Latest / The Sean O'Connell Show / Brian Dunseth reacts to the World Cup, Where does the USMNT go from here (?), RSL at LAFC tonight + more

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Brian Dunseth reacts to the World Cup, Where does the USMNT go from here (?), RSL at LAFC tonight + more · The Sean O'Connell Show

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: You tune to the Sean O'Connell Show for the Murdoch
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Chevrolet Studio of ESPN.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Seven hundred and ninety two one half an all right,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: we talked a little Utah football.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little State of Utah footbowl with Brian Duncan.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Donny kind enough to join us as he did during
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: the World Cup as an expert voice on all things soccer.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Soccer talk here on ESPN seven hundred and NINETYWOEFM, brought
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to you by our friend's over at Beer Bar, the
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: best place in town to catch soccer games. If you're
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: not actually going down to America First Field, head to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Beer Bar.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Doney, Welcome to the show. How are you, sir?
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: I'm fantastic. Man. Man, it's been a while. I hear
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: you might have been converted full time now into an
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: aficionado after twenty years of you and I know in
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: one another.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Ficionado might be a bit of a stretch, but I am.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I have found a love for soccer through the World Cup.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Through and this might make sense it might not. I
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: think through watching more hockey and the way that those
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: sports find some similarities and some translation when it comes
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: to setting up goals and the movement of the puck
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: versus the movement of the ball. I think, yeah, that
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: I have become a real fan of soccer. Like it's
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: not oh, this is on, I'm going to change it
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to something else. It's like, wow, let me see how
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: this thing plays out. And yes, shamelessly, the World Cup
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: did it for me. But it feels good to be here.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Dunny, Well, I'm glad. I'm glad. I'd give you a
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: big old bear claw hug if I could. But yeah, listen,
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: that was that was the part of all of this
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: at the moment that you know, for US, I always
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: equated soccer soccer players in that kind of category of
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: like punk music and skateboarding, where they kind of always
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: had their lanes and they were going to run independent
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: upon any of the you know, the conversations that surrounded
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the quote unquote major sports in the United But I
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: think once we knew that the US was going to
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: be hosting in conjunction with Mexico and Canada, with all
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: due respect, the World Cup, what I kept saying to
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: you and a lot of other people was that this
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: was an opportunity to kind of take a hold of
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: the emotion that we as kind of US sports fans
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  Speaker 3: have and redirect it into the Summer Olympics, the Winter Olympics,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: and then understanding that, you know, showcasing this type of
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: tournament in the United States take away all the conversations.
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I'm not naive to the costs associated with it. It
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: was still an amazing product. And having been a part
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: of the World Cup in Mexico up until the game
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: I did with France in the round of sixteen over
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: in Philadelphia, Man, you could really feel the power of
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: what this World Cup meant to the fans around the
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: world and specific to the individual markets that were lucky
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: enough to host games.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was really neat to see, not just the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: games themselves, but exactly what we're talking about, the fact
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: that these cities got kind of showcase who they are
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: their communities to the rest of the world, and the
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: fact that you know, these fans from all over the
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: world descended upon in some cases like kind of random
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: spots like Kansas City is not a Kansas City is
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: not a place all respect to Kansas City.
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: Kansas City is not a place that.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: If you're living in Germany, or you're an English person,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: or you're someone from Argentina. It's not going to be
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: your first destination, you know what I mean?
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: But when in Salt Lake is that way too.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: I wish we had an opportunity to host some World
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: Cup games because, like some of those other places, people
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: would have been blown away by the reception they got,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: by the beauty of the surroundings, all that kind of stuff.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: But it was it was a very much of a
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: feel good thing.
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Well, so, I guess because we're already talking World Cup,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: we could stay on it for a second. The the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: showing was what I thought, like, I'm not a genius here,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but the predictive model we put out there was like, yeah,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: they'll probably make it to the elimination rounds. I got
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: a little bit more optimistic when they won the group,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: but I don't know that they may make it out
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of the round of sixteen. I don't know if this
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  Speaker 1: is realistically a contender. I think some of us changed
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: our expectations at least a little during pool play, but
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: you ended up out where a lot of people thought
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  Speaker 1: you would be out. The manner in which you lost
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: to Belgium was hurtful for some people. The balligan controversy beforehand,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I think soured some folks on the whole thing. But
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: this is where we sort of expected TMOSA to be
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: in Some of us expected Tmosa to be here. Did
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: they overperform, underperform, or just perform?
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: For Dunny, I would say that they overperformed in the
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: group stage, but then they ended up performing as expected.
