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Fans React to USA's MASSIVE World Cup Win Over Bosnia
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Watch the USMNT post-match reaction after the 2-0 victory over Bosnia. See how the team secured their spot in the next round. This live stream breaks down the key moments from the USMNT 2-0 win against Bosnia in the World Cup round of 32. Whether you missed the match or want to hear analysis on the squad's performance, this recap covers the critical plays that defined the result. I am also discussing the atmosphere from the Senegal versus Belgium game earlier today to give you a broader perspective on the tournament. This coverage is for fans looking for a direct USMNT post-match analysis without the noise. We review the tactics, the goals, and what this World Cup soccer performance means for the team moving forward. Join the conversation as we look ahead to the next stage of the bracket.
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Partnership Announcement with Huey D Coffee
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World Cup Excitement and Merchandise Promotion
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This episode of Lobbing Scorchers was previously recorded and streamed live on YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers. If you want to listen or catch these episodes live, see the video, and see all the rest of our content, go to YouTube.com slash at Lobbing Scorchers or LobbingScorchers.com slash YouTube.
00:02:39
Speaker
Well, sir, we got a scorcher today. Gonna be a real scorcher today. today? Well, it's gonna be a scorcher.
USMNT vs Bosnia Match Analysis
00:03:00
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to your post-match live for the USMNT's 2-0 victory over Bosnia in the World Cup round of 32. I'm going to be hanging out, reacting to the result, maybe taking some calls later. It's been a big day a footy. ah I was out at a Senegal versus Belgium earlier, and that was pretty electric. And the USMNT...
00:03:30
Speaker
is now through. So we figured we wanted to do a show. Couldn't do a watch along today, but I am going to be running this post-match live. I'll be hanging out for at least an hour or two, maybe longer, depending on how it goes. But a lot to talk about. hope you all have been enjoying the World Cup and hope you all enjoyed that game. ah A big win.
00:03:50
Speaker
For the USA, but at what cost Fuller and Balogun picks up a red card in the 64th minute. And now we have to play this Belgium match without our best player, or at least our best attacker in this tournament. Balogun had been playing so well. And ah that was a controversial call to say the least. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to be talking about the game. We're going be previewing the Belgium game. So ah everybody get on in here.
00:04:21
Speaker
Give me your reaction. Give me your takes. Yep. Let's get the chat going. Third ring star. Thank you, Dusty. Thank you. ah No, you're good. All caps are fine. The U.S. is through. And, man, i got I got quite a lot to say about this game, actually. So excited to get into it.
00:04:38
Speaker
If you have not done so yet, as always, please sub to the channel, like, comment, subscribe, rate five stars. Follow us on all socials. Get your QED d coffee subscription. All that good stuff. But, yeah, let's get the let's get the chat going. We got the peppier Haji discourse. We'll get into that.
00:04:57
Speaker
But, yeah. How are you guys feeling? How are you guys feeling? How you doing, chat? It's an interesting feeling right now for the USMNT because I think obviously the most important thing with that game was to get the win by any means necessary.
00:05:18
Speaker
But to lose Balogun in that way,
00:05:24
Speaker
at that point in the game, with the way that he's been playing, how badly our team needs him specifically.
00:05:32
Speaker
It's just that, that my first reaction when that red card came out was, does it even like matter if we win this game from the perspective of like, can we, can we beat Belgium without Baligan?
00:05:46
Speaker
Can we do that? And I was emotional in the moment and I felt like probably not.
00:05:55
Speaker
It feels like that that guy as much as, it's like it's him and Chris Richards. If you take Baligan and Chris Richards out of this lineup, what do we do? We don't really that's really have many plans passed those at those those positions past those guys.
00:06:09
Speaker
So we'll see how Pochettino lines it up, but it just, should we just talk about the call straight up, like off-ripped?
00:06:20
Speaker
There's so many. I don't know where to begin with this. Obviously, the call is goingnna the the red that red card call is going to be the hot button talking point, as it should be.
00:06:31
Speaker
ah But I guess let's let's just start with the game itself. Let's start with the game itself because the U.S. was obviously favored going into this game.
00:06:44
Speaker
by By more than I felt comfortable with, to be honest with you, if you looked at all the the Vegas stuff, the odds makers, that's how you can tell who the favorite really is. And we were favored by a lot. i'm not we're I'm not used to that.
00:07:01
Speaker
Not used to that. I'm used to going into these games being like, oh, okay, how are we going to bunker troll ball our way out of this? That was not the situation with this game. Bosnia, was the they were in that situation. They were the ones who had to come into this sitting back and defending for their lives and trying to punch above their weight.
00:07:20
Speaker
Right? So it was just kind of weird, I think, in general, going into ah game feeling like the pressure was actually on you to win. Whereas u s the USMNT fan base, we're not used to that.
00:07:36
Speaker
It's just not the role that we usually play. Now we're playing that. So that was my first question, though, was like, you know, how do you respond to that? Because...
00:07:48
Speaker
Being the favorite is all well and good, but it doesn't really matter once the game kicks off. So ah I was curious to see how we would come out, how we would look. And to be honest with you, i know that it took it took us a while to score that goal in the first half, but that frad first half to me felt about as one-sided as it gets for zero zero you could see it You could see it happening from the very first minute that the match kicked off.
00:08:15
Speaker
it was very It very quickly became one of those games where it was a 75-25 type possession split. ah we were at I looked at it at one point. We were at like 91% passing accuracy on like 200 more passes than them. ah they They had a couple good looks right after the game started, one off a set piece. I think both of them were off corner kicks, actually. And that was pretty much it for them. Until until the very end of the game, after Tillman scored, they didn't really have anything.
00:08:47
Speaker
So from that perspective, it was actually, I thought it was going great. And frankly, once, once Balogun scored and made it one zero, I was like, all right, you need to get the second goal. You do need to get the second goal because anything can happen.
00:09:02
Speaker
But sorry, one sec.
00:09:10
Speaker
You have to get the second goal.
00:09:16
Speaker
but I felt great about our chances of getting that second goal. And it really felt like not cruise control, but like I didn't really feel like the outcome was much in doubt.
00:09:31
Speaker
And I think that's part of what makes this red card so frustrating. You're ahead in the game. You're way better than this team.
00:09:43
Speaker
You're beating the hell out of this team.
00:09:50
Speaker
And
00:09:54
Speaker
all right, let's just talk about the call.
00:09:57
Speaker
Let's talk about the call. Everyone wants to talk about the call. I'm seeing some people hate the call. Some people are saying Balogun needs to be smarter than that.
00:10:15
Speaker
I hate the call.
00:10:19
Speaker
There's,
00:10:22
Speaker
if you want to call that a yellow card, he but he probably should have gotten a yellow card for that. that's a yellow card play. That's a yellow card play. And basically what happened is they were like, oh, that should have been a yellow card. Well, now we have to go back and make it a red card.
00:10:36
Speaker
No, you don't.
00:10:39
Speaker
My catch it on the field or fuck off. That's my take on that call. Catch it to catch that on the field. If it's that bad, if it's that bad and it was that malicious, catch it on the field or fuck off. Don't talk to me.
00:10:52
Speaker
God,
00:10:56
Speaker
I think your intent has to factor in, in that situation. Did he mean to do it? I know everyone, your intent doesn't matter. it in that In this particular type of challenge, your intent should matter. You can't tell me that he meant to do that.
00:11:14
Speaker
it's an act It was an accident, clearly. Unless the VAR is psychic and can read his mind.
00:11:25
Speaker
It's incidental contact. He didn't mean to do it. he did When you slow it down, yes, frame by frame. he He rakes him on the back of the calf. Yeah, so I get why. i oh God.
00:11:39
Speaker
It's just stuff like this does not have to be as black and white as they make it. They are looking at that and they say, oh, well, that studs the calf. It's over. That's no debate. Red card. No. No, there is a debate there. He didn't see it on the field.
00:11:50
Speaker
He didn't catch it on the field.
00:11:55
Speaker
He didn't mean to do it.
00:11:58
Speaker
It was clearly an accident. You either need to give him a yellow card on the field when you catch it or leave the call how you called it. Like, you don't, we don't need to be doing that. And I say this as someone who I've been on my pro VAR soapbox even after couple of the controversial moments in this tournament.
VAR Controversy and Tactical Discussions
00:12:23
Speaker
And we got Noah tapping in. Let's go. Let's go. Let's get him in here. Hell yeah, there he is. What a win. is What a win.
00:12:33
Speaker
i was just all odds i was just all odds. I was just whining about the ah red card. So ah feel free to pick up there or any, any takes at all that you got on the, ah on the match.
00:12:44
Speaker
Yeah, ah you know, I think the biggest thing for me is that's not a red card. That's never been a red card. um VAR needs to end. We need to seek a legal injunction against VAR. What have they done this tournament so far? Let's break it down for you. iran a team did not lose a single world cup match they had their tournament ended because of a boss call you don't think that dionny infantino wasn't in there making a boss call saying var today i do not feel iranian and he he hung up that phone today if you look at that foul
00:13:23
Speaker
And you are like, oh, no, that's awful. That's terrible. You have never played soccer in your life one time, one like ever. The momentum of both of those players going into each other, clearly both playing the ball. And someone saying intention doesn't matter. It does matter.
00:13:39
Speaker
It should. not It should. It does matter. i don't care. i don't care. if Listen. People are making comparison to the Leo Messi tackle, which again, that was not called a red. That was not reviewed and called a red. And I agree with that. This should not be a red card.
00:13:56
Speaker
This should not be a red card. If you watch back that foul in real time, it does not look bad. It does not look as bad as the close-up. Yeah, it's slow down. 0.002 frames per second. Ankle bender, and then they pause when the ankle's bent on the ground, and it's like, oh, uh, uh, uh.
00:14:15
Speaker
Sure, you want to say that Flo should have been more careful there. I disagree with you. It's the fucking World Cup. It is a knockout game. These are physical matches, and FIFA has been letting a lot of things go. So if you're going to... Also, I love that I've got my deodorant just chilling here. I just realized that's good... That's a good backdrop, man. We'll just leave it at this point. Shout out, Old Spice. If you... Well, actually, wait. No free promo. No free promo. Yeah, yeah. You get that out of You know, if you're if you want to... I just... Man...
00:14:45
Speaker
There's no way to repeal this. There's no way for him to get the justice that he deserves. And again, like, I'm not like a conspiracy theory guy, but um did Donald Trump make a boss call? Did Donald Trump lose the birthright citizenship vote? And then he was like, send him off, send him off. I'm just saying it's not out of the picture. It's not out of the question. Second thing I wanted to talk about.
00:15:15
Speaker
Second thing i want to talk about is Ricardo Pepe. Because Ricardo Pepe is most likely going be getting minutes now that Balogun is in jail. And I want to say something about Ricardo Pepe. He is a bot guy. He is a guy that the bots absolutely love. They love to talk about him. They love to watch him. They actually don't love to watch him because they've... who Who's watching PSV?
00:15:35
Speaker
Let's be real. Who's waking up on a Saturday morning like, I am so excited to watch PSV? Like, it's, like, I'm sorry. No one's doing that. If you're doing that, seek help. Because that's crazier than watching, like, 20 MLS games in a day, which we both do.
00:15:54
Speaker
Ricardo Pepe, for the U.S. Men's National Team, is what people describe Albert Rusnak at. They describe, like, the way that people describe Albert Rusnak for the Seattle Sounders is actually how Pepe plays. I have, he, like, does, he comes on the field, and I just, I forget that he's there.
00:16:13
Speaker
Bro does not do anything. So I'm genuinely concerned playing against a Belgium team, which listen, I watched that Belgium game. Belgium don't look good. No, no, they are so they are so beatable. And if Balogun was playing, we would like low key be favorites. Yes. That's what I think of them right now.
00:16:30
Speaker
Yes. Also, i was like, Pepe is a crash out. Pepe is a crash out. but Two minutes into getting subbed onto this game, and he's, like, chirping random Bosnian guys and, like, slapping the ball out of their hand.
00:16:44
Speaker
Pepe, brother, if you can hear me, lock in. Lock in. He better. Walk-in, because, brother, if you ghost, I'm going to be on your ass. I'm going to be on your ass. You know who played better than Pepe today? Esmir Baraktarevic, an American who also plays for PSV and plays more minutes at PSV than Pepe.
00:17:05
Speaker
Like, I just... i i'm I'm very scared for this matchup simply because we don't have flow. And secondarily, because I just i think Pepe is a detriment to this roster. He is, he is like...
00:17:19
Speaker
He is genuinely, when he goes out there, he is occupying space that is not... it just He's just taking up space. He's just taking up space.
00:17:31
Speaker
Yeah, no, this whole this whole red card situation, it throws the whole Belgium operation for a loop. you know If we had managed to finish this match with ah all 11 guys and Balogun on the field, I'd be feeling great right now. I would be like, bring on Belgium. But now you have the best striker that the USMNT has ever had. Shout out Birthright Citizenship, by the way. The best striker the USMNT has ever had is now not going to be suspended for the not go be playing in the game. He's going to be suspended. And like you said, there's no way to overturn or repeal that.
00:18:05
Speaker
So that's I don't know if anyone was asking that, but the answer is no. like that's It's over. He's done It sucks And it's just, it's, that's one of, to me, there's two guys you could not afford to lose. It's him and it's Chris Richards.
00:18:21
Speaker
And now how do we score? well Well, I also think, I also think Tyler Adams may be in that category. But see, if, if you had to go without one of Tyler or Weston, you would at least have the other theoretically. And like that, you know, there, it, I think you could paper that over easier than you can. Like the drop off from Balogun to Pepe. I think Pepe was actually pretty good in the Australia game. He, he meaningfully contributed to the own goal.
00:18:46
Speaker
And also I thought the way he and Balogun were playing off each other looked good at times, but because he was playing off of Balogun. Yeah. So if it's just, you know, him up top or he had 24 touches in minutes.
00:19:03
Speaker
24 touches in 74 minutes playing as a dual striker. I'm sorry, brother. That's that's tough. That's tough. That's tough. And to not like to not have... He had zero shots on goal.
00:19:18
Speaker
Uh-uh. Uh-oh. It's like going from like a like a Ferrari or a Maserati to like a 98 Corolla. Like, it's going to get you there.
00:19:28
Speaker
Like, you're going to get there. But like, you kind of just want it to get hit on the road and take the insurance payout. Yeah, yeah you know that's a little on the nose for me right now, but yeah. um like It it is a massive drop-off. I'm definitely worried about the offense against Belgium.
00:19:47
Speaker
And it just it just feels needless. It didn't need to... if he If he had done an idiotic, malicious, violent challenge, I would be like, all right, well, we deserve to he deserves to be suspended. But I don't think he does, man. i just It's just...
00:20:03
Speaker
It's such tempered massage. It's such a tempered massage. Does Pepe even have a shot on target like at all in this entire tournament? I'm like trying to look right now. He didn't have one against Turkey. he had two shots that were wildly off target. He had he had two shots, but zero on target against Australia.
00:20:20
Speaker
i don't know about bought the Bosnia game. i don't remember him taking a shot that went anywhere. Nope. And... and Paraguay, maybe, if he's lucky. Did he even get in that game?
00:20:34
Speaker
He did. He played like so a couple of minutes. and he had Okay, he has one shot. Oh, no, it's considered off target. Never mind. So he doesn't even have a shot on target.
00:20:46
Speaker
it's it's not It's just not a good situation to be in going into this game. I will say, well, you know, let's... ah We're being Doomer, but like... We're being Doomers.
00:20:57
Speaker
I think they can win this game still. Like, I don't. I do't do too. I do too. Because Belgium is not good. Belgium. but Let's talk about that. Because Belgium, Belgium got lucky as hell to win their their game against Senegal today. They were down. Talk about VAR, bro. Talk about some VAR bullshit every time. I'm telling you, we need to ban this shit. It's ruining the game.
00:21:20
Speaker
They were down 2-0 in the 86th minute. Senegal was handling them easily. My takeaway from that game was going to be like, Senegal wasn't even sweating these guys, really. And then Senegal fumbled it. were a better team. Hands down, Senegal was the better team. was the better team through...
