On today’s episode, Jason discusses the day one results of the World Cup and the importance of the USMNT getting off to a hot start on Friday, why he believes Victor Wembanyama's Spurs will force a Game 6 of the NBA Finals this weekend, how the remaining NBA Finals schedule actually works in San Antonio's favor, and where this current Knicks team ranks in the pantheon of the beloved New York sports teams of all-time.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Street Fire Family, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Boyer for Friday, June the twelfth. You know what
time it is, folks, You know what time it is? Yes,
sirree Bob, it is World Cup time. We finally have
it USA against Paraguay tonight at six o'clock Pacific, nine
(00:38):
o'clock Eastern. I'm so geeked for it, folks. I haven't
been this excited for soccer match in a while. I mean,
how could you not be super stoked for this? There's
just so much excitement in the air out here in
Los Angeles. I know you can find all the negative
stuff you want to say about FIFA and blah blah blah. Folks,
(00:59):
It's World Cup. Did you watch the games yesterday? So
you had Mexico. This is how sweet it is. So
the first game usually starts at twelve, well, of course
the herd ends at twelve. So in I get in
the car and you guys know, if you have Spectrum Cable,
you could there's an app where you can literally just
watch TV in the car. Now, obviously you can't really
(01:20):
watch it while you're driving, but you can cue up
the game, and soccer's not like basketball, where there's end
to end action constantly. Yes, there will be moments of that,
as we saw in the night game last night. We'll
sh'll talk about shortly, but essentially, soccer is a game
where you can just be driving, put the phone down,
you don't have to look, and you can just listen
as they talk about the passes and the defense. It's
(01:43):
like the perfect game for a drive. Now. Of course,
Mexico rolled South Africa. South Africa with two red cards disaster.
I mean, Mexico got a red two three reds. There
hadn't been a World Cup game and like I think
it was twenty years with three red cards. But Mexico
looked good at home. It was a scene and you know,
the this is what gost the world. I get so
(02:04):
geeked about this is I get it. Some people are
just not that. End of the World Cup. I'll just
say this, folks, it's only every four years. We were
fortunate enough two years ago to go to Amsterdam. We
did a London Amsterdam back to back and it was
during the Euros and folks, I'm just telling you, the
bar scene in Europe is just jumping off because there's
games around the clock. And we got to Amsterdam and
(02:26):
Netherlands was playing in a massive match and we went,
you know, we brought the kids to this bar. Every
bar is packed overflowing, and it was. It was just incredible.
And I have a feeling it'll get like that when
we get to the knockout rounds here in the US. Now,
Mexico by virtue of their win over South Africa, it
(02:47):
said let be back up. So there are twelve groups
and eight third place teams advanced, So the top two
in each group advance likely and eight third place finishers,
so that will round out the round of thirty two.
And it's like damn. So you basically win one match
your set one match and you're gonna advance. You have
(03:08):
four points to your lock, so Mexico will advance. Now
where it gets interesting is South Korea played in the
nightcap against Chechia and that game was incredible. Now, the
model that I built like Chechia. They're getting smoked. But
the big thing that the model liked about them was
the set pieces. And they get to throw in and
they get a goal and it's like boom, this is
what they do South Korea answers. Chechia responds with a
(03:32):
goal off another set piece, but it was ruled narrowly
off sides. And then of course South Korea comes down
and Guy gets an unbelievable goal and two to one.
So South Korea look pretty good. They look fast, passing
was crisp. Of course, Chechia was a lot larger, seemed
to dominate in the box. They just didn't generate enough opportunities.
(03:54):
And so that South Korea Mexico game will be four
first place in the group. And if Mexico wins, and
again all these people are running all these simulations, it
looks like they will have home field advantage quote unquote
home field. They'll be playing in Mexico for maybe the
first three rounds of knockouts. Okay, there are some people
(04:16):
speculator listened they could get England essentially at home. It
would be a huge edge. But they've got to beat
South Korea. And I know Mexico like choked out South Africa.
They were. I mean, they did not look good at all.
I don't have a pick for that yet. It's not
until next it's six days away. South Korea traveled very well.
(04:37):
They had they had definitely the crowd edge. So I
think Chechio will beat South Africa maybe handly. They might
have to because those third place teams will want gold differential.
So if they can run it up on South Africa
two three nothing that in South Africa got two red cards,
so now you've got two starters will be down, have
to sit, So I don't know. I think I think
(04:57):
Chechi will still advance in that group. But obviously the
big one today USA Paraguay. If you're wondering what the
model said, it actually said Paraguay has the value, but
time out. That doesn't mean Paraguay is the better team.
That just means based on the number, you should bet
Paraguay in this game, and of course I did not.
(05:21):
Now they're forward, they're one of their top offensive threats
suffered a thigh injury. Unclear if he's gonna play, and
of course they're keeping this. It's like college football teams
with the injuries. You have no idea who's gonna go.
