Latest / Stugotz and Company / Set 2: We are the World *Cup* (w/Roger Bennett)
Transcript
- 0:22Speaker 1: Our next guest has become one of the most influential
- 0:25Speaker 1: voices at soccer, helping millions of Americans fall involved with
- 0:28Speaker 1: a beautiful game. As the founder and CEO of men
- 0:31Speaker 1: in Blazers Media Network, he's covered World Cups, interviewed the
- 0:35Speaker 1: biggest stars in the sport, and brought his trademark Witt
- 0:38Speaker 1: and storytelling to fans everywhere. And with the twenty twenty
- 0:41Speaker 1: six World Cup captivating North America, he's been at the
- 0:44Speaker 1: center of the conversation connecting.
- 0:46Speaker 2: Fans to the game's biggest moments.
- 0:48Speaker 1: How do you feel about that, Roger being one of
- 0:50Speaker 1: the most influential voices, maybe the most influential voice in
- 0:55Speaker 1: the beautiful game.
- 0:56Speaker 3: A lot to have you say nice things about me
- 0:58Speaker 3: on your show. I like to think of myself was
- 1:00Speaker 3: the last thing holding football back from going over the
- 1:02Speaker 3: top in the United States.
- 1:04Speaker 4: You know what I mean.
- 1:05Speaker 3: It's a crazy time to be alive. If you love
- 1:08Speaker 3: this game, and millions do, and you love this nation,
- 1:12Speaker 3: I mean, this is the moment that so many of
- 1:14Speaker 3: us have dreamed of when I moved here. Ahead of
- 1:17Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety four Men's World Cup, there was a
- 1:20Speaker 3: study that came out that said that soccer was the
- 1:23Speaker 3: sixty seventh most popular sport in America and tractor pulling
- 1:27Speaker 3: was number sixty six. And I know you go deep
- 1:30Speaker 3: on track to pulling on this show, so I won't
- 1:31Speaker 3: denigrate it. But now the economists just came out of
- 1:35Speaker 3: a study that showed that football is the third biggest
- 1:38Speaker 3: sport in America. I just did the A Rod Show
- 1:41Speaker 3: and he just kept asking me over and over again.
- 1:43Speaker 4: Like wins sucker going to take off? Dude.
- 1:46Speaker 3: I'd be like, well, it kind of has, man, it's
- 1:48Speaker 3: the third biggest. He said, where's baseball as at number four?
- 1:51Speaker 3: And so this is kind of where we are. It's
- 1:53Speaker 3: a crazy days to be alive. And I'm just so
- 1:56Speaker 3: happy that the world's falling in love with America right now.
- 2:00Speaker 3: You know, Scott's drinking Boston dry, the Norwegians rowing up
- 2:05Speaker 3: Times Square, and America is falling in love with football.
- 2:08Speaker 3: It's really quite a remarkable time.
- 2:10Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been awesome. Roger Bennett is with us. His
- 2:12Speaker 1: most recent book is We Are the World Cup. In parentheses.
- 2:17Speaker 1: Tell us about the book real quick, Roger.
- 2:19Speaker 3: Yeah, the World Cut I wrote it politics. If I
- 2:22Speaker 3: had to get all my World Cup stories. The World
- 2:25Speaker 3: Cup is like an alternate way of understanding my own biography.
- 2:30Speaker 3: I think millions and millions of people around the world
- 2:32Speaker 3: feel the same. The Super Bowl is enormous, two hundred
- 2:35Speaker 3: million people a year watch it. Five billion people watch
- 2:39Speaker 3: the World Cup final. It's just an ecstatic moment of unity.
- 2:43Speaker 3: The World Cup is been compared to an eclipse that
- 2:47Speaker 3: sweeps the planet for the entire duration, here blanketing the
- 2:51Speaker 3: planet in nothing but football, sweet football. And so it's
- 2:54Speaker 3: a very profound because it's once every four years. It's
- 2:56Speaker 3: just a profound moment that as opposed to something that's
- 2:59Speaker 3: just a deady diet. And so I can kind of
- 3:03Speaker 3: map my life by World Cups. And I know that
- 3:06Speaker 3: there's so many Americans who are coming to football and
- 3:09Speaker 3: you and I wanted to write a book so that
- 3:10Speaker 3: it almost had the backstory you know on Game of
- 3:13Speaker 3: Thrones when you join in season four, you know, just
- 3:16Speaker 3: telling you in case you missed the last four seasons.
