July 9, 2026 • 24 mins
On today's episode, Jason discusses the upcoming Round of 8 matches in the World Cup, what - if anything - can be done to turn the USA into a global soccer superpower, how he's using AI to help identify the next wave of American soccer stars, and which team makes the most sense as LeBron James' next landing spot.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre Street
bawler for Thursday July, the ninth World Cup is back
in action. Yes, Ladies and gentlemen. World Cup Action today
one pm Pacific, four pm Eastern. If you could dip
out of work early. France Morocco a fun subplot. This
(00:34):
is how you know soccer is a huge deal right
now in America, even though do you Americans are bounced?
The referee crew for this one is all Argentinian refs,
and there is if you've been online the last you know,
forty eight hours, there is this ground swell that, wow,
FIFA wants Argentina and look at these dirty Argentinian plays
(00:54):
that weren't called fouls. There's some advanced stats that say,
of the of the final, was it sixteen or Final
eight or sixteen? I forget, I think it was a
final sixteen, Argentina had the least fouls called on them.
And then there's some videos that are not good of
Argentinian players singing racist songs. I guess because they hate
(01:16):
France because France has black guys on their team. It's
just it's not good and listen. I gotta be honest,
I'm kind of swept up in this messy stuff. I'm
enjoying it. I do not think Argentina will win the title.
I do not think they will go back to back.
But I do think when they play Switzerland Saturday evening,
all eyes are gonna be on that game because now
(01:36):
you can't hide it, okay, I mean the refs are
gonna have to be on their game. I do think
that the extra scrutiny is going to be on full display.
And you know, if European countries were willing to band
together to be pissed off about the Balligan suspension, hopefully
(01:56):
they're gonna step up and say something at this Argentinian
nonsense continues. Now, I was looking big picture and saying like, oh, well, Argentina,
that foul that removed the Egypt goal. Fine, I get
that that was garbage, but Egypt still scored to go
up to nothing. So even if the refs are quote
unquote against you, you can't give up three goals in
fifteen minutes, like, come on, guys. I mean the final
(02:17):
goal was brutal. They only had one guy back. It
was a one v one in the box in like
the ninety third minute. Come on, that's unacceptable. But France
and Morocco should be good. I do think Morocco can
hang with them. It'll be a defensive struggle. And interestingly,
the model points out France a juggernaut in the group stage,
just crushing teams three to one. I think it was
three to one, three nothing, four to one. Now Norway
(02:39):
played its backup, so whatever, and everybody that is betting
France overs because they're an offensive juggernaut with Olise Damballe
mbape whatever. Interestingly, you're not paying a France tax if
you want the over. And the Sweden France line was
three and a half. Model had under landed three. Nothing
(03:01):
was I think two and a half and it landed one.
So back to back unders in knockout play where teams
are like, hey, we can't hang with this, so we
can't go toe to toe with France. We've got a
hunger down and play a metric ton of defense. Well,
guess who plays the best defense left of any team
in the World Cup. And I know Spain has shut
out everybody but Morocco. Actually, the analytics say they have
(03:25):
the best XG differential because their defense has been phenomenal,
so this will be interesting. Listen. Would not be a
major shock to me if France got knocked out here.
I do think they win. I have a small wager
on France money line and a bigger wager on under
two and a half goals. Should be a good one.
It looks like the Moroccan seabury and I'm sorry to
(03:46):
butcher his name. He was their best goal scorer in
the tournament. Had a hamstring against Canada, mistraining the last
couple days, so he's not expected to play. That's obviously
a huge loss. And I know the guy came off
the bench and scored goals for them. It's fine against Canada.
You know you need your horses against France, and then
of course Friday Spain. Belgium should be good. I got
(04:09):
Spain winning that one, but I want to let's talk
about Belgium for a sec. I read a super interesting article.
I've never heard of this guy. He's pretty good, Ryan O'Hanlon.
I don't know who he is. He's at ESPN and
he had a breakdown that basically was like I'm agreeing
with pretty much everything. Okay, So he's writing about Okay,
(04:32):
I just googled the guy's name. He's writing a book
on analytics in soccer. Oh, he did write a book
in twenty twenty two. He used to write a newsletter
and then he was at the Ringer and oh, he's
written for a lot of places. Okay. I thought this
was tremendous and I do think you should read it. Essentially,
(04:54):
he boiled it down to, hey, we can have all
the analytics, we won't. We just don't have good enough players.
And that was a big talking point when I hosted
The Herd on Wednesday, Coward was out sick. He's back
today was that if you you know, look at our players.
We've got a lot of guys in top leagues around
the world. I mean, USA has three guys in the EPL.
