July 7, 2026 • 36 mins
Stugotz and company are in Lake Tahoe in advance of the American Century Championship golf tournament coming up this week as they discuss Team USA's loss to Belgium. Taylor further explains how bad the loss was for USA. Former soccer player and current analyst Taylor Twellman joins the guys to talk about the USA loss. Plus, Taylor offers up a story involving a Soccer fan.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to ste Gotson Company Live podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from three to
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Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Find your local station for Stugotson Company.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Live at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Let's give this. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We are back in Lake Tahoe at the American Century Championships.
Honored to be here. We love this event. It's the
same day every single day here. Taylor, though, is unhinged
today and Taylor twelveman going to join us later this
later in this episode. But Taylor, my Taylor is unhinged
today because US Soccer loses to Belgium last night four
(00:47):
to one. I mean, you are all over the place
this morning. You are calling US Soccer the James Franklin
of sports.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Essentially, what's the matter with you? What happened to you?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
We play a game around here called hand up, Yeah,
hand up Yeah. I am embarrassed that I believed this.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Team hand up.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I am proud that I didn't believe in this team
about that.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
That was a measuring stick game to see where this
so called Golden Generation is with top ten opponents. Yep,
they're not even close. From the moment. From the moment
that game kicked off, the moment looked way too big
for them. They looked terrified trying to defend their best
players were shockingly bad. It's just like, I feel like
(01:33):
I should be wearing a Dunce cap today for believing
in that.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Because you believed in US men's soccer. What I've been
telling you for years, stop believing in US men's soccer.
Once they play somebody good list and they're at home,
they're hosting the thing, and they got themselves to a
place they've been to before when they weren't hosting this thing.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I keep telling you, and I was telling you.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Once they faced the good teams, and they did last night,
they're going to be exposed. And they were exposed realistically,
and it was embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's the bad part. It's okay to lose.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You lose, you know, you lose in pks, you lose
by a goal, you lose on a bad goal. It's
fine losing to Belgium. There is no shame in losing
to Belgium. It's losing to Belgium. That way, that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You compare the way we went out to the way
Mexico went out at the Azteca against England. Mexico made mistakes,
but they went out swinging. You look at cap Verde
who goes out against Argentina. Cape Verde didn't blink against
Leo Messi.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, cape Verde won the Cup. I mean they did
put it on the pole tailer.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And realistically, realistically, soccer in this country never had people
like you. You've seen this story way too many times.
The biggest damning fact for soccer yesterday was that they
now are starting to lose people like me who have
been holding up the cape for this team, saying now
the golden generations coming, the golden generations coming. Our best
players are playing in Europe, even though our goalkeepers playing
(02:53):
in the MLS. Yeah, they lost me because I had
the moment yesterday, the realization this is probably the best
we could do. This is our ceiling. We are the
reason why I called them the James Franklin of international soccer.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, please explain on that. I mean I have an
idea as to why, but go ahead.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
US soccer is the bully that knocks around lesser opponents.
But once you put us in the ring with somebody
our size or god forbid bigger, we pee our pants, yes,
and we get absolutely pummeled. Do you look at the
group stage and the first round of the knockout round
Paraguay thirty fourth in FIFA's ranking, Australia twenty eighth and
FIFA rankings, Turkey A was twenty seventh, which we lost.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That can we just call it Turkey? I mean, enough
at Turkey A jeez?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Then Bosnia sixty first. Belgium was eighth in the World
Cup rankings. And that's why, to me, this World Cup
is a failure. There's really no other way to spin it.
It's going out with this level of a stinker and
no showing. The round of sixteen just completely invalidated the
group stage and that Bosnia match.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I tell it. Tim Howard to play goalie last night.
That's how old is Tim Howard? Not that not that
age is really affective when you're playing goalie. But you
were yearning clamoring for Tim Howard last night. Who's the
only soccer player I can aim outside of Land the
Donovan I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And I'm not even too sure age matters for this
US men's national team because Tim Reim.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh, yeah, that's guy.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Tim Reem is thirty eight years old. He's our center back.
Tim Reim was too slow eight years ago in the
World Cups. And I get it. Our best athletes they're
playing football. Our best athletes are playing basketball. We're in
a country with over three hundred million people. Tim rem
simply cannot be the best that we could do.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Three hundred of the three hundred million available people. Right,
What you're saying is Tim Reim cannot be the best
that we can produce.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Pause? Could you could talk about all the progress that
we've made as a soccer country.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We can't talk about it. We've made no progress. We
simply went to a place we've been to before. I mean, right,
Am I wrong?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We've been to this round before?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Correct?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Correct? Yes, it's Tim Reim starting at thirty eight is
an indictment on where we are as a soccer country,
where the defensive depth we show is shocking. Because I
think most people that follow this team would agree Tim
Reem is our best option. Yes, he shouldn't be our
best option, but he is by far our best option.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It is so funny how these things change day to day.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Win or lose, right, Tim Reim? When they win, he's
the cage evet that the US socker team needs. And
when they lose in a pool of three hundred million people,
how is Tim Reim the best we could produce?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I don't even care about Tim Reim. I am sorry
that Taylor is being so hard on you, Tim Reim.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I'm reading them.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You really are.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You got reamed into the boards last night like a
hockey player.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I mean Stu Gott's Yeah, we equalize one one off
the free kick deflection, Yeah, lucky gull. What a moment
for the country. One of the best moments in US
men's national team.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Those sixty one seconds, the sixty.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
One seconds that we equalize that game. Yeah, only for
Tim Reim to come back on the other side and
get absolutely posterized sixty one seconds after we equalized. Kids
in Belgium are going to grow up with that poster
on their walls.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, with Tim Raim getting smushed into the boards on
their wall, and say themselves, they have three hundred million
people living over there, and that's the best they could produce.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
And Matt Freeze, the goalkeeper, is the other example of
you just.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just it was amateur hour. That's what made it embarrassing.
It felt like amateur hour. It felt like, you know,
it was amateurs playing against a professional club.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The start of the second high used club. You like that,
Huh Yeah, I don't know if the national team had
club technically like a club would be like Liverpool or Manchester.
You're trying. I do appreciate the fact that this World
Cup you've been watching, you've been locked in.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yes, I don't need to try.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I just keep saying us ben soccer is never going
to be a thing, and they never are.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So I mean the US that second half, they start
off the second half so well, they're the ones dictating
the action. We're chasing that second goal. We have the
home crowd in Seattle behind us. You could feel the
momentum shifting and you get that disaster of a third
goal from Matt Freeze where he has plenty of time
for the clearance and he just young, way coody, he
(07:24):
just kicked into the ground and the moment was again
just way too big.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
For this team.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Cape Verde walks away from this World Cup feeling better
than the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Right, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Not, that's not. We went one round further than Cape Verde,
and you're telling me they walk away feeling better than
we did.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
One thousand percent, Kate, Like, Cape Verde is in a
place where they could still hang their hat on moral victories.
Their population is the size of some very small US cities.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, they didn't win a game, Taylor.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I mean no, but they had a couple of good draws.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They had come I know.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But we won some actual games, including a game against Paraguay.
And we're still saying that Cape Verdet walks away feeling
better about their.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Soccer because our time for moral victories we're in the nineties.
Our time for moral victories we're in the two thousands. Yes,
we cannot keep being this country that says this is
our golden generation of soccer and then we come away
with the moral victory where a team like Belgium, who
spent thirty six hours complaining about the flow Balgin red
(08:29):
card reversal, yeah, only to then stuff us in a
locker and say, hey, if Baligan played, if Balgan didn't play,
we were still going to stuffy in this locker.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, It's what I was trying to tell you and
Mikey yeah, yesterday.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
As it relates to Balligan.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Sometimes I'm a big believer and things happen for a reason,
and you don't meddle, you know, once they're on the on,
they once they start moving, you don't get in the
way of things that are happening naturally.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And what happened was unnatural.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And we went from this cute, little lovable, you know,
host country team, the United States men's team, to a
team that had a target on our back because.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We felt the need to have the leader of our country.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The president called the head of FIFA and say, hey,
reverse that red card on Balligan. I'm telling you, if
Baligan doesn't play, that team is focused, that team rallies
together and they get it done because they don't want
that to be Balligan's last game, and they.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Win that game.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I'm telling you right now what they would have been
better off without Balligan, and Balligan should have said, hey,
you know what, I got a red I'm going to
do the right thing here. I don't need someone to
call on my behalf. I'm not going to play soccer today.
