Join us in Orlando
A full invitation, with all the details, and a Florida Man's guide to the area.
We are now two weekends away from the (very likely) decisive USA-Panama match in Orlando. I can’t help but dream about celebrating World Cup qualification with a lot of you in a late night Central Florida haze, and we at Scuffed are gearing up for a big day. Don’t miss Matt Mitchell’s Florida Man guide to Orlando, below the playbill, but what I have to say is a Scuffed-specific invitation. Please join us for all of what follows.
First, we’ll be playing five-a-side pickup soccer the morning of the game. This will happen at the futsal court at the John H. Jackson Community Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday, March 27. That’s a two minute drive from the stadium, and very close to downtown. We’re calling it the Greg Velasquez Memorial Five-a-Side Tournament of Roses. (Greg is still alive, of course, and it will not be a tournament, just pickup. Should be fun and relaxed, with all skill levels welcome, although Greg is a fairly vocal field general, so his teammates should be prepared for that.)
Greg’s ordered practice bibs in three colors. Let’s hope they arrive in time. Here’s what the court looks like.
We’ll be making a donation to the City of Orlando Community Trust to help fund programming for kids at the John H. Jackson Community Center, which is located in a low-income neighborhood. If you’d like to contribute to that, send money to me, Adam Belz, on Venmo at @AdamLB, and I will write a check, just like we did with the St. Joseph food pantry in Cincinnati (we raised more than $1200 for that food pantry).
And then, starting about 1 p.m., we’re holding our final Scuffed tailgate of this World Cup qualifying cycle. The location is the lot at the northwest corner of S. Westmoreland Dr. and W. South St., four blocks from the stadium. These get-togethers have been a blast in Nashville, Cincinnati and St. Paul (Columbus didn’t really work out), and I expect this one to be the best of all. I will be there. Greg will be there. Vince will be there. We have 70 confirmed to attend just from the Scuffed Discord (including Jackie, Coach Beard, Patrick Keeler, DFB Hipster and Nate from Oregon, just to name a few), and I expect and hope that a lot more who listen to the podcast will show up as well.
We’ll have two kegs, but it won’t hurt to bring a little extra beer if you can manage that. We’ll have a small grill going for dogs and brats, and if anyone wants to bring a smoker on a hitch behind their vehicle, we won’t complain. Look for the Scuffed flag flying in the parking lot. We’ll get rondos going for those who still have legs, and may get up to some singing. Everyone’s invited.
And finally, this will be the last weekly newsletter for a while. The podcast is the core of Scuffed, and I’m going to devote my energy to that instead of this, at least for the time being. I may send out a note now and then, but it won’t be every week. Thanks for reading, but thanks especially for listening. See you soon.
- Belz
Weekend Playbill
A Florida Man’s Guide to an Orlando USMNT Weekend
By Matt Mitchell, aka @MJM-borne69
We’re just over two weeks away from the USMNT’s last home CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match for approximately six years. The match will be held at Exploria Stadium in Orlando, a fantastic place to watch a game and walking distance from The City Beautiful’s downtown district on Church Street.
What started as a healthy handful of Scuffians has grown to a veritable podcasting pilgrimage. Belz, Greg and Vince will be there, and have already booked a nearby futsal court for The Greg Velasquez Memorial Five-A-Side Tournament of Roses on match day. I’ll be there with my wife along with a bunch of Scuffians in The Wall, Exploria Stadium’s standing section. And as the Scuffed Discord’s most visible and perhaps most Florida Mannish Florida Man, many patrons have reached out to me about places to stay and things to do in the Orlando area — particularly things to do that do not involve Sea World, Disney and putt-putt golfing.
If you’re on the Discord, we have a thread for the weekend where we will communicate on the fly. But in the meantime, here are a few things I’ve shared with patrons that would be valuable to any USMNT fan who is making the trip down. Can’t wait to see you there.
Where to Stay
As of this writing, it’s become quite hard to find a place to stay in the downtown Orlando area. In addition to the USMNT match on Sunday the 27th, Garth Brooks is performing at the Citrus Bowl (which you non-locals will know as Camping World Stadium) on Saturday the 26th. Garth’s Stadium Tour is surely responsible for a big drop in hotel and Airbnb inventory in and around Exploria Stadium, and what rooms are available downtown are getting extremely costly.
