Latest / Life According to Brian and Jason / #34 - Why You Should Care About the FIFA World Cup — A PE Teacher's Pitch

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#34 - Why You Should Care About the FIFA World Cup — A PE Teacher's Pitch · Life According to Brian and Jason

0:10
All right, friends. Welcome to another episode of Life According to Brian.
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And Jason. Hey, Jason. What's the hot topic today?
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Brian, the FIFA World Cup starts this Thursday. Do you care?
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Nope, not at all. Convince me to care why I should watch football or soccer, as we say in America.
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Why should I care, Jason? Give me three reasons why. Well, dude,
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first, what is your experience with soccer or football? What's your, what do you think?
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Well, I can break it down into three things. I first was introduced to it in eighth grade PE.
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And I remember the PE teacher came out, okay, we're going to play soccer.
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And the only thing I really knew about soccer was Pele was in the like world.
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You know, Guinness Book of World Records or something like that. I don't know why.
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But soccer was like this thing that other countries did.
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And so I got introduced to playing it and, you know, PE class.
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I'm like, okay, that's cool.
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And that kind of ended there. Then I become a dad.
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And, well, when your kiddo is, my two kiddos are five, I'm like,
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hmm, you enroll them in a lot of stuff.
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So you go do the soccer thing. So both kids did soccer a little bit here and
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there, but it never morphed into, oh, now we're playing, you know,
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rec league or we're playing high school soccer. It never morphed into that.
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The third thing would have been, I was probably, I don't know,
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summer of, I don't know, it was the Euro Cup.
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I might have the year round, might have been like summer of 2018,
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Tannis and I are in Europe, Eastern Europe.
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And we're traveling around all summer and all those countries are in the Euro Cup.
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Well, you go into any square. I'll give you an example. We're in Hungary and
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you just go into any town.
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You know, we were in Budapest at the time and every park just had tents set
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up with big screens and beer just everywhere you went.
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You know, people are watching and they just invite you into the tent.
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The atmosphere was electric. People were so cool.
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And then we travel farther south. We hit Croatia. Same thing.
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Small town squares. We're in split Croatia.
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You're sitting next to a super, you're in a Roman wall town,
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first of all. And then you're sitting next to this really cool old structures.
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And they basically just clear kind of the walkways, throw tables out.
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And it's a makeshift outdoor bar and soccer game. Someone put up a screen.
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People are cheering. We're cheering because Croatia was in it.
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Then we traveled farther south. Same thing.
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We were to the point we bought a pair of Croatia mirror covers for the rental
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car because it was like their white and red checks.
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And to show we were a soccer fan. So everywhere we're driving around,
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we're flying the colors on the mirrors. of the rental car.
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And yeah, that was my last experience of soccer. So there you go.
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Just a mecca in Europe during cool matches. Everyone's excited.
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And that still doesn't turn the needle. You didn't go, hmm, well,
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I'm interested in this team.
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That is hard to top.
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I mean, we all know there's something in the water with European football, right?
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There's just something in the water. It's like equivalent to our kind of our
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NFL pandemonium craziness.
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And, you know, so it's like, I just know, like, if you're watching soccer here
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in the States, it's like a couple steps down. So that's why it doesn't really appeal to me.
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Because I tasted the Holy Grail, you know. Kind of did. Right? So. Well, yeah.
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You had a good, nice start there. First of all, it is the most popular game in the world.
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And it is a game that has strategy and nuance. It brings community together.
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And those are kind of my tips. The youth strategy and building community.
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But first, if you're looking at the game, like the game's going to start,
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the games are going to start this Thursday.
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Qualifying rounds and then, you know, going in, And I want to talk about the
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brackets and standings and all that, the matches and stuff in a minute.
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But for the NBA, watching the finals, the TV viewership, 11.3 million.
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Super Bowl, 125 million. World Series, 25 million people watch.
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Stanley Cup, 4.2 million.
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The World Cup, 3.57 billion.
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Half of the population Of the world Watches this Event The Olympics is the only
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thing That overbills it The Olympics is 5 billion 2024 Paris.