There's no official injury report where you really have to
say in advance, so we don't know if Paraguay's best
(05:41):
offensive guy's gonna be out there. It's gonna be a
defensive slugfest. They're just gonna hunker down and try to
prevent a goal. In the US will probably have possession
for seventy percent of the time, have more opportunities, but
will they break through. The two teams met back in November.
USA beat them two to one. There were actually randomly
two goals in the first ten minutes, and then the
US or to win to one. But they dominated the
(06:01):
stat sheet, and you know, can Poachattino cook up a
similar success rate against this defense. They play what's called
a low block. They'll play like four defenders, four midfield.
They're just gonna play everybody back, just literally sit back
and choke you out and play for the tie. And
it's interesting because there's a lot of love for Turkey
(06:21):
in this group. USA fortunately gets them third. USA gets
Australia second, and of course, like you know, we're being
honest here, Australia is by far the weakest team in
the group. They're not, like, you know, New Zealand bad,
but they are the weakest team in the group. That
being said, it's kind of wide open. The third place
team will advance likely. I think the US need needs
(06:46):
to just get a result obviously, I mean what am
I staying in the obvious?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (07:02):
If they lose, then you must beat Australia and then
you need a result, likely a tie against Turkey. Now
I think we were in that at the last World Cup,
if memory serves, we needed a We tied England and
then we got to win over was it Iran, Iraq
something like that, and that advanced us into the round
(07:24):
of sixteen. It was in a round of thirty two
and we lost to Netherlands. But folks have fired up.
This is going to be exciting. Obviously, Listen, you don't
want to bet the entire bankroll on the USA soccer
team in the first World Cup match on US soil
for the Americans in over thirty years. They're gonna be
juiced up, probably a little nervous. Stadiums so far is
(07:45):
going to be rocking, and yeah, there's probably gonna be
a lot of nerves, similar to the New York Knicks
at Madison Square Garden in Games three and four, you
saw the nerves. You saw the crowd. The Knicks did
not deliver until the end. But so quickly look at
the World Cup schedule. So we get Bosnia, Holy hell,
(08:06):
Bosnia Canada at twelve. I don't think very highly of Canada.
I have no no action on that game. And then
USA Paraguay at six Pacific nine Eastern. Oh, you gotta
stay up late on Friday night, cry about it. Saturday's loaded.
You open up with Katar Switzerland. Then you get Brazil Morocco.
The model says Morocco. The problem is Morocco just had
(08:27):
two guys ruled out, not great, one a central defender.
And then you get what is that Scotland against Haiti
at six, So three games on Saturday, and you get
the NBA Finals, which we'll talk about here shortly. But
(08:49):
I mean it's great. Like anytime you can get sports
during the day during the week, it kind of feels
like the NCAA tournament, doesn't it. Sunday you get Turkey Australia.
Oh yeah, oh wow, we get five games on oh no, wait,
yeah that's Sunday. I'm losing my mind here. So interestingly,
(09:10):
the calendar, if you go to the ESPN scores. Saturday
has three games, but then Sunday has a game late
Saturday night. Oh it's in Vancouver, Okay, got it? So
that is Australia Turkey, So technically that Saturday I haven't
got into it. My guys telling me Turkey. You gotta
(09:31):
look at Turkey. I did see a nice write up
on them. We'll see. I don't know. Germany on Sunday,
Germany Kurusaw. That could be like a six to nothing bloodbath.
Netherlands Japan might be the best game of the weekend.
Ecuador Ivory Coast, very excited for that, and Sweden Tunisia
(09:52):
rounding out the weekend. So it's gonna be very very exciting.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I was gonna do a World Cup preview, but our
guests kind of cancer, which is a little disappointing, But
what can you do, you know? So I figured I
might as well pivot to the NBA Finals just because
that game, I mean, you could tell it was a
flow I was at a flow state and just rolling,
and folks, it's so many.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Of the takes.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Let me, can I quickly address one take? Of course,
of course I can't. I there was a hot mic
open and an ESPN Radio or no, maybe it was
the New York Knicks radio team person who works at ESPN.
I guess was caught bashing Taylor Swift, you know, because
obviously it's Taylor Swift. She's in the front row, and
(10:42):
this woman's like, oh Taylor, So she's not a real fan.
What she doing here? What? And I saw some of
those that that kind of take like, wait a minute,
why is this celebrity there? They're not a real Knicks fan?
And I'm like, what are you guys doing? Are we
really playing that game? Who is a fan and who's not?
And who determines that? So like if you didn't so
(11:06):
I didn't go to a Clippers game, I'm not even
a Clippers fan. If the Clippers are playing in the
NBA Finals, I'm trying to get tickets to go to it.
I want to go to the NBA Finals and I'll
probably wear a Clippers jersey. I've I don't think I've
ever been to a USA soccer match in my life.