I Am not going to do it. It's going to get
in the way of us winning. I'm telling you right now,
I listen, I'm going to ask Twilman about it, and
I guarantee you that he believes in this kind of
stuff and he'll agree with me, guarantee it about.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I felt like early like WWF days with the nWo.
I like being the bad boys of soccer.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Being the bad boys of soccer is cool until you're
losing for to one.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, But you understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yes, of course it's cool until you're losing four to one,
But you understand it's a cute, st little, lovable team,
underdog team that suddenly has the president calling on their
behalf to get a player who shouldn't be playing based
on the rules. It was a bad red card, we
all agree, terrible red card.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It shouldn't have been called, but it was called.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
But then when you have someone interfear like that, you
go from underdog to oh my god, we have marks
on our backs. And Belgium played like it last night,
like they had a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
They were pissed and they should have been.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But what would you rather be? The lovable underdogs or
the bad boys?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Cape Verde fifty two days until college football soccer.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It was nice knowing you.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So we are out here at the American Century Championships
in Lake Tahoe. It's gorgeous here. Taylor is unhinged. I'm
trying to enjoy the scenery. I'm trying to enjoy these
moments here. I'm trying to enjoy myself and Taylor is unhinged.
Won't shut up about US soccer who lost last night
to Belgium four to one and embarrassing fashion and Taylor
(11:07):
twelve men's going to join us. The tailor I want
to speak to is going to join us, coming up
in about ten minutes or so. But you are unhinged today,
my friend, you have nicknamed for Christian pulistic.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You're out of your mind, dude.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
I just keep mumbling under my breath Christian policy, he does.
Yesterday was a legacy game for Christian politic. Yeah, the
Golden Boy of the Golden Generation. Biggest match in the
US men's soccer history, biggest knockout round match in the
US men's soccer history. We needed him to be great, Stu. Yeah,
(11:39):
not only was he not great, Yeah, not only was
he not average, he was awful. He lost eleven possessions
in the first half, the most of any player on
the field.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Eleven turnovers. Huh he was I really? Was it a
Jets quarterback?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah? I really don't want to hear the name Christian
Polisic anymore. His nickname? Do you know what his nickname is?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, this is a nickname that you have given him, right,
But he has an actual nickname.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What is the actual nickname?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
His actual nickname is Captain America.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Okay, so Captain America is the actual nickname. And this
is when things are going good, this is when USA
men's soccer is winning.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He is Captain America.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And I'm guessing you have a new nickname based on
what happened last night?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Correct? Is new nickname going forward that I'm going to
try to get off the ground?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Steve Rogers because Steve Rogers was Captain America before he
turned into Captain America, right, And Christian Polisick he's Steve
Rogers because he's just a regular dude.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So he's just Steve Rodgers who never turns into Captain America.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
He doesn't show up in the big moment. He's overhyped
because of how low the bar is for men's soccer
in America.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Listen, I get it, I get where you're going with this.
But what an awful nickname?
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Steve Rogers an awful nickname for an awful player.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yes, I know, but how to friends, Like how do
they go about like working with that nickname.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Instead of people saying, hey, look, it's Captain America. People
just look at him and go hey, Steve Rogers.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
But not his friends, like just when he's walking by
people at public You are encouraging the public right now
to call if they see Captain America out on the streets. Okay,
you are encouraging them to say hey, not say this.
Don't say hey, that's Captain America. You want them saying, hey,
there's Steve. No, you can't, there's old Stevie.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
You have to go first and last name, because if
you just call him Steve, it's kind of confusing. You
have to let it be known he is Steve Rogers.
He doesn't deserve the nickname of Captain America. Yes, he
is just a regular person.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Captain America is reserved for the greats, right, Steve Rogers
is reserved for the average person.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yes, yes, If Christian Polisic is your best player, yeah,
you're not winning anything of significance. He's left injured in
three of the seven World Cup games he started right.
Not only was he bad yesterday, we can't even count
on him to play full ninety minutes.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I know, but Tim Rieen was the guy you were
getting out in the first segment. So now it's it's
Captain America who were now calling Steve Rogers. I can't
wait to see pulistic if I see him, I wouldn't
know if if if he was sitting next to me
right now doing the show, I wouldn't know it was
Steve Rodgers. But if I do see him and someone
points out, hey, that's Captain America, I'm gonna be like yo, Steve.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
And then after after the match, the reporter was asking
him about his injury and he was like, get it
hurts right now, but now I get a chance to
rest up, rest up for what you set out. You
sat up last year of the the US Tournament because
you said you wanted to be fully prepared for the
World Cup.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Wasn't the beauty of this team supposed to be that
Pulistic wasn't their best player?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Right? That he could be Steve Rodgers and they'd be fine.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Polisic has to be for the US team to be
what the what people want the US team to be.
Polisic has to be their best. He has to be
their best player. Now, the thing is, you have other
players that have risen their level, the Weston McKinney's, the
Tyler Adams to where Polistic doesn't have to carry the
team necessarily, but he can't be a negative out there
(15:12):
on the field, on the pitch, as they say, right
on the pitch.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I love the idea of just such a common nickname.
Put it on the Paul Taylors. Should we start calling
Christian Pulistic instead of calling Pulisic Captain America? Should we
call them Steve Rogers?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I'm trying to think of I'm gonna put it in
NFL terms for you, for Christian Polisic, right, because I
was wrapping my brain around this yesterday. What is the
NFL equivalent for Christian Polisic?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Boy?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
And I've settled on really just any mid quarterback in
that fifteen to twenty five range. So Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Yes,
one of those quarterbacks that comes in with a crazy
amount of expectations, a crazy amount of hype. You watch them,
you see flashes of potential, but overall you're watching a
(16:04):
player like Trevor Lawrence and you're like, Okay, Trevor Lawrence.
The Jaguars are never winning anything of significance if Trevor
Lawrence is their quarterback.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I understand what you're saying. But what you're saying about
Pulisic is he's Clark Kent. Yeah, Clark Kent who never
turns into Superman. He is Bruce Wayne, who never turns
into Batman.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
He is Steve Rogers, who never turns into Captain America.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
So Bruce Wayne. I don't know if it's the best comparison,
because I don't think Batman had any Like Batman didn't
get transformed with powers. He was mostly just like technology.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
He just put an outfit on. Yeah, I mean he
had a belt, and I think he.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Knew like martial arts or taekwondo, one of those two.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It was odd that he could just put that stuff
on and all of a sudden, he's spinning like you know,
he's flying from buildings. I mean, he could do whatever.
It's ridiculous. What a ridiculous superhero that was probably perhaps
the most ridicable, well outside to Pulistic, the most ridiculous
superhero we've ever had. I mean, Batman, Please, utility belt.
I wish Pulissa got a utility belt. They prevented him
(17:08):
from turning the ball over and scoring a goal once
in a while.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
But that in terms of superheroes that could actually become superheroes,
Batman is the most attainable for the common folkus because
you don't you don't.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Need it feels like it could have been anyone.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah, yeah, you don't need like a bite by a
radioactive spider or any of the you know, you get
submerged in a tank that all of a sudden gives
you these these powers. Batman was just Hey, he's a billionaire,
he's got the resources, He's going to find his way
to be a superhero.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I gotta tell you, Bruce, Wayne has it pretty good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Like the idea that he would want to be Batman
is absurd to me, because you're right, you had a
big mansion, he was a billionaire, he had a butler,
his name was Alfred. I mean, he had it all
and like to waste any sort of time saving other
people's lives when you could be living.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Your own life. I mean, what do you do it? Seriously?
Maybe that's but Pelistic was thinking.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
I just the image of him just on the bench.
