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Set 2: A Fancy World Cup (w/ Chris Wittyngham) · Stugotz and Company

0:21
Speaker 1: Champions League commenter and host at CBS Sports Galazzo whatever,
0:28
Speaker 1: he's a fancy young lad. He is Chris Whittingham, and
0:30
Speaker 1: he is joining us right now, fresh off a Knicks
0:33
Speaker 1: NBA title that he enjoyed thoroughly.
0:37
Speaker 2: You now know I'm a New Yorker.
0:39
Speaker 1: Now you now know you now know why it means
0:43
Speaker 1: more winning a title in New York City, right.
0:45
Speaker 2: I mean I get some of that. I don't want
0:47
Speaker 2: to integrate the many championships that I celebrated as a
0:50
Speaker 2: Miami Heat fan, but I do understand why this entire
0:55
Speaker 2: city lives and breathes basketball, why the Knicks are the
0:59
Speaker 2: only team here. The Nets have a very very very
1:02
Speaker 2: small capture of fans. And yeah, it is incredible when
1:07
Speaker 2: people I had, I had a coworker at CBS who
1:09
Speaker 2: came back from the train from the Knicks praise. I
1:13
Speaker 2: got that. That was a sea of humanity. I've never
1:15
Speaker 2: experienced anything like that in my life. And that's you know,
1:18
Speaker 2: someone who would have taken in, you know, celebrations from
1:21
Speaker 2: all over the world. So yeah, I mean it's mad
1:23
Speaker 2: the level of intensity and passion for this one team here.
1:27
Speaker 2: And and as as the mayor, so eloquently put. The
1:31
Speaker 2: amount of suffering and struggle that you have to put
1:34
Speaker 2: in order to get to winning a championship. It's it
1:36
Speaker 2: really is next level.
1:38
Speaker 3: What do you think the right equation should be? One
1:40
Speaker 3: title in New York equals how many titles somewhere else?
1:43
Speaker 1: Yep, what good question.
1:45
Speaker 2: It means one. It means one title. I mean, like
1:51
Speaker 2: obviously just by sheer, just my sheer population size, it
1:55
Speaker 2: is that many more people. But I mean to the
1:58
Speaker 2: to the fans of their places, you know, to the
2:01
Speaker 2: fans of Toronto, that one championship for the Raptors. You
2:05
Speaker 2: just think that things that happened in New York are
2:07
Speaker 2: bigger elsewhere because there are so many New Yorkers. But
2:10
Speaker 2: the people of Toronto fell to the championship just as
2:14
Speaker 2: much as the people of New York City. You just
2:16
Speaker 2: don't care about them this much. And there was a
2:18
Speaker 2: level of myopia that is staggering.
2:20
Speaker 1: Did they use ticker tape in Toronto?
2:22
Speaker 4: I don't think they did. You are somebody who famously,
2:25
Speaker 4: I think internationally everybody knows this. You switched teams, you
2:29
Speaker 4: switch fandom. You got off the Florida Panthers after they
2:32
Speaker 4: made the best trade in franchise history, and now they
2:36
Speaker 4: just made another trade to bring that player's brother onto
2:39
Speaker 4: the team. Are you still hating on the Florida Panthers.
2:43
Speaker 1: I do love that everyone's moving to South Florida, and
2:45
Speaker 1: when he moved to New York, I mean great.
2:49
Speaker 2: Well, I mean I don't know. I do see the
2:51
Speaker 2: stats that Florida is now the state in the country
2:53
Speaker 2: the most people with the most houses for sales. Maybe
2:56
Speaker 2: maybe that moved to Florida was short limb attached. When
2:59
Speaker 2: everyone got near the Kochuck brothers, they decided to go
3:02
Speaker 2: the other direction. God, what an absolutely hateable hockey team
3:07
Speaker 2: this is now. I mean, you talk about the absolute
3:11
Speaker 2: worst collection of hockey players to root for on the
3:15
Speaker 2: face of the Earth. I cannot imagine a more despicable
3:19
Speaker 2: team to have as my own. I'm so good. I
3:22
Speaker 2: am gladder every day that I got off of this bandwagon,
3:25
Speaker 2: because Wow, I could not imagine. I already had to
3:29
Speaker 2: root for one Ku Chuck brother and after root for two,
3:31
Speaker 2: I couldn't root for the United States of America in
3:34
Speaker 2: hockey because of those two.
3:36
Speaker 1: No chance you did those feed We all know you're crying.
3:39
Speaker 1: Keep taking them in god awful.