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  Speaker 3: And listen, we do this thing where we talk about favorites,
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: and the United States was never going to be a favorite.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: They were going to have a huge opportunity based on
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: the schedule, based on the hosting apparatus, like we saw
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: with Mexico and Canada, that they were going to have
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to be pretty comfortable, not have to have
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: a crazy amount of travel, and with the expanded format,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: get an extra day or two in terms of rest
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: and recuperation versus what we found Tatar. Are we disappointed.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: I don't think it. Disappointed is the right word for
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: me in particular. I think what we realize is that
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: this idea of development, this idea of making the game
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: more accessible, this idea of continuing the education component from
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: the youth level, from the coaches all the way up
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: to the highest level. You know, domestic manager, American manager,
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: if you will, North American manager, if you will, that
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: all these things are important. But in the midst of
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: all of this, and having been around Marico Pochaccino and
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: the usman's national team for the past three and a
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: half years, I'll be back with them in September and
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: October over on Turner. You know, there's still a I
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: don't know if mit Chi's most the right kind of
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: way to describe it, but there still is like this
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: internal kind of battle combativeness. I call it the dune.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: Step three is the joke that we have Max and
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: I on the call and I'm sorry the win thinking
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: up down here. I just got to southern California, you know.
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: But but the other, but the other part of this
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: is that you know, there's a game within the game,
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: and you know, we'll use Argentina as a perfect example
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: the game within the game. In the final ten minutes
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: against England, they were able to manipulate into their favor. Now,
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: they never were able to do the same against Spain
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: because Spain was kind of a different level. There were
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: just one step higher. And you know, all the whispers
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: and conversations surrounding whatever is happening with Argentina, right now,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: you know, we'll continue to continue to hover around because
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: we're talking about Lionel Messi, We're talking about Argentina and
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: the potential win back to back Copa Medica's and back
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: to back World Cup trophies. You know, but the differentiator
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: sometimes is, you know, the way you approach a game,
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: and it's different. And I'm not saying one's better than
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: the other, They're just different. So back to the US, listen,
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: I think there's a lot to continue to build upon.
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  Speaker 3: I think the disappointment always egotistically hovers around. Hold on
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: a second, why is the United States not a major player?
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Why are they not a quote unquote dominant force in
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: world football? And the reality is that we still have
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: steps to go. And having been a guy that joined
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the league in nineteen ninety seven and been a guy
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: that has watched you know, four or five different groups
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: of people pontificate the right way for the US to
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: continue to build that one day they're going to win
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: the World Cup. I mean there's a lot of nations
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: with a lot of infrastructure that fall really really short
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: of lifting that World Cup trophy and have much more
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: experience in the US. So while we're still in our infancy.
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: I think it's it's not. I think it's naive not
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: to suggest that there's still plenty of room for growth,
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: both on and off the field.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I have appreciated the way that our collective disappointment has
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: made people look at the system them that builds toward
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: a US men's national team and question whether or not
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: we're doing it right.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I think that that.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Conversation spills to all little league sports, all club sports
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: right now, and I think that the World Cup was
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: a great way to start that conversation because beyond just
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: being able to compete with England, there's a lot of issues.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: You're more aware of this than I am. I'm sure
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: your your kids are in that age. You've got boys that,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken, are in this world, right my man.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I spent twenty seven thousand dollars on youth soccer alone
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: last year.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: So that's not a real number.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, yeah, yeah, that cannot be a
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: real number.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, when you talk about all three boys, you talk
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: about club soccer, you talk about travel, you talk about
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: from gas to food to a hotel to you know,
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: rental cars to ubers to all that stuff. Yeah, it's
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: it's and my kids are going to be seventeen and
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: two weeks, fourteen and eight. Wow, So yeah, it is
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: unfortunately real number. So when people and listen, I've got
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: friends that have you know, kids and shure, I have
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: friends that have you know, volleyball guys that you know,
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: friends that are in baseball, friends that you know, all
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: of this. It's it's not a it's not a conversation
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: cheerpoint unique to just soccer. And and the reality is,
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: let's just dumb it down. Who's paying for it, who's
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: paying for the coaches, who's paying for the referees, who's
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: paying for the field time? I mean, you know, my
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: kids go to my boys go to Skyline and they
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: can't even get on the soccer field anymore without the
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: idea of having to jump a fence because you know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: everything's been closed off, everything has been made more difficult.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: That's not a Skyline problem, that's more of a general
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: US problem. But the access, the ability all of these things,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: there's there's major challenges and to success that it can
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: all be solved, you know with one simple conversation I
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: think is incredibly naive. Now, does there need to be
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: help and a collective understanding and approach of you know,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: how can we how can we start this, and how
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: can we create younger ages and hope that maybe two
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: or three cycles down the line, we're looking at the
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: next group of Western mckenneis and Christian Pallistics and Tyler
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: Adams and you know, Chris Richards, you know that's the idea.