(05:17):
We've got players in the top leagues in Germany, two
in the top league in Italy, one in the top
league in Netherlands. Like we got we got dudes all
over the globe. There's we have more global talent on
our US team now than we've ever had before, but
one in France. And it's like, yes, we have three
(05:39):
guys in MLS and it just so happens that two
of them were total ass Tim Reim and the goalie freeze.
You know, they were horrendous against Belgium, and you look
at Belgium and you're like, okay, well Belgium had an
interesting starting lineup, but they had five starters in the EPL.
We had three. Now when you look, this is the difference,
in my opinion is and he didn't really touch on
this in the article. Was depth. Go to the Belgium bench,
(06:02):
see where their guys play. They're totally stacked. They have
like four guys in the EPL and sitting on her bench.
So like that's why they were able to sit to
Bruyna and have Doku come off the bench and Lukaku
come off the bench. And it's like, damn, we don't
have that kind of depth, Which leads me to this
interesting topic that really pisses me off because it's it's
(06:26):
the same shit over and over. You could go look
it up. So and I'm not this is not slandering
her by any stretch of imagination, but Alex Morgan, great
fantastic women's soccer player, and her prime fun story. We're
on the beach one day, I don't know if it
was July fourth and it's the family and a couple
(06:46):
other people, friends and kids and whatever. And I look
over and I see this girl with like her parents,
and I'm like, she looks so familiar. And she had
some tattoo. I forget what it was, and I googled
the tattoo and I'm like, oh damn, that's Alex Morgan
from the US women's national team, sitting like ten feet
away from us. And I was telling my kids, Hey,
do you want to get a picture with Alex Morgan.
They're like, not really. I mean they were like, you know,
(07:08):
the kids were like eight or nine or whatever. I
was like, all right, and you know, she's just hanging
out with her parents on the beach. Nobody nobody had
a clue who she was. And again, you know, it's
not like she's Katelyn. I mean, if she were Kaitlin
Clark obviously would have been different. But any rate, Alex
Morgan was on the New Heights podcast and starts bemoaning
the youth soccer system in America. It's a business, it's fractured,
(07:30):
blah blah blah. That's why we're not getting ahead. Yeah, Alex, respectfully,
no shit, Sherlock. You know this has been talked about.
Go look in twenty twenty two when we got smoked
by Netherlands. What's the problem. The youth system is broken.
Go look at twenty eighteen when we missed the World
Cup twenty fourteen. Like we talked about this for a decade,
there's no solution.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
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listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
To quote the great Richard Williams from that movie about
the Venus and Serena, which I highly recommend if you
don't have a plan, plan to fail. And the US
youth system, listen, man in America, it's all about the benjamins.
If I can build this awesome soccer team, and I
can charge you a lot of money, and we're going
(08:25):
to travel regionally and maybe nationally, but you gotta pay
because guess what the coaches need to get paid, and
whoever's funding the organization they got to get paid. Private
equity might be involved, and ultimately it prices out the
little guy. Now, maybe you have one quote unquote scholarship
right on your roster. But then once the other parents
(08:46):
figure that out, they're like, well, wait a minute, this
kid's a starter, he's a star, and he's playing ahead
of my kid. I'm paying ten thousand dollars. What the
hell is this about? You know? And then you got
problems because the rich people want to flex that their
kids are on a great travel team. And so ultimately
that model is happening all around the country where it's
pay to play, and if you want to go and
(09:08):
look at the Netherlands or Italy or Germany, it is
totally backwards. They take pride in soccer. It is a
national deal, right, They are invested in building great soccer
players for their country. And so until that happens, and
(09:31):
I don't think it's gonna happen, we're gonna still be
stuck in this rigamarole on you know where it's like, well,
why aren't the players getting better? Well, you know, do
we have our best players? Well? I don't know why.
Why is that? And it's just like it's just going
to continue to be this endless cycle of uselessness. So
here's my thing. Here's what I'm proposing. A billionaire, not
(09:54):
unlike what Jeff Bezos did buying the Washington Post steps
up and says, you know what, I freaking love soccer.
What's my favorite sport growing up. I'm a billionaire. I
can do whatever I want. Here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna say every year, I'm sinking twenty five million
dollars into US soccer, and I don't give a damn
(10:16):
if I just lose that money. I don't care. Twenty
five million dollars a year. It doesn't matter because guess what,
I'm a billionaire. I got tons of money. What's twenty
five million to me. That's a rite off, that's a
rounding error. So I'm totally fine. Here. We're gonna set
it up. We're gonna find the coaches, We're gonna put
the structure in place, the system. We're gonna build it
from the ground up and it. You know, we're gonna
(10:37):
find the best kids in the country. I don't care
if they can't afford it, and they can't afford cleats,
but they're the best. We're getting them. That's what we want,
and you need. That's basically you need to you have.