3:43
Speaker 2: The Rangers, I think finished rock bottom of the NHL,
3:46
Speaker 2: and I would still, I would happily choose that existence
3:49
Speaker 2: for one day as opposed to being a fan of
3:52
Speaker 2: the Florida Panthers right now. God, they must be an
3:56
Speaker 2: insufferable bunch.
3:57
Speaker 1: And what he knows? When you have two kuchuks, what
3:59
Speaker 1: does that mean?
4:00
Speaker 2: I mean you have none, that's right.
4:04
Speaker 1: I don't know what it means, but thank you for
4:06
Speaker 1: finishing it. He is from South Florida, whity. It's interesting.
4:10
Speaker 1: We'll get to the soccer at a second here. But
4:13
Speaker 1: I woke up this morning and the first feeling, first
4:15
Speaker 1: thought I had was, man, I feel good for pat Riley.
4:19
Speaker 1: All the people questioning him, all the people telling him
4:21
Speaker 1: to retire, all the people telling him he could no
4:24
Speaker 1: longer land a big time free agent, and here he
4:27
Speaker 1: is still landing Giannis. And I felt good for Pat.
4:30
Speaker 2: You know, I did two. I did two. It does
4:33
Speaker 2: feel a little bit patronizing and a little bit like, oh,
4:36
Speaker 2: the old man still got it. But I do absolutely
4:40
Speaker 2: agree with you in that respect because the heat, I mean,
4:43
Speaker 2: just from my standpoint, have been completely and utterly irrelevant
4:46
Speaker 2: for several years now. This play in era is one
4:49
Speaker 2: of the worst eras in the history of the franchise,
4:51
Speaker 2: and I appreciate how spoiled that is from the perspective
4:54
Speaker 2: of a team that obviously had Lebron James fifteen years ago,
4:57
Speaker 2: that had Dwayne Wade for the large majority of his career,
5:02
Speaker 2: that very recently was in the NBA Finals. But man,
5:05
Speaker 2: these last few years have been a slog and it
5:08
Speaker 2: has been so many false hopes since Lebron left. They
5:12
Speaker 2: got Jimmy Butler again, this is sort of another lucky
5:15
Speaker 2: trade that they pulled off. With Jimmy Butler, they got
5:17
Speaker 2: a team to take Hassan Whiteside, and I honestly think
5:19
Speaker 2: this is a fairly lucky trade too. But better to
5:21
Speaker 2: be lucky than good. Because I am shocked. I am
5:25
Speaker 2: genuinely shocked that Milwaukee decided I don't want Jalen Brown,
5:29
Speaker 2: even the uncertainty that is around him and multiple first
5:33
Speaker 2: round draft picks, instead of the heats collection of stuff,
5:37
Speaker 2: and that's all it is. It's just some stuff. It's
5:40
Speaker 2: not anything that's gonna win you anything. I am surprised
5:43
Speaker 2: that Milwaukee decided upon that instead of upon you know,
5:47
Speaker 2: even flipping Jaylen Brown somewhere else after a few months. Yeah,
5:50
Speaker 2: But I do think for pat Riley, it's massive to
5:53
Speaker 2: have gotten it done, because otherwise I have no idea
5:56
Speaker 2: what they would have done this summer and with this season,
5:58
Speaker 2: because it just seems like it was headed for an
6:00
Speaker 2: almighty waste.
6:01
Speaker 1: Taylor put it on the poll, did the Bucks get
6:04
Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff in exchange for Giannis? Go ahead?
6:07
Speaker 4: Sorry, you know, And in response to the Jalen Brown thing,
6:10
Speaker 4: the thing that makes the most sense to me is
6:12
Speaker 4: what is because you're basically looking at another all NBA
6:15
Speaker 4: type of star in Jalen Brown, who will potentially be
6:18
Speaker 4: disgruntled and you'll have to move on from even if
6:21
Speaker 4: you do keep him right, So I can see the
6:23
Speaker 4: thinking is, Hey, if we're gonna move on from somebody,
6:25
Speaker 4: let's just go get all these assets and then we'll
6:27
Speaker 4: make a trade afterward to really sort of make do
6:30
Speaker 4: for what we gave up in Giannis. But you said
6:32
Speaker 4: about being better than lucky, or better to be lucky
6:34
Speaker 4: than good for the Miami Heat, they've gotten lucky and
6:38
Speaker 4: good like they've cashed out.
6:40
Speaker 1: On all of these big whales.
6:42
Speaker 4: Even you could argue the Jimmy Butler one even just
6:44
Speaker 4: getting to the finals right twice because when I grew
6:47
Speaker 4: up watching this Miami Heat team with pat Riley, after
6:50
Speaker 4: he got here, the difficulty like getting to the NBA
6:54
Speaker 4: finals felt like everest, It felt like so far away.