I worl up I go to a game, So what
am I not a fan?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I just don't understand it. People like sports get you know,
It's just it's so goofy people going after Taylor Swift.
By the way, there is another video of Taylor Swift
when they're down twenty five and her and her friends
are like freaking out, going crazy, and everyone else is
just like, dude, we're down twenty five.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
She kept the faith.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, that was one of those games. Epic, now
I did I think? I said on yesterday's pod as
soon as the game was over and the line came out,
I bet Spurs in game five, first quarter, one and
a half, full Game five. I'm checking now just to
see if it's moved it probably, I doubt much will move.
(12:07):
It's yeah, still at five. I think it had gone
up to five and a half but pulled back a little.
First quarter is still one and a half, but heavily juiced.
It's headed toward two. There's two lines of thought. Do
the Knicks come out. We've got business to it, We've
got we got to wrap this up. Let's kill these guys,
Let's let's beat them, let's wrap up the series here
or as I mentioned on the Herd, remember Oka see
(12:31):
okayse went up three to two, then had to go
to San Antonio. That game was over by halftime. I
think like, first, I don't know, first five minutes of
the third quarter you could tell it was a beat
down and lo and behold, I'm pretty sure the key
players on the Thunder did not suit up in the
(12:53):
fourth quarter. They just sat on the bench and they
kind of just packed it in. I don't know that
the Knicks will go to that level now. I do
know a buddy who is flying from LA to San
Antonio for the game with with with one of his
with one of his boys, and I've seen some stuff
that a lot of Knicks fans will be there. Now.
Obviously you'd rather celebrate at home, but I don't. I mean,
(13:17):
I'm not saying the Knicks are gonna punt this game,
but I can see without question a very angry Spurs team.
We blew a massive lead, we had two days to
let this marinate. This series is not over, and they're
gonna come out and I think there's a world where
they bludgeon the Knicks. Now. The only counter to that
is there's been no bludgeting in this series. Every game
(13:42):
has come down to the final two minutes, which is
anything you can ask for. I mean, that's the best
of sports right there. If you told me if I
could get four Super Bowls in a row, that all
come down the final two minutes. Where do I sign up?
Please hook me up? I mean the collective score. Let's
see what the collective score in the series is. I
(14:03):
haven't even looked, but I'm gonna guess it's despite the
Knicks being up three to one. So the Knicks were
plus ten plus eleven plus twelve and the Spurs one
by four. So the the Knicks are up three to one,
but they're plus eight in the series.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's insane. That's how close the series has been. And
I've felt good about the Knicks from the jump. I
don't feel the series is over, and I'll keep repeating
that until the cows come home. And it hasn't really
got on yet. But I did listen to a podcast
and there was like no mention of Wemby getting one
(14:41):
day off between's game three and four and two days
off for the rest of the series. Guys, did you
see Webby three of fourteen? Yes, three of fourteen in
the second half. Now, a bunch of that was just
tip ups at the rim playing volleyball. But for the series,
(15:01):
Wemby's only shooting forty three percent. He now gets two
days rest in between each game. That's massive for a
guy who's getting pulled, pushed, jostled, grabbed, shoved. I mean
Jose Alvarado tried to form tackle him by picking up
his leg and it's like, oh, I can get two
days of rest. Hello. And I just think the Spurs, who,
(15:25):
by the way, have six guys averaging double figures in
the series. That's crazy, that's how loaded they are. The
Knicks have three. It's basically been the brunson Og Show
with a smattering of cat and they just won one.
Thing's late, that's only that's the only reason the next
have this their endgame situations.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And it's funny because Rob G of course mentioned than today, Hell,
you know, you said the experience wasn't a factor, and
I didn't think it was. It didn't really hurt him
until now, until it hurts him, and we'll see if
it hurts on the rest of the series. I honestly
would love this to go I think six is good
because honestly, seven would be a little too gut wrenching
(16:19):
for me. I just I don't know how I would
handle a game seven rooting for the Knicks against Wemby
on the road. That's suboptimal. Fun stat If you're interested,
here's the shot attempts for the Knicks. We'll start with
Michail Bridge's thirty three field goal attempts in four games,
(16:42):
Karl Anthony Town's forty two in four games, og n
Arnobi fifty field goal attempts in four games. Jalen Brunson
one hundred and six. He has taken double, more than
double the shots of the next largest volume shoot in OG.
I don't know how sustainable that is now. Brunson did
(17:04):
have a good game. He will get two games rest,
two days rest as well everyone obviously, But it feels
like for webin Yama, who kind of struggles a bit.