You need to lean on the generosity of a billionaire.
Now who's willing to lose twenty five million dollars a
year to build this program. And that's just just a
number pulled out of my rear end. I have no
idea what it would cost. But you also need coaches
(11:00):
who are gonna sacrifice a little bit. Landon Donovan was
on one of these podcasts, Man, I wish I could
get Landon Donovan, He's so good where he talked about
the UH playing overseas and it was like, hey, man,
I'm going to play in this system. And the coach
I have is like sixty years old and he's been
(11:22):
with his team forever because he's not one of these
I need to climb the ladder. I got to coach
the first team, I got to coach the national team.
He doesn't want he's invested in building things from the
ground up. And that think that's the same deal that
probably happens in London, right in Paris, in all these
cities where they essentially want to, you know, build a
(11:45):
great program and they will sacrifice their personal gain for
the gain of others. And you know, for being honest,
I don't see Americans doing that. And everybody wants what's better,
What's next? Do you guys know how many times I
asked j Mak, what do you get in your own show?
You don't you want your own show all the time?
(12:06):
Once again, I'm like, I got I listen, I got
a podcast, and I'm on the show and something Coward's
out I host. Why would I want more than that?
Do you? I mean again, I yes, I have explored
and talked to people about it, but do you know
what all entails like having your own show. It's a
lot of work. I don't want to say it's a
young man's game like sports, but you know, all I
(12:30):
know is I want to be able to drive my
kids around to their activities and be with them and
on weekends, I don't want to be worrying about stuff.
If my kids have a tournament, chess, volleyball, whatever it is.
As soon as summer comes around, I'm traveling. You know,
I listen, I love football. I won't travel during football season.
But like I don't. I want my freedom and you
(12:52):
can't really have that if you're the boss of a
show unless you're a guy like Coward. You know, Guy's
been around, legend in the industry, built up of mass.
It takes so many it takes decades to build what
he's built, and that's why in sports media there really
aren't any other guys doing what he did and has accomplished.
I mean, go look at ESPN. Coward leaves ESPN Radio
(13:15):
dies a slow death. You know, it's just it's tough
to build your own and then you see, you guys
have seen how many shows have started at Fox and
ESPN and flame out after a year or two. Those
guys are on the curb. So it listen, it is
very difficult to say, you know what, I'm going to
sacrifice a little of mine for other people. But if
you can get people to do that in the US
(13:37):
when it comes to soccer and get a system in place,
yeah you could build something. It's going to take twenty
years and somebody paying twenty five million dollars a year
to fund this operation. I mean, it's doable. It's not easy.
I don't have twenty five million. If I have twenty
five million, you think I'm be on having a podcast, guys,
come on, let's be real. But I will say I
do enjoy that people are worked up about the U
(14:00):
and soccer, and these conversations get people all excited to like,
you know, maybe solve some of these things. So I
put out Remember I told you I was doing this
database through Claude. Yeah, I won't let me should I
ask what the for initial question was? Okay, here we go.
This is what I asked Claude. Need to do an
(14:22):
analysis of the best USA soccer players right now, age
sixteen to twenty two to find out which ones could
be starters for the twenty thirty team. Look at size, stats,
level of play, and of course players who have been
called up previously. Build a database. I want it updated
every month on players who are rising and falling. Start
with fifty names, rank them, break it down by position.
Please include players with dual citizenship, I e. Like Balligan
(14:47):
if they have not picked a side yet. So that's
like the question. You just asked that to Claude, and
some of you probably think I'm crazy, but I mean
that was just the first question, so you know, it
spits it back in a little bit. And of course
I have questions. For instance, let's adjust the age range down.
I started twenty three, let's go to twenty two, and
we need to eliminate players who were in the World
(15:07):
Cup this year because it initially had like I forget
who the it might have it was Tilman or Freeman,
one of them, and I just kept you just keep
peppering it with questions, double check all the dual nationals,
and then relist your top five because it had a
name who had already committed to like I'm just South
Korea or whatever it was. But like you consistently, just
keep asking questions and it narrows it down, narrows it
(15:30):
and it gets this database. So it spat out the
top five and I put the top five guys on
social media Instantly, Guys who don't follow me somehow found
this and are like.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
No way.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Cole Campbell, who's nineteen years old, he's his trajectory is
going downhill. Oh my gosh, no way. He flamed out
it of the Bundesliga and he had to transfer, and
I'm like, dude, slow down, and I quickly hit him with, hey, man,
you know you say flamed out of the Bundesliga. Do
(16:02):
you want me to just get a couple of names
for you here of guys who have quote unquote flamed
out at nineteen from a top league and bounce back
to I don't know, be awesome. And again, you know
this is AI coming up with this in like two seconds,
and it's like, oh, yeah, here this guy named Harry Kane.