6:57
Speaker 4: And now we're about to go on the fourth iteration
7:00
Speaker 4: fifth since he's been here, pat Riley of we have
7:03
Speaker 4: expectations to get to the finals. Now the lights are
7:06
Speaker 4: going out where we're at. But as long as you
7:07
Speaker 4: guys can hear me, I think we're okay.
7:09
Speaker 1: South Florida summers. What ay, little lightning bolt and that's it.
7:12
Speaker 1: Power goes out.
7:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then you've got to be out in thirty minutes.
7:15
Speaker 4: Witty, you've got the added motivation now for pat that Oh,
7:19
Speaker 4: it's the Knicks on the top of the totem pole.
7:21
Speaker 4: Now it's the Knicks that I'm going to go chase
7:23
Speaker 4: down as the final career act for me and then
7:26
Speaker 4: maybe win another championship. I think this sets up as
7:29
Speaker 4: an amazing potential finish for pat Riley.
7:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think as well. I mean, you look
7:34
Speaker 2: at the Knicks. There are going to be the favorites
7:36
Speaker 2: in the East again, but outside of them, I guess like,
7:40
Speaker 2: if Boston has to repatch this whole thing with Jaylen Brown,
7:42
Speaker 2: now that it's out there that he was in a trade,
7:44
Speaker 2: he might get traded even still to go somewhere else.
7:47
Speaker 2: What does Boston look like retooling, what does Tatum look
7:50
Speaker 2: like getting back to full strength? And then you had
7:52
Speaker 2: a Detroit team that flopped in the playoffs. They're gonna
7:54
Speaker 2: have to figure it out. You have Cleveland, who you know,
7:57
Speaker 2: I don't know what the direction is there after the
7:59
Speaker 2: hard and so yeah, it is sort of open. And
8:01
Speaker 2: I believe the title odds for the NBA basically reflect that,
8:05
Speaker 2: which the Heat are either fifth or sixth I think
8:08
Speaker 2: in terms of the championship odds for next season, and
8:10
Speaker 2: that's still before they kind of have to rebuild an
8:13
Speaker 2: entire team around Giannis and Bam. Out of Bio, they
8:16
Speaker 2: really don't have a lot of sort of key pieces
8:19
Speaker 2: that have been proven at a high playoff level around him,
8:21
Speaker 2: So they've got to figure that out. And yet even still,
8:24
Speaker 2: just by virtue of having those two guys, you have
8:26
Speaker 2: a chance. And that's all Heat fans ever really want.
8:29
Speaker 2: And I appreciate again that I am spoiled rotten, but
8:32
Speaker 2: it's a big market. It's a big market that can
8:34
Speaker 2: attract and has been proven to attract big name NBA talent.
8:38
Speaker 2: That is what I want as an NBA fan, is
8:41
Speaker 2: the big names, big name NBA talent, because ultimately that
8:43
Speaker 2: is what wins you NBA titles. So I think the
8:46
Speaker 2: fact that they have two of those guys you're in
8:48
Speaker 2: that conversation, I think Bam is more correctly suited to
8:51
Speaker 2: being a two or even a three on a championship team.
8:54
Speaker 2: And so the fact you have Giannis to be the
8:56
Speaker 2: main man there, it makes perfect sense. And yeah, I
8:59
Speaker 2: do think that now building around this thing will be
9:01
Speaker 2: the next challenge for pat Riley. I am sort of
9:04
Speaker 2: alarmed for his sake that there always seems to be
9:07
Speaker 2: a next thing for pat Riley. Wasn't the Big Three
9:09
Speaker 2: the last thing for pat Riley? What's the last thing
9:11
Speaker 2: for him to do? I think it's to win another
9:14
Speaker 2: one after Lebron has left.
9:15
Speaker 1: What I love about all of this, the laugh out
9:17
Speaker 1: loud funny thing about all of this is the Celtics,
9:20
Speaker 1: as currently constructed, they are the favorites to make it
9:23
Speaker 1: out of the East.
9:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you have healthy If you have healthy Tatum
9:29
Speaker 2: if you have healthy Tatum coming back into full strength,
9:32
Speaker 2: but they've got a personality problem to figure out. I
9:34
Speaker 2: think with Jalen Brown being thrown into the trade rumors,
9:39
Speaker 2: I think they have a lot to figure out for
9:42
Speaker 2: this upcoming season because if they can't get that sorted
9:45
Speaker 2: behind the scenes, then you're trading him and what you're
9:47
Speaker 2: trading for will presumably be very good, but it is
9:51
Speaker 2: still a variable that you have to figure out over
9:53
Speaker 2: the course of a season.