- 3:18Speaker 3: That's what the book is. I wanted you to know
- 3:21Speaker 3: feel like you had lived Maradonna, that you'd live Ziedan,
- 3:24Speaker 3: that you'd live the great and if you had lived them,
- 3:26Speaker 3: they would make your memories kind of come afresh again.
- 3:29Speaker 3: But it's also the story of the growth of the
- 3:31Speaker 3: game in the United States. When I moved here, football
- 3:35Speaker 3: was deeply unpopular. You know, the biggest games in the
- 3:39Speaker 3: world were not shown live on American television. Now I
- 3:43Speaker 3: believe there's no better place to be a football fan
- 3:45Speaker 3: than the United States. You can watch more live football
- 3:48Speaker 3: on a Premier League weekend in New York City than
- 3:51Speaker 3: you can in Newcastle. You know, there's this young, incredible audience.
- 3:56Speaker 3: You've grown around the game, and so that's probably one
- 3:59Speaker 3: of the greatest themes in the book. I'm so elated
- 4:02Speaker 3: to have witnessed it, to have lived it, and now
- 4:05Speaker 3: it we're speaking on the either the US men's national
- 4:08Speaker 3: team playing a knockout game around a sixteen game, and
- 4:12Speaker 3: it's complicated. It's complicated time in the world. But I
- 4:16Speaker 3: will say watching the United States when this team does well,
- 4:21Speaker 3: watching the scenes postgame, from sea to Shining Sea, from
- 4:25Speaker 3: you do you see thousands of people in San Jose,
- 4:28Speaker 3: thousands of people in in Kansas City, thousands of people
- 4:32Speaker 3: in in New York City understanding the simple pleasure of football,
- 4:39Speaker 3: which is to stand with strangers and throw your beers
- 4:43Speaker 3: in the air and just get soaked and just savor
- 4:46Speaker 3: every single second.
- 4:47Speaker 4: It's beautiful.
- 4:48Speaker 5: Roger, you mentioned people falling in love with the US
- 4:51Speaker 5: this World Cup. It feels like that has kind of
- 4:53Speaker 5: taken a pause with the flow Balgin reversal of the
- 4:56Speaker 5: red card. What did you make of that decision.
- 5:00Speaker 3: So flu Balagan, I'd say it's fairly unprecedental. It is unprecedented.
- 5:03Speaker 3: It's a shock. When I first found out about it,
- 5:05Speaker 3: I thought it was kind of manufactured and internet meme.
- 5:09Speaker 3: It has never happened since nineteen sixty two is the
- 5:12Speaker 3: only example where the Brazilian government put pressure on the
- 5:16Speaker 3: organization FIFA two to have one of their players who'd
- 5:21Speaker 3: been dismissed in a semi final, allowing to play in
- 5:23Speaker 3: a final. So this is not normal. It's complicated. Everything's
- 5:28Speaker 3: complicated in our day and age. When sports fuses with politics,
- 5:32Speaker 3: I mean, it just becomes deeply, deeply fraught and you
- 5:36Speaker 3: can separate it out. You're asking me as an American fan,
- 5:38Speaker 3: and I am for your listeners who don't know me.
- 5:41Speaker 3: I adore the United States, you know, with the passion
- 5:45Speaker 3: that Bruce Springsteen adores the United States. So I ride
- 5:51Speaker 3: with that team when they play England. I support the
- 5:53Speaker 3: United States of America. I am all in or those
- 5:56Speaker 3: giants and I root for them with all my heart.
- 6:00Speaker 3: American fan in me and many American fans are like, yes,
- 6:03Speaker 3: this is our you know, this is our man, this
- 6:05Speaker 3: is our guy, he's our goal scorer. It's great that
- 6:07Speaker 3: he's back. Should go further and say, was it just
- 6:11Speaker 3: sending off? It probably wasn't. If it was quite a
- 6:14Speaker 3: crazy decision, that doesn't mean what's happened the outcome is good.