Look at his trajectory. He was a bounce around low
(16:22):
league's guy. That's Harry Kane. And next thing you know,
Harry Kane pops Kevin de Brune, bounce around two different leagues,
goes on to become one of the best midfielders of
his generation. You know. I mean, you could find a
lot of these guys, and it's just very strange that
American fans are like, oh, well, he didn't work there,
(16:44):
Like he's nineteen, he's not even a he's not even
close to a finished product. And so I don't know.
I'm all in on soccer, and obviously the AI stuff
can learn a lot, and then you get some of
these names. You go on YouTube and cross reference. It's fun.
So we'll continue to do World Cup as it winds
down here.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Let's quickly do just I'm gonna hold off on NFL.
We have an amazing NFL guest tomorrow record a long
podcast with him. This guy's super fascinating. He is on
the cusp of being a huge deal. I think you're
really gonna enjoy it. That's tomorrow, but we'll wrap up
here real quick with this this Lebron stuff. So last
(17:37):
week Cleveland was whining and dining in this week, Draymond
Green's putting on the full court press. You got Bob Myers,
who is now with Philadelphia, saying, oh, it's a perfect
fit in Philadelphia. Essentially, Lebron was with the Lakers. They decided,
we're not even offering you a deal. There's no sign
(17:58):
in trade. We're not doing that. We're gonna part ways
with you and we're gonna do our own thing. Still
crazy to comprehend that, But Lebron was not wanted by
the Lakers, and now he is wanted badly by the Calves,
by the Warriors, maybe maybe the Sixers, I don't My
(18:19):
guess is they have no chance. And so ultimately Lebron
has to make a decision. Do I want to go
to a team where Steph Curry's running the show and
Draymond Green was running the show and I don't even
know if they're a top eight team in the West,
even with Lebron, because well, we could talk about the
Anthony Davis factor. Jimmy Butler's probably not playing for a while,
maybe Christmas Valentine's I don't know, or do I want
(18:42):
to go to Cleveland where they've got Donovan Mitchell, Evan
Mobley got the room, protection got Jared Allen. There's actually
a hole at Power Forward. You know, you could probably
go in there and start James Harden thing. I would
continue to monitor, but whatever, it's a no brainer to
me to Cleveland. My guess is he's trying to use
(19:03):
Golden State as leverage or Rich Paul's trying to save
Anthony Davis, who's been banished to Washington. Washington said we're
not trading AD, and so what Rich Paul needs is
Golden State to step up and start giving up future
draft picks. Well, do you think Golden State's going to
give up future ones when they got a forty one
year old Lebron and a thirty eight year old Curry.
Of course not those are gold mine lottery picks. So
(19:28):
what Rich Paul's probably saying is, hey, listen, you gotta
trade for AD or you ain't get Lebron and this
for me, that's an easy one. If I'm the Warriors. No,
we're not doing that. So you have to trade for
ad and pay him, and you got forty one year
old Lebron and Curry's thirty eight. Like, no, there's nothing
there which points it back to Cleveland. Some people think
(19:50):
Minnesota could be a sleeper. I would be absolutely floored
if Lebron said, yeah, I can't wait to play with
LaMelo Ball and Rudy Go. I don't see that at all. Now.
The other news that came out on Wednesday was kind
of shocking to me. But the Lakers are putting the
(20:12):
full court press on Jonathan Kuminga and I'm like, wait
a minute. Jonathan Kamenica was on the Warriors, got shipped
to Atlanta. Why would Atlanta give up on Jonathan Kaminga?
But is he that toxic? I know he kind of
flamed out in Golden State, but really, cominga, they're gonna
bail on him. I mean, someone instantly tried to tell me, Oh,
(20:35):
they're saying they don't want any bad contracts on the book,
so they can go and swoop in and grab Anthony
Edwards and bring him home Anthony Edwards from Atlanta obviously,
and you know, we want to keep our books relatively clean.
And I'm looking at the bench and its like they
got Kingston Flemings, Corey Kispert Wiggins who they got from
okc Resa say, I mean they had guys, but is
(21:00):
there really no room for Kaminga? Like I guess Dyson
Daniels is a lockdown defender. Jalen Johnson is kind of
their point forward, and Kaminga is like an odd man out.
It's weird. He is crazy talented, it's never he's never
put it all together. But what the Lakers are selling
Kaminga on is, Hey, we're not gonna be able to
(21:21):
pay you much this year, but you're gonna play with
Luka Doncic. He's gonna elevate your your skill level, He's
gonna elevate your stats. You're gonna look awesome. And then
remember Malik Bunk. He came to the Lakers, showed out
and got a massive deal with the Sacomino Kings. Could
you do that? Do you want to come play in La?