9:54
Speaker 4: Well, it's good the Celtics have a real people person
9:56
Speaker 4: at head coach and Joe Missoula who can bring everybody together. Chris,
10:11
Speaker 4: your true expertise being in football, what's your favorite story
10:15
Speaker 4: so far about the World Cup.
10:18
Speaker 2: I mean it might be obvious, but I still do
10:20
Speaker 2: think it is not only the fact, not only the
10:22
Speaker 2: fact that Messi delivered five goals in two games, but
10:26
Speaker 2: that that entire slate of games it's happened twice now
10:30
Speaker 2: where Holland, Imbape and Messi all showed up on the
10:34
Speaker 2: same day twice, and I think that paid off as
10:37
Speaker 2: an eighty eight to one parlay yesterday it was Holland
10:41
Speaker 2: and Imbape to score twice has paid off twice now
10:44
Speaker 2: and it pays off at like ninety to one and
10:46
Speaker 2: it's hit both times or something like that. Yeah, I
10:48
Speaker 2: mean it's great to see. You know, there's so many
10:51
Speaker 2: great stories in this World Cup. Honestly, for me, the
10:54
Speaker 2: US playing well is huge, But just the way that
10:57
Speaker 2: the country has embraced the tournament in all these cities,
11:00
Speaker 2: and the way that cultures have melded. You guys are
11:02
Speaker 2: in South Florida, the way the Scots are now in
11:05
Speaker 2: South Florida, invading everything, putting cones on things, singing their songs,
11:09
Speaker 2: going to Marlins games, going to Red Sox games. The
11:12
Speaker 2: way that the Dutch che have taken over Dallas and Houston.
11:15
Speaker 2: The way that the South Koreans have melded in with
11:19
Speaker 2: Mexico and are now like great friends with Mexico. And
11:22
Speaker 2: there are all these incredible friendships building between cultures. The
11:25
Speaker 2: fact that every stadium is full, and the number of
11:28
Speaker 2: people in my life that are just talking to me
11:30
Speaker 2: about the World Cup, and I hope it bodes well
11:32
Speaker 2: for people continuing to watch after the World Cup ends.
11:35
Speaker 2: That obviously is the goal of hosting a tournament like this,
11:38
Speaker 2: is to get the entire country on board. And I
11:40
Speaker 2: really do think person by person, bit by bit, that
11:43
Speaker 2: is starting to happen. But the most important thing for
11:45
Speaker 2: me is just the way that the United States has
11:47
Speaker 2: embraced having this year and the fact that the US
11:49
Speaker 2: team is good, so that will continue.
11:52
Speaker 1: Which fan base have you enjoyed watching the most?
11:54
Speaker 2: I mean, I think it has to be the Scots.
11:57
Speaker 2: I'm a little bit close to it as well, being
11:59
Speaker 2: in Connecticut. But also I actually went to their game
12:02
Speaker 2: against Haiti, their opener, and I think it was clocked
12:05
Speaker 2: as the loudest ever noise at that stadium when they
12:08
Speaker 2: sung their national anthem, and that tracks because my ears
12:11
Speaker 2: were ringing after their national anthem played out. And they
12:14
Speaker 2: actually didn't even play that good of a game. If
12:16
Speaker 2: they played well, they scored a few goals, I can
12:18
Speaker 2: only imagine what that atmosphere would have been. But the
12:20
Speaker 2: fact that the Scots have basically drank the city of
12:23
Speaker 2: Boston dry. I read a story from I read a
12:26
Speaker 2: story from the Boston Globe that they sold three times
12:29
Speaker 2: as much alcohol while the Scots were there than they
12:31
Speaker 2: do during Saint Patrick's Day weekend in Boston. I mean,
12:34
Speaker 2: it's crazy, the amount of energy and atmosphere that those
12:39
Speaker 2: fans bring to a tournament, and the fact that they
12:41
Speaker 2: might continue. They're on three points, they probably have to
12:43
Speaker 2: get maybe one more. They could still survive on the
12:45
Speaker 2: zero points. But any amount of time longer that Scotland
12:49
Speaker 2: is around this thing is the best. And the fact
12:51
Speaker 2: that they're in Miami. They made a Monday night Marlin's
12:55
Speaker 2: Rangers game into an event that had twenty thousand people there.
12:59
Speaker 2: Do you know how hard that is? Like, it's crazy?
13:04
Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, I mean.
13:06
Speaker 2: They paid any The fact that anyone paid any attention
13:09
Speaker 2: to the Marlins for a day is absolutely a testament
13:13
Speaker 2: to how incredible those fans are. So I think Scotland
13:16
Speaker 2: is winning this World Cup by a mile.