If you can’t find a place within walking distance of downtown, or if what is available is outside of your budget range, I would recommend looking for hotels and short-term rental properties off of State Road 528 and in between I-4 and Florida’s Turnpike. This puts you about a 20-25 minute drive from downtown Orlando, accessible via rideshare or a car if you’re renting one. It also puts you by SeaWorld, Universal Studios and International Drive, and about 10 minutes from Disney Springs which is free to enter. Finally, this area puts you about 10-15 minutes away from Orlando International Airport (MCO), which is where most of y’all will be flying into.
Wherever you choose to lay your head, book something fast - and before fuel costs go up another $20,000 per plane flight.
What to Do in Downtown
Eat, drink and be merry, to put it simply. That, and check out Lake Eola Park, home of the famous lake fountains that make up, among other things, the city’s logo, cultural branding and the crest of the Orlando Pride.
There are a bunch of solid bars to meet your needs in the section of Downtown Orlando that I will define as sitting between Central Avenue and Church Street north to south, and from Rosalind Avenue to I-4 from east to west. Here are a few notable ones:
Harp and Celt - The bar claimed by the Orlando chapter of The American Outlaws for regular USMNT/USWNT games. Great Irish food in addition to solid beer selection.
Stubborn Mule
Stagger Inn - country themed bar with S-tier people watching
Eagles Pizza - hole in the wall by-the-slice pizza joint when you’ve had a few too many
What to Do If You’ve Got Time and a Car
Some of us will have a car, which is definitely (to the eternal chagrin of Scuffed’s urban planning enthusiasts) the best way to get around the Orlando metro area. If you’re one of those folks, here’s what I and some other Florida Men have suggested in the Discord:
NORTH: Drive through Winter Park and get lunch on Park Avenue
Winter Park is one of Orlando’s oldest and prettiest suburbs, and includes a number of neighborhoods with homes built around the turn of the 19th century when Orlando was just getting formed out of the swamps and orange groves. Park Avenue includes a lot of great places to eat which are on the more expensive side, but where you’ll get high-quality local fare.
SOUTH: Go out fishing on Lake Tohokapeliga in Kissimmee
There are plenty of options for fishing guides on this famous lake just a few blocks away from historic downtown Kissimmee, and the bass fishing is great there. And it has a special place in this Florida Man’s heart as it’s where my grandfather took me out fishing almost every time we went to visit relatives in Kissimmee and St Cloud.
EAST: Drive out an hour to the Space Coast
Wake up in the morning, hop on 528 and you’ll go straight out to north Brevard County. Some places to visit out there will include Cocoa Beach and historic Cocoa Village, plus Kennedy Space Center.
Another highly recommended nature spot on the Space Coast is the Canaveral National Seashore, located between New Smyrna Beach and Titusville. A beautiful stretch of beach with a diverse ecosystem along the shoreline, and a great place to catch some rays in the morning or afternoon.
More nostalgia: Mrs-borne69 was born and raised on the Space Coast and there are some great seafood places near Port Canaveral.
WEST: Check out Florida’s Wine Country in Clermont
Pretty much all of the Florida peninsula is good for growing wine. But west Lake County is one of the Sunshine State’s best known spots for wine growing, and its best known vineyard is Lake Ridge Winery in Clermont. They offer regular winery tours, hold frequent events on weekends and their property is a beautiful place to hang out and enjoy a glass under the shade of an oak tree. And in late March you might get the last few days of pleasant weather before summer arrives in Mid-April.
Quit Messing Around Dude, Give Me Some Real Florida Man S***
You’re all thinking it. And I won’t deny you what you want. Some bullet points:
Old Town - The Working Man’s Disney. Ride the Slingshot and Vomatron!
Gatorland - Yankee Nightmare Fuel
Yeehaw Junction - To tell your friends you went to a place called Yeehaw Junction that one time you went to Florida
Machine Gun America - It’s exactly what it sounds like.
The Villages - Check for dice on golf carts and pineapples on the front doors if you want to find out the real reason why they call it Florida’s Friendliest Hometown.
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Have a great weekend.