00:21:35
Speaker
90 of the game they somehow give up the exact same goal twice in a row between the 86th and the 89th minute and then uh and then that penalty was bullshit too like you said yeah it was was yeah like so the belgium got totally bailed out they didn't play well they had to fight for their lives to scrounge out a tutu and then get a gift bullshit penalty at right at the very end to win that game have not looked very good this whole tournament. KDB looks pretty cooked. Lukaku looks like a run-stuffing defensive tackle. Like, it's, they're, don't think they're that good. Like, I was Temple massaging a little bit at their coach subbing off Doku and KDB at, like, the 50th minute.
00:22:16
Speaker
I was like, huh? Like, what what are we doing here? but I mean, I guess it worked, but, I mean, really, truly, they did get bailed out. I also want to say this about this thing. This is twice now that African teams were absolutely running. They were absolutely running on competition that was like European competition. And then the the third quarter into the fourth quarter break happens. And they're able to re-tactically adjust and go on to beat these African opponents. And I got to be honest with you, Ari.
00:22:51
Speaker
I think that goes against that goes against the whole... Like, the game is gone. the game The game is gone. We should not be having these water breaks. It was like 58 degrees today here in Seattle. Those are tactical breaks, tactical for ads, tactical for tactics, and i it it completely shifts the momentum of these games in favor of teams that are way more tactic that play way more tactically instead of playing and like physically outmatching their opponent. And Senegal was also tactically beating them, but it was just like that really frustrates me. I just there's so many. I know this is all nitpicking. I know this is all like annoying, frustrating stuff. But these are the little things in this World Cup that I'm like, I'm becoming radicalized. I'm becoming genuinely the old head who's like, the game is gone.
00:23:40
Speaker
Because it is yeah The game definitely is gone after that red card to battle again. And you know what's messed up? is like As soon as I saw the replay, i was like, okay, well, he's go he's off. They're guaranteed going to call that. And I think the problem the problem I have with that is ah i feel like I feel like we're talking about MLS right now, like banging our heads against the wall with the clear and obvious statute. But that is not clear and obvious. I feel like it shouldn't even need to be said. That's just a 50-50 subjective judgment call. So I think what happens in these situations is like psychologically – when you go to the monitor or the VARs, they see something that the ref didn't see on the field and it's different than what he saw or thought he saw on the field. When they see that it was different, they that there's like a switch that flips and they, oh, that automatically means that we have to change it. And I think that we just need to get to like this common sense place with this where it's like, no, that, Just because it's different from what you thought you saw, that does not actually mean inherently that you have to change the call. Because really in that situation, all you're doing is taking a 50-50 subjective judgment call and changing it to a 50-50 subjective judgment call, but the other way. That's not, that in no way at all whatsoever falls under the clear and obvious category. But like, There's reasonation bias to what you're saying. like yeah The way that the VAR is determining, they are always looking to call something. yes They're never looking to overturn something. They're always looking to call something. they're always looking They want to change it. They want to change it. They want to be like, oh, look, see, we caught it or whatever. But like that's you don't have to do that. OK. And this is the example that I was giving, though, because I think there is a counter to what we're talking about, which is that like the the the situations where you can use it and need to use it. is like the Alex Freeman Australia goal. That goal, but even that, even that, okay? They got that call, right? And i I look at that and I'm like, that's exactly, that's how VAR is supposed to be used. Clear and obvious, clear as day. You can see that that's a good goal.
00:25:52
Speaker
ah You don't need to like, look at it. You don't need to debate it. You look at that one time you can tell you say some, you don't even need the ref to go to the monitor. Someone can just headset him and be like, yo, we looked at it and that's blatantly on side. Just give the goal. Why, like, why does it not work like that? And even, but so even in my praise of that call with how it worked, it It took too long. You don't need to stand there for 10 to 15 minutes looking at that.
00:26:16
Speaker
You don't. You look at that one time, you see Alex Freeman is onside. That's it. That's done. That's how VAR needs to be used and should be used. That's like the example that I can think of in the in the last few games here. These 50-50 ones are just, it's it's so bad. It's so off. Now our best...
00:26:35
Speaker
player our best striker is suspended in the world cup round of 16 and we are i mean okay let's let's uh let's talk about that like are we just you were saying you still feel pretty good about the belgium game i agree i feel a lot less good but i don't think it's i don't like people are gonna be like my first reaction was we are chalked it's over no balligan no party this is the shout out to the world cup but now even a little this few minutes removed from it i don't i'm let me just Let me share why, and then I'll let you go into your feelings on it, and then I got to get out of here shortly. But I think what really changed my tides was watching that that free kick.
00:27:12
Speaker
Was watching that free kick go in the back of the net, winning a set piece, and just playing it brilliantly. Like, having having a lot of set plays.
USMNT Strategies Against Belgium
00:27:22
Speaker
Like, the U.S. has a lot of set plays in this tournament. We've watched it. They've got different looks to...
00:27:29
Speaker
pounce on these opportunities that they're actually getting. And they've been effective with it. Like we we see the corner kicks going in. We see these set pieces going in. They're battling to win those balls.
00:27:42
Speaker
is Is it going to be tougher? Is it going to be tighter? Are you going to have to rely on your center defensive midfielders a lot more considering that like you're not going to be able to play through Balogun. You're not going to be able to just have this like ticky-tocka and this just very clinical finisher even when he's on his back foot.
00:28:01
Speaker
Absolutely. But what you can do, play for those corners, play for those set pieces and finish them. Like that's what they can do. They've been consistently doing that. And so, you know, I'm not saying go out there and play Haram ball because I don't think you need to do that against this Belgium team that is 8 billion years old. And there's really only like one, two good players on that entire roster.
00:28:25
Speaker
I think you need to run them ragged in the first half, but you know And then really take the opportunities that you have. Take those opportunities you have. like Absolutely make it happen. It's it's not going to be fun.
00:28:40
Speaker
I'm like not looking forward to that match. I think this match is going to be incredibly tightly contested. Maybe it goes to penalties. like I don't know. But I don't think that the U.S., Even without Balogun, I think that they can hold their own against this team.
00:28:55
Speaker
Belgium did not impress me. I'm not saying that they're a bad team. I'm not writing them off. I didn't even write off Bosnia. But what I am saying is I watched them play Senegal. They are absolutely able to be broken apart. They are absolutely able to...
00:29:12
Speaker
just not perform when they need to do they have secret weapons do they are they able to bring Lukaku off the bench who potentially could be the best world cup that's what they have that's what they have right now yes you can't play that yeah you can't play a full 90 but when they sub him on he's like automatic to score apparently it seems like it's happened to every game for them this tournament but they have not like I've been to two of their their games in Seattle now they have not looked good in either of them they didn't look that good against Egypt they had to pull out a Lukaku own goal equalizer to salvage a draw in that game. And the Senegal game, they were about to lose. They couldn't score against Duran.
00:29:48
Speaker
No, and they were about to lose today. They were about to lose today and honestly had one of the most insane comebacks I've ever seen. ah And got gifted the last goal. Let's like be clear about that. But... It's not this is not the 2014 Belgium team that put 43 shots on Tim Howard. They're just not that team. So like this is this is still doable. And I think this U.S. s team clearly is a lot deeper and a lot better ah than any other USA team that's ever come before it. It's just like this is the one. This is like one of the two players that we just absolutely could not have this happen to. Like that's that is kind of the reality. So. yeah It is unfortunate.
00:30:31
Speaker
the Christian Roldan, if you can hear me, Christian Roldan, save us, Christian Roldan. Please. Christian Roldan, please save us. Also, roster him, Polk.
00:30:42
Speaker
Put him on the roster. Why is he still not on the game day roster? Just let him dress. Who cares? thats I think he did that for the first game. but I know, but they devin they since he got injured, i don't know.
00:30:54
Speaker
Round of 16, when we're up by six goals, Christian Roldan comes in the game, scores a bicycle kick. Mark my words. All right. Well, hell yeah, man. I'll let you go, but thanks for tapping in, brother. Good stuff. And woa I'll see you soon.
00:31:13
Speaker
I'll see you soon. I'm sure we'll pod soon. Bye. got pod. All right. Later. All right, shout out to Noah for ah tapping in there. ill I'll rip solo for a little bit, and then I'll toss the call link in and take some calls. I don't think it's not like I'm not planning on streaming like late into the night tonight, but I owe you guys a call-in show. So, Hunch, if you're still listening, I know you said you had to go to dinner, but ah definitely tap in later. But I do want to i did want to get a few more takes out there on this game and just on the ah on the Belgium game while we wait here. um
00:31:48
Speaker
you know, I think weve we've been pretty negative so far on the show because i mean, I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty salt. I'm pretty salty about the red card. I just feel like that's such a scale tilter for this Belgium game where it's like the difference between me feeling actively good about that game and being like, hell yeah, let's go. Let's beat it. Let's beat their asses to being like, all right, well, how do we, I don't know how we're going score goal without, bat without Balogun out there.
00:32:16
Speaker
Our level, I feel like, just goes so far back to the 2022 team. ah That was the vibe I got watching the turkey game. That was all all the B-side, to be fair. you know maybe Maybe with the rest of the starters out there, you can put Pepe or Haji right in there, plug them in, and
00:32:37
Speaker
it'll work better. will actually be able to generate chances or, you know, put Pepe in positions where he can actually finish some chances. It just, it feels like...
00:32:50
Speaker
feels like it It feels like it could be too big a drop-off. But I will say this. You got to give the team credit for how they played with 10 men. This Bosnia team, as we kind of expected, did not have a hell of a lot going on in attack. But playing down a man for that long in the game, I mean, it was the 64th minute when Balogun got sent off.
00:33:11
Speaker
So that is a very long time to play down a man. It's not easy to defend that long in a World Cup knockout game. I don't care who you're playing against. So to be able to defend that the way they did to keep the clean sheet and not only that, but to actually score while down a man to actually score while down a man was huge. Like, yeah, it was on a set piece, but that's exactly, it's kind of, I was kind of a clinic and how to play down a man. they They were going against an opponent that was having a very hard time generating chances, even when, you know, even when they were up a man.
00:33:47
Speaker
But still, like, there was so much, I think Stu Holden was talking about this on the broadcast, but there has been a lot of talk over the years, ah including for myself, about how this team
00:34:01
Speaker
does not, it doesn't have the, it felt it's felt like at times that it hasn't had the intensity and the thing for the badge type mentality that the U.S., that used to be like an intrinsic part of the U.S. identity was You know, our teams were like, you know, we might not be talented, but we'll be athletic.
00:34:24
Speaker
We're going to run a lot. We're going to play defense. We're going hard to beat. We're going give you hell. And I think one of the biggest complaints I had and others had was that was the kind of loss of that identity. There was the golden generation that were way talented, but like did they... If you put them in an adverse circumstances where they had to defend that long down a man in a knockout round game, felt like they would crumble.
00:34:50
Speaker
So... Having levied that criticism myself, I'll give them credit. Like they they did not... That...
00:35:01
Speaker
Playing like that down a man for that long and then getting the second goal and keeping the clean sheet and winning this type of game. That's a sign of a mentally tough team. And I, that's a good sign because i would describe this team as decidedly not mentally tough
00:35:22
Speaker
for the last however many years, really it, It feels like some sort of switch flipped late before the world cup started to me, like the, where I started noticing the shift was in the in those, the Senegal and the Germany friendlies right before the world cup started up until then. I think ive some people who are coming into this new might think that this team has just been always been this good.
00:35:50
Speaker
That could not be further from the truth. This team just got this good within the last like four games. Until then, this team was kind of a chore.
00:36:03
Speaker
Not only a chore to be a fan of, but actively embarrassing to be a fan of at times. So to see it to see the team go down a man in those circumstances,
00:36:14
Speaker
keep the clean sheet, score another goal. What a goal by Malik Tillman. Let's shout out Malik Tillman. We barely talked about him at all.
00:36:25
Speaker
that That guy has real quality. I mean, that free kick, that that is a very hard distance to to bang a free kick from like that. It is. So
00:36:40
Speaker
credit to him, but credit to the whole team. Credit to the defense. Shout out Alex Freeman. Shout out Tim Yes, shout out Tim Ream. Shout out Chris Richards. Honestly, just about over every American that I can think of.
00:36:55
Speaker
Chris Richards
00:36:59
Speaker
fills me with patriotism. Okay.
00:37:04
Speaker
That man, the service that he provides to our country is incredible.
00:37:17
Speaker
S9L1974, member for nine months, says, Senegal lost focus and didn't finish the job. We won't do the same. Hopefully. Hopefully you're right because i'm I'm, you know, maybe I'm speaking on ah something that I am not fully privy to on this, but I, or have you guys been impressed by Belgium at all?
00:37:43
Speaker
Have you been impressed by Belgium at all this tournament?
00:37:49
Speaker
If I had, i would I would admit it. I would say they've been they've looked really good. they've been They've been a great Belgium side. They look like they're ready to make a run. They don't look like that. They don't look like that.
00:38:02
Speaker
I was thinking to myself during the Senegal game, Like, damn, I kind of hope Belgium wins this because I would rather play them than this Senegal team.
00:38:13
Speaker
And I still kind of feel like that. they They did win that game, but they pulled that out of their ass, dude. That was not a good like performance. Any win in a World Cup knockout game is a good win, but they they were not they definitely did not take it to Senegal. They did not look better than Senegal. They looked a lot, I think, worse than Senegal for pretty much the entire game until the eighty six minute.
00:38:37
Speaker
That was very one-sided. So...
00:38:44
Speaker
How much does not having Balogun end up sinking us is the question. How much? Because i think this team can win this game without Balogun.
00:38:56
Speaker
But... I also don't know if I trust...
Offensive Concerns Without Balogun
00:39:04
Speaker
Either of the backups... to hit the broad side of a barn.
00:39:10
Speaker
Like you're telling me of a, if you see yeah either Pepe or Haji Wright open in front of goal, you have any confidence at all that they're going to put it away? I don't. i And by contrast, I have all the confidence in the world that Baligan is going to put his chances away.
00:39:28
Speaker
That guy can't miss right now. He's a couple borderline offside calls from being like a golden boot contender. He's been one of the best players of anybody on any team in the whole tournament. Like, I don't think that's overstating it to say that that's how good he's been for our team.
00:39:47
Speaker
So,
00:39:50
Speaker
and it just sucks because it feels unjust. It feels unjust. can't.
00:40:01
Speaker
And it didn't need to happen.
00:40:09
Speaker
More worried from a defensive standpoint. I feel good about the defense.
00:40:17
Speaker
Assuming that it's a
00:40:21
Speaker
not the bad news bears out there that we're out there against Turkey. I feel good about the defense. I thought the back line was pretty excellent in this game. Bosnia wasn't offering much. Bosnia couldn't keep the ball.
00:40:33
Speaker
Bosnia was in that mode where they, they just couldn't maintain possession. So they were lumping it forward, playing for counters and set pieces, whatever. That's what I would expect them to do.
00:40:48
Speaker
Belgium's not going to do that.
00:40:51
Speaker
Maybe they should, maybe that would make their team better.
00:40:59
Speaker
But
00:41:02
Speaker
I don't know. Dusty says Belgium is washed. umve I've stopped short of saying that. I don't like to jinx things.
00:41:10
Speaker
But that's kind of how they look, man. That's kind of how they look. They have one bit. And that's Subban Lukaku in like the 70-whatever minute. And he can still... I mean, that is...
00:41:28
Speaker
I fear that. But as far as like KDB goes, i don't think he, I think he's looking a little past it, man. He's looking a little past it. He doesn't have the pace or explosiveness that he used to Doku does, but Doku, i think that the problem Belgium is running into is that Doku is really their only kind of truly dynamic, creative force and attack with KDB not playing that well.