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And why does that do that? Because I think it's community In a sense of community,
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People love seeing The Olympics and here In the,
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world cup strategy that is used you know are you aggressive are you holding back are you,
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what kind of are you playing and the youth it is the it is what everyone's playing
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i'm a p teacher by elementary,
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i do soccer tournaments at my school everyone plays soccer i mean everybody
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it's not kind of everyone plays soccer at least once and then several keep playing
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you know baseball is still there,
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we got some hockey people flag football very big lacrosse getting bigger and bigger but,
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no by far soccer i do more soccer than than anything else i'll do two or three
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tournaments that's you know where the kids can do it but why why the world cup
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is so great dude in our lifetime Already,
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Fox Sports, in the United States, Fox Sports,
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saw vision, got the rights early, and now it's starting to pay off.
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I said, Ryan played soccer. Katie did too, but didn't stay too long, just a couple seasons.
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Ryan played two high school, so I got to see his games. I live in Colorado,
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so I've seen the Rapids, our major league soccer team, several times.
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It's a great place now we're not playing in squares and people hanging out we
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have to go to big sporting goods park we out in kind of the sticks you know,
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but they made a park there where you know there's tons of fields around the
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park so you're playing soccer there you know matches they have friendlies which
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are international matches and then games with.
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The mls and that happens all throughout the year doing different things but
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when they're not doing that they have soccer clinics and things they've been
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into a mecca of soccer so they're trying they're trying,
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but yes here in the united states it is not that big you know the big joke is
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no scoring and stuff but i gotta tell you i can watch a game a match and just be like oh,
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you know people making attacks like like when you watch the game if you watch
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one you know they bring it down and then they'll inexplicably pass it backwards,
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to a goalie who just boot it,
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right i just want you to think of there's plays first you're thinking what you
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know they got plays for people they got plays for their stars they got plays
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for just the general players they're doing there,
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so there's a strategy Are we going to be aggressive?
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Are we just going to push it, push it, push it in their face doing that?
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And I will say the NBA has had this problem too. There can be some flopping.
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That is a problem too. You know, I'm very curious in this cup if the flopping
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is lower, more, because they have really gotten – It's in our form.
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It's in our form. It is. It is, man.
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It is. So, you know. Well, let me drill into this a little bit.
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Some games are two to one, and they've gone really long. It's a long, long game.
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And to me, I see the crowds passing time of singing songs and putting their
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arms around each other, doing all kinds of stuff. But it's a different kind of game.
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So if you look at like NFL football and for me, another segue was I watch Australian
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football and I'll watch rugby.
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Really enjoy both of those because there's some familiar elements.
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Soccer is very foreign, at least to me, being a baseball guy where you got offense,
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defense, you got specialty players.
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You'd have that in soccer, though. So you're like, can't use your hands. That seems weird.
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And so I think that's what I'm trying to understand is what makes it appealing,
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to three and a half billion people around the world. Is it because it's a gain
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from their childhood or is there something more?
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It's very accessible. Just eat a ball.
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All different skill levels anywhere in the world.
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Especially for this match It's all about your country and community The world
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is involved I will say there is a controversy here So there's a lot of controversy
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They've had scandals And this and that.
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But they have gone From 24 teams To 32 to 48 Wow They go to 48 Someone speculates
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the United States And other countries could get in It's been years We don't even get in.
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Let's just say Group A, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, check. Very strong.
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Group B, Canada, Bosnia, Qatar, Switzerland. Okay.
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Group C, Brazil, powerhouse, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland.
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All right. USA, Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey.
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Not the strongest for the USA. There's a pretty good chance we're going to make
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it out of the first round.
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But, you know, Germany, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia.
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Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand, Group H, Spain, Cabo Verde,
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Saudi Arabia, I'm mentioning places all over the world, France, Group 1.
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I grew up by, you know, France, Senegal, Iraq, Norway.
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I mean, everyone's involved here, man. I can keep going on. I'm just going on.
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You know, England. You know, the big powers are England, Portugal,
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Argentina, France, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands.
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So it brings people together, as all sports do.
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There is strategy involved. Players have positions.
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Now, you're a defensive player, kind of like in hockey.
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Kino McCarr, Avalanche, is a defenseman. Oh, but he scored a lot.
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Same kind of thing. If a defense player has an opening, you go.
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If you see something, you just go for it. Boom.
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Right. But there are positions, strategy, and whatnot. The touch.
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And then I'll say this, and then I want your opinion.
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If it's better to see a sport live or on TV, If you go to a professional match,
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real good players that know what to do, man, they can stop a ball on a dime.
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They can, and I've just seen MLS, which is by no means the best of the best.
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They can stop a ball. People just boot that ball and they'll just stop it with
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their body and their foot like right away and just take off with it.