I think if you had a lasting moment from this
World Cup, what it's going to be. Yeah, I think
it's going to be Christian Polistic with his head in
his hands, subbed off when the team very clearly had
no chance, no future. He's twenty seven. Next World Cup cycle,
(18:25):
he's going to be thirty one. The problem with this
World Cup team is a lot of the players.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Five years younger than Ring.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
By the way, no way you reams thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Seven years younger than Ring. But anyway, you were saying.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
The problem for this World Cup team is a lot
of the players were going into their prime or entering
their prime. Four years from now. This core it's going
to be there either in their prime still or exiting
their prime. And that's why it felt like this was
the now or never year for the USA.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, the hope is that this team would inspire the
next generation, that hosting the World Cup would inspire the
next generation, that from the three hundred million people that
we have, we would find more soccer players. And I'm
here to tell you we will not. They are all
sprinting to NFL right now, and college football. They are
(19:17):
all sprinting to anything but soccer. You put it in
all that work and you get embarrassed like that against
the world power in Belgium.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Why do I want to sign up for that? The
money's not in soccer.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You know where it is Major League Baseball, you know
where it is the NFL, you know where it is
college football.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
There is one way to fix soccer in this country.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well start paying them more.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
No, we have to put a thirty year ban on
kids playing football, basket on baseball. Yeah, and then say
we're putting one hundred percent of our attention to soccer.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
That's unfair to the kids. Man. You do that, though, yes.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And you'll see how many Embapes and Hollins we have.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So what you're doing is forcing the next Randy.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Moss to play soccer rather than play football, because that
is the problem. Rather than play soccer, you're forcing them
to play soccer. That is the problem the Randy moss Is.
At one point in their life they decide, Hey, you
know what, enough of this sitting around crap enough. You
know I'm sitting here, the ball never comes my way.
It's hard, I have to use my feet. I can
(20:15):
go do something now. So I'm a great athlete, world
class athlete, and I can make millions upon millions upon
millions of dollars and get TV jobs until the end
of time. But that's the problem. Those kids decide, at
some point in their life, this game's boring. This game
doesn't have enough rewards for me. I'm gonna go play football.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We need the next Lebron James in net because I
never want to watch Matt Freeze play.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
He'd be a good goalie even at this age. We
could have used them last night.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I think he gets in that starting eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Put it on the poll.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Would you be okay if Lebron was our goal was
the US men's national team goalie.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We're in Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
There's a fine looking man sitting in to my left tailor.
Twelve minutes. There are two good looking Taylor sitting to
my left ere Taylor twelve minute with US A tough
loss last night for you, US boy, buddy, You know what,
it was an embarrassing loss, at least from my standpoint.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
What do you think that's the hardest thing? You know,
it's it's a pill that I still feel. Listen, It's
one thing to lose the game. If Kevin de Bruyne
or Belgium score world class goal, you lose to one,
you tip your cap and say it is what it
is to lose in the fashion that they did, to
lose in the way where opening whistle, it felt like
(21:36):
a completely different team, a team that we hadn't seen
play this entire World Cup for the United States, that
was tough.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That was really tough.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
And that is a difficult pill for that group of
players to swallow, and that's going to be a difficult
one for them to get over.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Taylor, do you think the World Cup for America is
going to be graded as a success of failure or
how are you kind of seeing?
Speaker 5 (21:56):
You said quarterfinals, quar, I didn't I think the bus
would be a capitulation, you know what I mean, I
didn't see that happening. So to answer your question, I
don't know the problem is the soccer person in me
will say Paraguay is definitely possible, right, So that kind
(22:17):
of pulled forward. Listen, Paraguay qualified incoonnonable like South America
is no joke. They only gave up six goals and
woke up qualifying and you scored three goals in.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
The first half. So that's I see that.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
But then the media person in me is, how do
I explain to the general public that it is different?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
It's the round of sixteen. They lost, they're out, and
here we are.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
How'd you feel about the Uh?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Well, I guess the president stepping in and you know,
FIFA overturning the Balligan red card and him.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know, sometimes like the normal progression of things.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I'm a big believer and things happen for a reason,
and I feel like the US team might have rallied
without their best player, and I don't like when we
mess with the normal, normal, you know, kind of trajectory
of how things are going to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
I think if the Balligan thing happens within twenty four
to thirty six hours of the Bosnia game, I don't
think it's anything like this, right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think you're right. I think it put a target
on the back. Weird.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah, it put way too much of a distraction. Now,
the US didn't lose because of that. I'm going to
make that abundantly clear. But you can't sit here and
say that it didn't change the whole energy of the
entire thing.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
It felt very odd, Yes, motivated, Yes, Yes they had
a chip. Yes, it's a chip.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Yeah, and so it put a target on the back
that quite frankly, the United States doesn't deserve because they're
not in the top eight of the world, so you
didn't need to add that extra element. But that falls
on FIFA burying their heads in the sand and not
doing their due diligence. And within thirty six hours saying listen,
the referee made a mistake based on the appeal from
(23:56):
the United States. We're changing the Balligan thing. That would
have changed the narrative, but the narrative that the president
made two phone calls. Then he's taken credit for it.
Now some people are saying he had nothing to.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Do with it.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Now you're just talking about complete nonsense that you needed
to talk about. Are you going to show up on
the field and here we are talking about that.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Belgium should feel silly for how much time they spend
complaining about reversal, right, because they're starting eleven. Looked like
miles better than ours and they're starting eleven.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
This was a brilliant move from Rudy Garcia because they're
starting eleven in the first two games. Was the top
five oldest teams in the World Cup last night was not.
They sat the Bruna. They sat Lukaku, who has been
off the bench the entire time. Doku didn't start, so
they tapped into the energy and youthfulness of their own roster.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And yeah, you're one hundred percent correct.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
But on the other hand, if I was Rudy Garcia,
I would have said publicly, you can play whoever you want.
We're gonna be ready, like I would have used it
the other way. But quite frankly, I don't need to
say anything to Rudy Garcia because they were ready to go.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yep, where's us men's soccer?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
We'll get to golf in a second, because I am
now happy that you can focus on your golf game.
I'm only concerned about the bet I put on you
to win this damn thing. But where do we go? Like,
how does US men's soccer move forward?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Here? I don't know, Stucotts.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
I really don't know, because I feel like I'm asked
that after every round of sixteen exit. So the only
thing I will say is if you're not if you're
in the ecosystem of the men's soccer, no matter what
part of it, and you're not motivated by this, then
you really need to think about the changes in evolution
and how do you grow this thing?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:36):
I will say this, the US men will always be
better if they have three Christian Poliitics, three Weston McKinney's,
three Tyler Adams. So my answer to that, Stucotts, is
we just got to develop better players.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And more of them.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
We got to have a fishing, bigger pool.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Yes, we got to have forty eight to fifty guys
that you know can play. But also what that does
is it raises the level of everyone and also around them,
so the internal competition of the team, they have to
deliver and they have to play.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
It feels like every World Cup cycle we talk about
needing a better youth system in this and then we
crash out of the World Cup and the same complaints
pop up where people are talking about it's tens of
thousands of dollars for kids to play, travel.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
To play, all of it.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, how much of that plays into why
we have such a small talent pool, besides the fact
that soccer isn't the biggest sport in this country.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I would say this though, MOLS academies over the last
four or five years were they're now no longer paid
to play, so they're trying to bridge that gap, right.
US Soccer has done a deal with Bank of America.
They're trying to bridge that gap and make it more inclusive.
But it's not the Taylor to your point, Americans, we
wanted to happen overnight. I just don't think this is
(26:50):
going to happen overnight. I really don't. Twenty one of
those twenty six players that played in this World Cup
came from or were developed in MLS.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Now MLS started to the last World Cup. So over
the next twenty years, now what happens.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
But everyone under the sun said, if your best players
are playing in Europe, they'll be ready for the pressure.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
They'll be ready for the moment. Guys, last night was
a moment.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Was a moment where all the pressure in the world
and your top eleven were from the top leagues in
the world, and they were not ready to play. That's
where the dilemma truly lies, the sixty one seconds where
the game was tied. Though they can never take those
seconds in the great.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Sixty one second maybe the greatest sixty one seconds of
the history of US men.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Soakak aside the third The third goal is the hardest
one for me to swallow, right, the one thing to
be down to one. But at the beginning of the
second half we made subs. There was different energy. It
looked like they were okay to give up that goal
with your goalkeeper and center back making a mockery the situation.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
That is where that sucks. That's brutal. Yeah, it was embarrassing.
Were you yelling like, hey, get back of the net.
What were you doing in that moment?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
In that moment, I was like, what just stop the ball?