00:41:56
Speaker
And when you only have one way to hurt somebody teams at this level, especially in the world cup teams are going to be able to take that away. And, uh, you saw Egypt very clearly game planned all around neutralizing Doku. Uh, and I thought they did a great job of that and Senegal for the most part, seemed like they had, uh,
00:42:18
Speaker
a lot of success neutralizing this Belgium attack up until the very end. And then they, then they fumbled it. Doku reminds me of Manungu. Yeah. Like at least in this world cup, not for a Manchester city or is that's who he's on. Right.
00:42:35
Speaker
Yeah. For Manchester city, he's like a demigod, but at the, for Belgium at this world cup,
00:42:43
Speaker
he has not looked,
00:42:47
Speaker
He's not lighting the world on fire. I don't know.
00:42:52
Speaker
And our wide defenders, whether it's,
00:42:58
Speaker
whether it's Jedi, whether it's Alex Freeman, whether it's Serginio Dest, all these guys are hella athletic and fast. And if I could pick anybody to be able to hang with a guy like Doku from a physical standpoint, it would be our group of wide defenders and even our wingers, man.
00:43:17
Speaker
Our team is... got like If it's just about pace and athleticism,
00:43:29
Speaker
our team actually has enough of that to hang with guys like this now. It's kind of weird. But like you know there were past years where a guy like... We could be going into a game against a guy like Doku, and it's like, okay, what's our plan to stop that?
00:43:44
Speaker
Graham Zussi. All right. Let's see how that goes. Usually didn't go that well. I don't mean to, you know, send a stray at Graham Zussi. It's just not the same thing as a Serginio Dest or Jedi or Alex Freeman.
00:44:02
Speaker
So this Belgium team's not that good. They're beatable. They haven't, they're not in good form. Got very lucky to win today. Should have lost to Senegal.
00:44:14
Speaker
I think I'm just kind of feeling a little doomsday because losing Balogun, losing Balogun is a disaster, but it's also, it just feels like it didn't need to happen.
00:44:29
Speaker
And as a couple people have correctly pointed out, there've been multiple other instances. ah Messi had a challenge like that. That, oh, that's the other thing.
00:44:40
Speaker
That's the other thing. Was Messi's challenge not very similar to what Balogun did, was it not? They would never give him a red card for that. In a million years, you could you could play this tournament a million times and have Messi
00:45:00
Speaker
make that challenge in every single one. They'll never give him a red card one time. Of course, when our guy does it, of course, when our guy does it, it's an auto red. They would never give Messi that. or like a well-known global superstar, it just wouldn't happen.
00:45:15
Speaker
Just wouldn't happen. Wouldn't happen.
00:45:19
Speaker
So it's just, it's very frustrating. It's very frustrating. Could have cost us the game today. Luckily it didn't, but
00:45:33
Speaker
it's a temple massager.
00:45:37
Speaker
a temple massager. We'll see how they line it up. My guess would be Peppy starts because Peppy played, uh, Peppy played in the Australia game when Pulisic was out. So it just, uh,
00:45:54
Speaker
I'm not, I don't think I'm out as down on Pepe as Noah is. i think that i thought I actually thought he and Balogun looked good, good in the Australian game.
00:46:05
Speaker
I thought he played like he was making good runs. He was pressing well. He made the right run that helped force the own goal. Want to give him credit for that? Cause I know people say own goals don't count, but that own goal what doesn't happen. If Pepe is not making the run that pulls the center back into the spot where it deflects off him into the goal.
00:46:22
Speaker
So,
00:46:29
Speaker
I got the press conferences pulled up here and it's the Bosnia guy first. I am going to have, I'm going to, when Pochettino talks, I'm going to have to get up for a minute or two because need to record it. So I got to go, go set that up in another room.
00:46:46
Speaker
It should only take a second. So I will have to jump up and do that when Pochettino comes in, but it should only take a minute or two.
00:46:55
Speaker
Hi from Brazil. I support Botafogo. Hell yeah. Welcome. Thanks for stopping by. Shout out Botafogo. Club World Cup opponent of the Seattle Sounders.
00:47:06
Speaker
That was a good-ass game in the Club World Cup. Seattle Sounders almost won that one.
00:47:14
Speaker
Almost won that one. and was one of the more ill-advised new who plays, wasn't it, that day?
00:47:22
Speaker
We gave Nuhu a hard time for that Botafogo game, but ah
00:47:29
Speaker
with the benefit of hindsight, that L was not fully on him, but that was unfortunate because that was the game in the Club World Cup that Seattle really had a chance to win.
00:47:50
Speaker
The thing that people aren't going to want to admit is that Danny Musavsky would feast on this USMNT. In this system, bro, can you imagine Moose in this system? You think Baligan's been playing well?
00:48:07
Speaker
In all seriousness, I would take Moose as the backup on this team over over our backup strikers.
00:48:19
Speaker
Messi's was way worse, came into the tackle, studs up in a very dangerous and reckless way. Ballo was literally landing from a jump and the guy's ankle got caught under it. The only way you can tell me that that Balogun challenge merits a straight red is if to to know that, to for that challenge to merit a straight red, you would need to be psychic.
00:48:41
Speaker
You would need to be able to get into his mind, read his mind and tell me that he meant to do that. Failing that, you either give it a yellow or you leave it how it was called on the field, which was no card.
00:48:52
Speaker
Oh, my God.
00:48:56
Speaker
What are we... I don't know what we're talking about. And it's frustrating to have to be this guy because I actually... I adamantly i disagree with Noah's whole soapbox about how we need to abolish VAR. I really... i I think that that is something that people say. and then when the reality... Like the whole like...
00:49:14
Speaker
human error is a part of the game thing. I can't get on board with that because
00:49:21
Speaker
when it, in when it's a call like this, it's easy to say that when your team gets knocked out of a tournament, the world cup, the playoffs champions league, whatever the case may be on a blatantly missed call that could have been easily corrected with one look at a replay.
00:49:38
Speaker
the beauty of the human error suddenly goes away and it makes way for blood boiling frustration and a feeling that you got robbed because before they, they were able to review these calls.
00:49:51
Speaker
These were just robbery situations.
00:49:56
Speaker
You know, people say like the Diego Maradona hand of God is like this legendary moment that shows why VAR sucks. That was, he that was, He cheated like yeah it stood because there was no VAR back then, but that was not like a beautiful moment of footballing.
00:50:14
Speaker
It's legendary because it was such bullshit that that goal counted.
00:50:20
Speaker
So it's to me, to me, it's not about VAR itself. It's about how they apply it when and how it's applied. And they're just, we're so far, we have so far lost the plot with some of it, man.
00:50:36
Speaker
We've so far lost the plot going back, re-litigating 50-50 calls. And then like this call against Balogun, like even if you do think it's a red card, it's a 50-50 debatable play.
00:50:49
Speaker
So all they did was take it from one 50-50 subjective call and change it to another 50-50 subjective call. That's not getting the call right. That's just changing it to something that's equally controversial.
00:51:01
Speaker
How are we not, how do we not understand this?
00:51:10
Speaker
It's not a hard thing is my other problem with it. Like it it it's not hard for the VAR to be like, all right, I might think that's a red card. In my opinion, if I see studs to the back of the calf like that,
00:51:25
Speaker
When I slow it down, I think that's a red card. But at the end of the day, like if he didn't call it on the field, that's my subjective opinion. So I'm not going to send him over to the monitor to confirm my subjective opinion on a call that was 50-50.
00:51:40
Speaker
Stupid.
00:51:45
Speaker
It's trash. It's trash call. Knowing your also Sounders fan thoughts on Reagan not being on the team with such a lack of defensive depth, saw that Sounders made it a little little difficult for him to make it on top of injury. ah Yeah, I think we all ah we all wanted Jackson Reagan on this team.
00:52:04
Speaker
And given how the center backs, the backup center backs looked against Turkey, I think we were kind of validated in that. I mean, could it have been worse than that? That was genuinely...
00:52:17
Speaker
had That had to have been one of the worst USMNT center back performances I've ever seen.
00:52:24
Speaker
You know, I'm not trying to pile on Miles Robinson and Mark McKenzie. They were trying out there. They did very not good. I was sitting there watching that saying, man, you know who would have wouldve been helpful in this situation was, uh,
00:52:43
Speaker
Jackson Reagan. So, but yeah, you are correct. There was a dispute where Seattle wanted him back for, for preseason before champions league, I think was the situation. And us s soccer said you can either stay for the whole camp or not come at all.
00:53:03
Speaker
It was something to that effect. Jackson was not happy about it. He stated that he was not happy about it and he never really hasn't, he hasn't gotten to look since. So go figure.
00:53:16
Speaker
Super late, but can the round of 16 ban be appealed? No.
00:53:21
Speaker
No, it it can't. I mean, i i would have to look it up to be absolutely sure. But even, I can tell you this, even if there is an appeals process, that would not get overturned.
00:53:36
Speaker
It would not. It needs to be, at least the way it works with the MLS disciplinary committee is it goes to a panel, It needs to be unanimous. And it also,
00:53:51
Speaker
like, I think that was an egregiously bad call, but it's 50-50 enough to where, like, they they don't use appeals processes, no league, no federation. They don't use appeals processes to, like, look at 50-50 calls. They look at them for 100-0 calls, I think is the easiest way to think of it.
00:54:10
Speaker
So now Balagan is he's, he's suspended. No Balagan, no Balagan against Belgium.
00:54:26
Speaker
Which is unfortunate to say the least, not just for our team, but the the nation as a whole. It's tough.
00:54:40
Speaker
And it kind of, you know, it sours what should be. It it should have been a great win, and it is a great win. I don't want to, like, take away from that. It's a great win. It's a great win. 2-0 in a knockout game against an opponent that was overmatched on talent. But, like, I told you guys, these Bosnian guys don't mess around.
00:54:59
Speaker
And, okay, this is another tangent. This is another soapbox, though. The Bosnians were beating the shit out of Balogun the entire game. Where was the yellow cards for that?
00:55:13
Speaker
Literally every time they saw number 20, their, their intent was to knock him on his ass. Okay. Which, you know, it's fine. They were doing it to Pulisic too. That was part of their bit. That's what they were doing in the game.
00:55:31
Speaker
But how about, about if you're going to give the man a straight red card for a challenge that was very, very clearly and obviously an accident, Can I get a yellow card for the guys for some repeat infringement for them jumping Dalgan every time that he was on the ball?
00:55:49
Speaker
Every single time he was on the ball between three and five pissed off Bosnian guys jumped him and beat the shit out of him. Can I get a yellow card?
00:55:59
Speaker
No, I can't. I can't get a yellow card, but I can get a red card for a 50-50 challenge. That was clearly an accident.
00:56:12
Speaker
It's just, the game is pretty far gone if on multiple fronts. The hydration breaks are, ah are part of why the game is gone, but the VAR stuff,
00:56:35
Speaker
no persistent, persistent infringement yellows on the Bosnians. I will say though, you know,
00:56:46
Speaker
Shout out to the Bosnians. They were one of my bandwagon teams before the world cup. I said it before the tournament even started. I, what they did to Italy during and qualifying was absolutely hilarious.
00:56:57
Speaker
Imagine that game, but it's deciding whether you're goingnna make it to the world cup at all in your Italy and you keep missing it. And they do that, but they win and they beat you in penalties. That's what happened to Italy. So credit to our team for not letting that happen to us. But the these Bosnian guys there, they don't mess around.
00:57:15
Speaker
They play hard. They play physical.
00:57:21
Speaker
They have no hesitation about just running right through you. And their fans were awesome in Seattle. That was one of the craziest atmospheres and environments I've ever been at ah that game.
00:57:38
Speaker
So I really, I mean, I got nothing. i got nothing bad to say about the Bosnians. Other than that, they should have gotten a couple more yellow cards for beating the shit out of our striker who went along went on to get an unjust red card.
00:57:56
Speaker
Yeah, Jekko at one point absolutely demolished Tyler Adams. He sent Tyler Adams to the shadow realm.
00:58:07
Speaker
I didn't see any yellow card on that play.
00:58:12
Speaker
Getting hit by eating Jekko that hard, it must be like getting hit by like JJ Watt.
00:58:21
Speaker
In all seriousness.
00:58:28
Speaker
All right. I'm keeping tabs on ah
00:58:33
Speaker
on these pressers here.
00:58:38
Speaker
we'll see We'll see what's going on. with our boy Pochettino.
00:58:49
Speaker
Eden Dzeko, all 45 years old of him.
00:58:55
Speaker
Absolutely smashed Tyler Adams. No card. No card.
00:59:08
Speaker
And, you know, Balogun, he's, he had been playing so well. He had been playing so well, man. He felt automatic for a goal game.
00:59:21
Speaker
I don't think Belgium would have had much more success stopping him than anyone else has had. If we can somehow get by them. i mean, at that point, we're probably talking about playing like one of the preeminent global powers on earth.
00:59:40
Speaker
But if we beat this Belgium team without Baligan, this World Cup is a success. And i think now by winning this game, we've gotten to the point where it's not like it can't be, even if we lose to Belgium, it I wouldn't consider it like an abject failure or an embarrassment and abject failure or an embarrassment would have been getting eliminated.
01:00:01
Speaker
Any getting grouped, obviously, but getting grouped like was so far out of the realm of possibility. Looking back on it, losing this game, this whole world cup would have been It would have been chalked. it would have been a failure.
01:00:16
Speaker
And that's honestly what was running through my mind when Baligan got the red card was, oh my God, we're only up one zero. And we're down a man for 30 plus minutes to end the game. Like that's the type of thing that can lose you a game even when you are the much more talented, much better team is a red card with that much time left.
01:00:39
Speaker
So again, I do think you have to give the team a lot of credit.
01:00:46
Speaker
You do. They could have wilted in that moment. They could have wilted in that moment. They could have capitulated. They could have gotten frustrated.
01:00:58
Speaker
They could have done any number of things that could have cost them the game playing down a man. And they held strong. Bosnia had a couple good chances at the end.
01:01:09
Speaker
Matty Freeze was up to it, but to keep a clean sheet in that scenario. And then also I think my favorite thing they did well down a man was score goal because
01:01:23
Speaker
i before Balogun got sent off, I was like, we're for sure getting a second at some point. I'm not even like really tripping about that. That's going to happen. Then when he gets sent off, it's like, okay, well now we're probably not.
01:01:35
Speaker
going to do that. ah But there was, there was the one that Pulisic had that was just barely offside or that he was pretty off far offside, but like that was a good chance there. We had, we had a couple of good chances down a man. And then ah man, that free kick by Tillman, that was disgusting. Tillman. I got to say out of all the under the radar guys that we've maybe haven't talked about as much, but that have been very impressive. Like this whole tournament, Malik Tillman,
01:02:04
Speaker
Very, very good. Excellent. He creates the chance that Balogun scores on the first goal. And then that free kick was just world-class. All right, guys, I'm going to get up for one minute here. i have to set up my recording for this press conference, but I will be right back. Give me like one to two minutes. Sorry, you have to look at a blank screen for one to two minutes.
01:02:32
Speaker
All right. Sorry about that, guys, but we are all set. Mauricio Pochettino talking to the press right now. ah I'm not listening to him. I'm just recording it in the other room. But, ah you know, he looks pretty happy. ah I'll be interested to hear his thoughts on this ah on this red card when I get to review it later. It's it's funny. His press conferences, can he can be defensive even when it's not necessary. Like I thought after the turkey game,
01:03:02
Speaker
He got real defensive in a way where it's like, you know, yeah he kept saying, ah he kept saying, you know, why is no one congratulating us for winning the group, even though we lost the game?
01:03:18
Speaker
And the USMNT press pack, which is not very confrontational, was like, I mean, we're just, we literally just asked you your thoughts on what happened. And he brought up like the fact that Germany also lost because they rotated like four times. So like he yeah
01:03:37
Speaker
his his demeanor doesn't always match what you would think it should, given the situation, I guess, is what I'm saying. ah But on the topic of Mauricio Pochettino, I think there's like there's some there's some split opinions on him.
01:03:56
Speaker
I don't know about you guys. What do you what do you think, Chad? What do you think of Pochettino?
