July 10, 2026 • 29 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon tell you if they think anyone will beat France in the World Cup.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
EF you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome in side final hour tonight to Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Come up, don't
forget you miss any of tonight's show. Be sure to
catch the podcast. It goes up in about an hour
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provide a review. Again. Just search our names, Jason Smith
(00:49):
and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find
today's full show and a best of version posted right
after we get off the air. Well, one quarter final down,
three more to go. Tomorrow's Spain and Belgium. Just just so,
I'm gonna tell you this right now, I'm absolutely taking
(01:09):
the under in this game. I mean the under might
be one and a half. But I'm taking the under. Wow,
it could be it could be a half because it
could you know what technically would be zero's eer with
penalties that it could be a half. Oh, that's tough one.
Do I take the half? Do I take the If
there's a lot of money there and you put the
(01:30):
over runners still two and a half two and a half?
Are you kidding? I'm way under on that way. Under
Spain has a lot of goal they have trouble scoring.
Belgium's not. I mean, look their scores. They can't even
trust him to play the whole game now, so they're
gonna come off the bench later. Yeah, I'm taking the under.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, I mean if we did have Doku's coming off
of illness, uh, and then Lukaku, you know he's only
gonna be give you twenty to thirty minutes, but getting
his way at your own peril.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
TJ clearly not gonna get a lot from Count Doku
if he winds up battling Yoda at the end.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, he starts bouncing around like pinball. I mean, you
don't know where he's gonna end out.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, this is the only game of the quarterfinal
games where you go, Okay, it's not a lot of
sexiness here, you know, no, no real household names. Everybody's
mad at Belgium for being the United States and all this,
and boy the boy, the worst thing is gonna be
if Belgium just looks terrible against Spain. It's everyone's gonna
be mad at the United States all over again. Oh,
even worse than I thought we suck. Even worse than
(02:31):
I thought we sucked.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I'll go out say they don't lay down like the
United States did. Oh where to where you're using either
Yakty Sacks or the Curby your Enthusiasm theme song over
the highlight?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, I know, I I agree with you there. But
that's the thing. And and we'll have more on on
the latest big deal with Christian Polissa coming up in
a few minutes. But that's the one thing when we
talk about turning the page on this golden gen the
United States has right And I said, I said, listen
to three guys to build around, just like in any
team Balligan, Tillman, Freeman. These are your studs, right, These
(03:09):
are the guys that could potentially be world class players.
They're all young. You know, everything else, this Golden generation
has had a chance. But one of the things that
and one of the reasons why it's easy to move
on from, is that I've sad enough of these guys
showing up flat in big games, whether it's Gold Cup
(03:30):
or Conka CAF for qualified, there's games where I go,
what the hell are we doing? How are we showing
up this flat?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And I'm not.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Saying this is just you know, this is you know,
in the Pochattino era. This is Pochettino And go back
to the Burholter era and the end of Cleansman. It's okay,
the end of Cleansman started this Golden generation. It was
how many times have I said, how are they flat?
For the first half of this game? How are they flat?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
For?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And that's been a common thing, right, and and when
that's a common thing now going on almost a decade, yeah,
it's time to move on. No matter, it's time to
change managers.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Right because as you you laid it out, that's not
quite as many as the Jets, not quite as many
as people that have run the Prime minister there and
in Great Britain. As Matthew pointed out to us as well,
don't forget Woody Johnson got sent over there.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
He Now the US men's national team looks like the
modom the modicum of stability compared to compared to you know,
prime ministers in English.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Right, but it's it's still had three they've had six. Yeah,
but you only need them every four years, and you're
still getting that same lack of effort in the biggest
of moments.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I don't care that you come out like a house
of fire, uh in the first game of the group stage,
because that's what Polistic did and we got excited and
it's good, right, and hope is a beautiful and dangerous thing.
We talk about it all the time. But then you
finally get on this stage where that many more millions
and millions of people are gathering in the square watch parties,
(05:01):
all excited, wearing their team USA merch.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And then immediately within a minute, we're going, oh, this
is gonna go badly. I shouldn't have bought this for
full price. I should have waited to get a fight tomorrow.
I forgot to go to Walgreens to see if those
hats are on half price.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
What you got tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, tomorrow, And if you find a box of the
stickers get me a box of stickers for half price.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
All right, very good, But I mean like, like I
can I can recall like half a dozen times in
a big, big ish game, whether it's World Cup or
out like we talked about the other tournaments, where I'm like,
how do we come out flat? But that's that's this,
that's the Golden generation. For some reason, they come out flat.
And I've had enough. I've had enough, said Okay, it's
time to move on from these guys. And if it's
(05:42):
if it's almost an entirely new roster, and and and
and you're bringing back a couple of other guys in support,
like could I see them saying? Okay, you build around
the three guys. Could I see g Oreana coming back? Yes,
I can see him coming back, depending on how he
progresses over the next few years. Same thing with Ricardo Peppi,
who is still young enough. Maybe he you know, hits
(06:02):
the next stage level of his development. But most of
the team, like, okay, I've seen them be flat. Like
I don't understand. Sometimes they come out and they look incredible,
and they should come out and look that way every
single game, but they don't. So when you can't do that. Yeah,
I'm ready to move on from you. I'm ready to
go go someplace else, ready to go get new players
to come in. That's it, it's time.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I mean, we watched the guys that we are leaders,
and that goes to and we'll get deeper into the
Polisic stuff. Uh that that he wasn't wearing the captain's
arm band should have told Jill.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now now, well, he's not the captain. Yeah he's not.
He's not the captain. Now he wasn't the captain and
certainly not. The thing is the guy the only guy
who actually played worse than Polisic was the captain the game. Wait,
somebody played worse than Polically. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
sure you want you. You and I both watched Tim
(06:50):
Reim's final game as the United States men's national team.
We bought this his final game. We thought that horible.
Uh yeah, he was bad, but like Tim Reim was
minus three all by himself, Like that was I mean,
Polisic Politic didn't do any favors and he was terrible.
But Tim Reim three mistakes with three balls in the
back of the net. I mean, that's that's that's special.
That's a that's a hat trick. You don't want any parties.
(07:12):
Not good for anybody. How much to Belgium pay him,
you think, but say, oh oh man, wow, that's a
hot take, Frostburg, that is a hot take. But whether
it's Belgium Spain, we still have to worry about Argentina,
the officials England after today especially. I mean, I know
it's not a hot take. We talked about this in
(07:33):
the first hour of the show. I don't know who's
beating France. We may be in for a very dull
last couple of weeks the World Cup when it comes
to who winds up winning in the end. Doesn't mean
we're not gonna have excitement and games aren't gonna be exciting. Look,
we're on course for England and Argentina, you know, France
and Spain. You know, even if one of them moved,
(07:53):
we could get Norway and Holland, which would be exciting.