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: But I'm also young enough to remember that when we
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: failed to qualify for twenty eighteen, everybody said burn US
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: soccer to the ground. They did so probably two to
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: three times if we're being honest. And still there's a
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: great cycle of players coming through and RSL's you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: lucky enough to be able to watch the Xavi Ragoso
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: and Diego Luna real time and talk about you know,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: young kids that are thriving quote unquote in an American
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: system with hopes and ideas and dreams of maybe one
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: day plan on Tuesday and Wednesday nights in the Champions
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: League over in Europe.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Well, you just mentioned r RSL guys, so I'll use
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: that as an opportunity to transition to a return to MLS.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Play tonight for RSL in Los Angeles against LAFC, headed
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: into the International break third in the Western Conference standings.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: They showed good form the other night at America First
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Field against Burnley in a friendly. What do you expect
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: from this second half? What do you expect from this
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: team after the break?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my hope is and again they did get a
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: couple of scrimmages in and Burnley probably being the most
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: high profile both on and off the field. My hope
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: is that and talking to Pablo and talking to the
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: coaching staff that you know, they were able to dissect
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and digest and prepare for everything that they thought wasn't
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: one hundred percent perfect and start thinking about defensive shape
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: and movement and reliance upon Hafaker, brawl and all of
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: these things that come into play, and then dial in
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: the details because a lot of times, as you know
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: in any sport, you know in certain name, here, the
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: devil is in the details. So I think for the group,
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: first and foremost, you got to pick up right where
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: you left off, and that means a result gown to
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: be the most stadium tonight against LFC LAFC coming off of
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: three zil win in old traffico the other day. In
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: the return to play, the MLS will take it from
• 12:02
  Speaker 3: here commercialism and absolutely smash the galaxy and did so
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: where the Galaxy seemed comfortable and in control with a
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: lot of possession. But for real, Fat Lake, listen, I
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: think it's you've got to start with a monster mentality,
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: and then I think it's about the details, both on
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: and off the ball and the evolution of this team.
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: What I would love to see is them being more
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: comfortable with leads, and by that I mean when they
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: do get the lead, not feeling as though they have
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: to be Patient's not the right word, that they have
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: to feel comfortable in. Okay, that's probably a little too risky.
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Let's go back, let's play out the opposite side. That's
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: the evolution of this group. I want to see swagger.
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: I want to see confidence. I want to see this
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: group say, hold on a second, nobody respects us. We
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: love being the underdog. We love kind of living in
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: the moment of Jason christ and Garth log Away in
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: two thousand andine MLS Cup champions you know, runs to
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: a usulf and Cup Final, runs to a Coffee Cap
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Champions League Final, all of that. That's what I want
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: to see. The continuation and by the way, to your point,
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: you know, three consecutive results heading into the break, I
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: think kind of made everyone feel good. But now I
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: just still think there's work to be done on the roster,
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: and first and foremost the work to be done tonight
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: before heading up to Portland at the weekend.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: How much do you think being left off the US
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: men's national team affects Diego Luna especially?
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't know. You know, I've tried, and I'm
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: not trying to be flipped and not trying to answer
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: your question. Listen, I think Diego has got a monster mentality.
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: He has bet on himself when nobody else has believed
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: in him. I've got a spot for Diego. I think
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: the world of him. I've been lucky enough to spend
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: a couple of moments and have some conversations with him
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: that just really, you know, reaffirms my opinion of what
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: I had before to where he is now. And I
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: think we all got to be incredibly disappointed, right because
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: there's so many moments where I was looking at that
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: game and thinking, God, having a guy like Diego pop
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: on for the final twenty minutes would have been an
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: incredible burst of energy. I was never given any clear
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: clarified reason for why he did not make the team,
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: especially because he was so utilized in the build up
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: to the World Cup. But now, from the conversations I've
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: had around the team to be able to hear where
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: he's at, seems like he's incredibly focused. He's dialed in,
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: and much like what happened when he missed out on
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: the Olympics, he's going to use his motivation. But I mean,
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: let's be honest, it really does suck that he missed
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: out on this opportunity to represent the US inside the US.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it does suck.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: And I look forward to the next four years from
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: now when he's playing on the Iberian Peninsula and I
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: think will be a a key part of that US
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: men's national team because it feels like an eventuality that
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: he ends up breaking through in the next cycle.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: Is that a fair opinion?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would hope, So, I would hope. So, I mean,
• 15:10
  Speaker 3: US Soccer has a huge decision on their hands. Former
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: LAFC head coach Steve Tarundelo, who walked away from the club.
• 15:18
  Speaker 3: He was just named the Olympic team head coach. So
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: that's step one. Step two is you've got to figure
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: out this dynamic with Marisa Poctino, and I thought that
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: he would immediately leave and take whatever high profile job
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: was out there. And it seems like maybe the goalposts
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: moved just a little bit. But in anyway, I could
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: see a guy like maybe Dj Callahan at nationale FC
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: as an American head coach that I think they would
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: do him really, really well with the national team.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Well, we'll wait to see how the big picture stuff
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: plays out tonight. We just hoping for an r SOL
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: result against LAFC. Donny, appreciate your time and your expertise,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: my friend. Thank you as always brother, good shotting with
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: you has Brian done. Seth one of the best in
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the business. We're lucky to have him here in Salt
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: Lake City.