Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Brian Dunseth previews the World Cup, No Diego Luna on USMNT, Outlook for USA + more

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Brian Dunseth previews the World Cup, No Diego Luna on USMNT, Outlook for USA + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

0:03
Speaker 1: You tuned to The Sean O'Connell Show from the Murdoch
0:06
Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN seven hundred and ninety two one
0:10
Speaker 1: a half am.
0:22
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the Shan O'Connell Show.
0:26
Speaker 3: World Cup right around the corner. Time to talk a
0:29
Speaker 3: little soccer.
0:31
Speaker 2: Nobody better in this market or any market to talk
0:34
Speaker 2: soccer with than our very own good friend Brian Done
0:37
Speaker 2: said Donny, Welcome to the show.
0:39
Speaker 3: How are you, sir?
0:41
Speaker 4: My man, it's been too long, it has.
0:44
Speaker 3: It's been way too long.
0:45
Speaker 1: Ho Aur. Things things are good, man.
0:48
Speaker 4: I'm in the final throes of trying to get ready
0:51
Speaker 4: for these next two months. I head out on Thursday
0:55
Speaker 4: to Chicago for US Germany, then I come home for
0:58
Speaker 4: a day. Dad, my bag's head down to Moderate Mexico
1:02
Speaker 4: for four games, and then in my World Cup experience
1:06
Speaker 4: out in Philadelphia on July fourth.
1:10
Speaker 2: Awesome the fact, I mean, did you ever did you
1:14
Speaker 2: ever think that this would be a role that you
1:16
Speaker 2: would have for a World Cup. I know that you know,
1:21
Speaker 2: you had an illustrious playing career and USA hosted back
1:25
Speaker 2: in the early nineties and all that kind of stuff,
1:27
Speaker 2: but you know your career has taken off on the
1:30
Speaker 2: broadcasting side of things. Did you ever in your playing
1:33
Speaker 2: days think that this would be something that you had
1:35
Speaker 2: an opportunity to do.
1:38
Speaker 1: No, listen, Seawan, I'm glad you brought it up because
1:41
Speaker 1: I was a young kid.
1:42
Speaker 4: I was sixteen in nineteen ninety four when the Rose
1:45
Speaker 4: Bowl was hosting the US men's national team, and I'd
1:48
Speaker 4: already fallen in love with Tony Miola and Alexi LALs,
1:52
Speaker 4: Marcello Boboa, John Harks, Caabramos, Eric Winalda. I was volunteering
1:59
Speaker 4: at the La Canvention Center because I couldn't afford tickets
2:03
Speaker 4: at the Rose Bowl, and as a sixteen year old,
2:06
Speaker 4: I'd park my car at the top of the bowl,
2:08
Speaker 4: I'd walk down and I just experienced the game day
2:11
Speaker 4: atmosphere around the Rose Bowl.
2:14
Speaker 1: I came up short as a player. My closest chance
2:16
Speaker 1: was ninety eight Underneath Dancing, where I was one of
2:19
Speaker 1: the alternates. But I even in moments where I thought
2:25
Speaker 1: I was going to be involved in twenty eighteen, and
2:29
Speaker 1: I kind of felt like the ship that sailed. So
2:33
Speaker 1: to get that email to be a part of the
2:36
Speaker 1: broadcast was something that I was never expecting. Into your
2:41
Speaker 1: your first question. No, man, listen, you know, the swindle continues.
2:49
Speaker 1: I never thought i'd have the opportunity to stay in
2:52
Speaker 1: the world of soccer at all sporting.
3:00
Speaker 2: Uh, we lost Dunny. That sound that sounds boom. That
3:07
Speaker 2: means technology has failed you. Well, we'll get Dunny back on.
3:12
Speaker 2: It's great to hear from him. And look, there's when
3:15
Speaker 2: you're a player of his caliber, when you're an analyst
3:18
Speaker 2: of his caliber, when you're someone who's a soccer fan
3:22
Speaker 2: of his caliber. I'm not going to pretend that I
3:25
Speaker 2: have like a real understanding of how significant a World
3:29
Speaker 2: Cup on US soil is for the hardest of hardcore
3:33
Speaker 2: soccer fans are the people who helped grow the game
3:36
Speaker 2: here in the United States and then to be able
3:38
Speaker 2: to work it. I mean, Dunny's one of the best
3:40
Speaker 2: there is. So he's a great dude, and I'm excited
3:43
Speaker 2: that he gets to be on these broadcasts and we're
3:45
Speaker 2: gonna we're gonna grab and we're gonna get it back on.