But I don't know if that's gonna change the end result,
which is gonna be France winning the t because they
came into the to the World Cup as the number
one team in the world, and they started at a
peak and they have peaked the entire time. Morocco is
a pretty good team. This is a top ten in
the world team. You remember what they did to Canada,
(08:14):
who is a team like a route what we are
and they made Canada look like, boyd, we shouldn't be
on the same field, regardless of whatever Jesse Marsh thinks
about the game. And France made Morocco today look like
a team that didn't deserve to be on the field.
They looked like how the United States used to look
against teams that were better, Like how are they even
out here? Like I never thought for a second Morocco
(08:36):
was even in the game. They couldn't possess the ball
like I mean, you know, sixteen eighteen minutes in and
you hear the play by players going, I don't know
the last time Morocco's had the ball? When's Morocco? How
long they possessed the ball? Like? France is just that
good And the thing is is that it's this is
the probably the best team France has ever had. And
you have Bape in his prime. You're not going to
get a more in prime and Bape here at twenty
(08:57):
seven years old. Yes, he missed the penalty today, but
he's still scored again set up the other goal like
they have no problems, and all the other teams, as
fun as they are, they all have problems. Spain terrific defensively,
can't score, can't score right, so Spain's got issues. England
terrific offensively, but boy or they lose defensively, you can
get at them. Argentina needed a miracle comeback, and the
(09:21):
officials just to get by Egypt right, and Norway as
fun a story as they are. If you can stop
Holland and the team that's this good top to bottom,
I'll always take the great team over the one great
individual player. Again, to make a kind of a comparison
to Caitlin Clark playing college basketball, what they ran into
South Carolina. So all of these other teams that France
(09:42):
could play, they all have problems right now. Anything could happen,
guy could trip fall, penalty, You never know. But if
the games go as we've seen so far, it's gonna
be France winning the trophy and it's gonna be two
nothing in the next game, it's gonna be too nothing
in the final or two to one or maybe three
re won. That's how good they are, and that's how
(10:03):
good I would love to tell you something else where.
I think somebody else can win the trophy, but nobody
else is playing at this level that France is at.
And they and they looked they felt like they had
a game today where with the weather ands loat time
talked about it a little bit, well, hey, you expect a
little bit of of of difficult rough play as far
as effort wise in the first half because of the weather. Uh,
(10:24):
it felt like France still. I mean, they played really well,
but I felt like they had an extra gear if
they needed it, and they just didn't need it. Not
about not about that had a bad effort, but I
felt that if they needed that extra gear today, they
would need it. And as you get into the tournament,
when you get up on a team and you're up
to nothing and you're playing a whole bunch of games
in a row and there's less time between games, you're saying, Okay,
(10:44):
we want to preserve our guys as long as possible.
But I know they had that extra gear in their
bag if they needed and they didn't.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Well, and they also had the ability to sub and
bapa out. Now, part of it was an injury concern,
which he quickly dismissed in the post game. But you're
up to nil, you think you can hold it. Now,
we've seen several other matches over the course of this
tournament that got wild and crazy Argentina to where suddenly
that too, no lead isn't there. But even with a
(11:12):
couple of corners and a little bit more offensive fire
in the final fifteen to twenty minutes, it never really
felt like that game was in doubt today. So you
have that opportunity now, your team Norway talking about our
guy Holland, talking about Oudegard, their captain. They had to
move hotels because there was a lot going around between construction,
(11:35):
crowds and noise there in Fort Lauderdale. So you know,
one more disruption that we've seen become a theme here
in the World Cup. But let's go to the training
market now, shall we. If we go to Calshi, one
point one billion dollars have been put into this marketplace
France right now forty percent, Argentina at eighteen points seven,
(11:59):
Spains seventeen point three, England fifteen point six, fifteen point eight,
and then you have the decided drop off to Norway, Belgium,
Switzerland just a one point nine percent.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It's it's really really difficult to see. So I mean,
this is how loaded you know the team? And look, okay,
the guy who came in from Mbope today, right, he's
one of Crystal Palace's best players, right, like he have
he won the FA Cup and he doesn't even score
for freak no, and he barely gets on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
But that's the point, right, is that you look at
some of these squads like all right, and we talked
about it with Belgium, we don't match up with their
first and then wait, these guys are coming on in
a in a huge line change like a hockey, and
they're all guys that would be our top players, right
and just go on down the line. Then we've seen
that Spain will be interesting tomorrow to watch because we
(12:52):
keep waiting for Jamal to be that breakout right one
of the young stars, because we've got that great time continuum. Right,
We've got Holland and Embope in the prime, you got
Messi the extinguished Ronaldo over there, and then you've got
Jamal and some of these young guys coming up as well.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So fun times ahead.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Can't wait for tomorrow's game.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, I mean, look of the of the games tomorrow
is the one We're like, okay, but just because we
have the star power and the other ones. But you know,
you'll watch Spain and get a real appreciation of what
they do. And I can see Embope getting a brace
against them, like as good as they are defensively, Like
that's how good he is, That's how fast he is.
That's how fast he makes an imprint on the game,
(13:33):
like I would not be. So again, they having a
lot of goal goal tournament, I can see him scoring
two against him.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, that goal that he scored today was absurd, like
he had no space, no time. Did the defense played
it right, goalie guest just inside the post. They just
placed perfectly with enough of a curve and arc to
it to hit the.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He He was also in his own head on that
on that penalty now, just really quick because again he
would have tied Messi from because I told him my
big ball prediction. He's gonnag at the World Cup with
more goals than Messi all the Messi's a World Cup
leading score. Yeah, and Papa is gonna pass him. Uh.
Like the penalty he missed, they took so long he
had to reset the ball two or three times he
got a He got in his own head on that,
(14:13):
because look, I understand that when when penalties happened, the
gamesmanship that goes on and the focus that you need,
but this is still a situation where the player needs
to be able to convert. And and Boppe had never missed,
and you could just tell by seeing him how upset
he looked a couple of times resetting the ball. He
was in his own head on that he didn't get
a great shot off. He waited a little bit, and
(14:35):
I could just tell that's something he really wanted that back,
because he just mentally he wasn't in the right place.
But you still got to bury that, like' and Bape
you have to bury that. You can't because that should
have been a huge lift from Morocco. WHOA and Bope
misses a penalty? What do I always say, show me
a team that misses a penalty in a big game.
I'll show you a team that lost and it still
didn't matter. They still couldn't capitalize on it, control the
(14:56):
ball at all, and it was still France. Okay, we're
still going to continue to steamroll on the You.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Got him in dem ballet and certainly by scoring the goal,
and Bappe did right by all those who backed him
for the anytime.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Hey, right to the gambling, right right to the gambling.