Pochettino's Influence on USMNT
01:04:00
Speaker
I think he's pretty awesome. Like, if I'm just purely judging him as a coach, like a tactician and a game manager and all that, I just think he's been pretty lights out.
01:04:15
Speaker
To the point where ah when I look at it, I can see, okay, this guy really is like a world-class coach in a way that I kind of doubted. I doubted at the start of his tenure.
01:04:27
Speaker
I think a lot of us did because remember those performances and those results at like the beginning of his tenure
01:04:36
Speaker
was not that good.
01:04:41
Speaker
But ah i'm I'm at the point with Poach where I'm like, this guy is freaking nails, man. Like, His tactics, his game planning, his ability to make adjustments.
01:04:52
Speaker
Like, honestly, I hadn't even really thought of it from this lens, but the fact that we have to play this game without Balogun, having ah ah X's and O's savant like this as your coach, this is where that makes a difference.
01:05:04
Speaker
Remember going into the ah going into the Australia game, we didn't have Pulisic. Remember that? I had a lot of my friends texting me like, dude, are we chalked? No, Pulisic, are we chalked? The way that Pochettino adjusted to that and set the team up was like perfect. It set everyone up for success, even without one of the best players. Having a coach like this in this situation where we're going to be playing this game without Baligan makes me feel a lot better about it.
01:05:30
Speaker
And that's why, you know, there's been these reports that he got offered an extension. I say, if you can get him to lock in, if he's enjoying it and he's down to stay, i know some people think that you should ah only give a coach one World Cup cycle. If we can keep this guy, we should keep this guy.
01:05:47
Speaker
Like, I don't think there's any, there's no question about it for me. Azarada with the 10 bomb. Thank you for the support, man. Appreciate you. Says proud of how the U S team has played so far. Yeah, I am too, man.
01:06:03
Speaker
I am too. And as you all know, that's not a sentiment that I expressed lightly or have expressed a lot in the last couple years. I, you know, some people have given me ah a hard, not as much as I expected, honestly, but some people have given me a hard time about like how much trash I've talked about this team over the years and how I literally like renounced my citizenship and said that I defected to Canada. I will say this, if this team has not made you want to renounce your citizenship and defect to another country before, then I don't think you're a real... that you're I think you're outing yourself as a casual.
01:06:39
Speaker
One of the things that lobbing scorchers in the USMNT bot community agrees on is that being a fan of this team for a lot of the last... pushing a decade now or so has been, like, actively embarrassing.
01:06:56
Speaker
Okay, so...
01:07:00
Speaker
i did I did say that I renounced my citizenship and defected Canada. This team pissed me the fuck off that day. I remember why I said that. And I stand by why I said that. it was I've never been more embarrassed to be a fan of of this team than I was when I said that.
01:07:19
Speaker
And there was multiple layers to that. Part of it was game performance of whatever match was in question.
01:07:29
Speaker
Part of it was how the players were acting and carrying themselves. Part of it was the Federation, how they were acting and carrying themselves.
01:07:40
Speaker
But I was, i was not proud of this team. I was not proud to be a fan of this team. I wasn't. So to get back to the original point, it feels good to watch a USMNT team play.
01:07:52
Speaker
and be like, yeah, I can get behind this. These guys are playing well, they're playing hard. They're playing for the badge.
01:08:03
Speaker
They look like, they're backing up the way that they get talked about. i would be i would be blinded by hatred to watch how they played in this tournament and like deny that because of my like haterism.
01:08:19
Speaker
I've also, yes, I did renounce my citizenship. I also said that if you guys want me to stop saying stuff like this, prove me wrong. Go out on the field, take results, play like play like you're talked about.
01:08:31
Speaker
And if you do that, I will admit it. And they're doing that right now. They are earning, exactly, Hunch, they're earning the respect, which is, that's all I ever told them to go do.
01:08:42
Speaker
Not like any of them like care what I have to say, but like...
01:08:47
Speaker
They were, they carried themselves like a group that had earned respect that they had not. that And I, I will, I will never budge on that, man. I was there. I'd done been in the trenches with this team. Okay.
01:09:01
Speaker
I remember what that was like. If you're disagreeing with anything that I just said, then I don't think, I just think you haven't been in the trenches. You're either coming into this new or you're coming at it from a place of denial.
01:09:11
Speaker
Okay. I've been in the trenches so I can, I think I can speak to as much as anybody, as much as most people of like the difference in what we are seeing right now with this team at this world cup and what it's been like the last three, four five plus years.
01:09:28
Speaker
It's been embarrassing it a lot of the time. So
01:09:34
Speaker
I, and look, I could not be happier to be saying, to be talking about how they've managed to actually change that and earn the respect by how they're playing on the field and the results that they're taking.
01:09:48
Speaker
They were entitled with the previous staff. Yes. Hunch. I'm glad you brought this up. I'm so glad you brought this up. I was watching the HBO behind the scenes documentary that they made. i don't know if you guys have seen this, but they put it out. it's ah it's ah It's like a hard knock style, but like four years with the USMNT. So from 2022 to now, and they released the first episode of it.
01:10:13
Speaker
which basically is chronicling the 2022 World Cup, which because it's like a US soccer production with HBO, they don't talk about the blackmail scandal at all, whatever. It's it's great behind the scenes footage. You get some ah good interviews and they have the cameras there during like some of these team meetings and stuff. this is where it got a little revealing because I felt like I was watching it and I was like, this actually explains a lot about the culture of this team and what bothered me about the culture of this team. And the moment that stood out to me the most was they had the camera going in one of these team meetings.
01:10:49
Speaker
And
01:10:54
Speaker
Greg Berhalter was having, they were going around saying like, you know, their thoughts on the game coming up. It was before the Netherlands game or it was either before the Netherlands game or before the game right before that, that we, that we won.
01:11:09
Speaker
But they were going around and Greg Berhalter was talking to the team and he said something to the effect of like, ah you know I really want this for you guys because you've worked so hard and you're all such great guys and you've earned it. And then he said, you deserve it.
01:11:27
Speaker
That's what he said. You deserve it. Now it's like, ah it's a, it's a small thing. Some people might hear that and consider that like a, ah a throwaway quote, like, oh, wait, like, why are you reading so much into that? Like, he was just trying to pump up his guys. He said right before it, like, you know, you're all such great guys and I want this for you. And so that's what he meant by deserve it. He didn't, he didn't mean anything like with entitlement with that. I disagree.
01:11:50
Speaker
I disagree. I think the fact that he said that is so illuminating to me. It, I wanted to jump through my TV screen so bad. and jump into that room and just say, Hey, no, you don't.
01:12:07
Speaker
No, you do not deserve it. You don't deserve it. You are not entitled to it. You have not earned anything until you go out and actually win that game. That's when you get what you deserve and you take what you've earned.
01:12:26
Speaker
Not beforehand. i don't I just really i didn't like that he said that. and you i I think Noah and I have talked a lot about like we're both pretty agnostic on Berhalter.
01:12:36
Speaker
We never hated him as much as the bots did. I think I've pretty consistently described him as a replacement-level coach on the international level. like He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good.
01:12:52
Speaker
But the fact that that i don't know the fact that he said that, I was like, that... that kind of explains a lot about the culture around this team to me. The fact that he would say that. And I think that that sort of attitude, it permeated the locker room and it got, that's how the players felt. They felt like they deserved and were entitled to something that they hadn't earned.
01:13:17
Speaker
So, I think Pochettino has done an admirable job of undoing that kind of culture and mentality. Like hunch is saying right here, even said it, no one was safe. Everyone had to earn their spot. Looking at this roster, it proves it. Exactly.
01:13:31
Speaker
Exactly. All right. One sec guys got to go grab my phone, but be right back.
01:13:58
Speaker
right, nevermind. Pochettino, I guess, is still cooking in there.
01:14:07
Speaker
One second, guys. Sorry, I'm running a little bit of double duty right now. I recommend ah watching the documentary I was talking about because, ah you know, it's HBO, so they always kill it.
Engagement with Listeners and Seattle Soccer Culture
01:14:20
Speaker
They always kill it with the content.
01:14:23
Speaker
But there's like, they there's genuinely, you know, they try and ah I think make it as non-controversial as possible. But, you know, stuff like that.
01:14:36
Speaker
Stuff like that might get by other people, but that doesn't get by me. Not with what I've witnessed. Not with what I would, because you like, this what I'm saying, man. You could tell. You could tell that that's how they feel.
01:14:49
Speaker
thought about themselves and carried themselves. And it really bothered me, man. That's why I said shit. Like I renounced my citizenship.
01:14:57
Speaker
Uh, all right. I'm going to drop the call link in. you guys want to get in on this, I could use some help with the, uh, with the double duty that I'm running. There you go. Hunch.
01:15:08
Speaker
If you want to leave it, lead it bleeded off. There's your link right there. Any and all are welcome.
01:15:16
Speaker
Hop on in. Lay down your takes on the USMNT, but also the
01:15:25
Speaker
the World Cup as a whole. All right, we got a hunch on the train. So i know hunch is down. Link's mostly in there for hunch, but if anyone else wants to ah tap in. And again, like it doesn't have to be USMNT related. i have not, ah we haven't ripped a call-in show since ah since the World Cup started. So I owe you guys this call-in show.
01:15:51
Speaker
15 for hunch. I'll be, I'll be, I'll be going in 15 for sure.
01:15:57
Speaker
Probably i'll probably rip like another hour or so.
01:16:05
Speaker
Depending on what the, uh, on the call queue looks like. Link was packed after the game. Yeah. It's ah it's a, so I actually, I had to get home for this game.
01:16:17
Speaker
So I actually had to leave,
01:16:23
Speaker
Belgium, Senegal in extra time. All right. We got Aiden in the queue. Let's go. The queue is rolling. That's all who's in there for now. So ah if anyone else want wants in, go ahead and hit that link that I ah just dropped in the chat.
01:16:38
Speaker
Let's get Aiden in here. Aiden, bringing you on stage right now. What's up, man? How's it going? Welcome to the show. Good. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, um I'm feeling pumped after this. I was kind of torn up after that red card, um but the way we kind of responded to that hyped me up. um I'm really looking forward to Belgium.
01:16:57
Speaker
It's going to a great game. Yeah. What was your reaction when you first saw the red? Because for me, I went straight to doomsday. I was like, God, the world cups over. It's over. worse' i think I kind of hit those. I hit that first. I was kind of man i overwhelmed. I think I was like, Oh shit. You know, this is kind of it. Um, but no, I think, you know, seeing that replay, um,
01:17:18
Speaker
seeing kind of how Bellagun got screwed over. um It set me off for about five minutes, and then I saw his lock-in, and i was like, all right, you know, this is kind of proof that we can we can do this for at least a game. I think we can do it without him.
01:17:31
Speaker
It was just so long to go like before the end of the game where I was like, okay well, there's also like still 30-plus minutes left. And that was just like the one thing that couldn't happen. But like yeah, it was impressive, wasn't it? How like how the team locked in and like didn't wilt. That's what I thought was the most impressive about it. The mental toughness, man. oh yeah you know In a way, like...
01:17:54
Speaker
I don't think adversity like that is the worst thing for a team to go through in a tournament because those moments like your best, you but the best striker, the goal scoring God who's just been carrying the team, he goes out and then you have to like deal with that and overcome that. I think those things can bring a team closer together and you can genuinely benefit from that.
01:18:13
Speaker
But then it's also like, all right, well, now we have the Belgium game and no ball again. So I don't know. How are you feeling about that? I mean, yeah, I mean, I i think I grew up watching US soccer and it was always kind of a one little thing happens. One little thing sets us off and that's kind of it, you know. And I think kind of seeing this and I think first couple minutes that was definitely like, all right, this is this is it. This is what's going to be the end of our run this year. um And I think seeing how we respond to that was really, you know, it's proof that we're one of, I think, a few teams that are elected that really don't have one big star player. You know, we don't need that one star player. We function as a team. yeah i I think that that's just something that we really stand out with. um So, yeah.
01:18:56
Speaker
I think that's a ah great point about the collective because so much of the World Cup and international soccer is like star driven. And, you know, we're seeing it with Messi and Mbappe. But yeah, like this feels like a ah real squad.
01:19:09
Speaker
Like it feels like a real team. So that's that's good to see. And ah what do you what do you think of ah how how close have you been watching Belgium? Because I've been i've watched all their games, I think. yeah I don't think they're that good right now.
01:19:25
Speaker
I was at the Belgium-Egypt game um in Seattle. um And first of all, the Belgium fans kind of sucked. They were big they were kind of quiet and they were just kind of disturbing. It's like how people watch tennis. That's exactly how they watched it. And it was kind of boring. um But no, I'm very not impressed. Other than Lukaku coming on in the second half, I think that that's... They're they're not really they're not really a threat, in my opinion, at least in previous World Cup runs. um I think it's going to be a very close game.
01:19:57
Speaker
um And I'm i'm i'm excited, so Oh, it's I mean, it's going to be lit and we got it in Seattle. So I'm I'm excited, too. But it's just, you know, I really wish the red card hadn't happened. But I think once I once I come off of that a little bit, I'll be able to get like pumped up for the game again. But and I got to go get my phone now. So cook another take and then I'm going to get up and then I'll be back in like 10 seconds. All right.
01:20:22
Speaker
yeah like what do you What do you want to talk about? Belgium? How about World Cup as a whole? Seattle as a host city? What do you think of how the season went? Oh, yeah. but not Okay. Yeah, I can ramble. Yeah, so I have been a season tickets member, myself my father, for...
01:20:38
Speaker
oh i think since 2016. so i have been to countless sounders games and every single time i'm at the clink um lumen it is just an atmosphere that you can't match anywhere else um i've been to about five six other stadiums that you know have mls teams play with them And the Clank is just the best place. And i mean, what you've seen from not just stuff with Seattle, but all the U.S. games. I mean, these stadiums are showing up. um But no, I mean, being there, especially for, I mean, World Cup Day. I mean, when they had the Belgium-Eachie game in Seattle, I mean, everybody was there. There was dozens and dozens of Sounders fans everywhere. And it was just such a great environment. um
01:21:17
Speaker
Yeah, no Seattle is the soccer city for sure. I think we have, ah I think we've proven that over the course of this tournament. You know, I haven't been to the other host cities and you know, we're all obviously biased around here, but I can't imagine it was like even the game today when the sun came out, right. As Belgium, Senegal was kicking off. I was like, God damn it. This is, this is the best, but ah all right. And we got
Caller Discussion on USMNT Performance
01:21:42
Speaker
tribe in the, in the queue now right behind you, but ah thank you for, is this a first time caller or have you, have you tapped in? First time caller. First time watcher though. For sure. Yeah. thank Well, thanks for tapping in, man. you're yeah them Anytime. I expect to see you after some of these Sounders games and we'll do. And we keep doing some world cup content. So talk soon. Sounds good.
01:22:03
Speaker
All right. Shout out to Aiden for tapping in there. all right. Let's get tribe in here. Let's go. Let's go. This is the call we've all been waiting for. We got Tribe. We got a hunched happening after. We got a whole call-in show going. But ah let's get him in here. It's Tribe. For the first time in the World Cup, we're going to rip his tape. He was in Noah's vlog video. I saw that. That was that was awesome. But a Tribe.
01:22:27
Speaker
What's up, man? USMNT 2-0 over Belgium, but at a cost. Balogun red card. How are you feeling? Are you crash out over the red card or crash up over over the US dub?
01:22:39
Speaker
If Messi can do it, then everyone on that pitch can do it. That's what I'm going to He should have done it harder so he really got injured, in my opinion. If going to get a red card like that, make it worth it, honestly. Horrible roughing. It's common sense. it was just a mistake.
01:22:55
Speaker
It wasn't really as dangerous ah as some of the things we've seen that weren't given. And it was just a horrible decision to even go to VAR in the first place. But I guess you have to. It is what it is.