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The part of that is just really great. Of course, I'm a PE teacher,
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so I love the physical prowess of all that.
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But just seeing a sport live and a big sporting goods in many of the MLS places,
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there's no bad seat because the stadiums are not that big.
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Unless you play big friendlies where you're in Mile High and stuff like that in L.A.
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Galaxy they play in big stadium you know in some parts of the country it's more,
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you know popular than others i would grant that but i'm just saying the community
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of it brian just everyone being part of something the strategy that is involved
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what is the strategy trying to figure out wow they keep kicking it back why do they keep doing that,
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this this uh team doesn't do that at all what does that,
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And then it's the future, man. Kids.
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Kids. In 10 years, man.
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Already, it's big. So have I given you anything? Have you seen the power of everyone?
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Have I given you any inclination to at least see USA on Friday and see how they
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do? Do you care at all to see how they do after any of that?
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Well, I will say it this way. I feel like Ted Lasso.
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So so if anyone understands that from the tv show where an american football
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coach goes to england to try and coach,
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you know european football yeah he's clueless so it's great great show i kind
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of feel like that but i i can say this the the skill level is impressive the ability to,
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Their ball placement and then the ability to hit it with their head and all
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that, you know, it's like any sport. If you dial in what you're watching,
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what you're looking for, you can see greatness.
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And so here's what I'm hearing from you is, okay, watch the strategy of the game.
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Try to figure out what they're doing. Number two, kind of look at the footwork,
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right? Look at the plays they're setting up, things like that.
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And then I think you kind of have to pick who are the main stars of the show.
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You know, like everybody knows David Beckham. Obviously, he's not playing anymore.
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But who are those messy type stars that are on each team from each country?
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And I'm hoping the broadcast kind of picks that out. Like, hey,
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here's, you know, here's these guys that everyone needs to watch.
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And maybe that's my homework. But.
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I see the light. But now, answer, riddle me this. Why is America...
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First of all, let me back up. How are all the players picked on the teams?
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Do you know from a country?
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Is it like they just pick their best or what? Yeah, there's systems and farms.
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You know, of course, in the States, we have a lot of sports that pay more.
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Players, you know, Aaron Judge is not playing. Your favorite baseball player, Bryce Harper, is not.
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Playing soccer, dude. So, you know, there's that part. You know,
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in some countries, you're known for certain sports, obviously.
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So there's tryouts and going for it. Now, obviously, with anything like this,
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there's political, you know, someone's a donor.
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Oh, look, who gets to be on the team? You know, someone they know.
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But ultimately, you want to win. So, you know, USA has a lot of pressure to
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represent, at least make a showing, because we are really flabbed out.
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Landon Donovan has been our only real big name. He was an announcer.
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He's he'll be you'll hear his name if you watch Fox Sports 1 and he's commentary.
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He's a great player. I mean, we're making strides there. But,
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you know, some some teams spend money. Some countries, Brazil.
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I mean, in in my on the playground, dude, at school, people are not coming up
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to me and going, you know, hey, I'm saying Aaron Judge or, you know,
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Shohei Otani. Who's better?
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I routinely get Messi or Ronaldo You get a pick No one else does that,
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All kinds of kids, just counting Messi or Ronaldo I'll of course say Messi He's
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the best player But no, people wearing the jerseys I don't know,
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I see that increase But that doesn't really answer your question I think politically
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Eventually you want to score And be good Germany See you next week.
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I don't know, it's in the schools, it's more in the sports, you know,
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German physical education and French and all that, so like gymnastics and soccer.
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Right. That is and has been kind of some of their model. I can't speak for all
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that, listeners, but that's their culture, dude.
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You drive around this country, what do you see more of?
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You see more soccer complexes in cities and towns around America.
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Yeah, you've been all over.
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Did you say you saw that? Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's everywhere. And they're in nicer
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shape than the ball fields. Well, the ball fields are kind of a thing of the
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past. There's not a lot of money.
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In some towns, you see, you know, new baseball infrastructure.
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But, yeah, you really see the big fields, the big soccer complexes,
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you know, the multiple field complexes that are the star of the show wherever you go.
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And so it's coming.
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I knew this was coming a long time ago. So like 10 years ago,
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I was listening to Colin Cowherd or something.
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And he goes, just for you people out there don't understand the power of football or soccer.
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He goes, we had a Yankees Red Sox game on a Tuesday night and it pulled 1.5 million viewers.