You saw him kind of kept falling down in the
fourth quarter. Is that a sign of tired it is
a fatigue? I don't know. But the balance for the
Spurs is much better. It's three guys over fifty and
Webb at eighty five. You have Fox who's probably shooting
(17:27):
too much, Harper, who's not shooting enough? And Castle. This
is a really good series, guys. I saw twenty three
million was the number for Game three, And all these
idiots online are like j Mack. Remember they adjusted the
Nielsen so everything's skewed. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. Same applied
(17:48):
to the World Series, same applied to the college football playoffs,
same applied to the Super Bowl. Like, what do you want?
It's so weird how people bend over backwards to somehow
try to I want to discredit the NBA audience and
the series being incredible. It's just so weird. Guy, Can
we just enjoy sports? Is it that hard? I mean
(18:12):
this series has been I mean I'm trying to think back.
What's been a better series? Do you have to go
back to twenty sixteen? Because there wasn't a lot of
great finals in the last seven years. I mean, I
guess get Bucks Bucks Sons was pretty good, but it
was Bucks Suns Like there was really not a lot
of juice there. Now you got Nicks, you got the
(18:33):
city on fire, you got the Spurs going with Wemby.
By the way, did you guys see the video of
the Knicks so out. The Knicks fans are like camped
out outside of the Spurs Hotel and they're just yelling
and middle fingering. And one of these Jebbronis, threw an
egg at Webin Yamen and the hit him. Like guys, well,
(18:55):
I mean, this is not Philadelphia where you're throwing batteries
at Santa Claus. But it not a great look, you know.
I just I just don't see why it's necessary to
throw eggs, yes, eggs at Victor Wemnyama. I mean, he's
he's gonna be easy to hit. I mean, the guy's
a seven foot four, easy target. But I just I
(19:21):
didn't love that from Knicks fans. I start think Knicks
fans smashed up a cab, Knicks fans doing damage all
over the streets. Those one are those? Not those birds?
But what's that Those bikes? I haven't ridden them, but
you know you could slide your credit card, pay a
dollar and then ride a bike for however far breaking
those things. People are going crazy, man, And it's funny
(19:42):
because people I don't think they realize. Like in New York,
I would guess we'll say New York, Long Island, the Burbs.
You could even go North Jersey, it's probably sixty sixty
forty Giant Jets fans. So football fans largely split Giants Jets.
(20:05):
Then you go to hockey and you get split Rangers, Islanders,
Islanders mostly in the burps. So then you go to
baseball and you got Yankees Mets. That's probably sixty we'll
go fifty five forty five Yankees. No slight to the
Mets at all. So you've got division among football fans
and baseball fans. And then you go to basketball and
(20:27):
it's probably ninety five to five Knicks fans. I mean,
when where the Brooklyn Nets relevant last two decades ago?
I mean, I'm not going to give you the old
guy dream team with KG Pierce. I feel like they
had someone else, maybe was it Deron Williams, but that
(20:52):
nobody cared about that team. They were mercenaries, just put
together to try to win something. This Knicks team the
city loves. Like you don't see people next time you
ride the subway in New York, let me know how
many Brooklyn Nets T shirts or hats you see. It's
all Nick stuff. And this was before they got to
the final. So that's why the city's crazy somebody posted
(21:14):
their list of the most popular New York teams of
all time, and it was like the eighty six Mets,
which is, you know, fairly obvious. You had the nineteen
ninety eight Yankees, that incredible Jeter team. You had the
(21:35):
New York Giants team that took down Brady and the
undefeated Patriots, right, you had there was one other one.
It wasn't the Joe Nama Jets team. There. Oh, there
was the New York Rangers team that everybody loved. But
it's interesting because I think you might make a credible
(21:58):
case that the New York Knicks are the most loved
New York sports team of all time. Honestly, I don't
remember the streets going crazy when you know Eli Manning
to what's his name off his helmet and a touchdown
(22:22):
in the fourth quarter or not a touchdowns are huge,
first down on fourth down. I just don't remember that
this was the two thousand and seven New York Giants.
I don't remember chaos in the streets like watch parties
every I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It is only one game. It's not a series. Fine,
eighty six Mets. I was way too young. It was
a Strawberry Gooden team, the Red Sox World Series, very
iconic time and team. I mean they had a thirty
for thirty about that team. Books were written about that team,
ninety eight Yankees. They were great, awesome. This is different, guys.
(22:57):
New York's a basketball city. People are just losing their minds.
So this weekend USA soccer Paraguay. Then you have four
games of soccer Saturday, and you get the NBA Finals.
We're so fortunate. And you know, the only drawback as
the kids are out of school now, so they're gonna
(23:19):
be up your rear end just bothering you constantly, unless
you ship them to camp like some people I know
send their kids away for like seven weeks Sleepway Camp,
no devices, and I'm like, we missed that boat just
because I like being around my kids. I can't imagine
seven weeks of my kids going that's insane. Anyways, have
a great weekend, Enjoy the World Cup, Enjoy the NBA Finals.