13:17
Speaker 1: You recently tweeted, I am begging Americans to please stop
13:21
Speaker 1: trying to fix the world's most popular sport, which is
13:24
Speaker 1: currently the most popular event in the United States. The
13:27
Speaker 1: sport is fine. I'm wondering, what's the fix that broke you?
13:31
Speaker 1: Someone suggested something that broke Chrish my god, oh my god.
13:36
Speaker 2: To me, it's the number of people. Well, first off,
13:39
Speaker 2: it was two. There was two bits of content. I'm
13:42
Speaker 2: trying to remember the second one. But Portanoy did something.
13:45
Speaker 2: It was like, I'm loving the World Cup, but I
13:47
Speaker 2: have some ideas and it's like Portnoy, there are no
13:52
Speaker 2: ideas needed.
13:53
Speaker 1: It was Bigger Goals, which I endorsed, by the way, Yes.
13:57
Speaker 2: There are no ideas needed. What are we doing?
14:00
Speaker 1: This thing is like the biggest thing.
14:01
Speaker 2: In the world and it's like not even closely. I
14:04
Speaker 2: guess the Olympics maybe, but like the the World Cup
14:07
Speaker 2: is massive. What do we try? Like, what are we
14:10
Speaker 2: trying to institute power plays for? What is this? Like? What? What?
14:15
Speaker 2: Why is everyone trying to fix something? The off side
14:18
Speaker 2: rule is fine. The off side rule has been in
14:21
Speaker 2: effects since like the nineteen twenties, and it was a
14:24
Speaker 2: solution that was needed for the sport and it has
14:26
Speaker 2: worked perfectly. Stop trying to fix this now, Stu. I
14:30
Speaker 2: give you a pass because you always come up with
14:32
Speaker 2: some cockamami insane ideas, and I appreciate that's part of
14:35
Speaker 2: what you do. But people seriously suggesting, right, this is
14:39
Speaker 2: what soccer needs to become more popular. Get out of here.
14:45
Speaker 2: Stop stop trying to fix the world's most popular sport.
14:50
Speaker 1: It's fine, Yes, I do like the power play. I
14:52
Speaker 1: have to be honest, that's a good idea, power up.
14:57
Speaker 2: I mean to be fair, it was floated once. There
14:59
Speaker 2: was that this idea of an orange card, right was
15:02
Speaker 2: it a blue card for like egregious offenses that didn't
15:05
Speaker 2: rise to the level of red cards. But yeah, I don't,
15:08
Speaker 2: I don't know. It just is so frustrating. It's so
15:11
Speaker 2: frustrating what Americans get their grubby hands on things.
15:14
Speaker 4: Your South Florida card is expiring. By the way, the
15:16
Speaker 4: Miami Marlins are one game over five hundred. Okay, they
15:19
Speaker 4: are a team people talk about. Okay, yes they are
15:22
Speaker 4: second soccer is great. But I have some ideas.
15:27
Speaker 1: Now, this is what happens. When we become good at soccer.
15:29
Speaker 1: Blame the team, they'll blame us.
15:32
Speaker 2: The problem is that we're good at. We're going to
15:34
Speaker 2: change the thing that we're good at.
15:35
Speaker 1: Now.
15:36
Speaker 4: I don't really have a problem with the sport itself.
15:37
Speaker 4: I just think the hydration breaks are a little aut
15:39
Speaker 4: of control. You got to be at least ninety degrees
15:41
Speaker 4: for the hydration, like if you're sat in a seven
15:43
Speaker 4: to six degrees.
15:44
Speaker 2: Sort of is an americanization of the game. Yeah, it was.
15:47
Speaker 2: It has been absurd. It has been absurd. I don't
15:49
Speaker 2: I don't stand for it at all. I think it
15:52
Speaker 2: completely changes the momentum of games. It adds sort of
15:55
Speaker 2: a level of importance for coaching, which I think, like
16:01
Speaker 2: is probably unnecessary. And I heard Marcelo Bielsa talking about this,
16:04
Speaker 2: the coach of Uruguay, basically saying that it has completely
16:07
Speaker 2: changed the characteristic of the game. That the game is
16:10
Speaker 2: a game where you have the players have to figure
16:12
Speaker 2: out the solutions, and now there are two more times
16:14
Speaker 2: when the coaches can figure out the solutions. So I
16:16
Speaker 2: didn't like it. By the way, there are hydration breaks
16:20
Speaker 2: during the sport. You know they play in MLS during
16:23
Speaker 2: the summer. There are hydration breaks when it's one hundred
16:25
Speaker 2: degrees out in Austin, Like that's perfectly reasonable, but for
16:29
Speaker 2: every game, including the games that are in domes increded games.