We did it right fifty No, but right when we
right to the gambling. When we talked about the okay,
okay exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason
Smith Mike Carmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Got some really fun NBA stories coming your way next,
and the latest twist on the Christian Polistic Team USA drama.
(15:29):
Wait till you hear it, that's next, Jason to Mike,
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Oh you know, for a minute there, I wanted to
watch stranger things. I've been running up that hill. I'll
tell you made a deal with God. Stars every day.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Want to h.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
My deal with God? Give me another chance to come
in for four hours and Torment, You're.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Ass Fox Sports Radio. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from
the Fox Sports Radio Studios, where the last couple of
days have not been great for Christian Politic following Team
USA's elimination. They have not been great, not great.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
That might be the kindest way to describe the last
seventy to ninety six hours.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He went from I'm Captain America. I have to step
up with Balligan out of this game. Baligan gets to play,
he plays horribly, he gets hurt, he leaves the game,
The United States loses. The fans hate Christian Polisic, and
now basically every former member of the US men's national
(16:49):
team is at war with what they think about Polisic
as a person, as a player. It got kicked off
by Carly Lloyd talking about him. Look, we had a
big thing on Polisic going viral, and it's time to
move on past Polisic and the Golden Generation. Uh, it's
not been great. I don't know that he has any
friends the last couple of days.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Right, it's been a rough rough go because everybody decided
to make him. I mean, he was the poster child, right,
he was mostly the chosen one. He was Steve Rogers,
and just like that, he looked like old man. No,
I don't think I will.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Can you tell me about when he scored that goal
against Iran. No, no, I don't think I will. Oh
okay uh. And instead of the armband, and it's the shield,
you know, he gives away here you go, I can't
wear this anymore. He never had the armband to give
this for you or Sam. He gives it to Baligan
and Balagan takes the takes a shield. I'm got in America.
Now I am caught the American. So it's not been
(17:44):
great for him. Right to the point where Landon Donovan,
former US men's national team legend who's been doing a
great job on the games, I'm really enjoying listening to him.
Uh just lit him up by saying that the people
that he hangs out with, you know, he needs he
needs better people around him. He doesn't say hi to
the analyst when they walk by before the game. He's
not approachable. All of these things, like it's been a
(18:06):
bad time being Christian Polisic the last couple of days.
But throw all that out, right, throw all that out
for a second. And when we talked about moving on
from Polisic, that became most of the conversation, right, because
this Jenner this last ten years has not gone well.
He has not played well in and out of the lineup,
(18:28):
but the way he carried himself went front and center,
saying at the end of the game, now I get
to rest. Carly Lloyd was not happy with that, not
really trying, just walking off the field after the third goal,
like he had a lot of bad optics. But today
we find out that Polisic, the injury that he suffered
is something that's going to keep him out a little while,
(18:50):
a microfracture and bone bruise of the tibia amphibia, which
is what happened when he heard he had that bad
turn before he left the game against Belgium. Now, the
initial impact of this story was a lot of yeah,
but how hurt is he really?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Like cow, it's just an excuse. He's been getting killed
by everybody. So now we find out he's hurt. Uh,
this is gonna go in a different direction, right because
the injury thing, this is just and this is not
what we don't talk about this enough with Polisic is
that for the last six years, since he has ascended
(19:32):
into the leadership position of being the poster guy for
the United States men's national team, he has not been
able to stay healthy anywhere he was hurt from twenty
twenty to twenty twenty two, a myriad of injuries. He
had a thigh injury, he had an ankle injury. You know,
for a couple of years it was difficult for him.
(19:53):
He had a hamstring injury as well. You go back
to twenty twenty two and he scores a big goal
against Iran, but on that play, the big the contusion,
so then he's out. He misses a lot of time
over the past couple of years in Europe. Now he
misses time in this tournament twice with two different injuries.
And I'm not I don't say this as a oh
come on, man, No, I say this as.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
He's twenty seven now, and for six years he has
not been able to stay healthy where I no longer
think his body can put up with the riggers that's
needed to achieve the potential that he was supposed to
be at. Right, we've seen it look good. He's a
good play. We've seen him play, man, I've seen I've
seen him play a high level and he you know,
he looks like the best player on the field. He
(20:44):
was the best player on the field the first half
of their opening game against when they played his Paraguay.
But overall, like you need to be able to count
on the guy. If he's your best player, you cannot
count on him to be in the lineup. And what
do we He was in and out of the lineup
this World Cup right the first half of the game
first game, didn't play in the second half, didn't play
in the next game, came off the bench. In the
last game we lost. This game, he played the first
(21:05):
half into the second half, they got down three, three
to one. You can't count on him anymore. And that's
just as big a reason why you have to move
on because when when when a guy gets hurt the
first time, the first couple times when he's young, you say, okay,
his body has to get used to it. And that
was a big thing because when polistics started to come
up and he was identified as the best player on
Team USA, every team tried to be physical with him.
(21:27):
That's what we try to do. How do we do
Let's try to be physical, right, try to be physical
with Wemby?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
How we try to be physical with him. Okay, he
needs some time, body has to build up to withstand
the rigors of what this physical game means. But then
he gets hurt again, and he gets hurt again, and
now you're out of twenty twenty two into twenty twenty four,
and he's been hurt a couple of times, and now
you're in your last gasp, Okay, what do we need
to do to keep him healthy? Right, We're gonna hold
(21:51):
him out of some games. I'm not gonna play in
this game because he was remembering he didn't play in
games leading up to the World Cup because he wanted
to have rest. And you can only protect a player
or from himself or whatever his body's limitations are, for
so long. And then you get into this World Cup
and he's in and out of the lineup, and we lose.
You cannot go forward with him as your star player.
(22:12):
I don't even know if there's any more of a
role for him in four years. That's not Maybe he
can come off the bench in the second half if
we need offense like that. I think is the only
thing that's left for him if he makes the team
in four years. Right, because still he's still there. Now
the next two you know, you have to start looking
at when Poachtino gets if he rehire him coming back,
(22:34):
who you're building around. But honestly, that's the best case
scenario for him, and I didn't know that that's gonna
be a snaris And in four years, maybe you come
off the bench in the second half, you can play
thirty minutes in a game, and maybe you can stay healthy.
And if you're not, you're not absolutely killing us because
you can't stay on the field when one of your
two most important offensive players, you can't count on being
on the field. Guess what, you have to have somebody
(22:55):
else out there, right if you need somebody else, whether
it's Peppe or ready to come out there. Look, ain't
it comes in a little bit. When he had to
play for him, and he played pretty well at times.