01:23:07
Speaker
We don't need him. we We don't need him. If we're going to play just like we did against Paraguay, like we did against now Bosnia, Pepe will do just fine, honestly. It is such a great performance. Every single game, it's a professional performance. And a very mature performance, honestly, to be able to defend like that with 10 men, get up the field like like you still have 11, and be able to bang another goal in. and It's just absolutely incredible to see. Mauricio Pochettino is like genuinely a breath of fresh air. And honestly, if we if we beat Belgium, greatest coach in the history of of of the United States by far, already it's it's been it's been very good what what do you think though what do you think is happen next game
01:24:02
Speaker
i don't know if i feel as I don't know if I feel like we, the, we don't need him sentiment, but I think once I've calmed down about the red card, I'll be closer to that than, ah than doomsday because i do think like Balogun, you know, he's
US Team Depth and Belgium's Performance
01:24:20
Speaker
just been so lethal. He looks so automatic right now and he's getting in such good spots and he feels his finishing is just. on the perch but this wasn' same The first finish finish was insane.
01:24:30
Speaker
ah All tournament, all tournament. He's just yeah such a beast, so locked in. And it feels like having a guy who's in that form has felt integral to these performances. But ah like Aiden and I were talking about, this is a squad. This squad plays real footy. like they ah One of the reasons Balogun is eating so much is because of how good the chance generation has been and how the the guys, the creative engines like them. Pulisic, who hasn't even played that much, but like, you know, you got Malik Tillman out there dropping absolute dimes, Tyler Adams and Weston McKinney both playing out of their minds. So like, this is not a guy, this is not a team that is Balogun or bust. This is a team that can play really at a really high level in its own right. Kind of no matter who's the starting strikers are, because the midfielders are so good. So I, I think that we got a puncher's chance. It just sucks because,
01:25:25
Speaker
with Balogun in there, I would feel actively good about this game. And now I feel like it's just kind of a total toss up. And also, you know, Belgium, don't, what do you think of Belgium? Because I think they are. yeah They're a joke.
01:25:39
Speaker
they're an Absolute joke. They're kind of not good. With the squad that they have, they are an absolute joke. You have one of the best wingers in the premier league. you have still a world-class midfielder, and and you have very good defenders, might I add. ah you you have yeah it's You have the best keeper in the world, might I add, as well, and the keeper is the most ah prized position, the most important position, and you still manage to nearly fuck up the the round of 32. How? with the squat Against Senegal.
01:26:19
Speaker
Senegal's defense... to be fair, isn't the best, but you you just, it should be a lot harder, you know? it should be a lot harder to play against.
01:26:31
Speaker
ah I just don't understand. it just makes no sense. it It's supposed to be a good team, you know? Yeah, no, I like, if there's any time to be catching Belgium, now feels like the time. I just, the, sometimes I'm watching this team tribe and I'm like, when isn't it weird, like, watching a U.S. team that's, like, this good?
01:26:52
Speaker
We're better than Belgium now. Yeah, when did this happen? well I guess Pochettino's just been in the lab when I, was like, because, like, Up until I would say the Senegal friendly and the Germany friendlies, I was still telling anyone who asked me like, ah, we're not very, it' is we're probably not going to do that well. We're not very good. But then it seems like there was some sort of switch.
01:27:16
Speaker
that flipped or maybe, you know, just getting close to the world cup as everyone just up in their game or whatever. But I think, uh, Pochettino is clearly a magician. Uh, the, at least the first choice starters are all playing at a super high level. It's just kind of, uh, I don't know. It just, it just feels like this is a level that I've never seen the U S play at this level.
01:27:39
Speaker
the The constant high press just cuts out any attack before it begins. and Gets us the ball in a position where we can start an attack very well and our players are good enough that that they know exactly where they are that comes with playing playing with each other a lot in the camps and you just see how it works it were like Brazil Honestly, well what Brazil should be let's be honest. They're not doing that well either but We are just... It's beautiful to watch. It's champagne football, and I'm very, very excited about it. yeah It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable to watch, and so, like, i mean, you got to give him credit.
01:28:17
Speaker
It's just... I don't know. Maybe I'm probably letting the red card, uh, a little too much. It's just, I guess yeah I'm, I'm more coming from it of like a man. I really wanted to see, ah Balagan have a crack at this game just because of the form that, uh, that he's in, but, ah okay. I'm looking at it right now. Actually, I can tell you guys, uh, the, uh,
01:28:42
Speaker
If a player or team official is sent off as a result of a direct or indirect red card, second caution, they will automatically be suspended for their sanctions may be imposed. Uh, but then I'm trying to get to the part where it says you can't appeal, which I don't actually see. You can't appeal.
01:28:56
Speaker
You like officially cannot appeal. Do you think it'll get taken back if we appeal? That's what I'm saying is like you literally can't even do that. You can't. Oh, shit.
01:29:07
Speaker
Yeah. that's That's horrible. But like what I was what I was saying earlier is that they wouldn't have overturned it anyway for it to get overturned. It would have had to be a situation where like the studs like totally missed the leg and it was just like a completely missed call. This is a 50 50 subjective call. But that's what bothers me about why they overturned it, because.
01:29:27
Speaker
Again, all they did was change one 50-50 call into another 50-50 call. That's not thiss not what we you're supposed
US Soccer's Growing Popularity
01:29:33
Speaker
to do. so yeah Last thing I want to say before I have to go, it the country's on fire, man. The country's excited. We need to keep this momentum. we need The eyes on the of the world are are on us, and they'll be on our city again, right?
01:29:50
Speaker
The entire country is ready. The more games that we win, the more people will will jump on the bandwagon and get involved. And then the more times we win with those people, we'll convert them into soccer fans. And then that's just how a whole new level of of soccer starts in the USA, just like the first World Cup.
01:30:06
Speaker
But this time it's so much bigger and better. So i just want I just want to let everyone know you guys should be very fucking excited. This is this is a good fucking team. And we're going to beat the shit out of Belgium. And fuck Kevin De Bruyne.
01:30:19
Speaker
Hell yeah. Love it. Tribe, pleasure as always, brother. Thanks for tapping in. Cheers, bro. We'll catch you on the next one. Always great stuff from Tribe. I'll toss this link in the chat one more time. We're waiting we're waiting for Hunch at this point. We got to get a Hunch in here.
01:30:36
Speaker
ah Let's see, hour and a half. Yeah, I'm good to stick around for at least a little bit longer. And we'll get a Hunch in here. We'll get ah whoever else wants to tap in. I just dropped the link in there. So feel free to ah hop on, lay down your takes on the USMNT World Cup.
01:30:55
Speaker
Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer. I mean, whatever you guys want to talk about. I mean, I know we're all in World Cup mode right now, especially with the U.S. actually being good, which, again, is not a variable that I... A few more, Tribe? Yeah, no, you're good. ah thought I thought that it was possible that the U.S. s would do well. i'll but I'll be completely honest. I did not think we were this good.
01:31:18
Speaker
I didn't. I didn't believe. I was a non-believer.
01:31:23
Speaker
But you know the way you turn you the way you turn a non-believer into a believer, it's not by talking about how good you are. It's not by talking about how good you are, and it's not by listening to everyone else who's telling you how good you are. It's by going out on the field in games like this, knockout games in the World Cup, and winning the game.
01:31:44
Speaker
Or going out in the group stage and winning the group.
01:31:49
Speaker
And that's what they did. When you do that stuff, when you actually take the results to back that back up, what is being said, then people like me who are non-believers or haters can't say shit. I can't say, I cannot say shit negative.
01:32:08
Speaker
Even if I wanted to, Oh, let's go. We got Caleb in here. Hell yeah. Caleb, you're on the stage right now. What's up, man. Good to see you. How's it going? hey how you doing? How you doing? How you doing? How you doing? How you doing?
01:32:25
Speaker
I'm feeling, hear mean yeah, I hear you. I think you're but like slightly delayed, but I hear you fine. And your video is good quality. So yeah, you're vibing. I'm doing good, Caleb. ah You know, wish Fuller and Balagan hadn't gotten a red card. But other than that, I'm feeling, feeling excited for the Belgium game.
01:32:43
Speaker
World Cup in Seattle been killing it. How are you doing is the important question. uh well i mean yeah no i've uh well i just want to say everybody ladies and gentlemen as we're going to do is still as tradition even though it's still not sounders if you have not yet ladies and gentlemen like the video share subscribe comment Please, you know, please give like, you know, like, you know, please like there's there's buttons over there, maybe over there on whichever side. But click those buttons and please just like, you know, like ah give support to Haxon for Men's and and Sounder and Heart and and full full wines and QED coffee for the for the morning show.
01:33:25
Speaker
ah because they know like like for every support, you know like that that's ah that that's the great democracy that you have in the great ah you know Pacific Northwest like can they they can that be untouched. so As you usually say, now that I got that out of my system, i but like i would i really want to say this. like Well done, Emerald City.
01:33:52
Speaker
like you have put on as as much as uh i'm gonna put it as as a quote from taylor twelman in 2019 that he gave praise to a certain striker that you know that we all crave in the um you know uh in the rave green that we're craving a striker but it was uh when raul ruy diaz scored the third goal against lafc and he says like take a bow like you've put on a show and that is the taylor twelman quote that i put for the actually the emerald city as a whole to you noah and everybody saying the emerald city take a goddamn bow it's not over yet but still take a goddamn bow because you have put on a goddamn show so everybody that's watching this and that is not when that's going to be watching this in the future
01:34:51
Speaker
Clap for yourselves. Clap for yourselves right now. Clap for yourselves and congratulate yourselves for absolutely putting on an absolute show of showing high excellence of why the philosophy of football exists in this great country.
01:35:15
Speaker
So I want to open a statement with that. um So, but, but, but yeah, I mean the game, I thought it was, ah you knew that you knew the ref was going to call some BS like because like I said, you I'm right with you. They're going to call it because if
Refereeing Inconsistencies and Future Impact
01:35:32
Speaker
it's not messy, if it's not like, you know, um,
01:35:36
Speaker
yeah it was not messy if it's like prob we're probably somebody's gonna do the same thing we're probably gonna happen to somebody's gonna get bammed on the same play in seattle i'm um i mean as much as i don't want to like be that kind of jinxer or whatever but i could absolutely see a total turnaround of that call absolutely being played right at the north end and just seeing absolute thousands of yeah of of of of grand football americans just just wiling out because there's no call there's like you know the referee's gonna just be like completely just the referee's gonna just go be be completely just
01:36:27
Speaker
what yeah
01:36:33
Speaker
and then just like just absolutely just like like peon with the game so he was i was doing that a lot he was doing that a lot today when uh when the bosnians would foul the shit out of our players with there's a lot of finger wagging a lot of uh lot of animated gestures okay we got the uh we got this This is the clearest feed of the drum set that I've ever ever seen. This is nice. This is nice. ah Thank you. Thank you. I mean, she's actually 2-0 against Portscombe for Ballard. And I can and i could say that with with great confidence.
01:37:10
Speaker
There you go. his ah and But ah yes, I'm glad you could see that. ah And again, we can we can I think this is perfectly set up for us in Seattle because let's not forget what they did to us back.
01:37:29
Speaker
Like you said, with Graham Zussi in the Graham Zussi era when we like. Like, you know, we we lost to them. And this is our lick back. Like this, this is like, if there's like, this should be the absolute belt to ask, lick back being like, okay, you got us.
01:37:47
Speaker
We want to get you back. Or as if any iCarly fans that's in the house, in the building, in the chat, like as, as a, the great Samantha pocket once said, they hit us, we hit them back harder.
01:38:02
Speaker
That's the Seattle way. we don't even need Fuller and Balogun. So I, I feel, I feel confident. I, I, I, just feel like it's, it's going to be a good game, but just also just expect the BS because as much as like, you know, there's much has been such injustice in the city on that field with, with, with, with many games of egregious calls,
01:38:34
Speaker
i wouldn't be surprised if like yeah like to also expect that but controlled as as as our great uh beloved brian schmetzer what ah will always say control the controllables absolutely not just the players but to the fans as well because we hold a responsibility in that continuity just as well so we have to as the fans also have to control the controllables in our behavior and in just the way our just the way how we're going to come at this.
01:39:07
Speaker
So I say that and but yeah, I mean, and like I bring the floor back to to to back to you. are well Well said, Caleb. We got Azarada in the queue behind you, but I'll i'll give you the floor for it. Do you have any takes either on on Belgium specifically or just on the USMNT World Cup as ah as a whole to close it out?
01:39:33
Speaker
Well, I wanted to do a little bit of a sounder take, you know, just to because I know everybody else has been in, you know, like like uh uh you know us s like you know us mode and world cup mode which but absolutely it's absolutely justified i'm i'm not you know being like the i'm not i'm not being the football like you know karen police being like you need to care about this right now like and not like you know like i'm not i'm not i'm not sure i'm not coming at that but i will say
01:40:05
Speaker
We have to really now start getting back into the waking up feeling for sounders of what the hell are we going to do the second half? Cause we better like the, like the, like the, like the start of this game is against port scum.
01:40:23
Speaker
And like I said, I want George in my effing hands. Like, i I don't care.
01:40:35
Speaker
I want George in my fucking hands. Because... and Yes.
01:40:45
Speaker
the The Cascadia Cup. Okay, that's the Cascadia. That's what I thought. I was yes i wasn't sure if you meant Phillip, but you're you're talking about Cascadia and then Phillip after that. Okay, okay. Yes, yes, yes. Because george needs to be...
01:41:00
Speaker
in like do George needs to be in the clutches of Brian and Brian needs to have that smile of belief knowing that the tactics is right the effort is right and not only is that right just in just the on the players on the field but it is in the coaching staff and it is damn sure in the the blood of the lifeblood of the fans that run this club because the relationship of this club is between the players and the fans that run this amazing organization called the Seattle Fricking Sounders.
01:41:35
Speaker
So... We need to literally get our eyes focused on that. I am, I mean, let's still, there's still a big eye on Craig. want to like, you know, once this world cup stuff comes like to a like, you know, a little bit dies down, i would love to get your questionally take on that for about Craig and what this off season is for me. What, what, what the sounders could potentially make and and and especially with the vote uh but other than that up the bridges we beat the junction and we doubled the junction this year so any of you junction fans i'm not sorry um but um ladies and gentlemen all eyes on george and philip
01:42:22
Speaker
We need to get trophies in the Emerald City because that is what the philosophy of what the Seattle Sounders is. is We get trophies. And also, if you see this number 10, see this beloved number 10, he'll be coming back.
01:42:38
Speaker
So as much as you'll love to sing, Pedro de la Vega, Pedro de la Vega, Pedro de la Vega,
01:42:50
Speaker
me la Let's go Sounders and up the bridges. God bless America and the Seattle Sounders. Ari, you
USMNT World Cup Journey
01:43:01
Speaker
have the floor back.
01:43:03
Speaker
Hell yeah. Absolute fire as always, Caleb. Love it. Great to see you, man. We're going to get as Rod in here, but we'll catch you on the next one. Take care.
01:43:14
Speaker
Always, always. Flames when Caleb taps in we love it. All right, we got as Rada in the queue and then we got hunched up next after that so ah Let's let's get them in here and then maybe if if anyone else wants to tap in feel free probably not gonna take all that many more But I can squeeze a couple more in if you guys want the link is right here in the chat and as Caleb was mentioning the let's get some more likes on the video just to make sure we're pumped in that algorithm. I haven't been saying that enough. So everyone liked the video sub to the channel. Also, you know, shout out to all the, all the new subs and followers that have been engaging with our world cup content. it's been pretty cool. We're reaching like a new kind of demographic that we don't normally reach. So, Appreciate everyone who's stopping by. But Azurada, you are up next. Let's get him on the stage right now. There he is, Azurada. He's got his USA shirt on. He's got his Seattle Sounders hat on. He is decked out. He's ready to go. What's up, man? Thank you for the yeah all the support, first of all. but ah Absolutely.
01:44:17
Speaker
How are you feeling? USMNT 2-0. Big win, huge win, historic win, but it does come at ah at a cost. It does. Red card. What do you what do you think? are feeling?
01:44:28
Speaker
I think it's been a fantastic day. As you said, it is always flames when we have Caleb on the show. I just wanted to first give a shout out to a couple of our ah our group members. Caleb, fantastic having you at the Ballard game. You made a huge impact on the the Portland game we had a couple weeks ago.