- 6:18Speaker 3: The process is unprecedented. Having a you know, the leader
- 6:21Speaker 3: of a state call FIFA and the man that the
- 6:25Speaker 3: player be allowed to play. It creates a precedent that
- 6:28Speaker 3: is almost impossible to ignore what happens when I mean
- 6:32Speaker 3: England last night had a player sent off in Mexico
- 6:36Speaker 3: in a valiant performance. Because England are between prime ministers,
- 6:39Speaker 3: are they now f do they now have nobody to
- 6:41Speaker 3: make the call, you know, to make.
- 6:44Speaker 4: The threat to do the thing.
- 6:46Speaker 3: It creates a sense of and this is you know
- 6:48Speaker 3: in America that I say, half the fans are related.
- 6:51Speaker 3: Half the fans are like not like this, not like this.
- 6:54Speaker 3: We could have been we could have been Belgium. I
- 6:56Speaker 3: agree with them. Man, this is a great team. We
- 7:00Speaker 3: are a great team. For the first time in my lifetime.
- 7:02Speaker 3: We can play swaggy football. You know, you world enough
- 7:05Speaker 3: to remember, like and one mixtape tour. It's like the
- 7:09Speaker 3: Professor is playing at times when the United States have
- 7:12Speaker 3: been playing nutmegs swag buccaneering football, cut from our dreams.
- 7:16Speaker 3: We could have done Belgium tonight. So that's how I feel,
- 7:20Speaker 3: really like.
- 7:21Speaker 2: This without you're saying, yeah, we could have done it.
- 7:23Speaker 4: Man, these boys could have done this. This is an
- 7:25Speaker 4: old team.
- 7:26Speaker 3: It's an aging team that like the New York Knicks
- 7:29Speaker 3: under Patrick Ewing in the final seasons, Mace John Starks,
- 7:32Speaker 3: you know they were.
- 7:33Speaker 4: Meant to win it. They never did win it.
- 7:35Speaker 3: They're coming together to commit one more crime, but they're
- 7:38Speaker 3: not going to be able to pull it off. Our
- 7:40Speaker 3: boys are young, hungry, too athletic.
- 7:43Speaker 4: We're going to outrun them.
- 7:44Speaker 3: But it doesn't matter now because in the eyes of
- 7:47Speaker 3: the world there will be an asterisk against it, like
- 7:50Speaker 3: this is not how it's done. Heads of state don't
- 7:52Speaker 3: call in to make these things happen. So there's a
- 7:55Speaker 3: certain sadness. But the wonderful thing about sports, guys, is
- 8:01Speaker 3: the emotional and the rational. And I do know if
- 8:04Speaker 3: Baligan plays tonight, I'll root for him with all my
- 8:07Speaker 3: heart once that whistle goes, and will root for him
- 8:10Speaker 3: with all of my heart. And that's kind of where
- 8:14Speaker 3: we are. There is that cognitive dissonance. So that's how
- 8:17Speaker 3: I feel. It is deeply, deeply complicated. It's deeply, deeply unprecedented.
- 8:21Speaker 3: And I think, simply put, you could make the case
- 8:24Speaker 3: it's right outcome, but the process, it's just it's not
- 8:28Speaker 3: the right process. And the agony is we didn't need it.
- 8:31Speaker 1: Yes, So Roger, there's you know, I would say half
- 8:34Speaker 1: of the American fan base is saying, hey, FIFA is
- 8:37Speaker 1: always corrupt, it's about time they're being corrupt on our behalf.
- 8:40Speaker 1: And then the other ones are thinking along the lines
- 8:42Speaker 1: like me, who are thinking the way you're thinking. I think,
- 8:45Speaker 1: which is, hey, let's do this the right way. If
- 8:47Speaker 1: we're gonna win it, if we're going to advance, let's
- 8:49Speaker 1: do it the right way. This is unprecedented, It's never
- 8:52Speaker 1: happened before.
- 8:53Speaker 2: I'm torn on it. I have to be honest with you, you.