Obviously he didn't get the reps because he was coming
off the bench. But you know, he's still young and
maybe in four years he's the guy playing that position.
He's the guy we have here and Polisic is on
the outside looking in. You just can't count on him.
(23:16):
For all the optics and the bad optics for Polisic
off the field and the leadership and the aeronaut being there,
not being on the field, that's at least half the story.
And we don't talk about that part about Polisic enough
that he just his body just can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, We've been discussing over the course of the World Cup,
going back to the early exit in the group stage,
just that that had become a hallmark and how hurt
was he going to be? And eventually he makes his
return against Turkey A and we get him back on
the pitch. That's all fine and good, but taking it
(23:51):
the long path as we've done with you know, Jannis
and Tennekempo and so many others. Right, there's a lot
of extra miles on that body, right, Luka doncis one
of the discussion points that will stay here in Los
Angeles these next couple of years as they build and
retool the roster around him. All the international play, all
(24:11):
the extra miles, all of that, How much does it work?
Not everybody's you know, a cyborg like Lebron James, where
you just keep going right, put an extra battery in
him and a way he goes. For Polisic, you've got
eleven years of international play plus is work for the
United States. Plus everything leading up to that chart. I mean,
(24:34):
that's a lot. And there's myriad injuries along the way.
You enumerated a couple, there's a few, you know along
the way that become lingering concerns. Is he on the pitch?
Can he stay on? Does he have to take an
early exit? Right? Cause you get credit for the game played,
but you still have to exit the pitch. And in
four years now you're talking thirty one pep, you'll be
twenty seven and those guys will be in that you know,
(24:56):
does he still want to because that's the other part, right,
If you've always been the ace, yes, and you've always
been that number one guy, and we watch it in
any sport, how many how many of those guys when
they're called to be Hey, you know what, you're the
number two receiver? Now, Nope, you're the number two option
on this NBA team or number three option. You can
sell me all you want, y are, but can't tell
(25:17):
me you're happy with that that downgrade. Right, the ego,
the pride still get you. And yes you may have
that glorious run a game, a big score or whatever,
but consistently are you gonna be able to do it.
I don't think so at this point.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And and that's the part in sports where that's a
very common thing, soccer fan or not. Do you want
to move on from a player a year too early
or a year too late? Right? Like Bill Belichick would
always say, I want to get rid of a guy
a year too early rather than a year too late,
because I'll get something for him when I know he's
nearing the end. Right. That's always been a question in
any sport, but now in soccer it's really about do
(25:54):
you want to move on from a player, because it's
really it's really something to say we're gonna go win
and bank on you for four years from now, because
if that doesn't work, you're stuck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Man.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's four years. It's not just a year of doing stuff.
It's four years where we were counting on you and
now it's not gonna work and we are stuck. And
I am not cool with that, man, Like, if can
you really say, hey, in four years, we can count
on him. No, you want to move on from him
earlier before later? Right. We watched the US women's national
team where they made a great segue from the Abbey
(26:25):
womback era into the Alex Morgan Meghan Rapino era, which
was so incredibly successful. Waited a little bit too long
to move on from Repino on Alex Morgan. Right, they
got really slow and they needed to go to the
trident earlier and have the young players coming up. They
kept Mallory Swans and Mallory Pew. You know, we should
have been had a bigger role with the women's national
(26:46):
team earlier because she was a big scorer. But they
relied on those players a little bit too long, and
you don't want to be that. You don't want to
be that team. We're saying we were relied on this
player a little bit too long. Now Morgan Rapino were healthy,
so it's a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
But still we also winners, so you'd say, okay, and
we you know, to be the man, you gotta beat
the man out of this case, the woman, whereas Christian
Pollissic has gotten us to.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, no, I mean grant total one World Cup goal, right,
So I mean, I don't know, when you're faced with
that reality of what do you see this team looking
like in four years, you're not talking about, well, we
we have Gold Cup coming up in a couple of years.
We have this, we have Conka, CAF, we have no
what's this team gonna look like in four years? Can
you really say, knowing what we've seen from Polisic for
six years, Yeah, he's gonna put all this injury stuff
(27:32):
behind him. No, guys don't get magically healthier when they're
twenty seven years old, right, They're not gonna do. You're
not gonna suddenly see the Luka body transformation that we
see every off season. Oh, look at Logan, looks good.
Look at Polic, He's put on like twenty five pounds
and he's still as fast. Again. No, you're not gonna
see that. So it's it's it makes it a lot
easier to look ahead and say, what is this team
(27:52):
gonna look like? And the Golden generation is done. I
don't know what you want to call this next generation?
The maybe generation, Maybe we're okay generation. I don't know.
But that's the hardest thing to do in sports sometimes,
is to move on from somebody you've counted on for
a long time. But the United States doesn't have any choice, right,
I mean, even if you want to make it a
little bit of a question, because of what happened physically
(28:13):
on the field. The fact that he can't stay healthy
should be the number one thing, and that that should
be a meeting they have with him very quickly after this,
when he's back and healthy, because he's gonna go back
and play in Europe at some point, we'll play for
Racing Milan again. They're gonna figure out the treatment for him.
But the next time he's coming back for the United States.
It because and it's never been it's never felt like
he's been all in on the United States either, right,
(28:34):
It's never felt like I am absolutely Captain America. Like
there's times where you need to be with the team. No,
I'm not with a team. You need to feel like
the rest. So I think the next thing is to
have a conversation that, Okay, you want to come back
on this team, there is a place for you, but
you are going to come off the bench and we
are gonna get We're gonna find other players are gonna
play that position because we can't count on you. It's
(28:55):
a tough conversation. And if you want, if you're in
for this, if you're in for Team USA, you have
a role, right, You're gonna be that guy but that's
gonna be your role second half off the bench if
we need offense the last half hour of a game
if things aren't going well. That's what we think we
can count on you for looking ahead four years. If
you're in for that great if not completely understand awesome,
you know you will still give you tickets to the
(29:16):
games and you can come see and talk to the
guys and all that stuff, but we're moving on.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
You'll make for a great alumni for the meet and greets,
but the reality, like the injury and buy in and
everything is giggy. But obviously the Donovan comments and some
of these other things about what may be swirling in
the background, you can't carry that forward. That baggage has
to go right. If there's issues with hangers on and
(29:41):
his advisors and whatever else, that you gotta purge from
that
Thanks for listening to The Jason Smith Show with Mike
Harmon podcast. Be sure to catch us live every weeknight
ten pm to two am Eastern seven to eleven pm
Pacific on Fox Sports Radio. Find your local station for
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Speaker 2 (00:22):
EF you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Hello, Welcome in side final hour tonight to Jason Smith
Show with my best friend Mike Harmon. Come up, don't
forget you miss any of tonight's show. Be sure to
catch the podcast. It goes up in about an hour
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(00:49):
and Mike Harmon wherever you get your podcasts. You'll find
today's full show and a best of version posted right
after we get off the air. Well, one quarter final down,
three more to go. Tomorrow's Spain and Belgium. Just just so,
I'm gonna tell you this right now, I'm absolutely taking
(01:09):
the under in this game. I mean the under might
be one and a half. But I'm taking the under. Wow,
it could be it could be a half because it
could you know what technically would be zero's eer with
penalties that it could be a half. Oh, that's tough one.