01:44:43
Speaker
Definitely heard you up there setting the rhythm a whole bunch of times. So thank you very much, my friend. It was really great having you at the game. Big shout out for that. um I was also really happy to see Tribe get on that vlog there with Noah a couple weeks ago or about a week ago. That was also pretty awesome.
01:44:58
Speaker
So yeah, just really glad to see our members out there in the community and being able to get some shout outs there. So yeah, definitely a big fan of both of you guys. Um, it's been a good day. Like, I understand that the red card is like seriously bad news, but I think we need to pump the brakes on, on the bad news bears part just a little bit.
01:45:15
Speaker
Like, I'm really hopeful that we've got a ah good chance here moving forward. Um, I don't want to be overly optimistic, but as you said earlier, I think we've got a really good squad going here for the World Cup.
01:45:25
Speaker
Um, I don't think losing one player is going to completely sink this shit. um I think we had like Malik Tillman had a really good game today. um We got Chris Richards. We got all sorts of amazing players here going on. Weston McKinney has been fantastic this entire cup so far. So like, I'm pretty excited about it. Um,
01:45:43
Speaker
I don't want to jinx us either. But that being said, i think that this is a different Belgium team than the US s has faced in the past. And this is a different US team than Belgium has faced in the past. And I think that's very important.
01:45:55
Speaker
I've found it very interesting how teams other than France out of Europe have had a bit of difficulty this World Cup. Like a lot of them are not as dominant as I expected them to be coming in here. And so I'm really hopeful that We're able to show that we're definitely one of the eight best teams in the tournament. I'm really hopeful.
01:46:16
Speaker
And um I think that we've got a ah really solid shot. Like, I don't know how Monday is going to go, but I'm very excited for it. It's going to be a fantastic game five here in Seattle. um Been really pumped so far.
01:46:28
Speaker
I also just want to give a shout out for Seattle as a whole. I think that I had a lot of skepticism coming into this World Cup. The way the tickets pricing was done was very frustrating. It seemed like the oligarch class was very much winning.
01:46:44
Speaker
And um I thought that it was going to be a very frustrating tournament coming in. And I was wrong. I think that overall that it's been a fantastic World Cup. I think that Americans, like the average American who has welcomed and all of these visitors coming in and with open arms all over the country have really like brought out our best. And I think that a lot of the the visitors that have come in and shared their point of view have been really happy with how this experience has been going. So like,
01:47:15
Speaker
Overall, I mean, I've been very stoked at how this World Cup's been going. um I was frankly pretty down about it before everything started. And now I'm so stoked that we've had this opportunity that, um you know, this does not come very often.
01:47:30
Speaker
This is the first time in 30 years that America's been lucky enough to do this. Only our second time being able to to host all these games. And so ah definitely not taking that for granted. I've been really grateful. I think that Seattle's been one of the best cities in the tournament.
01:47:45
Speaker
for hosting. ah Not only the fact that we have an amazing stadium that is very well connected with public transit, which is why we should not go to Long Acres, just to point that out again, that we have a really good thing going and we need to keep this thing in downtown.
01:48:02
Speaker
And um that being said, overall, Seattle, A+, plus World Cup in the US so far has been an A+. plus um Really happy how things are going. um As for the games today, i think the refs really blew it in both games. I think that they screwed over Senegal.
01:48:19
Speaker
I mean, in a sense that it makes it a little bit easier for the United States because I think that Belgium is not as strong as Senegal. I think that Senegal was dominant in that game today, and they they were robbed.
01:48:32
Speaker
That that ah penalty kick at the end of the game was a complete travesty. That should not have been a penalty whatsoever. And so that was very frustrating to to see um for the Senegalese. I think that they did a fantastic job. They deserve to advance.
01:48:46
Speaker
um And then again, with flow, should not have been a red card. Did not have intent. It's very obvious that that was not a red card infraction, but it it is what it is. Got to move forward. I think that we're a strong enough team that um given a few days to be able to plan for it, I think that Punchentino is going to figure it out and we'll come up with a pretty good game plan against Belgium. Not predicting that's going to work out for us. I'm really hopeful, but I mean...
01:49:14
Speaker
so many years of ah being a US supporter in the World Cup has me always nervous playing against a traditional power in Europe and the we've and Belgium's had a number in the past, but I think that this particular tournament, I like the strength and talent of the US team. And I'm really hopeful that come Monday, we'll be able to see something amazing. Because um if we're able to pull it off, we're going to end up in the quarterfinals.
01:49:41
Speaker
And that would be only the second time ever for actually sorry, the third time ever for us. The first time being 1930, which doesn't count because that was a freaking weird tournament. But 2002 is the only other time. We've only ever beaten one elimination game before. That was against Mexico.
01:49:56
Speaker
Another team that's having a phenomenal World Cup, I should say. um yeah Mexico is going to have a banger of a game against England coming up here. We'll see how that turns out. But I'm super stoked for the United States, super stoked for Mexico. I'm glad that the host countries are doing really well.
01:50:13
Speaker
um I think that Canada had a pretty good run here. they They're up against Morocco next. I'm less optimistic about their chances with that particular team. um But um yeah, it's been a really fun World Cup. So that's kind of where I'm at. Pretty optimistic about it all.
01:50:27
Speaker
Yeah, man, I think you you hit on pretty much pretty much all of it right there, but just listening to you talk through it and just the notion of going into this game without Baligan, who's been so great and like our best player in the tournament, but I think i think you hit it on the head.
01:50:43
Speaker
This team is not about just one guy. This is a team. This is an all around squad. And when you have a team that's not not about the individuals, but it's genuinely about the collective, like it seems like our team is right now, then you can lose a player like this and you can still not only have a chance in the game, but like make a really good run and winning the game. And I think another encouraging thing about it, like you mentioned, is like Pochettino has already shown the ability to handle and adapt a situation and like this. We were all pretty worried going into the Australia game without Christian Pulisic. I mean, i I said that I wasn't, but I think in the back of my mind, i was like, you know, it's, yeah, it's not ideal. But then you look at how the manager handled it, the game plan he came out with, the lineup that he came out with, the tactics that he employed, and they were all so on point and lights out.
01:51:37
Speaker
Like, guess what? They went out and whooped ass anyway. So who's to say this Belgium team is better than that Australia team, but how, but by how much, honestly, like, I don't know. They're, they're maybe, are we overstating how weekend but Belgium is? Like, that's something I want to be mindful of. It's like, you know, I think we're all kind of, we're all kind of talking about how they're not what they used to be, but it is still Belgium. It's still Jeremy Doku, one of the best wingers in the prem. It's still Kevin De Bruyne, one of the best players of all time. It's still Romelu Lukaku, one of the best strikers of his generation.
01:52:06
Speaker
Like, I mean, I don't i don't i don't know. like Are we overconfident or the right amount of confidence? so I mean, to that point, they're not the Belgian team they used to be during the group stage. right like Just to be clear, we're in the elimination stage now.
01:52:20
Speaker
They're going to be all or nothing. right like So I expect them to come out and hit us hard, and it's going to be a very difficult game against them. We've not had great luck against Belgium in the past. They've been a painful team to go against, but i'm i'm still I'm still hopeful. I guess we'll see. like you know i got to be realistic about it. i'm not There's no sure things in soccer.
01:52:40
Speaker
And I'm really hopeful that we're able to pull it off. but um We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. I think it'll be okay. I do want to point out the boys were able to get a clean sheet today. um i think that's super important.
01:52:51
Speaker
I understand that they didn't play their best against Turkey, but at the same time, they had nine subs in for that game. So I don't really think that that's a fair thing. So now that we've won this game, I am so, I'm never thinking about that that game again. Agreed.
01:53:04
Speaker
Agreed. Yeah, no, ah those, those center backs, I'm hopeful we don't need to play them again anytime soon, unless something terrible happens. um But that being said, like, I think we got a really good team going and i think that we've got a really good chance.
01:53:19
Speaker
um We put a clean sheet against the team from Europe. Everybody was talking about how we've had so much trouble against European teams. This Bosnian team is no joke. um They played really well against Qatar here in Seattle just last week.
01:53:31
Speaker
Uh, Really hopeful that we're able to do the same here. um But yeah, we'll see. I don't know. It's going to be a tight game. I'm really hopeful that we're able to make it make it a little bit further, and we'll see where we go from there.
01:53:44
Speaker
as a rata great stuff man thank you for all the support and uh we'll catch you on the next one absolutely see you later take care uh all right we got hunched last in the queue so he is gonna bring us home and close it out for the night we're coming up on two hours so uh think that's about a good place to end it but uh let's get him on stage we got a hunch tapping in right now with uh no video hunch can you hear me or are you
01:54:13
Speaker
Okay, there he is. There we go. Yeah, sorry. i had the wrong thing. You got me? Hunch, you are you are on the show. What's up, man? USMNT 2-0. Exciting win. Huge win. It does come at a cost. Fuller and Valigan gets a red card. How are you feeling? Are you crash out over the red card or crash up on the win?
01:54:35
Speaker
Well, I'll say this. If we can't beat Belgium without flow, we don't deserve to go forward. I think that's that's a good way to put it. Yep.
01:54:46
Speaker
that That is my perspective. would Would we love to have him? Absolutely. what Would we be you know the sharpest knife in the drawer? Probably. um But that is where the turkey game, from from Poach's perspective, you get to see,
01:55:08
Speaker
you know from Turkey, who who was able to perform, who wasn't, what what did they give you, what didn't they give you, who should you maybe slot in who would you Who would you start, Pepe or Haji Wright?
01:55:20
Speaker
Wright. I'd give Wright to go. Why? Well, he's probably angry. i actually like i like that logic. He's he's pissed off. He feels like he should have been playing more.
01:55:31
Speaker
I think he's faster. And I won't even go so far as to say, start them both. Let's put two top. Who are you dropping? ah It's not a drop. It's a matter of, well, obviously formation, right?
01:55:49
Speaker
um It would have to be Tillman, wouldn't it?
01:55:55
Speaker
I don't know if you can deal without Tillman and McKinney on the field at the same time. I think they're too instrumental. I think they're two they're the gears that turn each other. So it's a matter of like, ah yeah till we the Tillman Adams McKinney midfield is just so smooth right now. Like, well, yeah. Okay. I would take Adams and McKinney over Tillman and either of the two of them.
01:56:18
Speaker
I would, I would stick with Adams and McKinney and drop Tillman. If that's the case, then yes. And then run two strikers. If you want to surprise him. Yeah. Okay. Okay. We'll see. Like, honestly, I'm at the point with Pochettino where if he, whatever he pulls out, I'm like, all right, he probably, he probably knows what's up. This guy is just ah on point. So me he knows what he's got.
01:56:38
Speaker
He knows what he's got. And the thing that is the pillar slash foundation of what we need is still there. And that's our center back line with our starting choices.
01:56:51
Speaker
Yeah. Richard, as much as it Reem. I mean, McKenzie was listed as injured, so I don't, he was, he was kind of the,
01:57:05
Speaker
not so bright spot in the Turkey
Anticipation for US vs Belgium Match
01:57:07
Speaker
game. I mean, Miles Robinson, God love him to not cover himself in glory. And that was, not home that was, that was not an exemplary center back performance. I never thought that I would be this in favor of our country, riding its hopes on a Tim Ream, but I will say Chris Richards is a guy I may, I definitely underrated before this tournament. He's freaking incredible. Like honestly, Like, honestly, if you gave me the choice, like you can play this game without one, you have to play this game without one of Balogun or Richards. You have to like pick which one you drop. It's exactly right.
01:57:43
Speaker
You keep Richards in there. 100% correct. You have to So like ah the fact that he's in there makes me feel better. The fact that we have a coach who is actually X's and O's guy who knows how to do this shit and make adjustments and like alter his game plans. That makes me feel a little better. The fact that it's, we're hosting it in Seattle. I mean, the the environment for the Australia game was absolutely insane. This is going to be that, but ratcheted up like a lot. So yeah,
01:58:13
Speaker
That's going to be working in the U.S.'s favor as well. ah You know, it's not – I think at the start of the show tonight, I was pretty all doom and gloom because of the Balogun situation. But, like, now that ah you know now that I've been streaming for a couple hours and talking to the people, I feel a lot better, Hunch. I feel better. I think i think we're i think we're okay. we're We're at least going to make a run at this. We're not going to lay down and let Belgium run all over us like it's 2014. It's not going to happen.
01:58:41
Speaker
It's not going to happen. but So if you were to ask me the order of which I would not want to lose players in terms of, let's say, red card suspension, it would be Richards, then Pulisic, and then Flo in that order.
01:58:55
Speaker
And he can start on the chart. ah Yeah, I agree because his value, i mean, honestly, he's kind of, Flo's kind of doing it all right now, but like,
01:59:09
Speaker
Pulisic is like the creative engine of the team. Correct. So losing that, that's why I was, it was kind of anyone's guess as to how that was going to go in the Australia game. And honestly, credit, credit to Pochettino and credit to the team for adapting to that. But like this team can't really reach its peak, peak level in attack unless Pulisic is pulling the strings. right um And if he's got two options up top.
01:59:35
Speaker
Yeah. How much more dangerous does that make him? I just don't know how I feel about the options, but you know, i you know, I wouldn't hate it. I basically where I'm at is all, I'll trust poach, whatever, however he wants to line this up without Baligan. trust that he is going to do give a, he's going to put us in a situation that's going to give the team the best chance to win. So I have no, ah I have no, no worries about that. You know, I do worry that without, you Baligan's lethal finishing. It might be, you know, goals might be hard to come by, but I don't Like we've been talking about, man, like this team, this team is deep. It's versatile. It's resilient. It's all these things that a USMNT, I'm just not used to saying about the us what you, what do you make of how good the USMNT is at soccer now, hunch? Like what, how do you think this happened?
02:00:23
Speaker
Yeah. Um, it's unexpected. Yeah. Um,
02:00:31
Speaker
you know, if how they went about who they brought was like literally position for position and then maybe position for how does it pair with position two, meaning, hey, we want this striker, but how do they, you know, link up with their midfield if we take this other person or how they link up with the a left winger or whatever it is, if that was in consideration or not, I don't know.
02:00:58
Speaker
But they've obviously gotten it right. um I will say this. If we can hold on to Pochettino for the next four years, we'll be lucky. Please. Yeah. Like, I saw that report about the contract extension, and I was like, oh, hell yeah. Like, I didn't even know he was considering that. I thought he was foot out the door to AC Milan. But if he's...
02:01:17
Speaker
He might be, but if he's not and he's considering staying, like, we should lock him up, like, no question. Because once he had two years and if he's already got, i mean, he's from his interviews, he's even spoken about it. He's like, it was a punch in the gut when he stepped in because he thought, like, oh, all these people are going to be lining up to, like, help them facilitate, get this thing going. He's like, there was nobody.
02:01:37
Speaker
Like, yeah nobody said anything. and It's U.S. soccer. It's U.S. soccer. Poach, what you think is going on, man? This is on you. Well, off, Yeah, it was it was disbelief. Like, no one believed in the program at that point. Secondly, it was like, oh, well, the guy who went out the door, like, took whoever with him.
02:01:50
Speaker
And thirdly, it's like, what has this team ever done, ever? It's like, there is no, like, core belief like, hey, let's all just, like, kumbaya, get this, you know, ball rolling, and we'll take it forward. Like, that that wasn't something to tap into because it wasn't there. It's never been there.
02:02:07
Speaker
um So having all that set aside, like to have four years and if he has any modicum of like success, how you attract like people, not that Obed would get starts on this team, but how do you get people who are deciding where they're going to play, that changes.
02:02:25
Speaker
Yeah. yeah Your player pool changes. hadn't even thought of that, but like the further this team goes and the better this team does and the more like the world gets to watch this team and then sees like...