3:47
Speaker 2: We're reconnecting with him right now. But what he says,
3:52
Speaker 2: he's being self deprecating when he says this swindle continues,
3:55
Speaker 2: because obviously, if you've watched any soccer especially My favorite
3:58
Speaker 2: thing about it is, even though you're getting expert analysis,
4:02
Speaker 2: it's not this like talk down condescending. So even the
4:06
Speaker 2: soccer novices like me can understand the point that Donny's
4:09
Speaker 2: trying to get across.
4:10
Speaker 3: Do you do that on purpose? For the low IQ
4:12
Speaker 3: soccer fans like myself, Dunny, Wow.
4:18
Speaker 1: Nothing I do was with intent. Listen, I when I
4:23
Speaker 1: started in this business. I started in a pregame post
4:25
Speaker 1: game with Spence after my quote unquote career came to
4:29
Speaker 1: an end. And at the time, I realized that when
4:34
Speaker 1: I listened to other people talk about soccer and talk
4:37
Speaker 1: about games, there was always something that was missing for
4:40
Speaker 1: me as an analyst, and I was looking for matchups.
4:43
Speaker 1: I was looking for margins. I wanted to understand what
4:46
Speaker 1: was happening to players where they weren't playing, or if
4:49
Speaker 1: they were carrying an injury or they were in recovery
4:51
Speaker 1: motor innyvises and then I dumped it down to one
4:54
Speaker 1: simple thing. I just acted like I was talking to
4:56
Speaker 1: my wife. I was trying to explain the game to
4:59
Speaker 1: my wife, where I wanted to show her kind of
5:01
Speaker 1: a nuance of the game, and you know, the margins
5:05
Speaker 1: of how slim a win versus a losses. And at
5:08
Speaker 1: the same time, I wanted to make sure that she
5:10
Speaker 1: was still my wife and I wasn't respecting her and
5:13
Speaker 1: she wanted to continue to spend some time with me.
5:15
Speaker 1: So yeah, I wanted to make it fun. I mean,
5:18
Speaker 1: I'm fortunate enough during the VLS broadcast on Apple TV
5:22
Speaker 1: that I'm with a guy named Max Brados. I call
5:25
Speaker 1: him TiO Max. You know, we've called probably six hundred
5:29
Speaker 1: games together, and always the idea is probably a little
5:32
Speaker 1: bit more like on the Spanish side and the English side,
5:35
Speaker 1: where we're having fun and we're mixing languages, and you know,
5:39
Speaker 1: we just we wanted the fun experience to where you're
5:43
Speaker 1: sitting there and you're entertained, but also you know, if
5:45
Speaker 1: you walk in to grab a beer or you're working
5:47
Speaker 1: on your car in the garage, that you're still like,
5:49
Speaker 1: we're descriptive enough to paint a picture for our listeners
5:53
Speaker 1: to kind of keep an eye on.
5:55
Speaker 3: Okay, let's get into the roster construction.
5:58
Speaker 2: Obviously, there were a lot of RSL people, lot of
6:00
Speaker 2: soccer fans in Utah that wanted to see the moon
6:03
Speaker 2: Man on this US men's national team roster and when
6:06
Speaker 2: we were having these conversations six months ago, it seemed
6:09
Speaker 2: like a foregone conclusion that he would be and then
6:13
Speaker 2: he's left out of the final selection.
6:16
Speaker 3: What insight can you give you what happened?
6:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I think it's a competition for spots. And
6:21
Speaker 1: and what I've always said is that with Diego, he
6:24
Speaker 1: hasn't done anything wrong. There's not. And again, I've been
6:28
Speaker 1: around this team for the last three and a half years.
6:30
Speaker 1: I've been around Marisa Pustino from the first day that
6:33
Speaker 1: he took over in Austin, you know, two years ago. Diego.