Truly in all serious ste.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Guts right the goalkeeper kick it thirty yards into the stand?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, I don't care, right, they just get it out
of there. Like this notion that we need goalkeepers to
be great with their feet and passers, Well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
That just bit you in the rear end.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Kick it thirty rows in the stands, everybody regroups and
guess what, it's still two to one.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yep, all right, I know you got to go.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
But my concern about putting a bet on you, just
so we're clear, was that you're going to be focused
on soccer and not the golf.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Friday morning would have been tough.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
We got soccer out of the way, though, I mean,
unfortunately we all wanted them to advance, and now you
can just focus on golf. I'm feeling good about your
chances this week.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I would feel really good by the fact that I've
played two rounds in the last thirty days, So yeah,
I would feel really good.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Stew cuts at Fish's plate like a thousand rounds this week.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
No, Fish already played eighteen this morning and it's just
eight o'clock and he's going out again right now.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yes, absolutely, all right. We appreciate you, advantageo your weekend
out here man.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
All right, the great Taylor twelve minute with US US
Soccer stinks.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
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 4 (29:23):
The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming
live on Fox one, the official English streaming platform, to
catch every unforgettable moment. Fox one brings the action straight
to your screen, so you never miss a goal. Download
Fox one and experience the FIFA World Cup live. Don't
miss the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday on Fox and Fox
one Ober.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Thanks to Taylor Twelman for joining us earlier. We appreciate
his time. There are two stories here that I'm trying
to get to, and I have a feeling I'm only
going to get to one. I want to get to
Jannis and what happened. It became official he's no longer
with Milwaukee. He wrote them a nice letter, goodbye letter,
thank you for everything.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I'm on to South Beach.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
But there was a Jersey mishap that I want to
get to involving Giannis. But there's also this soccer fan
that I have no idea what this story is. I
have no idea any of the details surrounding this story.
All I know is that unhinged Taylor Hippolis today is
a stew got to get to the soccer fit, got
to get to the soccer fan.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So let's get to the soccer fit.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
So Michael Hewitt is sixty five years old. He's a
Leeds United supporter. He's from the United Kingdom. Right, he
had plans to go from England to the United States
to watch the England matches.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Here.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
He has a short layover in Barcelona.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
His family does not hear from him. They start an
international missing person search.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Wow, days go by? Really?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
On the tenth day of the search, Okay, they track
his credit cards and get a location to try to
find out where he is. Where do you think he was?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I have no idea. I mean I have no idea.
To be honest with.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
You, he was at the bars in Barcelona.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You can't spell Barcelona without bar how about that?
Speaker 4 (31:15):
So what had happened was in Barcelona stirring his layover?
He loses his phone? Yes, and he cancels his trips
to the United States because on his phone he had
all his travel tickets on it. Yes, he just goes
to the bars to enjoy his time in Spain. He
doesn't know any numbers saved on his phone to let
(31:38):
his family know that his plans change. And he says
that he was blissfully unaware that anybody was looking for
him in ten days.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
It was probably the greatest ten days of his life.
I mean, no one's trying to get I mean outside
of the you know, his family being concerned and being
an international search for this guy, because his family has no.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Idea where he is.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
But it had to be the ten greatest days of
his life.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
The great.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Oh, my god, it's the great. It's what I tell you.
It's why I go to Augusta for one reason. I
can't bring my phone on the course. And it's the
greatest five to seven hours of my entire life. So
he didn't have anyone's phone number in his family committed
to memory.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Zero.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Do you have anyone that like close to you?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Do you have my number committed to memory?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
No, So if you lost it, now I've got too far.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
So if you if you lost.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Your phone and you were at bars in Barcelona, you
would not be able to get a hold of me.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
No, no chance. I The only numbers I believe I
have committed to memory are my mom's phone number, right,
my dad's phone number, yes, and then the phone number
of the house I grew up in that we moved
out of about ten years.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Okay, I remember my home number two I do from
the first house.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I grew up in.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So you it this guy so so he never gets
to the United States, he loses his phone, and he decides,
here's the best plan of action. Not alert my family,
who's going to be concerned about me. But when in Barcelona,
why not just hang out of the bars for ten days?
Why when international search is going on for me? So
his family love him, get him on the show.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I Want You with youwit more like blew it?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
How about that his family knew that he had made
it to Barcelona because the last time he had his
phone was posting pictures of him in the pubs, in
the bars in Barcelona. And then he just goes completely dark,
completely off the grid. His family is probably thinking the
absolute worse. Where this guy had plans to go to
(33:35):
the United States to see England live and in person. Yes,
he said he didn't go to the embassy because he
didn't really think it was that big of a deal
because he still had his passport and nothing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
With I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
This seems like a guy who wanted to lose his phone,
who wanted to spend ten days in Barcelona, who wanted
to not be bothered by his family. I got breaking
news to the Ewits. He doesn't like you, he doesn't
want to be bothered by you. He just wanted ten
days of silence. Leave the man alone.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
I mean, this is this has to be the most
British story of all time, because what do you mean
this guy just went off the grid completely when zero
dark thirty, like Lebron James getting ready for a big
playoff run, right said, I don't need to let my
family know. Just a just a major event. Yes, like
(34:23):
your family is expecting you to get on a bird
to go to England. See you posting updates for.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
They want to hear all about it.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yes, and you pull a disappearing act much like Pulisic.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Oh my god, Steve, Yeah, Steve Rodgers holistic Dan.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I don't know if this guy's in the right of
the wrong. I don't. I mean, I'm not like.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It has to like you're two days in right, You're
on a bender, you're drinking. It has to feel good,
like at some point it has to set in. Listen,
this whole like not getting bothered thing. This is awesome.
No one's trying to get a hold of me. This
is awesome, let me sink into this for another eight days.
But he has to be thinking to himself. Also, my
family's going to be concerned and people are going to
(35:07):
start looking for me. So I don't know if I
should love you it or hate you it. I'm not
certain what to do here. I'm inclined to say I
love him. I do want him on the show, and
I would like his parents on the show.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
There is no way Michael Hewitt sixty five years old
has a wife, right, because I'm trying to imagine if
the situation.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Was also sixty five. He's like he's arrived at an
age where he doesn't give a bleep. He's like, just
leave me alone. I'm drinking for ten days.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
But if you just stopped contacting Abby after the third day,
she would probably get concerned. The first two days it
would be a vacation to be heaven.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean, are you kidding me? I think the third
day probably still in heaven. I'm trying to think one
Abbey would actually call the call someone up and say
I'm concerned my husband is missing.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It wouldn't be the fourth day.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I doubt it would be the fifth day, because by
the fifth day.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
You're really enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Like, man, there's money still in the account, but I
don't have to deal with him.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I mean, this is a classic situation.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
I don't think she'd ever call. This is a.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Classic situation where if the situations were reversed.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, this is only a.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Situation a guy could find himself in, of course, Like
the wife never thinks of I'm just not going to
contact anybody yet that thought, that thought never crosses his mind. Right,
this is a case of just guys being again, like
Michael Hewett described it, blissfully unaware.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I mean, Abby has everyone's number committed to memory, including yours.
By the way, Wow, in the event of an emergency,
like she's going to know how to get a hold
of you, she probably is. Well, she definitely has my
number memorized, our kids, yours, my dad's.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
She would just let me sit there forever. It would
be heaven.
Thanks for listening to ste Gotson Company Live podcast. Be
sure to catch us live every weekday from three to
five pm Eastern noon to two pm Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Find your local station for Stugotson Company.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Live at Fox Sports Radio dot com, or stream us
live every day on the iHeartRadio app by searching FSR.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Let's give this. You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
We are back in Lake Tahoe at the American Century Championships.
Honored to be here. We love this event. It's the
same day every single day here. Taylor, though, is unhinged
today and Taylor twelveman going to join us later this
later in this episode. But Taylor, my Taylor is unhinged
today because US Soccer loses to Belgium last night four
(00:47):
to one. I mean, you are all over the place
this morning. You are calling US Soccer the James Franklin
of sports.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Essentially, what's the matter with you? What happened to you?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
We play a game around here called hand up, Yeah,
hand up Yeah. I am embarrassed that I believed this.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Team hand up.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I am proud that I didn't believe in this team
about that.
Speaker 4 (01:10):
That was a measuring stick game to see where this
so called Golden Generation is with top ten opponents. Yep,
they're not even close. From the moment. From the moment
that game kicked off, the moment looked way too big
for them. They looked terrified trying to defend their best
players were shockingly bad. It's just like, I feel like
(01:33):
I should be wearing a Dunce cap today for believing
in that.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Because you believed in US men's soccer. What I've been
telling you for years, stop believing in US men's soccer.
Once they play somebody good list and they're at home,
they're hosting the thing, and they got themselves to a
place they've been to before when they weren't hosting this thing.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
And I keep telling you, and I was telling you.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Once they faced the good teams, and they did last night,
they're going to be exposed. And they were exposed realistically,
and it was embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
That's the bad part. It's okay to lose.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You lose, you know, you lose in pks, you lose
by a goal, you lose on a bad goal. It's
fine losing to Belgium. There is no shame in losing
to Belgium. It's losing to Belgium. That way, that's the problem.