02:02:37
Speaker
how like Pochettino's impact on that. And then if he does stay, that's going to totally incentivize like dual nationals and more guys like Baligan, you know, shout out birthright citizenship like that. It'll only help the the recruitment. Honestly, I think if we extend them. Well, not to mention staff, not to mention maybe sponsors, which has to do with funding, which has to do with support.
02:03:00
Speaker
And then like the attention you're gonna get from teams in the lead up to that, like you're going to have a gold cup. maybe we get invited back to the cup of america or whatever it is and you're going to get like even more of a best effort which means you know iron sharpens iron here like the teams that you're bringing in on that are going to become more developed and more resilient because the competition they're going to face is not oh the team that lost to belgium for eight six years ago whatever it was it's the team that went to the quarterfinals it was a team that like has become the preeminent team in north america or north and south central america or or who freaking knows like it's it can only go up now if they lose him who god how does this all go out the window like i don't even know
02:03:45
Speaker
I mean, like yeah, go i'm I'm not letting my mind even go
Seattle's Soccer Atmosphere and Fan Experience
02:03:49
Speaker
there. That's whole other thing. That's a whole but other thing. That's I don't want to I don't want to think about that, which is it's funny because like his tenure started off like honestly pretty badly. Like I was like, is this guy even better than Berhalter? feel silly for questioning that now because he's clearly like, you know, you can just tell when you've got it. One of those one of those savant type tactics coaches. He is one of those guys like there's only so many of those guys in the world at a given time and we got one.
02:04:14
Speaker
So like. Yeah, but he's also, part of that is because he's like, why waste time talking to to anybody about it? Let's go out and do. Let's go out and and a he's like, whether he had a ah point to prove or ah you know an axe to grind or however you would say it, I don't think he ever probably took offense.
02:04:33
Speaker
I think he was probably surprised at the lack of support, but I think he's also surprised at the support that has exploded in the last two weeks, month, whatever. But like she he's like, i don't need to say anything to anybody.
02:04:48
Speaker
What I'm to do is go out there and do what I'm supposed to do. yeah And if that goes to plan or bears fruit as the, note you know, using what I know to be true about how to build a team and how to coach, why bother talking about it?
02:05:03
Speaker
Yeah, no, totally. I think that's exactly how he's wired. And it's, I think it's clearly kind of what this program needed, not just like the temperament and the demeanor, but I think it was so important to just get someone from the outside who had no preconceived notions or biases about anything about the player pool. You could very much tell from the beginning, he came in and was like, I have no agendas here. i have no, I've not, I've no skin in this game. I'm coming in here. I'm going look at this and call it exactly how I see it from my years and decades of, uh, of coaching and playing this sport. And I'm going base how I do the job purely on that and nothing else. And I think you're, you're kind of seeing the fruits of when you are able to get like a fresh perspective, you know, sometimes you just need like a new, you just need new ideas, ideas,
02:05:48
Speaker
set of eyes i think i think that was that was huge like and also and you know when you combine that with the fact that he's just like uh really think that he's he's just a kind of a brilliant guy clearly like yeah and it's not even like a new perspective in that he thought about that's how he's approaching this it's somebody who just said you know i don't know whatever you guys had going on before but i'm here to coach a soccer team and if i'm going to draft the people i'm going to draft and build what I need to build, then give me the perspective to have, you know, the view into who you've got presented and just let me do my work.
02:06:24
Speaker
And that's what he did. I don't think he took any second thoughts for any of this other nonsense that's going on. And I'm actually, I'm actually a little curious. They've opened up their new facility in Georgia as their headquarters.
02:06:35
Speaker
I wonder where he lives. I imagine he has to have some kind of house in the U.S. And I wonder, how all the How that's his community.
02:06:47
Speaker
He doesn't live here. He doesn't live here. he lives at all He's got to have someplace. He can't be traveling all the time back home, quote-unquote, back home. Well, I mean, I'm sure he has, like, long-term residences, but, like, was his permanent home, he lives in Europe. Jesse Marsh also lives in Europe. I guess international coaches, you can kind of just do that.
02:07:07
Speaker
I mean, I guess so, but, like... if Well, I'll tell you this. If he's going to stay for four years, he's going have to find some place. Exactly. we need to We need to adopt this man officially. Seriously. I feel good for the Georgia Weatherhofter experience, but nonetheless, he grew up in Argentina. he should note he should you you help he He'll have the the characteristics to deal with that, but Yeah, um I'm not worried. I think i think Belgium, I bet to both their games here in Seattle, they look like a team that like woke up and found themselves in the World Cup.
02:07:40
Speaker
like Yeah! They were unspired Egypt. i think i think we're all on the same page with that, and I've been kind of trying to figure out throughout the night, like, are we telling ourselves that, or is that actually what's happening? No. But, like, no, that is what's happening. That is what's happening.
02:07:56
Speaker
They don't look like they belong here. They don't look like a top 10 team, and I don't know where they're ranked, but I think they started somewhere in the top 10. They definitely do not belong in the top 10. They should have lost today. They should have lost today. They got 10 minutes and a bad call, and they're through.
02:08:11
Speaker
you ten minutes and a bad call and and they're through yeah It was 80th plus minute. And they were still That said, around, i was telling the people in love sitting next to me who I was there with, and he would humble his guy. I said, Conca Calf, the gods have not been at peace. I'm warning you all now.
02:08:38
Speaker
Watch out. Like, we are not, we have not escaped this. And that was before, like, the two goals. And then we went to extra time. It's like, oh, here we go. Here we go. That was the softest penalty to ever decide a game ever. I was just hoping he was going to save it and make it moot.
02:08:53
Speaker
I really was. It is so lame, dude. here here's what ah Here's the other side of this. And this is how I know it's true. And I didn't want to think about then because I was like, we got to take care of business. I'd rather face Belgium than Senegal.
02:09:05
Speaker
that's the u I had that exact same thought. i was I was at the game too and I was watching that game and I thought Senegal was going to win and I was like, low-key, I would much rather play Belgium than this team. That's exactly right.
02:09:16
Speaker
Yeah, so that tells you where Belgium's at. Not to mention, you know what... If the Seattle Times or New York Times or somebody wants to take this off of this podcast on this video, you could take it. The Belgian fans are turds.
02:09:30
Speaker
They suck. i would to I went to two of the games with them here. You wouldn't know they were there. You would not know they were there. There was a Senegal-dominant fan base. Not fan base. Cheering going on in the stadium. But that stadium today was quieter than any of the games ever.
02:09:47
Speaker
and MLS or otherwise. they the belt of it The first game I went to against Egypt, the people behind me were talking about a friend of theirs that wasn't even there and how he could dress business casual.
02:10:00
Speaker
And then in the second half, they didn't get back to their seats to the 89th minute. They were gone for the entire second. It was like, oh, whoops, I guess we missed it. Their fans were right above us, like their their their support section.
02:10:14
Speaker
They suck. Like the Bosnian fans, phenomenal. The Egyptian fans, the Iranian fans, the Qatari fans were even better. The Belgian fans suck. They suck, but I'm sorry. They do. They were not good.
02:10:28
Speaker
Especially of all the European teams out there. like they just They have though no character. it's It's like, they much like 13, they woke up and found themselves in the World Cup. like I don't know what it is.
02:10:41
Speaker
And maybe that will inspire them to do something on Monday. Maybe not. I doubt it. Because I doubt they'll show up. But, God. It was so disappointing. as ah As a neutral, it was disappointing.
02:10:52
Speaker
Yeah, ah I mean, when it's kind of just sinking in for me, like right now, like that Seattle is hosting this shit. And I was there like at the Australia game, obviously, and that that out crowd was insane. Yes. Like you said, Belgium fans, I mean, I don't know. I haven't interacted with any like you have to know, but like terrible crowd.
02:11:17
Speaker
they're Yeah, like they – well, and they were just like in the Egypt game, like you said, they were vastly, vastly outnumbered. Like it wasn't – and the ah the Australia fans were ah were vastly outnumbered at the U.S. s game, but they were they were in force. You heard that they were extraordinarily drunk. If we're ranking the ah drunkest fan bases that have been in Seattle so far, Australia is by far and away at the top of the list, and there's not even a close second. Yeah.
02:11:44
Speaker
If there's any Australians watching right now, i just i just want to tell you guys, the human body is fundamentally not designed to have that much alcohol ingested at that type of hour. I'm walking by, it's like 8.27 in the morning, and you guys are absolutely blathering all over yourselves to the point where I was like, they're not going to make it in the game. And then they did, so I was actually impressed by that. But ah anyway, that was a side tangent. The ah the crowd at this Belgium...
02:12:13
Speaker
US game is going to be very partisan in favor of the United States. It's going to be lit. It's going to be rowdy. And I i mean, it's going to be good. I kind of the fact that we get another game where this the entire world's watching Seattle.
02:12:28
Speaker
Hell yeah, man. Let's go. yeah I can't. Dude, I can't. So I have a ticket. I have a ticket for the game. but the prices just go the way they do. I don't know what I'm going to do. Like, ah the side story. I was at the Belgian game, the first one against Egypt, with some Australians.
02:12:45
Speaker
And even they were like, are there Belgian fans even here? Like, we sat right below their fan section. So we were in the northeast corner on the lower bowl. So they, know, if you saw the contingent today, because in the same section, they're in the 300 level on the northeast. Like, that's where the Belgian fans are, like, positioned.
02:13:05
Speaker
no chance, no cheers, no nothing until they finally like got tied or whatever. And even then i was just like, really guys, like I thought you were supposed to be like a contender and have some sort of like culture around your team. And it just, it's not there. Anyway, it doesn't matter.
02:13:23
Speaker
I feel bad for them coming up. It sucks. We're going to miss flow. But again, if we can't beat Belgium without flow, we don't deserve to move on anyway. No, I actually totally agree with that. like it If that is what the deal breaker is, then ah then so be it. Let the chips fall where they may. But ah all right, Hunch, I got Timbo in the queue behind you. Go ahead.
02:13:47
Speaker
Oh, okay. I got a couple more. Okay. All right. just go Let's go.
Cultural Exchange During the World Cup
02:13:50
Speaker
Let's go. Let's go. We're keeping it ah keeping it rolling. that Good stuff, man. Thanks for tapping in, and we'll get you on the next one. Yeah, looking forward to the Timbers match in a couple weeks as a return to MLS. And I hope we still have the grass field.
02:14:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully we'll see. That's Timby's game is actually, you know, that's only, yeah, it's only a couple of weeks away. So yep but it's going to feel like, yeah, it's going to feel like way longer than that, but all much shake no right.
02:14:16
Speaker
Take care, man. Catch you next time. Yep. Bye.
02:14:20
Speaker
All right, we got Timbo up next. Timbo! What's going on? What's going on, man? You hear me, okay? Yeah, I got you. USMNT Moving on to the round of 16 to play Belgium, but it comes at a cost. Balogin with the red card. are you Are you hype on the win, are you ah despondent about the red card?
02:14:44
Speaker
I don't think I'm to respond about the red card. I think they're going to overturn it, honestly. like it i thought that I think that red card was fucking weak as shit compared to some of the other stuff. mean, I've seen... credit I understand that Balogun is not Lionel Messi, and so like we're not going to get that kind of pass. But honestly, i have a hard time believing.
02:15:03
Speaker
i mean, the jokes even tonight were that the the White House might chime in on this one, and have plus the pressure on Infantino, which, you know... enemy of my enemy is my friend kind of situation i don't know hey you know no i don't think the thing is i i was just reading through like i don't think you can appeal it i don't think you can oh i thought i thought especially during the world cup in these kind of special situations they take a quick look at it and then they make a call so i mean i definitely think we're we're at a loss without balling good for sure um
02:15:36
Speaker
Okay, so here's the rule. Here's the rule. I got the rule now. You can only appeal it if they if they tag you with extra games beyond the one game. If they give you the extra games, then at that point it goes to the ah committee or whatever. But if it's just the one game, which this one is was is only going to be the one game, then there's no recourse. And like I don't think they would have overturned it anyway because it wasn't like – It's stupid because the reason they wouldn't overturn it is because it's a 50, 50 call. It's subjective. It's not one where you can say a hundred zero, but that's why you can't change it. If what you had on the field is called a certain way. It's such a horseshit call, but that's the other side of the coin is like, why do we have, we can go back to this conversation to around Rob is about the, the, the nature of it were the, or the, the ideal of the law or the ideal, the rule, right.
02:16:26
Speaker
VAR, what they should follow. And I mean, I'm, I'm, I don't know. I just feel like it was just kind of a soft red. is what it is.
02:16:38
Speaker
I mean, I'm not bummed, though, about the U.S. men's national team playing in Seattle here on Monday. I think it's been really nice to showcase Seattle as kind of a soccer town and the city's kind of embraced it and people have come down, you know, the entire region's kind of into it.
02:16:58
Speaker
And that's, that's really nice to see, you know, even for a game, like the one earlier day against Belgium, you know, like that was a fun game to watch. There hasn't, there has not been a single empty seat in the, I've been to every, of all the games in Seattle. There hasn't been a single empty seat at a single one of them.
02:17:15
Speaker
Yeah. And I think there was, a you know, I cannot afford to go to these games, but I'm glad that somebody is, is going, you know, regardless whether they're paying, 500 bucks or 5,000 bucks for a seat. I think, I think that's great. i wish it was more accessible. think that's what I'm bummed about is that I feel like I would like to go to one of these games.
02:17:36
Speaker
It is what it is though. Like, you know, in that regard. So, and there's opportunities and and at least the seats are being filled. You know, people who are, I would not consider myself a diehard American outlaw, U.S. men's national team fan by any means.
02:17:52
Speaker
So I'm glad somebody's taking that up. I'm glad England's doing Wonderwall at the end of their games. We're doing Cutcher Rhodes. I think that's just fucking dope. Germany doing a Major Tom for the for the the games they were in.
02:18:06
Speaker
like I don't know. I just i think overall i think it'ss it's been a good World Cup. i think it's and Granted, there's corruption. there's People are getting fucking... Rich as shit off and that's kind of the doubt the dark, seedy underbelly of it, but overall, I've really enjoyed all the games.
02:18:23
Speaker
No, I, yeah, I think it has gone really well hosting here and, you know, Seattle's doing the best, but it's like, I think people were rightfully skeptical of it all.
02:18:38
Speaker
And I gotta say, like it's killing it, but I think a lot of that credit goes to like the cities themselves. Absolutely. Like more than the people who like planned it, but. her Correct. I think, I think the people at the top who are just kind of, you know, taking their, their,
02:18:52
Speaker
cut and leaving town or always going be there, but I think the city's embracing it. the The fact that you could, you know, I was hearing about people being able to open drink and in Pioneer Square, which just seems fucking wild to me, but like, you know, people, it's a party, you know, and I think people taking advantage of, you know, down in the South Sound where I'm at, there are the Puyallup tribes hosting, you know, all sorts of events and and things that folks can go to and watch and and like throughout the region. And it's not just us.
02:19:20
Speaker
There's fucking stuff down in SoCal right now that seems really awesome that people are a part of. And then then maybe even in Mexico, like it makes me want to take a road trip from you know Laredo to Monterey the next time we Leon.
02:19:35
Speaker
it's It's kind of giving me ideas like, oh, that's a fucking really dope stadium in Monterey. I should go to that stadium at some point in my life, regardless if it's a
02:19:43
Speaker
So I think there's there's a good exposure. little ah You know, Sounders fans were like, I should start watching European football. That's great. Like, I think it's just there's an exposure that's going on right now.
02:19:54
Speaker
That's not it's not Sounders ah specific. It's not, you know, MLS specific. Like, we were looking at soccer as kind of a world sport and what's going on. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's been one of the coolest things from our end is like, you know, we're we're doing World Cup coverage and content and just like actually seeing, like looking at our analytics and the reach of how we're like, you know, one day we're doing numbers in Bosnia, the next day we're doing numbers in Iran, we're the next day we're doing numbers. every like it's And that's something that like, we couldn't be doing covering any other sport. Like, you know, we could be covering the NFL or major league baseball. And it's like, we would not be able to do that really. I mean, you know, maybe with baseball, you can.