6:38
Speaker 1: The hard part is for guys like Diego, for guys
6:42
Speaker 1: like Diego Luna, for guys like Aidan Morris, is that
6:45
Speaker 1: they you know, in terms of professionalism, in terms of
6:49
Speaker 1: like human compatibility, they were all there. You know, there
6:52
Speaker 1: was there was never a step out of bounds. There's
6:54
Speaker 1: nothing malicious there was. There was never like any like
6:57
Speaker 1: ill intent from anybody in And I think it came
7:01
Speaker 1: down to the same conversations that I've been having with
7:04
Speaker 1: everybody about this roster is it's not about the best
7:07
Speaker 1: players available. It's about the best group that Marisa Pochtino
7:10
Speaker 1: and his staff have mulled over, thinking about the opponents,
7:14
Speaker 1: thinking about the referees, thinking about the turnaround time, and
7:17
Speaker 1: trying to do their due diligence with injury concerns. You know,
7:20
Speaker 1: listen for Diego. He missed the first game because of
7:23
Speaker 1: the knee injury, and at the end I think he
7:27
Speaker 1: we all saw Lake and US Soccer were managing whatever,
7:31
Speaker 1: you know, the small niggles that he was dealing with.
7:34
Speaker 1: And if you would have told me before the game
7:37
Speaker 1: against Senegal that, in terms of player profile, Alex and
7:40
Speaker 1: dejas from Club America is the most like for life
7:43
Speaker 1: because they're so similar in terms of their stature, I
7:46
Speaker 1: would have understood it. But then watching the game against
7:49
Speaker 1: Senegal the other night, you start with the three in
7:52
Speaker 1: the back system, you switch at the four in the
7:54
Speaker 1: back when he brings in dejas In. You're thinking about
7:56
Speaker 1: guys that are competing with Luna, and those guys are
7:59
Speaker 1: named Christian Policic, Jell Raina, Malick Killman, Weston McKinney, then
8:04
Speaker 1: Alexanddehaus and on top of that, you got to think
8:07
Speaker 1: about Brendan Ronson and Timmy Wea. I mean that's I
8:10
Speaker 1: don't know my math isn't great, But I think that's
8:12
Speaker 1: eight guys right there for Mi cal state Fuller's impasser
8:16
Speaker 1: fail math. I mean, that's that's a lot of guys
8:18
Speaker 1: in a similar position, so similar to Tanner, Testsaman and
8:21
Speaker 1: Nade Morris. When you think about the midfielders of Sebastian Burghalter,
8:26
Speaker 1: of Tyler Adams, of Christian Rodan, of these type of guys,
8:30
Speaker 1: you know, you can only get so many people on
8:32
Speaker 1: the field at one time. So, however, the only way
8:35
Speaker 1: I can articulate it correctly is whatever Marisa Poachctino and
8:40
Speaker 1: his coaching staff put on their board in terms of
8:42
Speaker 1: preparation and kind of projecting, they felt as though this
8:47
Speaker 1: was the best roster to put together. I feel horrible
8:50
Speaker 1: for Diego. I thought that he had done everything right,
8:54
Speaker 1: especially with the amount of games that Marisa Pochetino had
8:57
Speaker 1: leaned in on him over the course of twenty twenty five.
9:01
Speaker 1: And there's got to be an incredible, you know, sources
9:04
Speaker 1: of not only disappointment because something like this happened heading
9:07
Speaker 1: into the Olympics a couple of summer to go into France,
9:10
Speaker 1: but also the embarrassment that comes along with the projection
9:13
Speaker 1: that we all had that he was going to be
9:15
Speaker 1: a major player in this World Cup here in the
9:17
Speaker 1: United States.
9:20
Speaker 2: Thankfully, he's young and he will be wearing a men's
9:23
Speaker 2: national team shirt at.
9:24
Speaker 1: Some point, right, Yeah, under percent. Yeah, this this next cycle,
9:28
Speaker 1: both Ingozo are going to play a major, major part
9:31
Speaker 1: in what's happening and in real time for Rialsa Lake,
9:36
Speaker 1: I mean, you talk about those two guys, but then
9:38
Speaker 1: you have Aiden Herzekani, you have Brittin Dillon, you have
9:40
Speaker 1: Luca Moisa. You know, you have a really strong foundational
9:46
Speaker 1: base of players. I mean, even if you think about
9:49
Speaker 1: the guys at the Red Bulls, like guys like Julian Hall,
9:52
Speaker 1: guys like Mahmeti, this next generation of players pretty extensive.
9:56
Speaker 1: When we talk about what the next roster is going
9:59
Speaker 1: to look like in September and October ahead of this
10:03
Speaker 1: end of cycle. For Marisa Pochatino on the US men's
10:05
Speaker 1: national team.
10:07
Speaker 2: You mentioned you referenced the friendly against Senegal. How much
10:11
Speaker 2: should we be reading into these final friendlies?