(21:42):
Spotlight is on you a lot of TV games, Luka
Doncic Austin is You're gonna get yours, you probably start.
I mean, they have to tell him he's starting right,
otherwise he can go get ten fifteen million dollars from
I don't know the bulls whoever people can pay him.
But can you take that big of a haircut? Sometimes
you got a bet on yourself. Kaminga is still a
young guy. He's twenty three years old. Do you take
(22:08):
a bit of a step back, say, you know what,
I'm gonna eat it for a year. I'm gonna grind,
I'm gonna do whatever I have to do, and then
after this year, I could bound somewhere else. To me,
that's not the worst player in the world, dude, you're
twenty three, and frankly you need to kind of fall
in line and show teams that you can be a
team player. Because the Golden State stuff ended badly. I
(22:28):
don't think other than Kevin Durant versus Draymond, I can't
recall any player who like beefed with Steve Kerr, you know,
and then you go to Atlanta. You guys make the playoffs,
You're good, and it's like, well, that's kind of weird.
They don't want him again. So we'll see what happens
with that, but I think Kuminga. Listen, you're talking Luca Reeves, Kuminga, Mamu,
(22:52):
I'm not gonna say his last name. And then Walker Kessler.
So they're third in the West for sure, right because
Spurs Thunder whichever way you want to put those two,
those two are the best. But I'll tell you Denver
they just keep hemorrhaging players every year. It sounds like
they're gonna have to get off Cam Johnson or Braun
to afford Peyton Watson, Timberwolves. There'll be an okay regular
(23:17):
season team, probably about fifty wins, but nobody's scared of
that team. LaMelo Ball if anything, he's gonna take shots
from Ann and losing nas reed, that's a big loss.
Anything happens to go Bear. They got nothing unless the
kid Bearringer as any name but Burner big Euro unless
he somehow becomes a superstar. I guess they like him
(23:38):
a lot. But I can't put Denver in Minnesota above them.
Phoenix is nothing special. The Clippers are rebuilding. Who else
is there? The Lakers are the third best team in
the West. Houston, I guess has the argument, but I
can't get over how bad they looked in that playoff
loss to the Lakers. That's my problem with the Rockets.
(24:01):
I can't get past that. But as we get closer
the season, I'll take the blinders off. Anyways, enjoy the
soccer see tomorrow.
This is straight fire with Jason McIntyre.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up fire, fam, It's me Jason McIntyre Street
bawler for Thursday July, the ninth World Cup is back
in action. Yes, Ladies and gentlemen. World Cup Action today
one pm Pacific, four pm Eastern. If you could dip
out of work early. France Morocco a fun subplot. This
(00:34):
is how you know soccer is a huge deal right
now in America, even though do you Americans are bounced?
The referee crew for this one is all Argentinian refs,
and there is if you've been online the last you know,
forty eight hours, there is this ground swell that, wow,
FIFA wants Argentina and look at these dirty Argentinian plays
(00:54):
that weren't called fouls. There's some advanced stats that say,
of the of the final, was it sixteen or Final
eight or sixteen? I forget, I think it was a
final sixteen, Argentina had the least fouls called on them.
And then there's some videos that are not good of
Argentinian players singing racist songs. I guess because they hate
(01:16):
France because France has black guys on their team. It's
just it's not good and listen. I gotta be honest,
I'm kind of swept up in this messy stuff. I'm
enjoying it. I do not think Argentina will win the title.
I do not think they will go back to back.
But I do think when they play Switzerland Saturday evening,
all eyes are gonna be on that game because now
(01:36):
you can't hide it, okay, I mean the refs are
gonna have to be on their game. I do think
that the extra scrutiny is going to be on full display.
And you know, if European countries were willing to band
together to be pissed off about the Balligan suspension, hopefully
(01:56):
they're gonna step up and say something at this Argentinian
nonsense continues. Now, I was looking big picture and saying like, oh, well, Argentina,
that foul that removed the Egypt goal. Fine, I get
that that was garbage, but Egypt still scored to go
up to nothing. So even if the refs are quote
unquote against you, you can't give up three goals in
fifteen minutes, like, come on, guys. I mean the final
(02:17):
goal was brutal. They only had one guy back. It
was a one v one in the box in like
the ninety third minute. Come on, that's unacceptable. But France
and Morocco should be good. I do think Morocco can
hang with them. It'll be a defensive struggle. And interestingly,
the model points out France a juggernaut in the group stage,
just crushing teams three to one. I think it was
three to one, three nothing, four to one. Now Norway
(02:39):
played its backup, so whatever, and everybody that is betting
France overs because they're an offensive juggernaut with Olise Damballe
mbape whatever. Interestingly, you're not paying a France tax if
you want the over. And the Sweden France line was
three and a half. Model had under landed three. Nothing
(03:01):
was I think two and a half and it landed one.