- 8:55Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, I mean I could have done. We could
- 8:57Speaker 3: have done, we could have done. I mean, I think
- 8:59Speaker 3: it's fascinating, also an amazing time. Look, we're traveling across
- 9:02Speaker 3: the nation and men in blazers on a bus. The
- 9:06Speaker 3: spirit of John Madden is written large with us. You know,
- 9:09Speaker 3: we're doing these college game days, broadcasting out to the nation,
- 9:14Speaker 3: you know, from these cities. We're in Atlanta right now
- 9:17Speaker 3: before Lionel Messi plays tomorrow. We're going to do a
- 9:21Speaker 3: live show with Killer Mike tonight. So it's a wild
- 9:26Speaker 3: time to be alive. And there's just a surging new
- 9:28Speaker 3: audience finding football. It's beautiful. Every single World Cup has
- 9:32Speaker 3: left a bigger and bigger audience. Like Flotsam and Jepson
- 9:35Speaker 3: on the beach. That audience is now massive, but it
- 9:38Speaker 3: is a new audience. It's crazy to him, it's beautiful.
- 9:41Speaker 3: Like there are people, many people who did not know
- 9:43Speaker 3: the name following Baligan three weeks ago, who are now they're.
- 9:47Speaker 4: WhatsApp sports chats are just like.
- 9:48Speaker 3: We must have this man. We are doomed without him.
- 9:52Speaker 3: We must by all means necessary. And I think part
- 9:55Speaker 3: of me thinks that's beautiful, man, And part of me
- 9:58Speaker 3: thinks it's deeply deeply through and complicated, but it is
- 10:01Speaker 3: what it is.
- 10:02Speaker 2: Now.
- 10:03Speaker 3: The whistle will go, the US will play, the world
- 10:07Speaker 3: will judge, and you know, ultimately, the frustrating thing for
- 10:12Speaker 3: me is we could have done them. Irrespective of this,
- 10:14Speaker 3: we really really could have done them.
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- 11:38Speaker 5: Roger And the lead up to this, I was trying
- 11:40Speaker 5: to get the guys excited about the World Cup and
- 11:42Speaker 5: Team USA, and I was telling them the Golden Generation
- 11:45Speaker 5: flow Balgain, and they just kept saying, you know, I'm
- 11:47Speaker 5: not listening. We need to see it happen. And then
- 11:50Speaker 5: they see flow Balgin play and they were like, hey,
- 11:53Speaker 5: you were right. Flow Balgan's the difference is Flowbalgin the
- 11:56Speaker 5: best number nine that this USA team has ever had.
- 12:00Speaker 3: I mean, he's the best, most productive, pure number nine
- 12:03Speaker 3: that we've not had. The history of men's football in
- 12:07Speaker 3: World Cups in our nation is we'd love a dream team.
- 12:10Speaker 3: This has been a dream on team for far too long.
- 12:13Speaker 3: It is crazy to me that we who you know,
- 12:17Speaker 3: we put a man in the moon, we invented animal
- 12:20Speaker 3: style in and out burgers. We can put our mind
- 12:22Speaker 3: to anything in the United States. Look at the world
- 12:26Speaker 3: right now driving across America being like, oh my god, BUCkies,
- 12:29Speaker 3: it's amazing. We did all that stuff. And one of
- 12:32Speaker 3: the few things we can't do is produce a men's
- 12:35Speaker 3: team that can make any noise.
- 12:36Speaker 4: A World Cup.
- 12:37Speaker 3: Men's World Cups crazy, our women kick ass and take names.
- 12:41Speaker 3: So it has been deeply frustrating. It's been a history
- 12:44Speaker 3: of big dreams and shattered dreams, and so this is
- 12:48Speaker 3: the most talented man for man, a group of individuals
- 12:53Speaker 3: that we've been able to call upon.
- 12:54Speaker 4: And the question is.