10:17
Speaker 1: So it's seemless debate. I mean, you're never going to
10:20
Speaker 1: see guys play ninety minutes because they're managing and obviously
10:23
Speaker 1: the fear of injury We saw that with Scotland with
10:26
Speaker 1: Billy Gilmour going down the other day. We saw it
10:29
Speaker 1: the other night for Canada as Marcello Flores fatigitis blew
10:33
Speaker 1: his acl and he was going to be a starter
10:35
Speaker 1: for Jesse Marsh and Canada. So you're kind of walking,
10:39
Speaker 1: Sean this really crazy line of how do I figure
10:44
Speaker 1: out my pairs? How do I in actuality, you know,
10:48
Speaker 1: see the group that I'm putting on the field versus
10:50
Speaker 1: the projection, and then ultimately how do we get performances
10:53
Speaker 1: and wins, because that obviously is the first thing that
10:57
Speaker 1: the US soccer fan base is going to moan about
10:59
Speaker 1: over on social media, and then still protect the guys
11:03
Speaker 1: and not give too much away for Paraguay to prep.
11:08
Speaker 1: If I look at that starting eleven, I could see
11:11
Speaker 1: four changes from the other night. I could see Matt
11:13
Speaker 1: freezeen goal instead of Matt Turner. I think if Chris
11:16
Speaker 1: Richards is healthy, but maybe five changes. If Chris Richards
11:19
Speaker 1: is healthy, he's starting in that back three, probably over
11:23
Speaker 1: Mark McKenzie, Weston McKenny in that midfield alongside Tyler Adams.
11:29
Speaker 1: Although I thought Sebastian Berhalter was excellent. Tim waya maybe
11:33
Speaker 1: for surgenior desk on that right hand side and then
11:35
Speaker 1: ultimately flow Balligan instead of Ricardo Peppy. So we saw
11:40
Speaker 1: a little bit of opportunity versus maybe a little bit
11:45
Speaker 1: of dialing in whatever the way the coaches are thinking
11:48
Speaker 1: about for that first game against Paraguay. But this weekend
11:53
Speaker 1: Saturday afternoon over in Chicago against Germany, I would assume
11:58
Speaker 1: would be his as long as he feels comfortable about
12:02
Speaker 1: the fitness and the health of certain players, that that'll
12:05
Speaker 1: be the closest to the starting eleven that we would
12:08
Speaker 1: see against Paraguay for the opening game in Los Angeles
12:11
Speaker 1: at so far over on June twelve.
12:15
Speaker 2: There are still tickets available to that game, obviously on
12:18
Speaker 2: the resale market there's always going to be, but official.
12:22
Speaker 3: There's Yeah, it's dumb. Should we worry about that?
12:27
Speaker 2: I mean, like, you want to put your best foot
12:29
Speaker 2: forward as a soccer nation, a host nation, et cetera,
12:33
Speaker 2: and your first home game is not even sold out,
12:37
Speaker 2: you know, a week ahead of the time.
12:39
Speaker 3: Are we worried?
12:41
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I get it, And I'm not trying to
12:43
Speaker 1: be an apologist for any of this. Just some clarity,
12:47
Speaker 1: you know, the dynamic pricing that FIFA has really tried
12:51
Speaker 1: to hold on to is for obvious reasons. And listen,
12:55
Speaker 1: I don't we can get into the weeds about the
12:58
Speaker 1: morality of all this stuff, but I don't really think
13:00
Speaker 1: it matters. At the end of the day. FIFA is
13:04
Speaker 1: going to do what every club around the world is doing,
13:07
Speaker 1: of what every like. You know, when you go to Disneyland,
13:11
Speaker 1: you know you're going to Disneyland. You know you're paying
13:13
Speaker 1: for disney I.
13:14
Speaker 3: Just got back from Disneyland, and yes, you know what
13:17
Speaker 3: you get it?
13:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, And you could get the basic ticket or
13:21
Speaker 1: you could upgrade the fast path for you know, the
13:24
Speaker 1: whole you know, for for California and Disneyland, and you know,
13:27
Speaker 1: drop a few more hundred dollars. The dynamic pricing is
13:31
Speaker 1: what it is. The secondary or secondary market. There's always
13:35
Speaker 1: going to be someone who looks at it as an
13:37
Speaker 1: opportunity to to, you know, earn monopoly money. Here here's
13:41
Speaker 1: what I would say, There's two things. The perception about
13:45
Speaker 1: following the US men's national team is different in a
13:49
Speaker 1: moment like this. It's not Copamedica, it's not Gold Cup.