Do I take the half? Do I take the If
there's a lot of money there and you put the
(01:30):
over runners still two and a half two and a half?
Are you kidding? I'm way under on that way. Under
Spain has a lot of goal they have trouble scoring.
Belgium's not. I mean, look their scores. They can't even
trust him to play the whole game now, so they're
gonna come off the bench later. Yeah, I'm taking the under.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, I mean if we did have Doku's coming off
of illness, uh, and then Lukaku, you know he's only
gonna be give you twenty to thirty minutes, but getting
his way at your own peril.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
TJ clearly not gonna get a lot from Count Doku
if he winds up battling Yoda at the end.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Yeah, he starts bouncing around like pinball. I mean, you
don't know where he's gonna end out.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
I mean, this is the only game of the quarterfinal
games where you go, Okay, it's not a lot of
sexiness here, you know, no, no real household names. Everybody's
mad at Belgium for being the United States and all this,
and boy the boy, the worst thing is gonna be
if Belgium just looks terrible against Spain. It's everyone's gonna
be mad at the United States all over again. Oh,
even worse than I thought we suck. Even worse than
(02:31):
I thought we sucked.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
I'll go out say they don't lay down like the
United States did. Oh where to where you're using either
Yakty Sacks or the Curby your Enthusiasm theme song over
the highlight?
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, I know, I I agree with you there. But
that's the thing. And and we'll have more on on
the latest big deal with Christian Polissa coming up in
a few minutes. But that's the one thing when we
talk about turning the page on this golden gen the
United States has right And I said, I said, listen
to three guys to build around, just like in any
team Balligan, Tillman, Freeman. These are your studs, right, These
(03:09):
are the guys that could potentially be world class players.
They're all young. You know, everything else, this Golden generation
has had a chance. But one of the things that
and one of the reasons why it's easy to move
on from, is that I've sad enough of these guys
showing up flat in big games, whether it's Gold Cup
(03:30):
or Conka CAF for qualified, there's games where I go,
what the hell are we doing? How are we showing
up this flat?
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And I'm not.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Saying this is just you know, this is you know,
in the Pochattino era. This is Pochettino And go back
to the Burholter era and the end of Cleansman. It's okay,
the end of Cleansman started this Golden generation. It was
how many times have I said, how are they flat?
For the first half of this game? How are they flat?
Speaker 2 (03:53):
For?
Speaker 1 (03:54):
And that's been a common thing, right, and and when
that's a common thing now going on almost a decade, yeah,
it's time to move on. No matter, it's time to
change managers.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Right because as you you laid it out, that's not
quite as many as the Jets, not quite as many
as people that have run the Prime minister there and
in Great Britain. As Matthew pointed out to us as well,
don't forget Woody Johnson got sent over there.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
He Now the US men's national team looks like the
modom the modicum of stability compared to compared to you know,
prime ministers in English.
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Right, but it's it's still had three they've had six. Yeah,
but you only need them every four years, and you're
still getting that same lack of effort in the biggest
of moments.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
I don't care that you come out like a house
of fire, uh in the first game of the group stage,
because that's what Polistic did and we got excited and
it's good, right, and hope is a beautiful and dangerous thing.
We talk about it all the time. But then you
finally get on this stage where that many more millions
and millions of people are gathering in the square watch parties,
(05:01):
all excited, wearing their team USA merch.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And then immediately within a minute, we're going, oh, this
is gonna go badly. I shouldn't have bought this for
full price. I should have waited to get a fight tomorrow.
I forgot to go to Walgreens to see if those
hats are on half price.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
What you got tomorrow?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, tomorrow, And if you find a box of the
stickers get me a box of stickers for half price.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
All right, very good, But I mean like, like I
can I can recall like half a dozen times in
a big, big ish game, whether it's World Cup or
out like we talked about the other tournaments, where I'm like,
how do we come out flat? But that's that's this,
that's the Golden generation. For some reason, they come out flat.
And I've had enough. I've had enough, said Okay, it's
time to move on from these guys. And if it's
(05:42):
if it's almost an entirely new roster, and and and
and you're bringing back a couple of other guys in support,
like could I see them saying? Okay, you build around
the three guys. Could I see g Oreana coming back? Yes,
I can see him coming back, depending on how he
progresses over the next few years. Same thing with Ricardo Peppi,
who is still young enough. Maybe he you know, hits
(06:02):
the next stage level of his development. But most of
the team, like, okay, I've seen them be flat. Like
I don't understand. Sometimes they come out and they look incredible,
and they should come out and look that way every
single game, but they don't. So when you can't do that. Yeah,
I'm ready to move on from you. I'm ready to
go go someplace else, ready to go get new players
to come in. That's it, it's time.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
I mean, we watched the guys that we are leaders,
and that goes to and we'll get deeper into the
Polisic stuff. Uh that that he wasn't wearing the captain's
arm band should have told Jill.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Now now, well, he's not the captain. Yeah he's not.
He's not the captain. Now he wasn't the captain and
certainly not. The thing is the guy the only guy
who actually played worse than Polisic was the captain the game. Wait,
somebody played worse than Polically. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
sure you want you. You and I both watched Tim
(06:50):
Reim's final game as the United States men's national team.
We bought this his final game. We thought that horible.
Uh yeah, he was bad, but like Tim Reim was
minus three all by himself, Like that was I mean,
Polisic Politic didn't do any favors and he was terrible.
But Tim Reim three mistakes with three balls in the
back of the net. I mean, that's that's that's special.
That's a that's a hat trick. You don't want any parties.
(07:12):
Not good for anybody. How much to Belgium pay him,
you think, but say, oh oh man, wow, that's a
hot take, Frostburg, that is a hot take. But whether
it's Belgium Spain, we still have to worry about Argentina,
the officials England after today especially. I mean, I know
it's not a hot take. We talked about this in
(07:33):
the first hour of the show. I don't know who's
beating France. We may be in for a very dull
last couple of weeks the World Cup when it comes
to who winds up winning in the end. Doesn't mean
we're not gonna have excitement and games aren't gonna be exciting. Look,
we're on course for England and Argentina, you know, France
and Spain. You know, even if one of them moved,
(07:53):
we could get Norway and Holland, which would be exciting.