Speaker 4 (02:14):
You compare the way we went out to the way
Mexico went out at the Azteca against England. Mexico made mistakes,
but they went out swinging. You look at cap Verde
who goes out against Argentina. Cape Verde didn't blink against
Leo Messi.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yeah, cape Verde won the Cup. I mean they did
put it on the pole tailer.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And realistically, realistically, soccer in this country never had people
like you. You've seen this story way too many times.
The biggest damning fact for soccer yesterday was that they
now are starting to lose people like me who have
been holding up the cape for this team, saying now
the golden generations coming, the golden generations coming. Our best
players are playing in Europe, even though our goalkeepers playing
(02:53):
in the MLS. Yeah, they lost me because I had
the moment yesterday, the realization this is probably the best
we could do. This is our ceiling. We are the
reason why I called them the James Franklin of international soccer.
Speaker 1 (03:07):
Yeah, please explain on that. I mean I have an
idea as to why, but go ahead.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
US soccer is the bully that knocks around lesser opponents.
But once you put us in the ring with somebody
our size or god forbid bigger, we pee our pants, yes,
and we get absolutely pummeled. Do you look at the
group stage and the first round of the knockout round
Paraguay thirty fourth in FIFA's ranking, Australia twenty eighth and
FIFA rankings, Turkey A was twenty seventh, which we lost.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That can we just call it Turkey? I mean, enough
at Turkey A jeez?
Speaker 4 (03:38):
Then Bosnia sixty first. Belgium was eighth in the World
Cup rankings. And that's why, to me, this World Cup
is a failure. There's really no other way to spin it.
It's going out with this level of a stinker and
no showing. The round of sixteen just completely invalidated the
group stage and that Bosnia match.
Speaker 1 (03:59):
I tell it. Tim Howard to play goalie last night.
That's how old is Tim Howard? Not that not that
age is really affective when you're playing goalie. But you
were yearning clamoring for Tim Howard last night. Who's the
only soccer player I can aim outside of Land the
Donovan I mean.
Speaker 4 (04:16):
And I'm not even too sure age matters for this
US men's national team because Tim Reim.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Oh, yeah, that's guy.
Speaker 4 (04:22):
Tim Reem is thirty eight years old. He's our center back.
Tim Reim was too slow eight years ago in the
World Cups. And I get it. Our best athletes they're
playing football. Our best athletes are playing basketball. We're in
a country with over three hundred million people. Tim rem
simply cannot be the best that we could do.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Three hundred of the three hundred million available people. Right,
What you're saying is Tim Reim cannot be the best
that we can produce.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Is that what you're saying?
Speaker 4 (04:54):
Pause? Could you could talk about all the progress that
we've made as a soccer country.
Speaker 1 (05:00):
We can't talk about it. We've made no progress. We
simply went to a place we've been to before. I mean, right,
Am I wrong?
Speaker 4 (05:07):
Correct?
Speaker 1 (05:07):
We've been to this round before?
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Correct?
Speaker 4 (05:09):
Correct? Yes, it's Tim Reim starting at thirty eight is
an indictment on where we are as a soccer country,
where the defensive depth we show is shocking. Because I
think most people that follow this team would agree Tim
Reem is our best option. Yes, he shouldn't be our
best option, but he is by far our best option.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
It is so funny how these things change day to day.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
Win or lose, right, Tim Reim? When they win, he's
the cage evet that the US socker team needs. And
when they lose in a pool of three hundred million people,
how is Tim Reim the best we could produce?
Speaker 2 (05:42):
I don't even care about Tim Reim. I am sorry
that Taylor is being so hard on you, Tim Reim.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
I'm reading them.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
You really are.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
You got reamed into the boards last night like a
hockey player.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
I mean Stu Gott's Yeah, we equalize one one off
the free kick deflection, Yeah, lucky gull. What a moment
for the country. One of the best moments in US
men's national team.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Those sixty one seconds, the sixty.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
One seconds that we equalize that game. Yeah, only for
Tim Reim to come back on the other side and
get absolutely posterized sixty one seconds after we equalized. Kids
in Belgium are going to grow up with that poster
on their walls.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yes, with Tim Raim getting smushed into the boards on
their wall, and say themselves, they have three hundred million
people living over there, and that's the best they could produce.
Speaker 4 (06:32):
And Matt Freeze, the goalkeeper, is the other example of
you just.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
I just it was amateur hour. That's what made it embarrassing.
It felt like amateur hour. It felt like, you know,
it was amateurs playing against a professional club.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
The start of the second high used club. You like that,
Huh Yeah, I don't know if the national team had
club technically like a club would be like Liverpool or Manchester.
You're trying. I do appreciate the fact that this World
Cup you've been watching, you've been locked in.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
Yes, I don't need to try.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I just keep saying us ben soccer is never going
to be a thing, and they never are.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So I mean the US that second half, they start
off the second half so well, they're the ones dictating
the action. We're chasing that second goal. We have the
home crowd in Seattle behind us. You could feel the
momentum shifting and you get that disaster of a third
goal from Matt Freeze where he has plenty of time
for the clearance and he just young, way coody, he
(07:24):
just kicked into the ground and the moment was again
just way too big.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
For this team.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
Cape Verde walks away from this World Cup feeling better
than the United States.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Right, Yeah, that's.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Not, that's not. We went one round further than Cape Verde,
and you're telling me they walk away feeling better than
we did.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
One thousand percent, Kate, Like, Cape Verde is in a
place where they could still hang their hat on moral victories.
Their population is the size of some very small US cities.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Yes, they didn't win a game, Taylor.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
I mean no, but they had a couple of good draws.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
They had come I know.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
But we won some actual games, including a game against Paraguay.
And we're still saying that Cape Verdet walks away feeling
better about their.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Soccer because our time for moral victories we're in the nineties.
Our time for moral victories we're in the two thousands. Yes,
we cannot keep being this country that says this is
our golden generation of soccer and then we come away
with the moral victory where a team like Belgium, who
spent thirty six hours complaining about the flow Balgin red
(08:29):
card reversal, yeah, only to then stuff us in a
locker and say, hey, if Baligan played, if Balgan didn't play,
we were still going to stuffy in this locker.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Right, It's what I was trying to tell you and
Mikey yeah, yesterday.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
As it relates to Balligan.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Sometimes I'm a big believer and things happen for a reason,
and you don't meddle, you know, once they're on the on,
they once they start moving, you don't get in the
way of things that are happening naturally.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
And what happened was unnatural.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And we went from this cute, little lovable, you know,
host country team, the United States men's team, to a
team that had a target on our back because.
Speaker 2 (09:02):
We felt the need to have the leader of our country.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
The president called the head of FIFA and say, hey,
reverse that red card on Balligan. I'm telling you, if
Baligan doesn't play, that team is focused, that team rallies
together and they get it done because they don't want
that to be Balligan's last game, and they.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Win that game.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
I'm telling you right now what they would have been
better off without Balligan, and Balligan should have said, hey,
you know what, I got a red I'm going to
do the right thing here. I don't need someone to
call on my behalf. I'm not going to play soccer today.
I Am not going to do it. It's going to get
in the way of us winning. I'm telling you right now,
I listen, I'm going to ask Twilman about it, and
I guarantee you that he believes in this kind of
stuff and he'll agree with me, guarantee it about.
Speaker 4 (09:42):
I felt like early like WWF days with the nWo.
I like being the bad boys of soccer.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Right.
Speaker 4 (09:49):
Being the bad boys of soccer is cool until you're
losing for to one.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Right, But you understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (09:55):
Yes, of course it's cool until you're losing four to one,
But you understand it's a cute, st little, lovable team,
underdog team that suddenly has the president calling on their
behalf to get a player who shouldn't be playing based
on the rules. It was a bad red card, we
all agree, terrible red card.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
It shouldn't have been called, but it was called.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
But then when you have someone interfear like that, you
go from underdog to oh my god, we have marks
on our backs. And Belgium played like it last night,
like they had a chip on their shoulder.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
They were pissed and they should have been.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
But what would you rather be? The lovable underdogs or
the bad boys?
