Great episode. Favorite of the season so far. Loved Roy's post-game "pretend" interview side by side with Jan. Also the slight pause then hysterical laughter between Jaime and the Hobo when Roy admits he doesnt know how to ride a bike.... "No Refunds!"

Quad Dog said:

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Great episode where a bunch of the cast got moments to shine.

Liked the call back to Keely being on the TV advertising the city's night life.

Earlier in Ted's Text thread with Rebecca she was explaining him how to pronounce Ajax: "Ayax"

In Ajax's stadium they also instructed Rebecca how to pronounce Johan Cruyff's name. Ajax's stadium is named after him. He famously has a soccer turn named after him, here he is doing it
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Also, he famously was on the 1974 Dutch team that lost the World Cup final to Breckenbauer's West Germany team. West Germany exploited the weaknesses of Total Football by controlling the midfield. We've seen Richmond many times give up easy goals that start with weak midfield defense. I also doubt their captain has the fitness level necessary for Total Football. In real life Richmond would probably get exploited by smart disciplined teams playing against their Total Football. Unless Ted introduces some Tiki-Taka type alteration of Total Football.

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aglaohfour said:

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Definitely the best episode of the season. Jamie teaching Roy to ride a bike was amazing. "For grandpa!" Jamie's character arc is inching towards being my favorite out of everyone.

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Absolutely loved everything about those scenes. Jamie teaching Roy to ride, Roy shoving Jaime when he got too close, Roy trying to throw the bike at Jamie, Roy needing Jamie to help him steer, then Roy triumphantly riding off ready to go see a windmill. Perfectly sums up their relationship. I really like the direction they've taken and I hope we see it through at the end. Roy and Jamie's character development have become two of my favorite aspects of this show.

Really enjoyed seeing Rebecca find a glimpse of potential happiness. That was a great sequence. I hope there's more to come there.

I like how they're peeling back more layers with Trent Crimm. He's gone from a gruff character to a lovable character.

Ted getting a confidence boost in his coaching ability was perfect.

Using 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' in the trailer to set the tone for this season was brilliant. For me, it's stuck...and I'm looking for that theme with each character arc. What do they want vs. what they need. I think they're going to finish this thing strong.

FancyKetchup14 said:

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Quad Dog said:

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Great episode where a bunch of the cast got moments to shine.

Liked the call back to Keely being on the TV advertising the city's night life.

Earlier in Ted's Text thread with Rebecca she was explaining him how to pronounce Ajax: "Ayax"

In Ajax's stadium they also instructed Rebecca how to pronounce Johan Cruyff's name. Ajax's stadium is named after him. He famously has a soccer turn named after him, here he is doing it
:
Also, he famously was on the 1974 Dutch team that lost the World Cup final to Breckenbauer's West Germany team. West Germany exploited the weaknesses of Total Football by controlling the midfield. We've seen Richmond many times give up easy goals that start with weak midfield defense. I also doubt their captain has the fitness level necessary for Total Football. In real life Richmond would probably get exploited by smart disciplined teams playing against their Total Football. Unless Ted introduces some Tiki-Taka type alteration of Total Football.

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I got a well earned eye roll from my wife when Ted was explaining his idea to Beard and I said "That's Total Football" before Beard did.

bthotugigem05 said:

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What did Ted say in the famous darts scene before winning it? BBQ sauce. It connects him to home.

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And I believe he said in a previous episode that Arthur Bryant's was his favorite BBQ place.

bthotugigem05 said:

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It's setting up for a big moment where Isaac is getting beat, tells Ted to sub him out, and hands the captain's band to Jamie.

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The captain doesn't mean best player on the team. It's the guy who everyone respects to lead the team. Any position can be captain.

It's the same one his son sent him in the care package from season 1

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Squadron7 said:

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I'm not getting the BBQ sauce reference. What brand did they bring him again and what was the meaning of it?

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there was a reference to that Arthur Bryan'ts BBQ sauce in season 1 - Ted saying something about it making him feel like he teleported home.

so this was some serious karma/fate here with him saying bring me whatever and she happened to choose that sauce. really making him feel at home.

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I think the whole restaurant scene was, in part, foreshadowing Ted's return to the States.

Guy is in Amsterdam for a night and wants to eat American food.

LawHall88 said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Squadron7 said:

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I'm not getting the BBQ sauce reference. What brand did they bring him again and what was the meaning of it?

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there was a reference to that Arthur Bryan'ts BBQ sauce in season 1 - Ted saying something about it making him feel like he teleported home.

so this was some serious karma/fate here with him saying bring me whatever and she happened to choose that sauce. really making him feel at home.

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I think the whole restaurant scene was, in part, foreshadowing Ted's return to the States.

Guy is in Amsterdam for a night and wants to eat American food.

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The French player would rather die than eat Dutch food

Agree you crave basic things like burgers and Tex mex when overseas for any amount of time.

BEST EPISODE
I could watch Roy and Jamie for hours. And Roy's rant to the reporter at the beginning… Jan with "wow"

Ok...didn't see this mentioned...Piggy Stardust! Absolutely awesome scene. Laughed my butt off!

I really enjoyed that episode. I've been to Amsterdam a few times and have hit most of the sights they covered. I thought they did a great job of showing what a great city Amsterdam is.

In the late 70s, early 80s, if you would fly KLM between the USA and our home in Saudi Arabia, KLM would put you up for a night or two in Amsterdam. So that's why we went there multiple times.

Windmills, Tulip Fields, canals, Red Light District, Anne Frank House, museums, were all great samples to fit into one episode.