13:53
Speaker 1: This is going to be the world game, which means
13:55
Speaker 1: that there are going to be you know, fans that
13:58
Speaker 1: aren't US men's national team fans, and they're they're just
14:02
Speaker 1: football fans, they're soccer fans. They're not gonna they're not
14:04
Speaker 1: for Paraguay. So the stadium is going to never going
14:10
Speaker 1: to be one hundred percent in favor of the US
14:12
Speaker 1: men inter national team, and it's just unfortunately a stark reality.
14:17
Speaker 1: The price gouging, I think is great when we're talking
14:20
Speaker 1: about all of these hotels that are available, all these
14:24
Speaker 1: buses that are available that are going to charge you
14:26
Speaker 1: like one hundred dollars for a one way trip into
14:29
Speaker 1: the stadium and another one hundred dollars one way out,
14:32
Speaker 1: Like it's all bs and the big scheme of things.
14:36
Speaker 1: You know, we understand where we're at in the world
14:38
Speaker 1: in terms of inflation and everything else that comes along
14:40
Speaker 1: with it. But no, I think that we're going to
14:43
Speaker 1: see as the tournament goes on, more and more of
14:47
Speaker 1: these stadiums where you're not going to be seeing empty seats,
14:49
Speaker 1: You're going to be seeing every human body in these
14:52
Speaker 1: seats because you know, the expanded format is going to
14:55
Speaker 1: create a little uncertainty for certain games, but ultimately bucks
14:58
Speaker 1: are going to be in seats because beause everyone's going
15:00
Speaker 1: to realize that this is the version of the Summer Olympics,
15:03
Speaker 1: the Winter Olympics, the super Bowl, the NBA Finals, whatever
15:06
Speaker 1: other sporting event you want to add to it, crunching
15:09
Speaker 1: the ball loaded up with steroids and put it on
15:11
Speaker 1: a rocket ship to the moon, because I think that's
15:14
Speaker 1: how quickly people are going to be like, oh my god,
15:16
Speaker 1: this World Cup is here in the United States, and
15:19
Speaker 1: I think it's going to take over a lot of
15:21
Speaker 1: the water cooler conversations.
15:22
Speaker 2: Ryan dun Set, our guest here on the Shottle Coddle Show,
15:26
Speaker 2: World Cup Talk, brought to you by Beer Bar, who's
15:29
Speaker 2: going to be helping us cover the World Cup throughout
15:31
Speaker 2: the tournament.
15:33
Speaker 3: They're great, So what is this What is this men's.
15:37
Speaker 2: Squad truly capable of in this World Cup on at
15:42
Speaker 2: least partially on home soil.
15:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the reality is that in the last
15:47
Speaker 1: three World Cups they've made it to the round of sixteen,
15:50
Speaker 1: so they've made it, you know, into the knockout rounds.
15:53
Speaker 1: We as insecure soccer fans here in the United States
15:57
Speaker 1: are always trying to convert those that aren't fans of
16:01
Speaker 1: the US soccer team to really buy into what they're doing.
16:06
Speaker 1: This group's got a bunch of great personalities. In the fall,
16:08
Speaker 1: they were in a fantastic run of form, winning five
16:11
Speaker 1: of their six matches the March windows. I can explain them,
16:16
Speaker 1: but at times fans don't want to hear the explanation.