- 12:55Speaker 3: Always what do they what culture do they forge when
- 12:58Speaker 3: they come together? And the journeys at World Cups have
- 13:01Speaker 3: been all too fleeting. We've had one knockout win in
- 13:05Speaker 3: previous World Cups, our whole nation, three hundred and thirty
- 13:08Speaker 3: million people. It's crazy, you know, we just had one
- 13:11Speaker 3: knockout win. But they've created an extra round. So it's
- 13:14Speaker 3: kind of like it's it's kind of you know, it's
- 13:17Speaker 3: it's it's a nice thing. Tonight's game is massive, Like
- 13:20Speaker 3: to get into a quarterfinal for the second time in
- 13:23Speaker 3: our nation's history is to really make noise and weave
- 13:26Speaker 3: yourself into the tapestry of the tournament.
- 13:29Speaker 1: Roger tell people about Belgium, Are they good enough to
- 13:31Speaker 1: beat us?
- 13:32Speaker 3: Belgium are waffle inventors, They're waffle pedalers, their waffle merchants.
- 13:40Speaker 3: You know, this team had a golden generation of their
- 13:42Speaker 3: own that they beat us in twenty fourteen. Many of
- 13:46Speaker 3: you fans may dimly vaguely remember Tim Howard making save
- 13:50Speaker 3: after save after save in a valiant game which is
- 13:54Speaker 3: ultimately led to defeat in Brazil in twenty fourteen. Incredibly
- 13:59Speaker 3: for the stars on that team, still playing on this team.
- 14:01Speaker 3: It's a bunch of unks at this point, incredibly talented unks,
- 14:06Speaker 3: youunks who have underwhelmed and then just created magic in
- 14:11Speaker 3: moments when they needed. The World Cup, though, is a
- 14:13Speaker 3: crazy tournament. It is a tournament of moments, so they're
- 14:16Speaker 3: not to be underestimated. But the US have this athleticism,
- 14:21Speaker 3: the US have youth. The US have not traveled very much.
- 14:25Speaker 3: We've not played in heat, we've played indoors in so far.
- 14:29Speaker 3: We've played in Seattle where it's beautiful. So you know,
- 14:33Speaker 3: our miles, our dormito is pretty bloody good. It's why
- 14:37Speaker 3: ultimately going toe to tote and I we should win
- 14:40Speaker 3: this game. They are very beautible, they're vulnerable. Just don't
- 14:44Speaker 3: know how pissed off they're going to be with all
- 14:46Speaker 3: of this madness. Man talk about locker, locker room motivation,
- 14:50Speaker 3: whatever you know, locker room, bulletin board material. We've given
- 14:54Speaker 3: them a little bit in the past twenty four hours.
- 14:56Speaker 3: So I'd say that's the one intangible that makes me
- 14:59Speaker 3: mildly quake.
- 15:01Speaker 1: We seem spoiled and a titled we do I mean, anyway,
- 15:03Speaker 1: go ahead, mike Y.
- 15:05Speaker 6: Roger. I'm one of the one of the Johnny come
- 15:08Speaker 6: Lately is to this American team like most of and
- 15:11Speaker 6: like most of us, I've now watched the game twice
- 15:15Speaker 6: and I want to change all the rules. So let
- 15:18Speaker 6: me ask you this, as you gave us your bona
- 15:20Speaker 6: fides for this American team, take Me Home, Country Roads.
- 15:24Speaker 2: Is that a good song for us to have here?
- 15:25Speaker 6: Or is this kind of like too specific?
- 15:28Speaker 4: Wolf?
- 15:30Speaker 3: In what way is Country Raid too specific?
- 15:32Speaker 4: West Virginia?
- 15:33Speaker 1: I mean, America has never been to West Virginia.
- 15:38Speaker 3: So they've got a beautiful romantic notion of it. Then
- 15:40Speaker 3: don't they don't desjoy the romantic notion of West Virginia.
- 15:44Speaker 3: I mean it's beautiful. I will say, you know, it's
- 15:47Speaker 3: a game the other day. At the end of the game,
- 15:49Speaker 3: every every team has chosen a song os this Country Road.
- 15:56Speaker 3: England has chosen Wonderwall by Oasis, and it's incredible or
- 16:00Speaker 3: to at the end of the game they beat Congo
- 16:03Speaker 3: in Atlanta and at the end, the team walk up
- 16:06Speaker 3: to their hardcore fans, human beings who love the taste
- 16:09Speaker 3: of their own blood in their mouth. You know they've
- 16:13Speaker 3: seen things, these men, they've been to battles, you know
- 16:16Speaker 3: in the old hooligan days, and the team huddle up,
- 16:19Speaker 3: they've won their you know, they're victorious.