02:20:37
Speaker
Yeah. you but but you get what you hear what i mean you get where you're going with that Yeah. Ultimately you, you can travel the way and and we've had exposure even prior this world cup with the club world cup and having that, but it misses a whole nother. It's a different ball game.
02:20:51
Speaker
That's totally. and I mean, on that note, how do you, you've been to, Well, I mean, have you been to all the Seattle games at this point? Yeah. How do you how do you feel kind of just as a journalist now of the sport now that you've kind of gone to these big events?
02:21:05
Speaker
And I mean, you've you've seen the stadium filled with like, you know, when we've had a conference champions and like MLS Cup and that like that. How is this? How is that? How is the World Cup different from what you've seen kind of with the Sounders of the stadium?
02:21:20
Speaker
It's a different level of environment. And it's funny because like kind of in different ways, like the Bosnian fans took all the way over and they just had such a large presence and they had these like coordinated dances and songs, but like they were doing this stuff where they were like jumping up and down, but like in a coordinated fashion that literally made the crowd look like it was like a wave And that created just like one of the craziest looking environments I've ever seen. And their whole vibe was just like so like positive and like ah it was like a party. And then, you know, the Egypt Iran one was just that crowd was just going insane.
02:22:06
Speaker
After the Iran goal that got that guy with they got robbed on that got waved off. I have never seen a stadium descend into chaos quite like that. Like you had the pitch invader factor. So the guy fighting the cops, you had the Iranian players celebrating, you had the Egyptian players going crazy. The Iranian fans were going crazy in a good way. The Egyptian fans were going crazy in a bad way. And then the Egyptian media and the press box, they just don't give a shit. Like they will – scream and clap that their press box etiquette is just totally there.
02:22:39
Speaker
They're not neutral. They are not neutrals. And honestly, I think the rest of the world seems to have a different culture with that. Even the Senegal media today, they were doing the same, the same stuff, but like the Egyptian media was, there's probably one hundred, 120 of them in there. First of all, there's so many, but they were just going, they may as well have been fans in the crowd, which I think U S press kind of looks down on that, but I was like, yeah, let them go. It's fine. It's the world cup. Like, it's just a different thing, but like, uh, like when, and then even the, ah Egypt, Belgium games, how the Egypt fans took over. It's just like this. Uh, it's totally different than anything you can get from, uh, even the craziest and MLS crowd or the craziest CONCACAF crowd, because like,
02:23:26
Speaker
Like when like an entire country is like taking over a stadium, it's just a different level. And so like pretty much every one of these games I've been to, like I come out of it being like, that was like the craziest environment I've ever been in for a game, but like in a different way. And it's kind of interesting, like how the different countries like have their own way of making their presence felt and how like much you can feel that, like how different it is. And it's just like, I don't know, it's kind of mind blowing, honestly, but also like the ah like the environment at the Bosnia game and the Egypt-Iran game. like I will never forget like being there in that type of just like it feels like you're just in like a.
02:24:05
Speaker
I don't know. It's hard to describe. But the game today, like the Senegal fans, the way they took over too, it was like a similar thing. And that's why I wanted that win for them. You could tell they were definitely deflated once all that kind of that, that those weight goals came in and then that penalty, which I think was kind of soft too.
02:24:21
Speaker
i I think that was it was a bad day for VAR, but what are you going to do? i am excited for you for Monday, Matt, like between, between US Mid-National and your fandom of Belgium. I think, think,
02:24:35
Speaker
It's going to – I'm excited for you It's to be good time. No, it's going to be legendary for sure. It's just, ah you know, I'm kind of you know, wish we had our striker. But that's – you know, I'm going to get past that. going to get past that. It's fine. but We're good. at You know what? It's kind of much like the – it's going to have to be next man up, but we're not going to get to any of this tournament. We can't – this team is not going go very much farther in this tournament we're fully relying on.
02:25:01
Speaker
and i don't i do And I don't think we do solely rely on Balogun or any of the 21 guy. like I think that's kind of the beauty of this team right now. I think i think i would argue Tillman looked that freaking fucking gorgeous. Oh, my God. Yeah, he's locked in. No, we're we're we're we're good. We're good. but It'll be all right.
02:25:19
Speaker
All right, Timbo, I got to get Sean in here. And then we are actually, no one tap in after Sean. Sean is going wrap us for the night, but we'll get Sean in here. Then we're going call it a night, but Timbo great stuff as always, man. Thanks for tapping.
02:25:32
Speaker
You too. We'll catch you on the next one. All right, we have got Sean and then this is the last call. So if anyone else taps in after this, sorry, but I've been streaming for two and a half hours. So got a call it a night. But let's get Sean in here to wrap it up. Sean, what's up, man? Welcome in. You are on the show. ah How's it going? How you feeling? Two zero. U.S. moves on to take on Belgium in the round of 16, but it does come at at a cost. ah Fuller and Balogun with the red card.
02:26:02
Speaker
What'd you see? What'd you think? One, I enjoyed it from the South Sound, and it was a wonderful little game. i would say that, you know, what are you going to do You get to that point, you see the injuries come in.
02:26:17
Speaker
You just have to hope that we have the depth, and I i do believe we do. This is 2014, right? This is 2014 again. We get to replay some memories.
02:26:31
Speaker
get some payback. This is, this is payback for pumping 46 shots on Tim Howard. Okay. Like this, we finally get the chance to settle that score. Who would you, who would you start in this game? Are you going but Ricardo Pepe or how's you right?
02:26:49
Speaker
I would say Pepe. Like it, we know him. I, I, I do believe that like at least give them 60 minutes. we We've seen how we've seen how Pochettino wants to kind of not shake it up too much. Like, we've not seen a lot of changes. Like, I was um i was in town on the Friday that we played Australia, and of course, there a little bit of a, where's Roldan? Where's Roldan? Where's Roldan, right?
02:27:23
Speaker
He doesn't want to shake it up too much, right? The team's been fairly stable, I believe. And i do think that, What comes from that is like bring Pepe in.
02:27:35
Speaker
Hopefully we see some stability in the attack. And we see a little bit more like our first game versus our mid middle games like Turkey. That was a tough one today.
02:27:49
Speaker
Being down a man and seeing that wonderful breakaway and, you know, That's when I was like, okay, I can walk away and i can I can know that we have done what we needed to do, in my opinion, for this World Cup. We have shown that we can do something from behind. That's wonderful.
02:28:09
Speaker
And I'm happy about that. What did you think of the ah of the red card call?
02:28:17
Speaker
Week? ah I mean, he was no He was in no way he was off he was off the other player, right? We saw what was happening there. Like I played right back long time ago.
02:28:33
Speaker
And if I'm challenging another player from behind and he's right there and I'm like, you know, I've got my right leg out. ah I mean, yeah, coming down, that was ah that was a big crunch when I saw the replay. I'm like, oh, I'm so sorry. i am so sorry. That that hurts.
02:28:53
Speaker
I don't think that's red card. I don't think it is. Shouldn't intent matter? If you like, there is no way you can tell me he meant to do that. There's no way. There's no way. So I haven't seen the replay and I wasn't able to like there. I didn't hear what the VAR review said.
02:29:12
Speaker
um it couldn't have been intent. Did they say intent? No, but like, that's what, ah that's kind of my, yeah, it I think rare, violent, violent challenge.
02:29:23
Speaker
Well, it's always violent. we're serious Serious foul. Serious foul was the word um i don't I don't know the letter of the law as a referee.
02:29:36
Speaker
However, um yeah, it is serious when you come down on someone else's ankle. It doesn't mean you intended to do it. Exactly. Yeah. If... if I mean, people have already pointed it out, but Messi did the exact same thing, but worse. they know they they would never give hit They would never have the courage to do that. But of course, when our striker does it, he's immediately sent off.
02:29:58
Speaker
and And as we've already discussed, ah it'll be difficult for the next match, but it is next man up and we just have to deal with that. And that's what it is. ah If anyone listening right now, local to Seattle,
02:30:13
Speaker
go into town on Friday, have a good time, hug your neighbors, hug the other fans from Belgium. right I mean, I was there Monday, Egypt versus Belgium. like The first day i was making breakfast, and I'm like, what am I doing? I'm not working today.
02:30:30
Speaker
And it was the best day I've ever had in my entire life of the fandom of soccer. I showed up like I walked a Japanese fan through Seattle.
02:30:42
Speaker
They were like, I ran into them on the train. You know, it was just one of those one of those wonderful things. So let's just remember to like celebrate this. This is a wonderful thing. we we don't Who knows when we're gonna have this opportunity again to have this in Seattle. The U.S. and men men's national team winning of course is the paramount for us, but let's also enjoy ourselves and enjoy each other while we're enjoying ourselves.
02:31:06
Speaker
i'm glad I'm glad you said that. I was thinking about that today too. like yeah yeah So I was down at the Belgium-Senegal game, but i had to make sure that I got back here for the start of the U.S. game because I was working it. So I actually ended up having to leave in ah in extra time.
02:31:23
Speaker
yeah So to like beat the light rail rush so I'm like on the light rail while the game is going on and I pull it up on my phone and I noticed the Japanese guy next to me is like watching the game over my shoulder so I'm like oh no like all I'll pull it up for you so we're both watching it and then slowly there's just like this group of people that like gathers around my phone on the light rail so I'm like the guy. ah showing everyone the game, but it was like, they were all from different places and we're all locked in on the same game. And I was like, this is like kind of the, this is the only context where this exact type of thing would ever happen. And there's like a, ah there's something, there's something like just, yeah, special about that, that I hope we can all, cause world cups only every four years. This is very like a, this is a very fleeting moment. This is like two, three weeks of our lives that we're not going to get back for who knows when. So like, Yeah, definitely. Everyone try and soak it in, especially now because I've been so trying to like, I'm always kind of like a worst case scenario type of guy or like, I just try not to get my hopes up on things and like, you know, getting the U S back in Seattle after how sick that first game was, it almost felt like too good to be true. Now that we got it, like this is like, ah this is a very, very special moment that we got it. We got to make sure we appreciate this one.
02:32:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Again, like just to like give an idea of like how special this is. I'm riding the train into the Egypt-Belgium game only to just be in the city. I run into a Japanese fan who's on a four-hour layover.
02:32:54
Speaker
He was at the game in Dallas the day before, and he's just flying through. And he's just like, I just want to go and see the first Starbucks. I mean, these these are fleeting moments for us. these are The World Cup is in Seattle.
02:33:10
Speaker
Let's let's um have at least one more really positive and wonderful celebration, right? Let's beat Belgium. Let's do it. let's do it Let's do it quietly. Let's do it without any drama. Let's just play our game. Yeah. Let's do our let's do our thing.
02:33:30
Speaker
and And then, come on, Seattle. wow We've already shown, like i ran into some Australian fans late, late after the game, the day of that match, USA, Australia, and and they were bombed, but it was wonderful. It was like, hey, um we're so happy to be here.
02:33:52
Speaker
And I'm, of course, like, exactly. We're so happy to have you here. Thank you so much for enjoying this with us.
02:34:02
Speaker
You can't, you can't have anything, you know, it was rough rolling up into the world cup, right?
Red Card Rules and Fairness Debate
02:34:07
Speaker
Like there's, there's some vibes, there's some vibes and you know, those vibes are still going to be there and we have to work through that, but we can enjoy this moment and, and, and lift each other up.
02:34:20
Speaker
Love it. Well said. Well, Sean, thank you for tapping in. I'm about to call it a night. I guess hunch has one real quick more point. So we'll, we'll let him work that in, but ah thanks for tapping in, man. Appreciate the support and we'll catch you on the next one.
02:34:36
Speaker
All right. We'll get a hunch says he has one more quick point. So hunch we're going to, we're going make it quick, but I do. I want to hit this from chat because we have a dissenting opinion, which is fine. We love dissenting opinions around here, but I got, I got to respond to this one. So it's about the red Carter. You guys new to football. It does not matter how it was done. in Intentional accident mistake, whatever it is, it was done. And refs have been calling accidental fouls as reds. And yeah, I, I realized that that is how they call it. And that's my issue.
02:35:01
Speaker
That's, that's stupid. The intent, especially in this case should, should, That should be taken into account. It should be taken into account. And I realized that, you know, we open ourselves up to the, you're the dumb Americans. Are you new to football? Yeah. Yeah.
02:35:17
Speaker
I don't care. i don't care. It's whether or not he meant to do it should factor into whether it's considered serious foul play and whether he gets sent off. It's just a common sense thing at a certain point is, is what he did.
02:35:31
Speaker
Does it rise to something that should get you kicked out of the game? No one would argue that it does. You can argue letter of the law all you want, but that doesn't make it a good point. The letter of the law is not necessarily good.
02:35:44
Speaker
The letter of the law in this case, even though they followed it, it's stupid. He didn't mean to do it. It was not a reckless challenge. It wasn't.
02:35:53
Speaker
It was, it did not rise to the violent conduct threshold of something that should get you kicked out of a soccer match. doesn't. It doesn't. We've lost the plot. We've lost the plot if we're sending guys off for stuff like that. But, uh, all right. Uh, sounder 74 with the 10 to close it out. Thank you. Have a beer. I will hopefully later.
02:36:12
Speaker
Appreciate you, man. And, uh, everyone, uh, Like the video before we get out of here. hunch All right, Hunch, you're on. yeah last Last point, real real quick. What do you got? to To draw up what you just pointed out, though, was if someone gets run over to crosswalk, we don't charge the driver with murder, too. Like, sometimes an accident's an accident. You don't throw the book at them. But my point, what I wanted to talk about, which Sean just brought up, and it was something I meant to bring up when spoke with earlier.
World Cup's Positive Impact on US Perspective
02:36:38
Speaker
I think the U.S., and I don't mean the U.S. men's national team, I think the country needed the World Cup more than the world cup needed the us oh 100 it's a great point and i meant to bring earlier because it has as rada brought it up earlier it has been a complete vibe shift it we as individual citizens have needed this because we've forgotten we've lost perspective on a lot of things and this has given us a chance to be reminded of what's in the world and what's even in this country that we should feel better about and to know that there's
02:37:15
Speaker
better days ahead and that there are good things that we can enjoy and also be a part of and still be ourselves. So I really, i this this has changed my perspective.
02:37:27
Speaker
I've been down, but this has really changed things. so i think Yeah, I think you you hit it right on the the head. i think And everyone who's like kind of been locked in and been a part of it is feeling, I think, that exact vibe shift that you're talking about. And I'm just hoping that it ah sustains itself, but it does kind of have the feeling of like a... ah I don't know if like a turning the page moment is a way to describe it, but it's something to that effect at least. so It's like being locked in a dark room and thinking that the rest of the world is darkness because that's all you can see at the moment. And then you realize when that door opens, it's like, no we're still in the same place. This is still where I'm from.
02:38:09
Speaker
This is still who we are. This is still what it is. And I just need to shine light and have others shine their light. to restore what we know is true. Absolutely. Well said, Hunch. I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm glad you ah you tapped in to close out on that. It was big and it felt oriented. So thank you.
02:38:30
Speaker
All right. We are going to call it
Community Engagement and Future Games
02:38:32
Speaker
right there. Thank you all, as always, so much for ah tuning in. A marathon stream tonight. But, ah you know, for the U.S. clinching another game in Seattle, we had to do it up. So im glad I was able to get the call-in show in. I owed you guys that one. So thanks to everyone who tapped in.
02:38:49
Speaker
and we'll be back at it we'll be podcasting we'll be covering all the games we'll be ah follow us on all the socials like the video uh sub to the channel if you have not done so already and uh yeah great stuff tonight guys us s going through seattle god damn it we're hosting another world cup game that sink in we're hosting another world cup game this time in the round of 16 get some payback on these Belgian guys little 2014 revenge uh I can't wait to cover it been having the time of my life covering this tournament so uh appreciate you guys engaging with all the content following all the content shout out to our new followers and subscribers as well hopefully you all stick around but uh yeah much love everybody I can't wait for this one and uh we're gonna be doing it up big so uh see you guys next time love y'all appreciate y'all peace