(23:42):
See you Monday,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up, Street Fire Family, It's me Jason McIntyre,
Straight Boyer for Friday, June the twelfth. You know what
time it is, folks, You know what time it is? Yes,
sirree Bob, it is World Cup time. We finally have
it USA against Paraguay tonight at six o'clock Pacific, nine
(00:38):
o'clock Eastern. I'm so geeked for it, folks. I haven't
been this excited for soccer match in a while. I mean,
how could you not be super stoked for this? There's
just so much excitement in the air out here in
Los Angeles. I know you can find all the negative
stuff you want to say about FIFA and blah blah blah. Folks,
(00:59):
It's World Cup. Did you watch the games yesterday? So
you had Mexico. This is how sweet it is. So
the first game usually starts at twelve, well, of course
the herd ends at twelve. So in I get in
the car and you guys know, if you have Spectrum Cable,
you could there's an app where you can literally just
watch TV in the car. Now, obviously you can't really
(01:20):
watch it while you're driving, but you can cue up
the game, and soccer's not like basketball, where there's end
to end action constantly. Yes, there will be moments of that,
as we saw in the night game last night. We'll
sh'll talk about shortly, but essentially, soccer is a game
where you can just be driving, put the phone down,
you don't have to look, and you can just listen
as they talk about the passes and the defense. It's
(01:43):
like the perfect game for a drive. Now. Of course,
Mexico rolled South Africa. South Africa with two red cards disaster.
I mean, Mexico got a red two three reds. There
hadn't been a World Cup game and like I think
it was twenty years with three red cards. But Mexico
looked good at home. It was a scene and you know,
the this is what gost the world. I get so
(02:04):
geeked about this is I get it. Some people are
just not that. End of the World Cup. I'll just
say this, folks, it's only every four years. We were
fortunate enough two years ago to go to Amsterdam. We
did a London Amsterdam back to back and it was
during the Euros and folks, I'm just telling you, the
bar scene in Europe is just jumping off because there's
games around the clock. And we got to Amsterdam and
(02:26):
Netherlands was playing in a massive match and we went,
you know, we brought the kids to this bar. Every
bar is packed overflowing, and it was. It was just incredible.
And I have a feeling it'll get like that when
we get to the knockout rounds here in the US. Now,
Mexico by virtue of their win over South Africa, it
(02:47):
said let be back up. So there are twelve groups
and eight third place teams advanced, So the top two
in each group advance likely and eight third place finishers,
so that will round out the round of thirty two.
And it's like damn. So you basically win one match
your set one match and you're gonna advance. You have
(03:08):
four points to your lock, so Mexico will advance. Now
where it gets interesting is South Korea played in the
nightcap against Chechia and that game was incredible. Now, the
model that I built like Chechia. They're getting smoked. But
the big thing that the model liked about them was
the set pieces. And they get to throw in and
they get a goal and it's like boom, this is
what they do South Korea answers. Chechia responds with a
(03:32):
goal off another set piece, but it was ruled narrowly
off sides. And then of course South Korea comes down
and Guy gets an unbelievable goal and two to one.
So South Korea look pretty good. They look fast, passing
was crisp. Of course, Chechia was a lot larger, seemed
to dominate in the box. They just didn't generate enough opportunities.
(03:54):
And so that South Korea Mexico game will be four
first place in the group. And if Mexico wins, and
again all these people are running all these simulations, it
looks like they will have home field advantage quote unquote
home field. They'll be playing in Mexico for maybe the
first three rounds of knockouts. Okay, there are some people
(04:16):
speculator listened they could get England essentially at home. It
would be a huge edge. But they've got to beat
South Korea. And I know Mexico like choked out South Africa.
They were. I mean, they did not look good at all.
I don't have a pick for that yet. It's not
until next it's six days away. South Korea traveled very well.
(04:37):
They had they had definitely the crowd edge. So I
think Chechio will beat South Africa maybe handly. They might
have to because those third place teams will want gold differential.
So if they can run it up on South Africa
two three nothing that in South Africa got two red cards,
so now you've got two starters will be down, have
to sit, So I don't know. I think I think
(04:57):
Chechi will still advance in that group. But obviously the
big one today USA Paraguay. If you're wondering what the
model said, it actually said Paraguay has the value, but
time out. That doesn't mean Paraguay is the better team.
That just means based on the number, you should bet
Paraguay in this game, and of course I did not.
(05:21):
Now they're forward, they're one of their top offensive threats
suffered a thigh injury. Unclear if he's gonna play, and
of course they're keeping this. It's like college football teams
with the injuries. You have no idea who's gonna go.
There's no official injury report where you really have to
say in advance, so we don't know if Paraguay's best
(05:41):
offensive guy's gonna be out there. It's gonna be a
defensive slugfest. They're just gonna hunker down and try to
prevent a goal. In the US will probably have possession
for seventy percent of the time, have more opportunities, but
will they break through. The two teams met back in November.