16:32
Speaker 2: Last night, I was watching the game in San Francisco
16:36
Speaker 2: between Jordan and Algeria. It was the seventy first minute,
16:39
Speaker 2: and like we had still not yet had the second
16:41
Speaker 2: half hydration break, and oh, like, when are they gonna
16:44
Speaker 2: have the hydration break? It was sixty one degrees in
16:46
Speaker 2: San Francisco last night. There was no need for it,
16:50
Speaker 2: So I don't support this at all. It certainly has
16:54
Speaker 2: been a money making revenue or your engine for Fox
16:57
Speaker 2: and for the other broadcasters that have decided to book
16:59
Speaker 2: commercials over it, but I don't think it was necessary
17:02
Speaker 2: at all.
17:02
Speaker 1: What's impressed you the most and surprised you the most
17:04
Speaker 1: about this US team?
17:07
Speaker 2: Well, I think the biggest thing is not only that
17:10
Speaker 2: they have won these games, but the manner in which
17:12
Speaker 2: they've won them, both in terms of the fact that
17:14
Speaker 2: they so comprehensively dominated both games, but also the style
17:17
Speaker 2: of play that they're using. This was the style of
17:19
Speaker 2: play that I think Americans have long said, oh, you know,
17:22
Speaker 2: if we're going to beat the best teams in the world,
17:23
Speaker 2: we have to play like them. Well, this is the
17:25
Speaker 2: US playing like that and doing so successfully, not doing
17:28
Speaker 2: so in a way that, you know, risks giving up
17:31
Speaker 2: three or four goals a game that risks not actually
17:35
Speaker 2: having the level of creativity to pull it off, which
17:37
Speaker 2: I think was the thing that a lot of people
17:39
Speaker 2: expected was going to happen if they ever played like that.
17:42
Speaker 2: They're good, Like they're a good soccer team that is
17:45
Speaker 2: on the level of I would probably say, maybe not
17:47
Speaker 2: the very best teams. I think the best teams so
17:49
Speaker 2: far at this World Cup, like France and like Argentina,
17:52
Speaker 2: have shown themselves to be that very top tier. But
17:54
Speaker 2: I would say the US, and this is going to
17:56
Speaker 2: sound ridiculous, is comparable to a team like Brazil right now.
18:00
Speaker 2: The US is about as good as Brazil right now,
18:02
Speaker 2: which if you had said crazy a year ago, four
18:04
Speaker 2: years ago, ten years ago, twenty years ago, is madness.
18:07
Speaker 2: So the fact that they're not only playing well, they're
18:11
Speaker 2: playing in the style of way in which the best
18:13
Speaker 2: teams play that you know, counterpress, and they have been
18:15
Speaker 2: suffocating in the way that they've gone after teams they
18:19
Speaker 2: played with quality. They've done so in multiple ways. Because
18:21
Speaker 2: if you had said to me before the tournament started
18:23
Speaker 2: that in your first two games, Christian Polistic is going
18:26
Speaker 2: to miss three of the four halves of play and
18:28
Speaker 2: you're still going to be dominant, You're still gonna have
18:30
Speaker 2: six points, you're still gonna be confirmed as group winners
18:33
Speaker 2: with a game to spare, I would have told you
18:35
Speaker 2: you were insane. So I think the way that every
18:38
Speaker 2: single part of this has come together has been staggering,
18:40
Speaker 2: because you know, they played well in their friendlies in
18:43
Speaker 2: the build up, but you don't know it's Senegal, it's Germany,
18:45
Speaker 2: it's a friendly. You know what it means. They got
18:47
Speaker 2: smoked and marched by Portugal and by Belgium, and so
18:50
Speaker 2: they are these sort of topsy turvy results that could
18:54
Speaker 2: have gone either way and the fact that everything has
18:56
Speaker 2: gone right for them is genuinely shocking.
18:59
Speaker 3: Wait when US gets to the knockout rounds, what do
19:01
Speaker 3: you think are realistic expectations for this team?
19:05
Speaker 2: I would say, just based off the way that the
19:07
Speaker 2: bracket looks right now, at minimum quarterfinal, I would say
19:11
Speaker 2: I think they have to get to the quarterfinal this tournament.
19:13
Speaker 2: If you look at the next round, the probable matchup
19:16
Speaker 2: is against the third place finisher from Group B, which
19:20
Speaker 2: would be either Bosni and Herzegovina or Qatar. I think
19:23
Speaker 2: you have to beat them for sure. And then the
19:25
Speaker 2: last sixteen, because Group G has gone completely against expectations,
19:30
Speaker 2: it's either the winner of Group G is probably to
19:32
Speaker 2: be Egypt or another third place team which is likely
19:36
Speaker 2: to be you know, the Czech Republic, Algeria, South Korea.