Speaker 5 (10:28):
Cape Verde fifty two days until college football soccer.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
It was nice knowing you.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
Be sure to catch live editions of Stu Godson Company
live weekdays at three pm Eastern twelve pm Pacific on
Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
So we are out here at the American Century Championships
in Lake Tahoe. It's gorgeous here. Taylor is unhinged. I'm
trying to enjoy the scenery. I'm trying to enjoy these
moments here. I'm trying to enjoy myself and Taylor is unhinged.
Won't shut up about US soccer who lost last night
to Belgium four to one and embarrassing fashion and Taylor
(11:07):
twelve men's going to join us. The tailor I want
to speak to is going to join us, coming up
in about ten minutes or so. But you are unhinged today,
my friend, you have nicknamed for Christian pulistic.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You're out of your mind, dude.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
I just keep mumbling under my breath Christian policy, he does.
Yesterday was a legacy game for Christian politic. Yeah, the
Golden Boy of the Golden Generation. Biggest match in the
US men's soccer history, biggest knockout round match in the
US men's soccer history. We needed him to be great, Stu. Yeah,
(11:39):
not only was he not great, Yeah, not only was
he not average, he was awful. He lost eleven possessions
in the first half, the most of any player on
the field.
Speaker 2 (11:49):
Eleven turnovers. Huh he was I really? Was it a
Jets quarterback?
Speaker 4 (11:56):
Yeah? I really don't want to hear the name Christian
Polisic anymore. His nickname? Do you know what his nickname is?
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Well, this is a nickname that you have given him, right,
But he has an actual nickname.
Speaker 2 (12:05):
What is the actual nickname?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
His actual nickname is Captain America.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Okay, so Captain America is the actual nickname. And this
is when things are going good, this is when USA
men's soccer is winning.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
He is Captain America.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
And I'm guessing you have a new nickname based on
what happened last night?
Speaker 4 (12:19):
Correct? Is new nickname going forward that I'm going to
try to get off the ground?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
Yep?
Speaker 4 (12:24):
Steve Rogers because Steve Rogers was Captain America before he
turned into Captain America, right, And Christian Polisick he's Steve
Rogers because he's just a regular dude.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
So he's just Steve Rodgers who never turns into Captain America.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
He doesn't show up in the big moment. He's overhyped
because of how low the bar is for men's soccer
in America.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
Listen, I get it, I get where you're going with this.
But what an awful nickname?
Speaker 4 (12:51):
Steve Rogers an awful nickname for an awful player.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Yes, I know, but how to friends, Like how do
they go about like working with that nickname.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
Instead of people saying, hey, look, it's Captain America. People
just look at him and go hey, Steve Rogers.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
But not his friends, like just when he's walking by
people at public You are encouraging the public right now
to call if they see Captain America out on the streets. Okay,
you are encouraging them to say hey, not say this.
Don't say hey, that's Captain America. You want them saying, hey,
there's Steve. No, you can't, there's old Stevie.
Speaker 4 (13:24):
You have to go first and last name, because if
you just call him Steve, it's kind of confusing. You
have to let it be known he is Steve Rogers.
He doesn't deserve the nickname of Captain America. Yes, he
is just a regular person.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
Captain America is reserved for the greats, right, Steve Rogers
is reserved for the average person.
Speaker 4 (13:44):
Yes, yes, If Christian Polisic is your best player, yeah,
you're not winning anything of significance. He's left injured in
three of the seven World Cup games he started right.
Not only was he bad yesterday, we can't even count
on him to play full ninety minutes.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
I know, but Tim Rieen was the guy you were
getting out in the first segment. So now it's it's
Captain America who were now calling Steve Rogers. I can't
wait to see pulistic if I see him, I wouldn't
know if if if he was sitting next to me
right now doing the show, I wouldn't know it was
Steve Rodgers. But if I do see him and someone
points out, hey, that's Captain America, I'm gonna be like yo, Steve.
Speaker 4 (14:23):
And then after after the match, the reporter was asking
him about his injury and he was like, get it
hurts right now, but now I get a chance to
rest up, rest up for what you set out. You
sat up last year of the the US Tournament because
you said you wanted to be fully prepared for the
World Cup.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Wasn't the beauty of this team supposed to be that
Pulistic wasn't their best player?
Speaker 2 (14:46):
Right? That he could be Steve Rodgers and they'd be fine.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Polisic has to be for the US team to be
what the what people want the US team to be.
Polisic has to be their best. He has to be
their best player. Now, the thing is, you have other
players that have risen their level, the Weston McKinney's, the
Tyler Adams to where Polistic doesn't have to carry the
team necessarily, but he can't be a negative out there
(15:12):
on the field, on the pitch, as they say, right
on the pitch.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
I love the idea of just such a common nickname.
Put it on the Paul Taylors. Should we start calling
Christian Pulistic instead of calling Pulisic Captain America? Should we
call them Steve Rogers?
Speaker 4 (15:31):
I'm trying to think of I'm gonna put it in
NFL terms for you, for Christian Polisic, right, because I
was wrapping my brain around this yesterday. What is the
NFL equivalent for Christian Polisic?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Boy?
Speaker 4 (15:43):
And I've settled on really just any mid quarterback in
that fifteen to twenty five range. So Trevor Lawrence, Kyler Murray, Yes,
one of those quarterbacks that comes in with a crazy
amount of expectations, a crazy amount of hype. You watch them,
you see flashes of potential, but overall you're watching a
(16:04):
player like Trevor Lawrence and you're like, Okay, Trevor Lawrence.
The Jaguars are never winning anything of significance if Trevor
Lawrence is their quarterback.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Right.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
I understand what you're saying. But what you're saying about
Pulisic is he's Clark Kent. Yeah, Clark Kent who never
turns into Superman. He is Bruce Wayne, who never turns
into Batman.
Speaker 4 (16:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:29):
He is Steve Rogers, who never turns into Captain America.
Speaker 4 (16:32):
So Bruce Wayne. I don't know if it's the best comparison,
because I don't think Batman had any Like Batman didn't
get transformed with powers. He was mostly just like technology.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
He just put an outfit on. Yeah, I mean he
had a belt, and I think he.
Speaker 4 (16:43):
Knew like martial arts or taekwondo, one of those two.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
It was odd that he could just put that stuff
on and all of a sudden, he's spinning like you know,
he's flying from buildings. I mean, he could do whatever.
It's ridiculous. What a ridiculous superhero that was probably perhaps
the most ridicable, well outside to Pulistic, the most ridiculous
superhero we've ever had. I mean, Batman, Please, utility belt.
I wish Pulissa got a utility belt. They prevented him
(17:08):
from turning the ball over and scoring a goal once
in a while.
Speaker 4 (17:11):
But that in terms of superheroes that could actually become superheroes,
Batman is the most attainable for the common folkus because
you don't you don't.
Speaker 1 (17:20):
Need it feels like it could have been anyone.
Speaker 4 (17:21):
Yeah, yeah, you don't need like a bite by a
radioactive spider or any of the you know, you get
submerged in a tank that all of a sudden gives
you these these powers. Batman was just Hey, he's a billionaire,
he's got the resources, He's going to find his way
to be a superhero.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
I gotta tell you, Bruce, Wayne has it pretty good.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
Like the idea that he would want to be Batman
is absurd to me, because you're right, you had a
big mansion, he was a billionaire, he had a butler,
his name was Alfred. I mean, he had it all
and like to waste any sort of time saving other
people's lives when you could be living.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Your own life. I mean, what do you do it? Seriously?
Maybe that's but Pelistic was thinking.
Speaker 4 (18:03):
I just the image of him just on the bench.
I think if you had a lasting moment from this
World Cup, what it's going to be. Yeah, I think
it's going to be Christian Polistic with his head in
his hands, subbed off when the team very clearly had
no chance, no future. He's twenty seven. Next World Cup cycle,
(18:25):
he's going to be thirty one. The problem with this
World Cup team is a lot of the players.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
Five years younger than Ring.
Speaker 4 (18:31):
By the way, no way you reams thirty eight.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
Seven years younger than Ring. But anyway, you were saying.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
The problem for this World Cup team is a lot
of the players were going into their prime or entering
their prime. Four years from now. This core it's going
to be there either in their prime still or exiting
their prime. And that's why it felt like this was
the now or never year for the USA.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Well, the hope is that this team would inspire the
next generation, that hosting the World Cup would inspire the
next generation, that from the three hundred million people that
we have, we would find more soccer players. And I'm
here to tell you we will not. They are all
sprinting to NFL right now, and college football. They are
(19:17):
all sprinting to anything but soccer. You put it in
all that work and you get embarrassed like that against
the world power in Belgium.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
Why do I want to sign up for that? The
money's not in soccer.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
You know where it is Major League Baseball, you know
where it is the NFL, you know where it is
college football.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
There is one way to fix soccer in this country.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Well start paying them more.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
No, we have to put a thirty year ban on
kids playing football, basket on baseball. Yeah, and then say
we're putting one hundred percent of our attention to soccer.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
That's unfair to the kids. Man. You do that, though, yes.