USA beat them two to one. There were actually randomly
two goals in the first ten minutes, and then the
US or to win to one. But they dominated the
(06:01):
stat sheet, and you know, can Poachattino cook up a
similar success rate against this defense. They play what's called
a low block. They'll play like four defenders, four midfield.
They're just gonna play everybody back, just literally sit back
and choke you out and play for the tie. And
it's interesting because there's a lot of love for Turkey
(06:21):
in this group. USA fortunately gets them third. USA gets
Australia second, and of course, like you know, we're being
honest here, Australia is by far the weakest team in
the group. They're not, like, you know, New Zealand bad,
but they are the weakest team in the group. That
being said, it's kind of wide open. The third place
team will advance likely. I think the US need needs
(06:46):
to just get a result obviously, I mean what am
I staying in the obvious?
Speaker 1 (06:50):
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the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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Speaker 2 (07:02):
If they lose, then you must beat Australia and then
you need a result, likely a tie against Turkey. Now
I think we were in that at the last World Cup,
if memory serves, we needed a We tied England and
then we got to win over was it Iran, Iraq
something like that, and that advanced us into the round
(07:24):
of sixteen. It was in a round of thirty two
and we lost to Netherlands. But folks have fired up.
This is going to be exciting. Obviously, Listen, you don't
want to bet the entire bankroll on the USA soccer
team in the first World Cup match on US soil
for the Americans in over thirty years. They're gonna be
juiced up, probably a little nervous. Stadiums so far is
(07:45):
going to be rocking, and yeah, there's probably gonna be
a lot of nerves, similar to the New York Knicks
at Madison Square Garden in Games three and four, you
saw the nerves. You saw the crowd. The Knicks did
not deliver until the end. But so quickly look at
the World Cup schedule. So we get Bosnia, Holy hell,
(08:06):
Bosnia Canada at twelve. I don't think very highly of Canada.
I have no no action on that game. And then
USA Paraguay at six Pacific nine Eastern. Oh, you gotta
stay up late on Friday night, cry about it. Saturday's loaded.
You open up with Katar Switzerland. Then you get Brazil Morocco.
The model says Morocco. The problem is Morocco just had
(08:27):
two guys ruled out, not great, one a central defender.
And then you get what is that Scotland against Haiti
at six, So three games on Saturday, and you get
the NBA Finals, which we'll talk about here shortly. But
(08:49):
I mean it's great. Like anytime you can get sports
during the day during the week, it kind of feels
like the NCAA tournament, doesn't it. Sunday you get Turkey Australia.
Oh yeah, oh wow, we get five games on oh no, wait,
yeah that's Sunday. I'm losing my mind here. So interestingly,
(09:10):
the calendar, if you go to the ESPN scores. Saturday
has three games, but then Sunday has a game late
Saturday night. Oh it's in Vancouver, Okay, got it? So
that is Australia Turkey, So technically that Saturday I haven't
got into it. My guys telling me Turkey. You gotta
(09:31):
look at Turkey. I did see a nice write up
on them. We'll see. I don't know. Germany on Sunday,
Germany Kurusaw. That could be like a six to nothing bloodbath.
Netherlands Japan might be the best game of the weekend.
Ecuador Ivory Coast, very excited for that, and Sweden Tunisia
(09:52):
rounding out the weekend. So it's gonna be very very exciting.
Speaker 1 (09:56):
All right.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
I was gonna do a World Cup preview, but our
guests kind of cancer, which is a little disappointing, But
what can you do, you know? So I figured I
might as well pivot to the NBA Finals just because
that game, I mean, you could tell it was a
flow I was at a flow state and just rolling,
and folks, it's so many.
Speaker 1 (10:20):
Of the takes.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
Let me, can I quickly address one take? Of course,
of course I can't. I there was a hot mic
open and an ESPN Radio or no, maybe it was
the New York Knicks radio team person who works at ESPN.
I guess was caught bashing Taylor Swift, you know, because
obviously it's Taylor Swift. She's in the front row, and
(10:42):
this woman's like, oh Taylor, So she's not a real fan.
What she doing here? What? And I saw some of
those that that kind of take like, wait a minute,
why is this celebrity there? They're not a real Knicks fan?
And I'm like, what are you guys doing? Are we
really playing that game? Who is a fan and who's not?
And who determines that? So like if you didn't so
(11:06):
I didn't go to a Clippers game, I'm not even
a Clippers fan. If the Clippers are playing in the
NBA Finals, I'm trying to get tickets to go to it.
I want to go to the NBA Finals and I'll
probably wear a Clippers jersey. I've I don't think I've
ever been to a USA soccer match in my life.
I worl up I go to a game, So what
am I not a fan?
Speaker 1 (11:26):
Like?
Speaker 2 (11:26):
I just don't understand it. People like sports get you know,
It's just it's so goofy people going after Taylor Swift.