So back to back unders in knockout play where teams
are like, hey, we can't hang with this, so we
can't go toe to toe with France. We've got a
hunger down and play a metric ton of defense. Well,
guess who plays the best defense left of any team
in the World Cup. And I know Spain has shut
out everybody but Morocco. Actually, the analytics say they have
(03:25):
the best XG differential because their defense has been phenomenal,
so this will be interesting. Listen. Would not be a
major shock to me if France got knocked out here.
I do think they win. I have a small wager
on France money line and a bigger wager on under
two and a half goals. Should be a good one.
It looks like the Moroccan seabury and I'm sorry to
(03:46):
butcher his name. He was their best goal scorer in
the tournament. Had a hamstring against Canada, mistraining the last
couple days, so he's not expected to play. That's obviously
a huge loss. And I know the guy came off
the bench and scored goals for them. It's fine against Canada.
You know you need your horses against France, and then
of course Friday Spain. Belgium should be good. I got
(04:09):
Spain winning that one, but I want to let's talk
about Belgium for a sec. I read a super interesting article.
I've never heard of this guy. He's pretty good, Ryan O'Hanlon.
I don't know who he is. He's at ESPN and
he had a breakdown that basically was like I'm agreeing
with pretty much everything. Okay, So he's writing about Okay,
(04:32):
I just googled the guy's name. He's writing a book
on analytics in soccer. Oh, he did write a book
in twenty twenty two. He used to write a newsletter
and then he was at the Ringer and oh, he's
written for a lot of places. Okay. I thought this
was tremendous and I do think you should read it. Essentially,
(04:54):
he boiled it down to, hey, we can have all
the analytics, we won't. We just don't have good enough players.
And that was a big talking point when I hosted
The Herd on Wednesday, Coward was out sick. He's back
today was that if you you know, look at our players.
We've got a lot of guys in top leagues around
the world. I mean, USA has three guys in the EPL.
(05:17):
We've got players in the top leagues in Germany, two
in the top league in Italy, one in the top
league in Netherlands. Like we got we got dudes all
over the globe. There's we have more global talent on
our US team now than we've ever had before, but
one in France. And it's like, yes, we have three
(05:39):
guys in MLS and it just so happens that two
of them were total ass Tim Reim and the goalie freeze.
You know, they were horrendous against Belgium, and you look
at Belgium and you're like, okay, well Belgium had an
interesting starting lineup, but they had five starters in the EPL.
We had three. Now when you look, this is the difference,
in my opinion is and he didn't really touch on
this in the article. Was depth. Go to the Belgium bench,
(06:02):
see where their guys play. They're totally stacked. They have
like four guys in the EPL and sitting on her bench.
So like that's why they were able to sit to
Bruyna and have Doku come off the bench and Lukaku
come off the bench. And it's like, damn, we don't
have that kind of depth, Which leads me to this
interesting topic that really pisses me off because it's it's
(06:26):
the same shit over and over. You could go look
it up. So and I'm not this is not slandering
her by any stretch of imagination, but Alex Morgan, great
fantastic women's soccer player, and her prime fun story. We're
on the beach one day, I don't know if it
was July fourth and it's the family and a couple
(06:46):
other people, friends and kids and whatever. And I look
over and I see this girl with like her parents,
and I'm like, she looks so familiar. And she had
some tattoo. I forget what it was, and I googled
the tattoo and I'm like, oh damn, that's Alex Morgan
from the US women's national team, sitting like ten feet
away from us. And I was telling my kids, Hey,
do you want to get a picture with Alex Morgan.
They're like, not really. I mean they were like, you know,
(07:08):
the kids were like eight or nine or whatever. I
was like, all right, and you know, she's just hanging
out with her parents on the beach. Nobody nobody had
a clue who she was. And again, you know, it's
not like she's Katelyn. I mean, if she were Kaitlin
Clark obviously would have been different. But any rate, Alex
Morgan was on the New Heights podcast and starts bemoaning
the youth soccer system in America. It's a business, it's fractured,
(07:30):
blah blah blah. That's why we're not getting ahead. Yeah, Alex, respectfully,
no shit, Sherlock. You know this has been talked about.
Go look in twenty twenty two when we got smoked
by Netherlands. What's the problem. The youth system is broken.
Go look at twenty eighteen when we missed the World
Cup twenty fourteen. Like we talked about this for a decade,
there's no solution.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
To quote the great Richard Williams from that movie about
the Venus and Serena, which I highly recommend if you
don't have a plan, plan to fail. And the US
youth system, listen, man in America, it's all about the benjamins.