But I don't know if that's gonna change the end result,
which is gonna be France winning the t because they
came into the to the World Cup as the number
one team in the world, and they started at a
peak and they have peaked the entire time. Morocco is
a pretty good team. This is a top ten in
the world team. You remember what they did to Canada,
(08:14):
who is a team like a route what we are
and they made Canada look like, boyd, we shouldn't be
on the same field, regardless of whatever Jesse Marsh thinks
about the game. And France made Morocco today look like
a team that didn't deserve to be on the field.
They looked like how the United States used to look
against teams that were better, Like how are they even
out here? Like I never thought for a second Morocco
(08:36):
was even in the game. They couldn't possess the ball
like I mean, you know, sixteen eighteen minutes in and
you hear the play by players going, I don't know
the last time Morocco's had the ball? When's Morocco? How
long they possessed the ball? Like? France is just that
good And the thing is is that it's this is
the probably the best team France has ever had. And
you have Bape in his prime. You're not going to
get a more in prime and Bape here at twenty
(08:57):
seven years old. Yes, he missed the penalty today, but
he's still scored again set up the other goal like
they have no problems, and all the other teams, as
fun as they are, they all have problems. Spain terrific defensively,
can't score, can't score right, so Spain's got issues. England
terrific offensively, but boy or they lose defensively, you can
get at them. Argentina needed a miracle comeback, and the
(09:21):
officials just to get by Egypt right, and Norway as
fun a story as they are. If you can stop
Holland and the team that's this good top to bottom,
I'll always take the great team over the one great
individual player. Again, to make a kind of a comparison
to Caitlin Clark playing college basketball, what they ran into
South Carolina. So all of these other teams that France
(09:42):
could play, they all have problems right now. Anything could happen,
guy could trip fall, penalty, You never know. But if
the games go as we've seen so far, it's gonna
be France winning the trophy and it's gonna be two
nothing in the next game, it's gonna be too nothing
in the final or two to one or maybe three
re won. That's how good they are, and that's how
(10:03):
good I would love to tell you something else where.
I think somebody else can win the trophy, but nobody
else is playing at this level that France is at.
And they and they looked they felt like they had
a game today where with the weather ands loat time
talked about it a little bit, well, hey, you expect a
little bit of of of difficult rough play as far
as effort wise in the first half because of the weather. Uh,
(10:24):
it felt like France still. I mean, they played really well,
but I felt like they had an extra gear if
they needed it, and they just didn't need it. Not
about not about that had a bad effort, but I
felt that if they needed that extra gear today, they
would need it. And as you get into the tournament,
when you get up on a team and you're up
to nothing and you're playing a whole bunch of games
in a row and there's less time between games, you're saying, Okay,
(10:44):
we want to preserve our guys as long as possible.
But I know they had that extra gear in their
bag if they needed and they didn't.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
Well, and they also had the ability to sub and
bapa out. Now, part of it was an injury concern,
which he quickly dismissed in the post game. But you're
up to nil, you think you can hold it. Now,
we've seen several other matches over the course of this
tournament that got wild and crazy Argentina to where suddenly
that too, no lead isn't there. But even with a
(11:12):
couple of corners and a little bit more offensive fire
in the final fifteen to twenty minutes, it never really
felt like that game was in doubt today. So you
have that opportunity now, your team Norway talking about our
guy Holland, talking about Oudegard, their captain. They had to
move hotels because there was a lot going around between construction,
(11:35):
crowds and noise there in Fort Lauderdale. So you know,
one more disruption that we've seen become a theme here
in the World Cup. But let's go to the training
market now, shall we. If we go to Calshi, one
point one billion dollars have been put into this marketplace
France right now forty percent, Argentina at eighteen points seven,
(11:59):
Spains seventeen point three, England fifteen point six, fifteen point eight,
and then you have the decided drop off to Norway, Belgium,
Switzerland just a one point nine percent.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
It's it's really really difficult to see. So I mean,
this is how loaded you know the team? And look, okay,
the guy who came in from Mbope today, right, he's
one of Crystal Palace's best players, right, like he have
he won the FA Cup and he doesn't even score
for freak no, and he barely gets on the field.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
But that's the point, right, is that you look at
some of these squads like all right, and we talked
about it with Belgium, we don't match up with their
first and then wait, these guys are coming on in
a in a huge line change like a hockey, and
they're all guys that would be our top players, right
and just go on down the line. Then we've seen
that Spain will be interesting tomorrow to watch because we
(12:52):
keep waiting for Jamal to be that breakout right one
of the young stars, because we've got that great time continuum. Right,
We've got Holland and Embope in the prime, you got
Messi the extinguished Ronaldo over there, and then you've got
Jamal and some of these young guys coming up as well.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
So fun times ahead.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Can't wait for tomorrow's game.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, I mean, look of the of the games tomorrow
is the one We're like, okay, but just because we
have the star power and the other ones. But you know,
you'll watch Spain and get a real appreciation of what
they do. And I can see Embope getting a brace
against them, like as good as they are defensively, Like
that's how good he is, That's how fast he is.
That's how fast he makes an imprint on the game,
(13:33):
like I would not be. So again, they having a
lot of goal goal tournament, I can see him scoring
two against him.
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Well, that goal that he scored today was absurd, like
he had no space, no time. Did the defense played
it right, goalie guest just inside the post. They just
placed perfectly with enough of a curve and arc to
it to hit the.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
He He was also in his own head on that
on that penalty now, just really quick because again he
would have tied Messi from because I told him my
big ball prediction. He's gonnag at the World Cup with
more goals than Messi all the Messi's a World Cup
leading score. Yeah, and Papa is gonna pass him. Uh.
Like the penalty he missed, they took so long he
had to reset the ball two or three times he
got a He got in his own head on that,
(14:13):
because look, I understand that when when penalties happened, the
gamesmanship that goes on and the focus that you need,
but this is still a situation where the player needs
to be able to convert. And and Boppe had never missed,
and you could just tell by seeing him how upset
he looked a couple of times resetting the ball. He
was in his own head on that he didn't get
a great shot off. He waited a little bit, and
(14:35):
I could just tell that's something he really wanted that back,
because he just mentally he wasn't in the right place.
But you still got to bury that, like' and Bape
you have to bury that. You can't because that should
have been a huge lift from Morocco. WHOA and Bope
misses a penalty? What do I always say, show me
a team that misses a penalty in a big game.
I'll show you a team that lost and it still
didn't matter. They still couldn't capitalize on it, control the
(14:56):
ball at all, and it was still France. Okay, we're
still going to continue to steamroll on the You.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
Got him in dem ballet and certainly by scoring the goal,
and Bappe did right by all those who backed him
for the anytime.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Hey, right to the gambling, right right to the gambling.