Speaker 4 (19:50):
And you'll see how many Embapes and Hollins we have.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
So what you're doing is forcing the next Randy.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Moss to play soccer rather than play football, because that
is the problem. Rather than play soccer, you're forcing them
to play soccer. That is the problem the Randy moss Is.
At one point in their life they decide, Hey, you
know what, enough of this sitting around crap enough. You
know I'm sitting here, the ball never comes my way.
It's hard, I have to use my feet. I can
(20:15):
go do something now. So I'm a great athlete, world
class athlete, and I can make millions upon millions upon
millions of dollars and get TV jobs until the end
of time. But that's the problem. Those kids decide, at
some point in their life, this game's boring. This game
doesn't have enough rewards for me. I'm gonna go play football.
Speaker 4 (20:33):
We need the next Lebron James in net because I
never want to watch Matt Freeze play.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
He'd be a good goalie even at this age. We
could have used them last night.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
I think he gets in that starting eleven.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
Put it on the poll.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Would you be okay if Lebron was our goal was
the US men's national team goalie.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
We're in Lake Tahoe.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
There's a fine looking man sitting in to my left tailor.
Twelve minutes. There are two good looking Taylor sitting to
my left ere Taylor twelve minute with US A tough
loss last night for you, US boy, buddy, You know what,
it was an embarrassing loss, at least from my standpoint.
Speaker 5 (21:13):
What do you think that's the hardest thing? You know,
it's it's a pill that I still feel. Listen, It's
one thing to lose the game. If Kevin de Bruyne
or Belgium score world class goal, you lose to one,
you tip your cap and say it is what it
is to lose in the fashion that they did, to
lose in the way where opening whistle, it felt like
(21:36):
a completely different team, a team that we hadn't seen
play this entire World Cup for the United States, that
was tough.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That was really tough.
Speaker 5 (21:45):
And that is a difficult pill for that group of
players to swallow, and that's going to be a difficult
one for them to get over.
Speaker 4 (21:51):
Taylor, do you think the World Cup for America is
going to be graded as a success of failure or
how are you kind of seeing?
Speaker 5 (21:56):
You said quarterfinals, quar, I didn't I think the bus
would be a capitulation, you know what I mean, I
didn't see that happening. So to answer your question, I
don't know the problem is the soccer person in me
will say Paraguay is definitely possible, right, So that kind
(22:17):
of pulled forward. Listen, Paraguay qualified incoonnonable like South America
is no joke. They only gave up six goals and
woke up qualifying and you scored three goals in.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
The first half. So that's I see that.
Speaker 5 (22:28):
But then the media person in me is, how do
I explain to the general public that it is different?
Speaker 4 (22:34):
Right?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's not.
Speaker 5 (22:35):
It's the round of sixteen. They lost, they're out, and
here we are.
Speaker 2 (22:40):
How'd you feel about the Uh?
Speaker 1 (22:42):
Well, I guess the president stepping in and you know,
FIFA overturning the Balligan red card and him.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
You know, sometimes like the normal progression of things.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
I'm a big believer and things happen for a reason,
and I feel like the US team might have rallied
without their best player, and I don't like when we
mess with the normal, normal, you know, kind of trajectory
of how things are going to happen.
Speaker 5 (23:04):
I think if the Balligan thing happens within twenty four
to thirty six hours of the Bosnia game, I don't
think it's anything like this, right.
Speaker 2 (23:12):
I think you're right. I think it put a target
on the back. Weird.
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah, it put way too much of a distraction. Now,
the US didn't lose because of that. I'm going to
make that abundantly clear. But you can't sit here and
say that it didn't change the whole energy of the
entire thing.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
It felt very odd, Yes, motivated, Yes, Yes they had
a chip. Yes, it's a chip.
Speaker 5 (23:36):
Yeah, and so it put a target on the back
that quite frankly, the United States doesn't deserve because they're
not in the top eight of the world, so you
didn't need to add that extra element. But that falls
on FIFA burying their heads in the sand and not
doing their due diligence. And within thirty six hours saying listen,
the referee made a mistake based on the appeal from
(23:56):
the United States. We're changing the Balligan thing. That would
have changed the narrative, but the narrative that the president
made two phone calls. Then he's taken credit for it.
Now some people are saying he had nothing to.
Speaker 2 (24:07):
Do with it.
Speaker 5 (24:08):
Now you're just talking about complete nonsense that you needed
to talk about. Are you going to show up on
the field and here we are talking about that.
Speaker 4 (24:16):
Belgium should feel silly for how much time they spend
complaining about reversal, right, because they're starting eleven. Looked like
miles better than ours and they're starting eleven.
Speaker 5 (24:26):
This was a brilliant move from Rudy Garcia because they're
starting eleven in the first two games. Was the top
five oldest teams in the World Cup last night was not.
They sat the Bruna. They sat Lukaku, who has been
off the bench the entire time. Doku didn't start, so
they tapped into the energy and youthfulness of their own roster.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
And yeah, you're one hundred percent correct.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
But on the other hand, if I was Rudy Garcia,
I would have said publicly, you can play whoever you want.
We're gonna be ready, like I would have used it
the other way. But quite frankly, I don't need to
say anything to Rudy Garcia because they were ready to go.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yep, where's us men's soccer?
Speaker 1 (25:02):
We'll get to golf in a second, because I am
now happy that you can focus on your golf game.
I'm only concerned about the bet I put on you
to win this damn thing. But where do we go? Like,
how does US men's soccer move forward?
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Here? I don't know, Stucotts.
Speaker 5 (25:15):
I really don't know, because I feel like I'm asked
that after every round of sixteen exit. So the only
thing I will say is if you're not if you're
in the ecosystem of the men's soccer, no matter what
part of it, and you're not motivated by this, then
you really need to think about the changes in evolution
and how do you grow this thing?
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Right?
Speaker 5 (25:36):
I will say this, the US men will always be
better if they have three Christian Poliitics, three Weston McKinney's,
three Tyler Adams. So my answer to that, Stucotts, is
we just got to develop better players.
Speaker 4 (25:48):
And more of them.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
We got to have a fishing, bigger pool.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
Yes, we got to have forty eight to fifty guys
that you know can play. But also what that does
is it raises the level of everyone and also around them,
so the internal competition of the team, they have to
deliver and they have to play.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
It feels like every World Cup cycle we talk about
needing a better youth system in this and then we
crash out of the World Cup and the same complaints
pop up where people are talking about it's tens of
thousands of dollars for kids to play, travel.
Speaker 2 (26:20):
To play, all of it.
Speaker 4 (26:20):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, how much of that plays into why
we have such a small talent pool, besides the fact
that soccer isn't the biggest sport in this country.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (26:29):
I would say this though, MOLS academies over the last
four or five years were they're now no longer paid
to play, so they're trying to bridge that gap, right.
US Soccer has done a deal with Bank of America.
They're trying to bridge that gap and make it more inclusive.
But it's not the Taylor to your point, Americans, we
wanted to happen overnight. I just don't think this is
(26:50):
going to happen overnight. I really don't. Twenty one of
those twenty six players that played in this World Cup
came from or were developed in MLS.
Speaker 2 (26:58):
Now MLS started to the last World Cup. So over
the next twenty years, now what happens.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
But everyone under the sun said, if your best players
are playing in Europe, they'll be ready for the pressure.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
They'll be ready for the moment. Guys, last night was
a moment.
Speaker 5 (27:15):
Was a moment where all the pressure in the world
and your top eleven were from the top leagues in
the world, and they were not ready to play. That's
where the dilemma truly lies, the sixty one seconds where
the game was tied. Though they can never take those
seconds in the great.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
Sixty one second maybe the greatest sixty one seconds of
the history of US men.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
Soakak aside the third The third goal is the hardest
one for me to swallow, right, the one thing to
be down to one. But at the beginning of the
second half we made subs. There was different energy. It
looked like they were okay to give up that goal
with your goalkeeper and center back making a mockery the situation.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
That is where that sucks. That's brutal. Yeah, it was embarrassing.
Were you yelling like, hey, get back of the net.