If I can build this awesome soccer team, and I
can charge you a lot of money, and we're going
(08:25):
to travel regionally and maybe nationally, but you gotta pay
because guess what the coaches need to get paid, and
whoever's funding the organization they got to get paid. Private
equity might be involved, and ultimately it prices out the
little guy. Now, maybe you have one quote unquote scholarship
right on your roster. But then once the other parents
(08:46):
figure that out, they're like, well, wait a minute, this
kid's a starter, he's a star, and he's playing ahead
of my kid. I'm paying ten thousand dollars. What the
hell is this about? You know? And then you got
problems because the rich people want to flex that their
kids are on a great travel team. And so ultimately
that model is happening all around the country where it's
pay to play, and if you want to go and
(09:08):
look at the Netherlands or Italy or Germany, it is
totally backwards. They take pride in soccer. It is a
national deal, right, They are invested in building great soccer
players for their country. And so until that happens, and
(09:31):
I don't think it's gonna happen, we're gonna still be
stuck in this rigamarole on you know where it's like, well,
why aren't the players getting better? Well, you know, do
we have our best players? Well? I don't know why.
Why is that? And it's just like it's just going
to continue to be this endless cycle of uselessness. So
here's my thing. Here's what I'm proposing. A billionaire, not
(09:54):
unlike what Jeff Bezos did buying the Washington Post steps
up and says, you know what, I freaking love soccer.
What's my favorite sport growing up. I'm a billionaire. I
can do whatever I want. Here's what I'm gonna do.
I'm gonna say every year, I'm sinking twenty five million
dollars into US soccer, and I don't give a damn
(10:16):
if I just lose that money. I don't care. Twenty
five million dollars a year. It doesn't matter because guess what,
I'm a billionaire. I got tons of money. What's twenty
five million to me. That's a rite off, that's a
rounding error. So I'm totally fine. Here. We're gonna set
it up. We're gonna find the coaches, We're gonna put
the structure in place, the system. We're gonna build it
from the ground up and it. You know, we're gonna
(10:37):
find the best kids in the country. I don't care
if they can't afford it, and they can't afford cleats,
but they're the best. We're getting them. That's what we want,
and you need. That's basically you need to you have.
You need to lean on the generosity of a billionaire.
Now who's willing to lose twenty five million dollars a
year to build this program. And that's just just a
number pulled out of my rear end. I have no
idea what it would cost. But you also need coaches
(11:00):
who are gonna sacrifice a little bit. Landon Donovan was
on one of these podcasts, Man, I wish I could
get Landon Donovan, He's so good where he talked about
the UH playing overseas and it was like, hey, man,
I'm going to play in this system. And the coach
I have is like sixty years old and he's been
(11:22):
with his team forever because he's not one of these
I need to climb the ladder. I got to coach
the first team, I got to coach the national team.
He doesn't want he's invested in building things from the
ground up. And that think that's the same deal that
probably happens in London, right in Paris, in all these
cities where they essentially want to, you know, build a
(11:45):
great program and they will sacrifice their personal gain for
the gain of others. And you know, for being honest,
I don't see Americans doing that. And everybody wants what's better,
What's next? Do you guys know how many times I
asked j Mak, what do you get in your own show?
You don't you want your own show all the time?
(12:06):
Once again, I'm like, I got I listen, I got
a podcast, and I'm on the show and something Coward's
out I host. Why would I want more than that?
Do you? I mean again, I yes, I have explored
and talked to people about it, but do you know
what all entails like having your own show. It's a
lot of work. I don't want to say it's a
young man's game like sports, but you know, all I
(12:30):
know is I want to be able to drive my
kids around to their activities and be with them and
on weekends, I don't want to be worrying about stuff.
If my kids have a tournament, chess, volleyball, whatever it is.
As soon as summer comes around, I'm traveling. You know,
I listen, I love football. I won't travel during football season.
But like I don't. I want my freedom and you
(12:52):
can't really have that if you're the boss of a
show unless you're a guy like Coward. You know, Guy's
been around, legend in the industry, built up of mass.
It takes so many it takes decades to build what
he's built, and that's why in sports media there really
aren't any other guys doing what he did and has accomplished.
I mean, go look at ESPN. Coward leaves ESPN Radio
(13:15):
dies a slow death. You know, it's just it's tough
to build your own and then you see, you guys
have seen how many shows have started at Fox and
ESPN and flame out after a year or two. Those
guys are on the curb. So it listen, it is
very difficult to say, you know what, I'm going to
sacrifice a little of mine for other people. But if
you can get people to do that in the US
(13:37):
when it comes to soccer and get a system in place,
yeah you could build something. It's going to take twenty
years and somebody paying twenty five million dollars a year
to fund this operation. I mean, it's doable. It's not easy.