16:19
Speaker 1: With the substitutions and the tests and the real value
16:23
Speaker 1: in the losses against Belgium and Portugal, both games being
16:26
Speaker 1: played in Atlanta at Mercedes Benz Stadium. What we saw
16:30
Speaker 1: against Senegal in that first forty five minutes was Christian
16:33
Speaker 1: Weston Tyler, all those guys absolute geo flying. It was
16:39
Speaker 1: the most inspired, urgent type of performance that we've seen
16:44
Speaker 1: in a while, and it was something that I felt
16:46
Speaker 1: like check the box for alleviating some of the fears
16:50
Speaker 1: of this fan base. Expanded format again adds a new
16:54
Speaker 1: round of thirty two, so one more game to kind
16:57
Speaker 1: of navigate through. I think we'll see some surprises. I
17:00
Speaker 1: think in this group the US could either find themselves
17:04
Speaker 1: in second or third position, or they could win the
17:06
Speaker 1: group outright. The good news is that they've played all
17:09
Speaker 1: three teams within the last calendar year. So they've they've
17:12
Speaker 1: beaten Australia, they've beaten Paraguay. They lost to Turkey, but
17:17
Speaker 1: if var was in that game, they probably would have
17:20
Speaker 1: won that game. So there's a blessing the curse and
17:23
Speaker 1: the knowledge and experience of having played them. But I
17:26
Speaker 1: think they'll they'll they'll realize that the pressure is on,
17:29
Speaker 1: and I think that they're unlike Copamerica, where you know,
17:33
Speaker 1: Tim Way's hand gets caught up in the face of
17:35
Speaker 1: an opponent and it's a straight red and all of
17:37
Speaker 1: a sudden the wheels fall off. Those margins of success
17:41
Speaker 1: and failure will be there. But listen, I don't I
17:44
Speaker 1: don't want to be a true Americana Homer. But the
17:46
Speaker 1: reality is I am. And I hope all these kids,
17:49
Speaker 1: you know, do what we all do is when we
17:52
Speaker 1: start playing, we recognize as little kids, we want to
17:54
Speaker 1: play at the highest level of the sport. That's going
17:56
Speaker 1: to be the World Cup. The fact that they get
17:58
Speaker 1: to do it in the US, hopefully these guys, you know,
18:01
Speaker 1: attain the opportunity to etch their name and cement the
18:04
Speaker 1: way that Tonymolas, the Alexi Loless's, Marcello Balboa's, Harksy's Winaldos
18:10
Speaker 1: Tabromos's all those guys. You know, they became iconic for
18:14
Speaker 1: a reason. It is because what they did in nineteen
18:16
Speaker 1: ninety four.
18:18
Speaker 3: Who's the best team in this urn?
18:20
Speaker 2: I mean we would all love to see Team USA
18:23
Speaker 2: win the World Cup. I don't think that is the
18:25
Speaker 2: realistic hope for even the most diehard fans. So who
18:29
Speaker 2: is going to leave North America as World Cup champs?
18:34
Speaker 1: I'll give you a couple names that I think are
18:36
Speaker 1: going to be the teams to keep an eye on.
18:38
Speaker 1: I think, first and foremost, France for me, is the
18:42
Speaker 1: favorite as of right now. If you went back to
18:45
Speaker 1: March and you watch them diabolically take apart both Brazil
18:49
Speaker 1: and Columbia. I thought it was a real, real statement
18:52
Speaker 1: of intent. And I know they lost Liverpool's at Gatke,
18:56
Speaker 1: but they have like effectively five teams right now. Out
18:59
Speaker 1: of Africa, Senegal and Morocco would be the two teams
19:02
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on. Out of South America. We
19:05
Speaker 1: can always talk about Brazil, but I think they are
19:07
Speaker 1: light in a couple of areas. I think Argentina, because
19:10
Speaker 1: of Messi and Messi playing at Inter Miami, is going
19:13
Speaker 1: to be probably the biggest draw, and then you've got
19:16
Speaker 1: to keep an eye on maybe some of the outliers.
19:19
Speaker 1: I would say that Belgium, Portugal, England in Spain are
19:24
Speaker 1: going to be the ones that I think could make
19:26
Speaker 1: deep runs. But then I would feel like I'm disrespecting
19:29
Speaker 1: a Germany if I didn't point, you know, point that
19:33
Speaker 1: you know, one of those teams out. I'm intrigued about
19:35
Speaker 1: South Korea. Obviously, some young men from LAFC is going
19:40
Speaker 1: to lead the line. They play El Salvador down in Provo.
19:44
Speaker 1: I think tomorrow. They just played the other night and
19:47
Speaker 1: we're comfortable in a five zero win against Trinidad and Tobago.
19:51
Speaker 1: And then you know, Canada and Mexico and the United
19:53
Speaker 1: States are the weird ones because of these kind of
19:56
Speaker 1: hosting capabilities. So is there like a momentum that they
20:00
Speaker 1: can fabricate because of the home field advantage. I would
20:04
Speaker 1: say those are kind of the teams that I'm keeping
20:06
Speaker 1: my eyes on that. I would say that if you're
20:08
Speaker 1: a neutral and you have no skin in the game,
20:10
Speaker 1: at least you'll enjoy that style of play. But I
20:14
Speaker 1: think there's going to be, you know, some great games,
20:17
Speaker 1: some games that I'm a part of where it's like
20:18
Speaker 1: Sweden against Tunisia, South Africa against South Korea. You know,
20:23
Speaker 1: what does this look like for Holland during these World Cups.