What were you doing in that moment?
Speaker 2 (28:04):
In that moment, I was like, what just stop the ball?
Truly in all serious ste.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
Guts right the goalkeeper kick it thirty yards into the stand?
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Yes, I don't care, right, they just get it out
of there. Like this notion that we need goalkeepers to
be great with their feet and passers, Well.
Speaker 2 (28:22):
That just bit you in the rear end.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
Kick it thirty rows in the stands, everybody regroups and
guess what, it's still two to one.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yep, all right, I know you got to go.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
But my concern about putting a bet on you, just
so we're clear, was that you're going to be focused
on soccer and not the golf.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
Friday morning would have been tough.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
We got soccer out of the way, though, I mean,
unfortunately we all wanted them to advance, and now you
can just focus on golf. I'm feeling good about your
chances this week.
Speaker 5 (28:47):
I would feel really good by the fact that I've
played two rounds in the last thirty days, So yeah,
I would feel really good.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
Stew cuts at Fish's plate like a thousand rounds this week.
Speaker 5 (28:56):
No, Fish already played eighteen this morning and it's just
eight o'clock and he's going out again right now.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yes, absolutely, all right. We appreciate you, advantageo your weekend
out here man.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
Thank you, guys.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
All right, the great Taylor twelve minute with US US
Soccer stinks.
Speaker 3 (29:10):
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 4 (29:23):
The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming
live on Fox one, the official English streaming platform, to
catch every unforgettable moment. Fox one brings the action straight
to your screen, so you never miss a goal. Download
Fox one and experience the FIFA World Cup live. Don't
miss the quarterfinals, which begin Thursday on Fox and Fox
one Ober.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Thanks to Taylor Twelman for joining us earlier. We appreciate
his time. There are two stories here that I'm trying
to get to, and I have a feeling I'm only
going to get to one. I want to get to
Jannis and what happened. It became official he's no longer
with Milwaukee. He wrote them a nice letter, goodbye letter,
thank you for everything.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
I'm on to South Beach.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
But there was a Jersey mishap that I want to
get to involving Giannis. But there's also this soccer fan
that I have no idea what this story is. I
have no idea any of the details surrounding this story.
All I know is that unhinged Taylor Hippolis today is
a stew got to get to the soccer fit, got
to get to the soccer fan.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So let's get to the soccer fit.
Speaker 4 (30:24):
So Michael Hewitt is sixty five years old. He's a
Leeds United supporter. He's from the United Kingdom. Right, he
had plans to go from England to the United States
to watch the England matches.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Here.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
He has a short layover in Barcelona.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Right.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
His family does not hear from him. They start an
international missing person search.
Speaker 2 (30:48):
Wow, days go by? Really?
Speaker 4 (30:51):
On the tenth day of the search, Okay, they track
his credit cards and get a location to try to
find out where he is. Where do you think he was?
Speaker 1 (31:01):
I have no idea. I mean I have no idea.
To be honest with.
Speaker 4 (31:05):
You, he was at the bars in Barcelona.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
You can't spell Barcelona without bar how about that?
Speaker 4 (31:15):
So what had happened was in Barcelona stirring his layover?
He loses his phone? Yes, and he cancels his trips
to the United States because on his phone he had
all his travel tickets on it. Yes, he just goes
to the bars to enjoy his time in Spain. He
doesn't know any numbers saved on his phone to let
(31:38):
his family know that his plans change. And he says
that he was blissfully unaware that anybody was looking for
him in ten days.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
It was probably the greatest ten days of his life.
I mean, no one's trying to get I mean outside
of the you know, his family being concerned and being
an international search for this guy, because his family has no.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Idea where he is.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
But it had to be the ten greatest days of
his life.
Speaker 4 (32:00):
The great.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Oh, my god, it's the great. It's what I tell you.
It's why I go to Augusta for one reason. I
can't bring my phone on the course. And it's the
greatest five to seven hours of my entire life. So
he didn't have anyone's phone number in his family committed
to memory.
Speaker 4 (32:15):
Zero.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Do you have anyone that like close to you?
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Do you have my number committed to memory?
Speaker 4 (32:19):
No?
Speaker 1 (32:19):
No, So if you lost it, now I've got too far.
Speaker 2 (32:22):
So if you if you lost.
Speaker 1 (32:24):
Your phone and you were at bars in Barcelona, you
would not be able to get a hold of me.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
No, no chance. I The only numbers I believe I
have committed to memory are my mom's phone number, right,
my dad's phone number, yes, and then the phone number
of the house I grew up in that we moved
out of about ten years.
Speaker 1 (32:44):
Okay, I remember my home number two I do from
the first house.
Speaker 2 (32:49):
I grew up in.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
So you it this guy so so he never gets
to the United States, he loses his phone, and he decides,
here's the best plan of action. Not alert my family,
who's going to be concerned about me. But when in Barcelona,
why not just hang out of the bars for ten days?
Why when international search is going on for me? So
his family love him, get him on the show.
Speaker 2 (33:10):
I Want You with youwit more like blew it?
Speaker 4 (33:12):
How about that his family knew that he had made
it to Barcelona because the last time he had his
phone was posting pictures of him in the pubs, in
the bars in Barcelona. And then he just goes completely dark,
completely off the grid. His family is probably thinking the
absolute worse. Where this guy had plans to go to
(33:35):
the United States to see England live and in person. Yes,
he said he didn't go to the embassy because he
didn't really think it was that big of a deal
because he still had his passport and nothing was wrong.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
With I gotta be honest.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
This seems like a guy who wanted to lose his phone,
who wanted to spend ten days in Barcelona, who wanted
to not be bothered by his family. I got breaking
news to the Ewits. He doesn't like you, he doesn't
want to be bothered by you. He just wanted ten
days of silence. Leave the man alone.
Speaker 4 (34:02):
I mean, this is this has to be the most
British story of all time, because what do you mean
this guy just went off the grid completely when zero
dark thirty, like Lebron James getting ready for a big
playoff run, right said, I don't need to let my
family know. Just a just a major event. Yes, like
(34:23):
your family is expecting you to get on a bird
to go to England. See you posting updates for.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
They want to hear all about it.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Yes, and you pull a disappearing act much like Pulisic.
Speaker 4 (34:34):
Oh my god, Steve, Yeah, Steve Rodgers holistic Dan.
Speaker 2 (34:42):
I don't know if this guy's in the right of
the wrong. I don't. I mean, I'm not like.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
It has to like you're two days in right, You're
on a bender, you're drinking. It has to feel good,
like at some point it has to set in. Listen,
this whole like not getting bothered thing. This is awesome.
No one's trying to get a hold of me. This
is awesome, let me sink into this for another eight days.
But he has to be thinking to himself. Also, my
family's going to be concerned and people are going to
(35:07):
start looking for me. So I don't know if I
should love you it or hate you it. I'm not
certain what to do here. I'm inclined to say I
love him. I do want him on the show, and
I would like his parents on the show.
Speaker 4 (35:19):
There is no way Michael Hewitt sixty five years old
has a wife, right, because I'm trying to imagine if
the situation.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Was also sixty five. He's like he's arrived at an
age where he doesn't give a bleep. He's like, just
leave me alone. I'm drinking for ten days.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
But if you just stopped contacting Abby after the third day,
she would probably get concerned. The first two days it
would be a vacation to be heaven.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean, are you kidding me? I think the third
day probably still in heaven. I'm trying to think one
Abbey would actually call the call someone up and say
I'm concerned my husband is missing.
Speaker 2 (35:52):
It wouldn't be the fourth day.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
I doubt it would be the fifth day, because by
the fifth day.
Speaker 2 (35:57):
You're really enjoying it.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
Like, man, there's money still in the account, but I
don't have to deal with him.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I mean, this is a classic situation.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
I don't think she'd ever call. This is a.
Speaker 4 (36:09):
Classic situation where if the situations were reversed.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Yeah, this is only a.
Speaker 4 (36:14):
Situation a guy could find himself in, of course, Like
the wife never thinks of I'm just not going to
contact anybody yet that thought, that thought never crosses his mind. Right,
this is a case of just guys being again, like
Michael Hewett described it, blissfully unaware.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I mean, Abby has everyone's number committed to memory, including yours.
By the way, Wow, in the event of an emergency,
like she's going to know how to get a hold
of you, she probably is. Well, she definitely has my
number memorized, our kids, yours, my dad's.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
She would just let me sit there forever. It would
be heaven.
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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