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And he goes, a soccer game at 4 a.m. on a Saturday on NBC in America pulled $10 million. You know?
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It's coming, dude. It's coming. And that was 10 years ago. So he's like,
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he goes, yeah, it's baseball will never compete with what soccer is going to do to this country.
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And fast forward 10 years, it's not as far as I thought it would be.
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I thought it would be a, you know, like I would know more MLS stars, you know, than I do.
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So it has leveled off a little bit, but I think the popularity,
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the base is there for the next 10 years to really.
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Well, and sometimes American, some leagues do better jobs of promoting their
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stars, but soccer does a great job.
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Obviously, Ronaldo, Portugal, Lionel Messi for Argentina, Neymar for Brazil,
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Mbappé for France, Jamal for Spain.
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Those are the really big, big names.
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So, what I want you to be thinking about is, okay, I don't know,
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maybe pick a country and just kind of see what happens.
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It's also good, fun, but you have to have sports one. Do you have Fox Sports
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one? No, I do not. No. But I can't get it.
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So, is it going to be on regular Fox? It will be on Fox, but see,
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I want to watch a bunch of other matches that are not on there.
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I want to watch the Croatia versus Turkey. I want to watch, you know...
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Those things, the lower tiered games.
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And then you see this story unfold. I will say this, personal note,
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sports is a powerful agent for everybody.
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The tournament is long. So you build a relationship with the teams and stuff.
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I remember my dad was in Florida. He was not well.
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And when he was resting, I had the ladies World Cup on.
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And I got to tell you, that saved me. So, I had not had the time to watch all
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those matches, but I watched basically every match that was going on.
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And I knew that story, and that really helps simplify everything.
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My love for it i mean i didn't play i've done some playing i've taught it i
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ref it but you know ryan's played it,
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but uh that helped me too so as always sports it's like your connection if you
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have a connection i do it's great so you have a little connection going to europe
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watching that and seeing wow man that's kind of cool,
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i'm gonna i'm gonna follow croatia and united states there we go,
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decided look i got you i got you so you're telling me
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you're telling me you might care just a little i might care just a little so
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uh i i will see what locally i can get on the airwaves if not i can listen to it's not as good
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but i like it i like it dude now doesn't this go most of the summer isn't this like a huge,
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because i think it's just qualifying right you know so.
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Yeah right It is going to be a long journey.
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It is, but they have games on at 4 in the morning. They have games at all times of the day and night.
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That's why you need, of course, if you're following Croatia,
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you're going to need probably Fox Sports 1. Yeah.
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Yeah, I think the first, I'm just looking at the schedule. Wednesday,
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June 17th against England. Yep. Ooh, that's a rough one. 3 p.m.
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3 p.m. Ouch.
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Let's see. I'm looking. Yeah, Fox Sports 1. It does say in Fox Sports you're going to need...
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Yeah, it's not on regular Fox.
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Now, the big deal is, are all these matches held in the United States?
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Yeah, sure they are. Is it the United States or just North America,
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like somewhere in Canada? I don't know.
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I should know that, but I don't know that. Yeah, I should know that, too.
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Oh, but wait a minute. It's mainly in the United States. Wait a minute.
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I didn't care before this conversation. Oh, but now you're asking questions.
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Now you're like, what?
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Well, now, answer this for me. I thought the United States was pretty good at,
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say, Olympic soccer, but this is a different deal, right? Oh,
22:52
yeah. Yeah. All right. Yeah.
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So this is just higher tier all the way around, would you say? Yes.
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Okay. This is the best of the best. This is the one that matters. Right.
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Yeah, like they love Olympics, but World Cup is the ultimate in soccer.
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Okay. See, I got it. I got it. So, all right. Well, I think maybe you convinced
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me to be mildly entertained.
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Now watch, you know, I'm going to crack out the Croatia mirror covers and put them on the truck.
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Dude, there you go. You're going to adjust them off.
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Right, right. I have to correct my date. It was 2016 was the Euro Cup when we
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were there that summer of 2016.
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So I think, what, the Euro Cup happens every four years? Is that like the World
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Cup every four years? I don't know. I should know that. I should not know.
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I do not know. See, okay, I'm a fan, but I'm not that much of a, you know. Right, right.
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Well, it is United States, Mexico, and Canada. Okay, so who are you going to watch with?
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So, obviously, if soccer's a family, I mean, families are crazy about this.
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Communities love it, and then countries love it. So, you've got to watch it
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with someone. What's your plan? Oh, yeah, Ryan.