We did it right fifty No, but right when we
right to the gambling. When we talked about the okay,
okay exit out about a Fresca exit swollen dome. Jason
Smith Mike Carmon Live from the Fox Sports Radio Studios.
Got some really fun NBA stories coming your way next,
and the latest twist on the Christian Polistic Team USA drama.
(15:29):
Wait till you hear it, that's next, Jason to Mike,
Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern seven
pm Pacific on Fox Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
Oh you know, for a minute there, I wanted to
watch stranger things. I've been running up that hill. I'll
tell you made a deal with God. Stars every day.
Speaker 2 (15:55):
Want to h.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
My deal with God? Give me another chance to come
in for four hours and Torment, You're.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Ass Fox Sports Radio. Jason Smith Mike Harmon Live from
the Fox Sports Radio Studios, where the last couple of
days have not been great for Christian Politic following Team
USA's elimination. They have not been great, not great.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
That might be the kindest way to describe the last
seventy to ninety six hours.
Speaker 1 (16:26):
He went from I'm Captain America. I have to step
up with Balligan out of this game. Baligan gets to play,
he plays horribly, he gets hurt, he leaves the game,
The United States loses. The fans hate Christian Polisic, and
now basically every former member of the US men's national
(16:49):
team is at war with what they think about Polisic
as a person, as a player. It got kicked off
by Carly Lloyd talking about him. Look, we had a
big thing on Polisic going viral, and it's time to
move on past Polisic and the Golden Generation. Uh, it's
not been great. I don't know that he has any
friends the last couple of days.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Right, it's been a rough rough go because everybody decided
to make him. I mean, he was the poster child, right,
he was mostly the chosen one. He was Steve Rogers,
and just like that, he looked like old man. No,
I don't think I will.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
Can you tell me about when he scored that goal
against Iran. No, no, I don't think I will. Oh
okay uh. And instead of the armband, and it's the shield,
you know, he gives away here you go, I can't
wear this anymore. He never had the armband to give
this for you or Sam. He gives it to Baligan
and Balagan takes the takes a shield. I'm got in America.
Now I am caught the American. So it's not been
(17:44):
great for him. Right to the point where Landon Donovan,
former US men's national team legend who's been doing a
great job on the games, I'm really enjoying listening to him.
Uh just lit him up by saying that the people
that he hangs out with, you know, he needs he
needs better people around him. He doesn't say hi to
the analyst when they walk by before the game. He's
not approachable. All of these things, like it's been a
(18:06):
bad time being Christian Polisic the last couple of days.
But throw all that out, right, throw all that out
for a second. And when we talked about moving on
from Polisic, that became most of the conversation, right, because
this Jenner this last ten years has not gone well.
He has not played well in and out of the lineup,
(18:28):
but the way he carried himself went front and center,
saying at the end of the game, now I get
to rest. Carly Lloyd was not happy with that, not
really trying, just walking off the field after the third goal,
like he had a lot of bad optics. But today
we find out that Polisic, the injury that he suffered
is something that's going to keep him out a little while,
(18:50):
a microfracture and bone bruise of the tibia amphibia, which
is what happened when he heard he had that bad
turn before he left the game against Belgium. Now, the
initial impact of this story was a lot of yeah,
but how hurt is he really?
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Right?
Speaker 1 (19:09):
Like cow, it's just an excuse. He's been getting killed
by everybody. So now we find out he's hurt. Uh,
this is gonna go in a different direction, right because
the injury thing, this is just and this is not
what we don't talk about this enough with Polisic is
that for the last six years, since he has ascended
(19:32):
into the leadership position of being the poster guy for
the United States men's national team, he has not been
able to stay healthy anywhere he was hurt from twenty
twenty to twenty twenty two, a myriad of injuries. He
had a thigh injury, he had an ankle injury. You know,
for a couple of years it was difficult for him.
(19:53):
He had a hamstring injury as well. You go back
to twenty twenty two and he scores a big goal
against Iran, but on that play, the big the contusion,
so then he's out. He misses a lot of time
over the past couple of years in Europe. Now he
misses time in this tournament twice with two different injuries.
And I'm not I don't say this as a oh
come on, man, No, I say this as.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
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Speaker 1 (20:23):
He's twenty seven now, and for six years he has
not been able to stay healthy where I no longer
think his body can put up with the riggers that's
needed to achieve the potential that he was supposed to
be at. Right, we've seen it look good. He's a
good play. We've seen him play, man, I've seen I've
seen him play a high level and he you know,
he looks like the best player on the field. He
(20:44):
was the best player on the field the first half
of their opening game against when they played his Paraguay.
But overall, like you need to be able to count
on the guy. If he's your best player, you cannot
count on him to be in the lineup. And what
do we He was in and out of the lineup
this World Cup right the first half of the game
first game, didn't play in the second half, didn't play
in the next game, came off the bench. In the
last game we lost. This game, he played the first
(21:05):
half into the second half, they got down three, three
to one. You can't count on him anymore. And that's
just as big a reason why you have to move
on because when when when a guy gets hurt the
first time, the first couple times when he's young, you say, okay,
his body has to get used to it. And that
was a big thing because when polistics started to come
up and he was identified as the best player on
Team USA, every team tried to be physical with him.
(21:27):
That's what we try to do. How do we do
Let's try to be physical, right, try to be physical
with Wemby?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (21:31):
How we try to be physical with him. Okay, he
needs some time, body has to build up to withstand
the rigors of what this physical game means. But then
he gets hurt again, and he gets hurt again, and
now you're out of twenty twenty two into twenty twenty four,
and he's been hurt a couple of times, and now
you're in your last gasp, Okay, what do we need
to do to keep him healthy? Right, We're gonna hold
(21:51):
him out of some games. I'm not gonna play in
this game because he was remembering he didn't play in
games leading up to the World Cup because he wanted
to have rest. And you can only protect a player
or from himself or whatever his body's limitations are, for
so long. And then you get into this World Cup
and he's in and out of the lineup, and we lose.
You cannot go forward with him as your star player.
(22:12):
I don't even know if there's any more of a
role for him in four years. That's not Maybe he
can come off the bench in the second half if
we need offense like that. I think is the only
thing that's left for him if he makes the team
in four years. Right, because still he's still there. Now
the next two you know, you have to start looking
at when Poachtino gets if he rehire him coming back,
(22:34):
who you're building around. But honestly, that's the best case
scenario for him, and I didn't know that that's gonna
be a snaris And in four years, maybe you come
off the bench in the second half, you can play
thirty minutes in a game, and maybe you can stay healthy.