- 16:21Speaker 4: And then on comes Nolan Liam and everyone starts sobbing.
- 16:25Speaker 3: It's really quite amazing and growing men and women just
- 16:30Speaker 3: absolutely sobbing in these moments. So Country Road number one.
- 16:34Speaker 3: I don't think anyone listens to lyrics anymore, which is
- 16:37Speaker 3: why you know Creden's clear Water Revival, Fortunate Sun and
- 16:42Speaker 3: Bruce Springsteen's Born in the USA are used at political
- 16:46Speaker 3: rallies still because no one's listening to the bloody lyrics.
- 16:49Speaker 3: And Country Road I think it's a deeply all encompassing song.
- 16:53Speaker 3: I think the fact that all our players know the words,
- 16:55Speaker 3: and our players are so diverse, they're so eclectic that
- 16:58Speaker 3: from everywhere is very beautiful, and you just want a song,
- 17:02Speaker 3: and the song becomes if you win games, that song
- 17:04Speaker 3: becomes louder and prouder, and it feels more right with
- 17:08Speaker 3: every telling. I just hope we get to hear it
- 17:10Speaker 3: a couple more times this World Cup.
- 17:12Speaker 2: We'll get you out of here in a second, just
- 17:13Speaker 2: two quick ones. Was Mexico England The best game you've
- 17:16Speaker 2: ever seen?
- 17:18Speaker 3: Was Mexico England? The best game I've ever seen. It
- 17:20Speaker 3: was the best game I've seen last night.
- 17:25Speaker 4: It's the best game.
- 17:26Speaker 3: It's the best game I've seen since Argentina cap Go.
- 17:29Speaker 3: Was that twenty four hours earlier? It feels like it
- 17:31Speaker 3: was four years ago. This World Cup is amazing. That's
- 17:34Speaker 3: what's been so great. Yes, this is the stakes for
- 17:37Speaker 3: this moment. Man, it's been amazing. Watching the world fall
- 17:40Speaker 3: in love with America and America fall in love with
- 17:43Speaker 3: global football has been the joy of my lifetime. This
- 17:46Speaker 3: World Cup has been It's surpassed my expectations, my highest hopes.
- 17:50Speaker 3: It's been delirious. And as part of that, and only
- 17:53Speaker 3: part of it. The football has been ecstatic. You're watching
- 17:57Speaker 3: Lionel Messi, that tiny little e what amongst us as
- 18:00Speaker 3: a demi god. By the way, if this was old days,
- 18:03Speaker 3: we will be worshiping him as a as a leader
- 18:06Speaker 3: of a evangelical cult. And I'd be all in on it, man,
- 18:09Speaker 3: And I'm not a very religious man. Earl In Harlan
- 18:12Speaker 3: would be. You know, he is a Viking come alive
- 18:15Speaker 3: in our day and age.
- 18:16Speaker 4: It's quite majestic. What was see?
- 18:18Speaker 3: These are not normal sporting feats. Killian and Bappe. That
- 18:21Speaker 3: speed merchant. I mean, well, who's the guy is at
- 18:24Speaker 3: the Braves game? The Flash who runs around the track.
- 18:27Speaker 3: It's like the Flash has got another skill other than
- 18:29Speaker 3: just speed.
- 18:30Speaker 4: He can kick the football.
- 18:32Speaker 3: England have a god, Harry Kane, He's just guy off
- 18:34Speaker 3: a spitfire. It's still warm.
- 18:36Speaker 4: It's the Battle of Britain.
- 18:37Speaker 3: She's deciding to deliver goals to go into the Azteca.
- 18:41Speaker 3: This fortress, this vaunted fortress where there's only one truth,
- 18:44Speaker 3: which is Mexico. Do not lose and deliver a tenacious
- 18:48Speaker 3: beatdown was exquisite. I don't support England. I'm objective when
- 18:52Speaker 3: I watch them, But it was very, very very profound
- 18:55Speaker 3: on a human level. And the on this sad truth
- 18:59Speaker 3: is they will be so gast now they left their
- 19:02Speaker 3: you know, they left their.