19:39
Speaker 2: Those are teams that the US can absolutely beat. So
19:41
Speaker 2: really it is until you get to one of the
19:43
Speaker 2: heavy hitters that I would expect them to go out
19:45
Speaker 2: and right now a quarter final would be against Spain,
19:48
Speaker 2: which is which is pretty damn hard. But my expectation
19:52
Speaker 2: for them going into the tournament, which I think they
19:54
Speaker 2: have exceeded in one way but still have to live
19:56
Speaker 2: up to in another, is beat one of the teams
19:58
Speaker 2: that you don't expect to be beat one of the
20:00
Speaker 2: top level contenders in the world. Now, if you had
20:02
Speaker 2: said to me before the tournament that was gonna have
20:04
Speaker 2: to be Spain, I would have said, oh man, that
20:06
Speaker 2: that is a really monumental hurdle to climb. But I
20:10
Speaker 2: still think that if they can do this against a
20:13
Speaker 2: really top team, they get to a quarter final in
20:16
Speaker 2: Los Angeles against Spain. I'm not saying my expectations for
20:18
Speaker 2: them to beat Spain, but I would really think there
20:20
Speaker 2: would be a successful World Cup if you can go
20:22
Speaker 2: and beat one of the absolute top level teams. The
20:25
Speaker 2: good the good news for them is that that might
20:27
Speaker 2: not happen until the quarterfinal should they get there. So yeah,
20:29
Speaker 2: I'm expecting at least quarterfinal, But once you're there, then
20:33
Speaker 2: this is the one chance you're gonna get this is
20:35
Speaker 2: the one chance you're gonna get to do something, you
20:37
Speaker 2: might as well go and win it and and try
20:39
Speaker 2: and beat one of those absolute top level teams.
20:41
Speaker 1: I will tell you that most Salo, though, is dangerous.
20:44
Speaker 1: That guy from Egypt is danger He could be your bookie.
20:46
Speaker 1: He sounds like he would be a bookie. But most
20:48
Speaker 1: Salah is dangerous. Yeah. I want nothing to do with them. Yeah,
20:52
Speaker 1: what do you think?
20:53
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean this is this is again the level
20:57
Speaker 2: of delusion that I've reached. This US team. I think
21:00
Speaker 2: they could deal with Mosala. I'm not scared of Mosala.
21:03
Speaker 2: I'm not scared of anyone right now.
21:05
Speaker 1: I love it. Who's your favorite?
21:06
Speaker 2: Witty my favorite to win it? Yeah, I'm gonna say
21:12
Speaker 2: I'm still gonna say France. I just think we saw
21:15
Speaker 2: We've only seen them in spurts, but those spurts are terrifying,
21:18
Speaker 2: absolutely terrifying.
21:19
Speaker 1: It is.
21:20
Speaker 2: It's like going against USA basketball, just in terms of wait,
21:23
Speaker 2: they can bring this guy off the bench, like they
21:26
Speaker 2: can bring all of these high level, top level players.
21:29
Speaker 2: They're players that are left out of their squad. I'm like, what,
21:32
Speaker 2: like the US that guy starts for forty three of
21:35
Speaker 2: the other forty eight teams. He's not even in the
21:36
Speaker 2: team right, so the fact that that they're there is incredible.
21:41
Speaker 2: They've pulled off a couple of comprehensive victories so far.
21:44
Speaker 2: I just can't see too many teams being able to
21:46
Speaker 2: slow them down for ninety minutes.
21:48
Speaker 1: So witty. This is interesting because we've never been here before,
21:51
Speaker 1: and so I'm wondering how we handle this. Like in
21:53
Speaker 1: the NFL, when you have a team who has clinched
21:55
Speaker 1: a playoff berth, they're playing a meaningless game Week seventeen,
21:59
Speaker 1: you'll tend to rest starters. So how should the u
22:02
Speaker 1: has treat this third game coming up on Thursday.
22:05
Speaker 2: Well, I think the number one thing is do not
22:08
Speaker 2: play any player that is currently sitting on a yellow card,
22:12
Speaker 2: because if you get two yellow cards in the group stage,
22:15
Speaker 2: then you are suspended for the round of thirty two games.