By the way, there is another video of Taylor Swift
when they're down twenty five and her and her friends
are like freaking out, going crazy, and everyone else is
just like, dude, we're down twenty five.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
She kept the faith.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
I mean, that was one of those games. Epic, now
I did I think? I said on yesterday's pod as
soon as the game was over and the line came out,
I bet Spurs in game five, first quarter, one and
a half, full Game five. I'm checking now just to
see if it's moved it probably, I doubt much will move.
(12:07):
It's yeah, still at five. I think it had gone
up to five and a half but pulled back a little.
First quarter is still one and a half, but heavily juiced.
It's headed toward two. There's two lines of thought. Do
the Knicks come out. We've got business to it, We've
got we got to wrap this up. Let's kill these guys,
Let's let's beat them, let's wrap up the series here
or as I mentioned on the Herd, remember Oka see
(12:31):
okayse went up three to two, then had to go
to San Antonio. That game was over by halftime. I
think like, first, I don't know, first five minutes of
the third quarter you could tell it was a beat
down and lo and behold, I'm pretty sure the key
players on the Thunder did not suit up in the
(12:53):
fourth quarter. They just sat on the bench and they
kind of just packed it in. I don't know that
the Knicks will go to that level now. I do
know a buddy who is flying from LA to San
Antonio for the game with with with one of his
with one of his boys, and I've seen some stuff
that a lot of Knicks fans will be there. Now.
Obviously you'd rather celebrate at home, but I don't. I mean,
(13:17):
I'm not saying the Knicks are gonna punt this game,
but I can see without question a very angry Spurs team.
We blew a massive lead, we had two days to
let this marinate. This series is not over, and they're
gonna come out and I think there's a world where
they bludgeon the Knicks. Now. The only counter to that
is there's been no bludgeting in this series. Every game
(13:42):
has come down to the final two minutes, which is
anything you can ask for. I mean, that's the best
of sports right there. If you told me if I
could get four Super Bowls in a row, that all
come down the final two minutes. Where do I sign up?
Please hook me up? I mean the collective score. Let's
see what the collective score in the series is. I
(14:03):
haven't even looked, but I'm gonna guess it's despite the
Knicks being up three to one. So the Knicks were
plus ten plus eleven plus twelve and the Spurs one
by four. So the the Knicks are up three to one,
but they're plus eight in the series.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
That's it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
That's insane. That's how close the series has been. And
I've felt good about the Knicks from the jump. I
don't feel the series is over, and I'll keep repeating
that until the cows come home. And it hasn't really
got on yet. But I did listen to a podcast
and there was like no mention of Wemby getting one
(14:41):
day off between's game three and four and two days
off for the rest of the series. Guys, did you
see Webby three of fourteen? Yes, three of fourteen in
the second half. Now, a bunch of that was just
tip ups at the rim playing volleyball. But for the series,
(15:01):
Wemby's only shooting forty three percent. He now gets two
days rest in between each game. That's massive for a
guy who's getting pulled, pushed, jostled, grabbed, shoved. I mean
Jose Alvarado tried to form tackle him by picking up
his leg and it's like, oh, I can get two
days of rest. Hello. And I just think the Spurs, who,
(15:25):
by the way, have six guys averaging double figures in
the series. That's crazy, that's how loaded they are. The
Knicks have three. It's basically been the brunson Og Show
with a smattering of cat and they just won one.
Thing's late, that's only that's the only reason the next
have this their endgame situations.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
And it's funny because Rob G of course mentioned than today, Hell,
you know, you said the experience wasn't a factor, and
I didn't think it was. It didn't really hurt him
until now, until it hurts him, and we'll see if
it hurts on the rest of the series. I honestly
would love this to go I think six is good
because honestly, seven would be a little too gut wrenching
(16:19):
for me. I just I don't know how I would
handle a game seven rooting for the Knicks against Wemby
on the road. That's suboptimal. Fun stat If you're interested,
here's the shot attempts for the Knicks. We'll start with
Michail Bridge's thirty three field goal attempts in four games,
(16:42):
Karl Anthony Town's forty two in four games, og n
Arnobi fifty field goal attempts in four games. Jalen Brunson
one hundred and six. He has taken double, more than
double the shots of the next largest volume shoot in OG.
I don't know how sustainable that is now. Brunson did
(17:04):
have a good game. He will get two games rest,
two days rest as well everyone obviously, But it feels
like for webin Yama, who kind of struggles a bit.
You saw him kind of kept falling down in the
fourth quarter. Is that a sign of tired it is
a fatigue? I don't know. But the balance for the
Spurs is much better. It's three guys over fifty and
Webb at eighty five. You have Fox who's probably shooting
(17:27):
too much, Harper, who's not shooting enough? And Castle. This
is a really good series, guys. I saw twenty three
million was the number for Game three, And all these
idiots online are like j Mack. Remember they adjusted the
Nielsen so everything's skewed. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. Same applied
(17:48):
to the World Series, same applied to the college football playoffs,
same applied to the Super Bowl. Like, what do you want?