- 19:03Speaker 4: Souls on that football field. They've got to go to Miami.
- 19:06Speaker 3: They'll play Norway, and I think they're just going to
- 19:08Speaker 3: fling their dead caucases on the field and see how.
- 19:12Speaker 1: Minutes Roger last question of the remaining teams here in
- 19:19Speaker 1: the World Cup, which team winning it would surprise you
- 19:22Speaker 1: the most.
- 19:23Speaker 3: Of the remaining teams. Which team can answer that? In
- 19:27Speaker 3: many ways, Argentina because it's so hard to go back
- 19:30Speaker 3: to back in this tournament. I think the NHL is
- 19:33Speaker 3: at the hardest.
- 19:34Speaker 1: Sports interested it. But yeah, it's pretty tough.
- 19:37Speaker 3: Yeah, so there you go. In that case, Argentina may
- 19:41Speaker 3: do it. I think England will probably be my proper answer.
- 19:46Speaker 3: You know, I'm American now, I ride fully with the
- 19:49Speaker 3: wearers of stonewashed him. But England, all I know is
- 19:54Speaker 3: England dreaming, England believing, England, falling in love with its team,
- 19:58Speaker 3: and then its team turning round in just shattering a
- 20:01Speaker 3: nation's hearts. So just because of that pattern, which is
- 20:04Speaker 3: so well defined, we have John Oliver come on our
- 20:07Speaker 3: show and we were laughing that England a light, Charlie
- 20:11Speaker 3: Brown running out of football with Lucy holding you know,
- 20:16Speaker 3: just again and again and again. But you know, John said,
- 20:19Speaker 3: what if we've got that all wrong. What if Charlie
- 20:22Speaker 3: likes the pain? What if Charlie likes the humiliation. What
- 20:25Speaker 3: if Charlie loves just that feeling of devastation. And it's
- 20:29Speaker 3: actually him saying, Lucy, let's do that thing that we
- 20:32Speaker 3: do where I pretend to kick it and you yank
- 20:34Speaker 3: it away and I fall on my ass. That's what
- 20:36Speaker 3: the English football team did. It's almost like the fan
- 20:38Speaker 3: base love that shattering feeling of their hearts breaking in
- 20:42Speaker 3: real time. So that would probably be the one that
- 20:45Speaker 3: surprised me. It would thrill me mostly from my family,
- 20:49Speaker 3: you know over there in Liverpool, who deserve a little
- 20:52Speaker 3: bit of love and a little bit of joy but
- 20:54Speaker 3: it won't happen. And what throws me the most is
- 20:56Speaker 3: that you're all falling in love, you're all going on
- 20:58Speaker 3: your own individual in these you'll find in your own memories,
- 21:02Speaker 3: especially Big mikey a who's just just loving every single
- 21:07Speaker 3: second and making memories, which is the best thing. It's
- 21:10Speaker 3: lovely to be with you. You are a legend. I
- 21:12Speaker 3: think you know that you're an icon. You're a wonderful
- 21:15Speaker 3: human being. It's a joy for me to be with you.
- 21:18Speaker 3: Big Stu Gottson, huge, huge love to you. Thank you
- 21:21Speaker 3: so much for having me on.
- 21:23Speaker 1: All right, buddy, thank you for the kind words. We
- 21:24Speaker 1: appreciate it. Check them out, Men and Blazers. His most
- 21:27Speaker 1: recent book is out. Also, we are the.
- 21:29Speaker 2: World Cup in parentheses. He's more surprised.
- 21:33Speaker 1: He's going to be more surprised if England wins it
- 21:35Speaker 1: than he is the United States.
- 21:36Speaker 2: He's a homer and I love him. Roger Bennett, thank
- 21:39Speaker 2: you for doing this during a very busy time for.
- 21:40Speaker 3: You, America. Courage guys, Bye guys, big big love. Thank
- 21:45Speaker 3: you for having me on.