And if you're not, you're not absolutely killing us because
you can't stay on the field when one of your
two most important offensive players, you can't count on being
on the field. Guess what, you have to have somebody
(22:55):
else out there, right if you need somebody else, whether
it's Peppe or ready to come out there. Look, ain't
it comes in a little bit. When he had to
play for him, and he played pretty well at times.
Obviously he didn't get the reps because he was coming
off the bench. But you know, he's still young and
maybe in four years he's the guy playing that position.
He's the guy we have here and Polisic is on
the outside looking in. You just can't count on him.
(23:16):
For all the optics and the bad optics for Polisic
off the field and the leadership and the aeronaut being there,
not being on the field, that's at least half the story.
And we don't talk about that part about Polisic enough
that he just his body just can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
Well, We've been discussing over the course of the World Cup,
going back to the early exit in the group stage,
just that that had become a hallmark and how hurt
was he going to be? And eventually he makes his
return against Turkey A and we get him back on
the pitch. That's all fine and good, but taking it
(23:51):
the long path as we've done with you know, Jannis
and Tennekempo and so many others. Right, there's a lot
of extra miles on that body, right, Luka doncis one
of the discussion points that will stay here in Los
Angeles these next couple of years as they build and
retool the roster around him. All the international play, all
(24:11):
the extra miles, all of that, How much does it work?
Not everybody's you know, a cyborg like Lebron James, where
you just keep going right, put an extra battery in
him and a way he goes. For Polisic, you've got
eleven years of international play plus is work for the
United States. Plus everything leading up to that chart. I mean,
(24:34):
that's a lot. And there's myriad injuries along the way.
You enumerated a couple, there's a few, you know along
the way that become lingering concerns. Is he on the pitch?
Can he stay on? Does he have to take an
early exit? Right? Cause you get credit for the game played,
but you still have to exit the pitch. And in
four years now you're talking thirty one pep, you'll be
twenty seven and those guys will be in that you know,
(24:56):
does he still want to because that's the other part, right,
If you've always been the ace, yes, and you've always
been that number one guy, and we watch it in
any sport, how many how many of those guys when
they're called to be Hey, you know what, you're the
number two receiver? Now, Nope, you're the number two option
on this NBA team or number three option. You can
sell me all you want, y are, but can't tell
(25:17):
me you're happy with that that downgrade. Right, the ego,
the pride still get you. And yes you may have
that glorious run a game, a big score or whatever,
but consistently are you gonna be able to do it.
I don't think so at this point.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And and that's the part in sports where that's a
very common thing, soccer fan or not. Do you want
to move on from a player a year too early
or a year too late? Right? Like Bill Belichick would
always say, I want to get rid of a guy
a year too early rather than a year too late,
because I'll get something for him when I know he's
nearing the end. Right. That's always been a question in
any sport, but now in soccer it's really about do
(25:54):
you want to move on from a player, because it's
really it's really something to say we're gonna go win
and bank on you for four years from now, because
if that doesn't work, you're stuck.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Man.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
It's four years. It's not just a year of doing stuff.
It's four years where we were counting on you and
now it's not gonna work and we are stuck. And
I am not cool with that, man, Like, if can
you really say, hey, in four years, we can count
on him. No, you want to move on from him
earlier before later? Right. We watched the US women's national
team where they made a great segue from the Abbey
(26:25):
womback era into the Alex Morgan Meghan Rapino era, which
was so incredibly successful. Waited a little bit too long
to move on from Repino on Alex Morgan. Right, they
got really slow and they needed to go to the
trident earlier and have the young players coming up. They
kept Mallory Swans and Mallory Pew. You know, we should
have been had a bigger role with the women's national
(26:46):
team earlier because she was a big scorer. But they
relied on those players a little bit too long, and
you don't want to be that. You don't want to
be that team. We're saying we were relied on this
player a little bit too long. Now Morgan Rapino were healthy,
so it's a little bit different.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
But still we also winners, so you'd say, okay, and
we you know, to be the man, you gotta beat
the man out of this case, the woman, whereas Christian
Pollissic has gotten us to.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Yeah, no, I mean grant total one World Cup goal, right,
So I mean, I don't know, when you're faced with
that reality of what do you see this team looking
like in four years, you're not talking about, well, we
we have Gold Cup coming up in a couple of years.
We have this, we have Conka, CAF, we have no
what's this team gonna look like in four years? Can
you really say, knowing what we've seen from Polisic for
six years, Yeah, he's gonna put all this injury stuff
(27:32):
behind him. No, guys don't get magically healthier when they're
twenty seven years old, right, They're not gonna do. You're
not gonna suddenly see the Luka body transformation that we
see every off season. Oh, look at Logan, looks good.
Look at Polic, He's put on like twenty five pounds
and he's still as fast. Again. No, you're not gonna
see that. So it's it's it makes it a lot
easier to look ahead and say, what is this team
(27:52):
gonna look like? And the Golden generation is done. I
don't know what you want to call this next generation?
The maybe generation, Maybe we're okay generation. I don't know.
But that's the hardest thing to do in sports sometimes,
is to move on from somebody you've counted on for
a long time. But the United States doesn't have any choice, right,
I mean, even if you want to make it a
little bit of a question, because of what happened physically
(28:13):
on the field. The fact that he can't stay healthy
should be the number one thing, and that that should
be a meeting they have with him very quickly after this,
when he's back and healthy, because he's gonna go back
and play in Europe at some point, we'll play for
Racing Milan again. They're gonna figure out the treatment for him.
But the next time he's coming back for the United States.
It because and it's never been it's never felt like
he's been all in on the United States either, right,
(28:34):
It's never felt like I am absolutely Captain America. Like
there's times where you need to be with the team. No,
I'm not with a team. You need to feel like
the rest. So I think the next thing is to
have a conversation that, Okay, you want to come back
on this team, there is a place for you, but
you are going to come off the bench and we
are gonna get We're gonna find other players are gonna
play that position because we can't count on you. It's
(28:55):
a tough conversation. And if you want, if you're in
for this, if you're in for Team USA, you have
a role, right, You're gonna be that guy but that's
gonna be your role second half off the bench if
we need offense the last half hour of a game
if things aren't going well. That's what we think we
can count on you for looking ahead four years. If
you're in for that great if not completely understand awesome,
you know you will still give you tickets to the
(29:16):
games and you can come see and talk to the
guys and all that stuff, but we're moving on.
Speaker 3 (29:20):
You'll make for a great alumni for the meet and greets,
but the reality, like the injury and buy in and
everything is giggy. But obviously the Donovan comments and some
of these other things about what may be swirling in
the background, you can't carry that forward. That baggage has
to go right. If there's issues with hangers on and
(29:41):
his advisors and whatever else, that you gotta purge from
that
Hosts And Creators
Jason Smith
Mike Harmon
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