Rebecca's misadventure was great. I guess that Dutch guy is somebody in Holland.

In earlier episodes, I felt negatively about the gay player's story which seemed forced and unnecessary but, I felt very good about Trent Crimm's outing. That just kind of happened naturally and I've worked with guys just like that. Dudes who if you know, you know but it doesn't affect their work at all and if you're outside of their circle, you wouldn't know.

I'll leave y'all with this funny Amsterdam story.

The first time we went to Amsterdam, I was 7 years old. We stayed in some hotel and went out for dinner. On the way home, we walked through the Red Light District. I couldn't figure out why all these women were standing in the windows wearing their underwear. Didn't they know people could see them?

My mom started yelling at my father accusing him of intentionally taking this route. He claimed he was lost and simply took a wrong turn. Our hotel was only a few blocks away so I'll probably never know if that move was intentional or not.

Great episode. Felt good to get back to following mostly the characters we already know with out randos stealing screen time.

LawHall88 said:

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HollywoodBQ said:

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LawHall88 said:

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Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Squadron7 said:

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I'm not getting the BBQ sauce reference. What brand did they bring him again and what was the meaning of it?

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there was a reference to that Arthur Bryan'ts BBQ sauce in season 1 - Ted saying something about it making him feel like he teleported home.

so this was some serious karma/fate here with him saying bring me whatever and she happened to choose that sauce. really making him feel at home.

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I think the whole restaurant scene was, in part, foreshadowing Ted's return to the States.

Guy is in Amsterdam for a night and wants to eat American food.

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This is actually pretty common for somebody who has been an Expat for a long time. Especially if they're in an environment that doesn't have any American comfort foods.

Quick example - the 7 oz can of Herdez salsa I get at the grocery store for $1.39 used to cost me $7 in the American specialty food section at the green grocer in Sydney. So even if you can find it, it might be cost prohibitive.

In Sydney, I could get a passable burrito but I could never really find a decent burger. And onion rings, forget about it. There were a couple of fish n chips shops that made OK french fries (sadly they didn't have freedom fries).

So, when I would travel to places like Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc., even Bangalore, I'd be on the prowl for American food. I could get planty of curry, Thai food, Malaysian food, etc. in Sydney. But an American style burger, impossible. An Aussie burger includes rocket lettuce and freaking beetroot. Sometimes even an egg.

At the Chili's in Bangalore, they have a Buffalo Burger which was pretty good.

But the best burger I've had overseas was at an American themed burger restaurant in Hong Kong near Central train station. I don't know where they got their cheese but it was magnificent. Only problem was fending off the African hookers after dinner.

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That's interesting. I'll admit that it would be real tough to go months without a decent cheeseburger and fries.

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Try years.

Got a little story for you Ags.

Back in the 70s American Fast Food was not available outside the US much. 1975-1977 dad was stationed in Seoul, SK for 2 years with family in tow and I was 9-11 years old in that time.

Of course as a kid I loved fast food burgers - McDs of course but AW&W was my favorite and Burger King was around as well as DQ and Big Boy restaurants.

Well absolutely none of those were in Seoul SK at the time. Not one American fast food chain in fact, not even KFC or Pizza Hut which were international by then as well. Seoul is very westernized now, but at the time it was not at all. There was nothing American to speak of outside the base walls.

For a kid it was a painful existence. I could get burgers but only at the base (Yongsan) country club or the rec center had like a snack counter. But they were just ok burgers. And there were always burgers grilling at football/baseball game field locations on weekends.

But for a kid, fast food and TV were the things we missed the most. The only American TV we had was via Armed Forces Network which was ONE channel running crappy repeats and news. Movies were also brought to US bases but typically 6 months or so after release in the US which is why we saw Jaws in the winter of 1975-76 and I had not even heard about Star Wars before returning to the states in July 1977.

Anyway, in May of 1977 before returning to the US we took a short trip to Hong Kong and they had a McDonald's. My sister and I flipped out of course and I think we ate there every day or at least every time my parents allowed it. So on the last day my sister and I decided to reward our friends back in Seoul and bring back a bunch of burgers. I think we just got basic cheeseburgers but we had like 6-8 of them and took them to the airport to hand carry back to base. We did not take any fries though. Well South Koreas security, especially then, is legendary. Their customs people could not understand why we were bringing in hamburgers and we got detained extra long (to my dads displeasure) as they proceeded to literally pull apart and inspect every single burger. I'm not sure but I think somehow they thought we were smuggling drugs inside hamburgers.

But they finally let us through. Now with checkin and a 4 hour flight and then our inspection, it had been 8+ hours since we got the burgers by the time we got back to base. We rang up and summoned all our friends to meet at this rec center place and talked them into letting us use their oven to at least warm these burgers up a bit. Then we sat around with about 10 kids and passed out the cheeseburgers. Everybody took a bite or two as they passed them around and more people joined in as well. Everyone was so happy to have a few bites of a fast food burger and reacting with moans of satisfaction. That taste of home was awesome.

Did anyone else think he was going to chug the bbq sauce?

That was a great episode, I thought this season has been pretty weak so far IMO until that one. That was the first one that gave me the same vibes as watching the first two seasons. Everyone basically got exactly what they needed out of their night in Amsterdam. I'm guessing the rest of the season is more positive, that episode feels like a turning point.

The main reason I got hooked on this show was the therapeutic nature of it, something about the positivity just worked on me. This season hasn't had much of that, last night changed it.

I guess that explains why I'll typically go to a McDonalds abroad but never one here.