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The whole family will watch it. But I will admit, I enjoy...
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I'll watch the whole system or the thing while I'm doing other things.
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I want to be doing some lesson planning and I'll kind of have it on,
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looking at it all straight up watch.
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I'll just kind of have it on. I'll probably listen on Sirius XM.
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So you bought the app. What's the app cost? If anyone wants to pick this up.
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I am using my father-in-law's...
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I don't know if you should be saying that. I know. I probably should not be.
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$14. I don't know. Maybe $10. I don't know either. Maybe $10.
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Okay. $10 a month, I think.
25:00
Right. Well, I have to say I got kind of punked by these.
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Me and AI or the internet in general don't get along sometimes.
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So I remember before the NHL and the NBA finals, like, hey, how could I watch?
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And one search said, oh, you can do HBO Max.
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Well, I got HBO Max. I got the French Open in tennis, which we love. It's fantastic.
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But I didn't realize NHL and NBA were on ESPN.
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So nix that, you know. So, but this is all Fox from what I'm hearing.
25:37
Fox, but you have to get the Fox Sports 1, Fox Sports. It's all still annoying.
25:46
Listeners, please listen to our past podcast about annoyance of that.
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Side note, though, I will be going. I'm going to be doing Argentina. I love Messi.
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I know he'll probably play limited. He has this tendency. I want you to watch.
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If you ever watch an Argentina match, he will walk around, and then all of a
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sudden have this incredible burst of speed.
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Two things, he's just resting because that's another thing. The endurance of
26:13
all these guys, dude, is incredible.
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So he passed his prime now, you think? Sure. Oh, yeah. Okay.
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He has the knowledge. He has placement. He can be a change agent.
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He can – Right. Also, I think he has the power.
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This probably is his last one.
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And – Right. We'll see how involved he is. But much watch is him.
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And, of course, Portugal, too, with Ronaldo. But I like them.
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And then I also just love Mexico, too.
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I like watching Mexico. Okay. It's fun. And it's really fun to watch it or listen
26:48
to it if you can in the language, like listen to the Spanish language channel.
26:53
Any of this stuff is very fun.
26:55
Well, I would think you living in the Denver area, there could be some watch
26:59
parties, which may be just a ton of fun.
27:02
You know, someone showing a match in a park somewhere. People,
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you know, bring a blanket and some food and hang out with soccer fans. Sounds like fun to me.
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As we talk, I'm wearing my Rapids, a Rapids jersey. So, here we go.
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Well, it's 20 bucks a month for Fox Sports 1. Oh, is it?
27:24
So, maybe, here, maybe. It's not bad. It's one month.
27:28
As the tourney gets a little deeper, you know, you start narrowing it down.
27:34
I might pick that up later on. We'll see. We'll see how Croatia does.
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Right, right. So I'm going to watch from afar, but if it looks like it's getting
27:44
exciting, I may do a one month subscription just to polish it off.
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I'll kind of look at the master schedule and see where it's at.
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You know, you got to be strategic in this life, you know, with sports.
27:57
You and I, we love sports all the way around. Tons of different sports.
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That's a fortune if you're one to do every sport and watch.
28:08
Yes. Well, Kroger should do pretty good. Like I said, they're going against
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England, Ghana, and Panama.
28:14
They should be competitive in their group. Okay. All right. So you're telling
28:18
me, Brian, now you have, as we end here, you care a little. You're at least intrigued. Yeah.
28:25
Well, I'm channeling Croatia, that energy of true fans.
28:31
It was very exciting, I have to say. And, you know, you travel back home,
28:36
life goes on, you forget.
28:38
Our conversation has renewed my interest. So, if I kind of hone in,
28:44
go USA and watch Croatia, and then I'm going to dabble with some of the bigs
28:49
that you just said. You know, I got to check out Portugal.
28:53
And so, yeah, I'm going to micro watch from those three places. So, there you go, man.
29:01
Remember this name, Luka Modric. Okay. He is your Croatian player. He's my guy. Okay. Luka.
29:10
Luka. I don't know if I'm going to hear it. Luca!
29:14
Luca. Well, guess what, man? What? Hey, we're out of time.
29:18
So we appreciate everyone listening to Life According to Brian.
29:23
And Jason. And go Luca!
29:26
So thanks, Jason, for convincing me.
29:29
And if you're a soccer fan, let us know in the comments. See ya.