22:18
Speaker 2: So there are four players that are currently on a
22:20
Speaker 2: yellow card. None of those four should play. So I
22:24
Speaker 2: think I would be tempted to make eleven changes, bring
22:27
Speaker 2: all the backups in, give them all the runout, get
22:30
Speaker 2: them some confidence. You never know what. You might find
22:32
Speaker 2: a different solution here or there. I think the one
22:35
Speaker 2: thing with let's say a player like Christian Polisic because
22:38
Speaker 2: he didn't play in the last game because he's recovering
22:40
Speaker 2: from injury. I would be tempted to bring him off
22:42
Speaker 2: the bench for like the final fifteen minutes of a
22:44
Speaker 2: game against Turkey A depending on how the game is going.
22:46
Speaker 2: There have been some games so far where you could
22:48
Speaker 2: tell just the level of intensity, the level of tackling
22:51
Speaker 2: suggests that maybe you don't risk it. But I would
22:53
Speaker 2: give Politic just fifteen minutes to feel like he's still
22:56
Speaker 2: in the tournament, like he's gone. You know that it
22:58
Speaker 2: won't have been such a long break for him without
23:00
Speaker 2: playing a game. It'll be basically three weeks by the
23:02
Speaker 2: time we get to the knockout round. So I think
23:05
Speaker 2: I want to get him some minutes. But otherwise I
23:07
Speaker 2: think it is completely a game for backups. And that
23:10
Speaker 2: again is another thing that is absolutely stunning that you
23:14
Speaker 2: get to your third game with a group, and it's
23:16
Speaker 2: probably the most inconsequential World Cup game the United States
23:19
Speaker 2: has ever played, because Turkey has nothing to play for
23:22
Speaker 2: the United States have nothing to play for, and it's
23:24
Speaker 2: basically a training session, and so that's kind of how
23:26
Speaker 2: you have to think of it.
23:27
Speaker 1: It's finally not our fault. I mean, we're doing it.
23:33
Speaker 1: We are doing He's glowing right now. I mean the
23:36
Speaker 1: title in the United States. That's a loss of soccer match.
23:41
Speaker 1: Wait if you missed that at six points.
23:44
Speaker 4: I just called you Wemby, because I was going to
23:46
Speaker 4: ask you a Wemby question, because I know this is
23:48
Speaker 4: too many ideas here. Okay, but the French team they're
23:50
Speaker 4: already loaded, right, but think about this. They're in a
23:53
Speaker 4: scenario where it's like they're already in stoppage time, the
23:56
Speaker 4: whistle's about to blow at any given time they get
23:58
Speaker 4: a corner kick. Who do they bring off the bench
24:00
Speaker 4: for a huge potential header, Victor Wembing.
24:04
Speaker 1: I mean, come on, well, we bring in Karl Anthony
24:06
Speaker 1: Towns to defend them. You know that position they're already.
24:12
Speaker 2: Honestly, it's kind of diabolical. I mean, I don't know
24:15
Speaker 2: how much bigger the World Cup squads are going to get,
24:18
Speaker 2: but they're twenty six now is that twenty sixth player?
24:20
Speaker 2: Is that ninth defender that you brought to the tournament?
24:23
Speaker 2: Gonna really add anything but Wemby, Wemby and second half
24:27
Speaker 2: stoppage time when you need a goal. Yeah, I can,
24:29
Speaker 2: I can. I can actually see that one about it.
24:30
Speaker 2: I can see that one. I like the idea.
24:33
Speaker 1: Wow, he likes an idea. Champions League comments and hosted
24:38
Speaker 1: CBS forwards Galazzo, Chris Whittingham, We appreciate it. We miss you,
24:43
Speaker 1: has the Uh. How are the marriage plans coming along here?
24:46
Speaker 1: How's the wedding player?
24:46
Speaker 2: Very good?
24:47
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, very good.
24:48
Speaker 2: We got a We got a wedding schedule for next March. Great,
24:53
Speaker 2: We're all good to go.
24:54
Speaker 1: Yeah. During the tournament? What are we doing here? Champion?
24:56
Speaker 1: What's happening here? The East tournament?
24:58
Speaker 2: What's happening I I wish was in like the absolute
25:01
Speaker 2: deadest time of the calendar, but unfortunately that that did
25:03
Speaker 2: not fly. So it is going to I will miss
25:06
Speaker 2: a weekend. Hopefully it's not an overly consequential weekend.
25:10
Speaker 1: It's not up to you yet, it's not up to me.
25:12
Speaker 2: It's not up to me, And so it begins.
25:15
Speaker 1: Yes, we miss you, buddy. I'm happy for you. Enough
25:18
Speaker 1: for the next for United States soccer. You have been
25:21
Speaker 1: waiting for this for a long time and you're having
25:23
Speaker 1: a moment right now, So enjoy it, buddy.
25:25
Speaker 2: It's been great. Thanks guys, okay,