20:27
Speaker 1: There's there's just so many good teams, but the good
20:31
Speaker 1: teams from the elite teams. It's I would say, it's
20:34
Speaker 1: just going to be about the margins, margins of victory,
20:36
Speaker 1: along with the good old referee and var involvement.
20:40
Speaker 3: Well, that was going to be my final question for you.
20:43
Speaker 2: There's you know we talk about We're in the NBA
20:46
Speaker 2: finals right now, you talk about playoff basketball stylistically is
20:50
Speaker 2: very different than regular season basketball, hockey, maybe more so
20:55
Speaker 2: than anything else. Yeah, stylistically, World Cup soccer versus obviously
21:01
Speaker 2: MLS is very different. But even you know, Champions League
21:05
Speaker 2: or what these guys are more accustomed to playing at
21:07
Speaker 2: the elite levels in Europe. Is there a market change
21:11
Speaker 2: in the style of World Cup soccer versus every other product?
21:16
Speaker 1: It depends on the teams and it really does depend
21:18
Speaker 1: on the matchup. I mean, we just saw that in
21:21
Speaker 1: the Champions League final this weekend between Arsenal and PSG.
21:25
Speaker 1: Two very different approaches for the interpretation of how they
21:29
Speaker 1: want to play. What I would say is that the
21:32
Speaker 1: the you know, the the outlier teams, the teams where
21:36
Speaker 1: you're talking about Chrisau or you're talking about Haiti, you're
21:38
Speaker 1: talking about Cape Verdi or you know, teams like that,
21:41
Speaker 1: there will be a very defensive approach for them to
21:43
Speaker 1: survive because the margins of survival for those smaller countries
21:48
Speaker 1: are usually going to be about goal differential. How can
21:51
Speaker 1: they get a draw, how can they minimize you know,
21:54
Speaker 1: lose one nothing as opposed to losing you know, five
21:57
Speaker 1: to two, because the goal differential will have a huge
22:00
Speaker 1: say and who will go on in second place and
22:02
Speaker 1: who will go on in third place? And if you
22:04
Speaker 1: go on in third place, you know you're gonna you know,
22:06
Speaker 1: be dealing with the heavyweights, you know, the Argentinas and
22:09
Speaker 1: the Frances and those type, as opposed to maybe if
22:12
Speaker 1: you get a second place team, you're dealing with a
22:14
Speaker 1: Japan or a South Korea. So the margins are going
22:17
Speaker 1: to be incredibly slim. And on top of that, man
22:22
Speaker 1: the reality is that it's the end of a really
22:24
Speaker 1: long season, on top of last summer's FIFA Club World Cup,
22:28
Speaker 1: so you have so many games, so the physical fatigue
22:32
Speaker 1: will be there, the mental fatigue will not be there.
22:36
Speaker 1: And then, by the way, you got these weird stories
22:38
Speaker 1: that will pop up during the tournament and don't have
22:41
Speaker 1: nothing to do with anything on the field. It'll be
22:43
Speaker 1: off the field. It could be, you know, marriage is crumbling.
22:46
Speaker 1: It could be you know, kids being born, or it
22:49
Speaker 1: could be you know, grandparents dying. You know, you just
22:52
Speaker 1: don't know what's happening behind the scenes with these guys
22:54
Speaker 1: when we just dumb it down to like the human
22:57
Speaker 1: being nature of being involved in a tournament where they're
23:00
Speaker 1: from their families for the better part of another thirty days,
23:03
Speaker 1: so some of the outliers to think about and we'll
23:06
Speaker 1: see how it all plays out.
23:08
Speaker 2: Donny, I very much look forward to picking your brain
23:11
Speaker 2: throughout the World Cup and appreciate your time today.
23:14
Speaker 3: Thanks for joining me.
23:16
Speaker 1: As always, my man. Great to catch up with you.
23:18
Speaker 3: That is Brian Dunseeth.
23:19
Speaker 2: We will have the US versus Germany friendly that's coming
23:24
Speaker 2: up right here on ESPN seven hundred and ninety two
23:28
Speaker 2: one FM. Covered starts at twelve fifteen on Saturday, last
23:33
Speaker 2: friendly before the World Cup, and then of course we're
23:36
Speaker 2: off and running