: a falafel plate, a mast khiyar (cold Persian-cucumber–and–yogurt dip), adas polo (lentil rice with raisins), salmon kibbeh (wheat and salmon combined into a paste and rolled into balls), and a lamb kebob
Later, we order from Anh’s Kitchen: veggie spring rolls and a chicken pho that goes all over my keyboard when England scores the winner in their 3-2 victory in Mexico’s Azteca Stadium. One of the things I don’t like about myself is that my keyboard is often covered in food. It’s the price you pay for World Cup glory
Monday, July 6Starbucks coffee and skyr at 5:30 a.m., then coffee from the Salty Donut. A breakfast plate (eggs with cheese, bacon, and potatoes) arrives
Later, a prelunch pint at the Brewhouse. I love this pub. We hold an annual vote for America’s best soccer bar, and out of thousands of nominations from all 50 states, this place was voted the best in the nation. The uptick in business they received as a result empowered them to open a second branch right by the World Cup stadium. It’s my first time at this new spot, and it is lovely to see — they have photos of us all over the back wall, which is very humbling and a bit mortifying
Today is a U.S. game day. We’re doing a “Matchday Live!” in Atlanta, and right before kickoff, we have Becky Sauerbrunn, Killer Mike, and 2,000 fans join us for a pregame broadcast. The energy is elite
I cannot eat right before a show, so later I hit the Busy Bee, another place I adore. It’s one of the greatest fried-chicken spots in the United States and, I would dare say, the world. My order is chicken and waffles with four wings, candied yams, collard greens, and cornbread muffins
The staff are filled with joy, and I leave ready to take on all comers — which is sadly not the case for the United States team. They disappear without a trace; after making the nation think they were the real deal, they just do not show up. It’s agony as we’ve spent the past four years waiting for this moment. But for the fourth time in a row, they exit in the Round of 16
Dinner is from Doc Green’s Gourmet Salads & Sandwich Bar — Mediterranean Chop salad with grilled salmon — because I’m trying to be healthy before we tape our night show
I then proceed to drink five beers and end the night at 2 a.m. back at Waffle House
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Soccer Expert Roger Bennett’s ‘Grub Street Diet’