It's so weird how people bend over backwards to somehow
try to I want to discredit the NBA audience and
the series being incredible. It's just so weird. Guy, Can
we just enjoy sports? Is it that hard? I mean
(18:12):
this series has been I mean I'm trying to think back.
What's been a better series? Do you have to go
back to twenty sixteen? Because there wasn't a lot of
great finals in the last seven years. I mean, I
guess get Bucks Bucks Sons was pretty good, but it
was Bucks Suns Like there was really not a lot
of juice there. Now you got Nicks, you got the
(18:33):
city on fire, you got the Spurs going with Wemby.
By the way, did you guys see the video of
the Knicks so out. The Knicks fans are like camped
out outside of the Spurs Hotel and they're just yelling
and middle fingering. And one of these Jebbronis, threw an
egg at Webin Yamen and the hit him. Like guys, well,
(18:55):
I mean, this is not Philadelphia where you're throwing batteries
at Santa Claus. But it not a great look, you know.
I just I just don't see why it's necessary to
throw eggs, yes, eggs at Victor Wemnyama. I mean, he's
he's gonna be easy to hit. I mean, the guy's
a seven foot four, easy target. But I just I
(19:21):
didn't love that from Knicks fans. I start think Knicks
fans smashed up a cab, Knicks fans doing damage all
over the streets. Those one are those? Not those birds?
But what's that Those bikes? I haven't ridden them, but
you know you could slide your credit card, pay a
dollar and then ride a bike for however far breaking
those things. People are going crazy, man, And it's funny
(19:42):
because people I don't think they realize. Like in New York,
I would guess we'll say New York, Long Island, the Burbs.
You could even go North Jersey, it's probably sixty sixty
forty Giant Jets fans. So football fans largely split Giants Jets.
(20:05):
Then you go to hockey and you get split Rangers, Islanders,
Islanders mostly in the burps. So then you go to
baseball and you got Yankees Mets. That's probably sixty we'll
go fifty five forty five Yankees. No slight to the
Mets at all. So you've got division among football fans
and baseball fans. And then you go to basketball and
(20:27):
it's probably ninety five to five Knicks fans. I mean,
when where the Brooklyn Nets relevant last two decades ago?
I mean, I'm not going to give you the old
guy dream team with KG Pierce. I feel like they
had someone else, maybe was it Deron Williams, but that
(20:52):
nobody cared about that team. They were mercenaries, just put
together to try to win something. This Knicks team the
city loves. Like you don't see people next time you
ride the subway in New York, let me know how
many Brooklyn Nets T shirts or hats you see. It's
all Nick stuff. And this was before they got to
the final. So that's why the city's crazy somebody posted
(21:14):
their list of the most popular New York teams of
all time, and it was like the eighty six Mets,
which is, you know, fairly obvious. You had the nineteen
ninety eight Yankees, that incredible Jeter team. You had the
(21:35):
New York Giants team that took down Brady and the
undefeated Patriots, right, you had there was one other one.
It wasn't the Joe Nama Jets team. There. Oh, there
was the New York Rangers team that everybody loved. But
it's interesting because I think you might make a credible
(21:58):
case that the New York Knicks are the most loved
New York sports team of all time. Honestly, I don't
remember the streets going crazy when you know Eli Manning
to what's his name off his helmet and a touchdown
(22:22):
in the fourth quarter or not a touchdowns are huge,
first down on fourth down. I just don't remember that
this was the two thousand and seven New York Giants.
I don't remember chaos in the streets like watch parties
every I don't remember that.
Speaker 1 (22:36):
Now.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
It is only one game. It's not a series. Fine,
eighty six Mets. I was way too young. It was
a Strawberry Gooden team, the Red Sox World Series, very
iconic time and team. I mean they had a thirty
for thirty about that team. Books were written about that team,
ninety eight Yankees. They were great, awesome. This is different, guys.
(22:57):
New York's a basketball city. People are just losing their minds.
So this weekend USA soccer Paraguay. Then you have four
games of soccer Saturday, and you get the NBA Finals.
We're so fortunate. And you know, the only drawback as
the kids are out of school now, so they're gonna
(23:19):
be up your rear end just bothering you constantly, unless
you ship them to camp like some people I know
send their kids away for like seven weeks Sleepway Camp,
no devices, and I'm like, we missed that boat just
because I like being around my kids. I can't imagine
seven weeks of my kids going that's insane. Anyways, have
a great weekend, Enjoy the World Cup, Enjoy the NBA Finals.
(23:42):
See you Monday,
Fox Sports Radio News
Host
Jonas Knox
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