I don't have twenty five million. If I have twenty
five million, you think I'm be on having a podcast, guys,
come on, let's be real. But I will say I
do enjoy that people are worked up about the U
(14:00):
and soccer, and these conversations get people all excited to like,
you know, maybe solve some of these things. So I
put out Remember I told you I was doing this
database through Claude. Yeah, I won't let me should I
ask what the for initial question was? Okay, here we go.
This is what I asked Claude. Need to do an
(14:22):
analysis of the best USA soccer players right now, age
sixteen to twenty two to find out which ones could
be starters for the twenty thirty team. Look at size, stats,
level of play, and of course players who have been
called up previously. Build a database. I want it updated
every month on players who are rising and falling. Start
with fifty names, rank them, break it down by position.
Please include players with dual citizenship, I e. Like Balligan
(14:47):
if they have not picked a side yet. So that's
like the question. You just asked that to Claude, and
some of you probably think I'm crazy, but I mean
that was just the first question, so you know, it
spits it back in a little bit. And of course
I have questions. For instance, let's adjust the age range down.
I started twenty three, let's go to twenty two, and
we need to eliminate players who were in the World
(15:07):
Cup this year because it initially had like I forget
who the it might have it was Tilman or Freeman,
one of them, and I just kept you just keep
peppering it with questions, double check all the dual nationals,
and then relist your top five because it had a
name who had already committed to like I'm just South
Korea or whatever it was. But like you consistently, just
keep asking questions and it narrows it down, narrows it
(15:30):
and it gets this database. So it spat out the
top five and I put the top five guys on
social media Instantly, Guys who don't follow me somehow found
this and are like.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
No way.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Cole Campbell, who's nineteen years old, he's his trajectory is
going downhill. Oh my gosh, no way. He flamed out
it of the Bundesliga and he had to transfer, and
I'm like, dude, slow down, and I quickly hit him with, hey, man,
you know you say flamed out of the Bundesliga. Do
(16:02):
you want me to just get a couple of names
for you here of guys who have quote unquote flamed
out at nineteen from a top league and bounce back
to I don't know, be awesome. And again, you know
this is AI coming up with this in like two seconds,
and it's like, oh, yeah, here this guy named Harry Kane.
Look at his trajectory. He was a bounce around low
(16:22):
league's guy. That's Harry Kane. And next thing you know,
Harry Kane pops Kevin de Brune, bounce around two different leagues,
goes on to become one of the best midfielders of
his generation. You know. I mean, you could find a
lot of these guys, and it's just very strange that
American fans are like, oh, well, he didn't work there,
(16:44):
Like he's nineteen, he's not even a he's not even
close to a finished product. And so I don't know.
I'm all in on soccer, and obviously the AI stuff
can learn a lot, and then you get some of
these names. You go on YouTube and cross reference. It's fun.
So we'll continue to do World Cup as it winds
down here.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Let's quickly do just I'm gonna hold off on NFL.
We have an amazing NFL guest tomorrow record a long
podcast with him. This guy's super fascinating. He is on
the cusp of being a huge deal. I think you're
really gonna enjoy it. That's tomorrow, but we'll wrap up
here real quick with this this Lebron stuff. So last
(17:37):
week Cleveland was whining and dining in this week, Draymond
Green's putting on the full court press. You got Bob Myers,
who is now with Philadelphia, saying, oh, it's a perfect
fit in Philadelphia. Essentially, Lebron was with the Lakers. They decided,
we're not even offering you a deal. There's no sign
(17:58):
in trade. We're not doing that. We're gonna part ways
with you and we're gonna do our own thing. Still
crazy to comprehend that, But Lebron was not wanted by
the Lakers, and now he is wanted badly by the Calves,
by the Warriors, maybe maybe the Sixers, I don't My
(18:19):
guess is they have no chance. And so ultimately Lebron
has to make a decision. Do I want to go
to a team where Steph Curry's running the show and
Draymond Green was running the show and I don't even
know if they're a top eight team in the West,
even with Lebron, because well, we could talk about the
Anthony Davis factor. Jimmy Butler's probably not playing for a while,
maybe Christmas Valentine's I don't know, or do I want
(18:42):
to go to Cleveland where they've got Donovan Mitchell, Evan
Mobley got the room, protection got Jared Allen. There's actually
a hole at Power Forward. You know, you could probably
go in there and start James Harden thing. I would
continue to monitor, but whatever, it's a no brainer to
me to Cleveland. My guess is he's trying to use
(19:03):
Golden State as leverage or Rich Paul's trying to save
Anthony Davis, who's been banished to Washington. Washington said we're
not trading AD, and so what Rich Paul needs is
Golden State to step up and start giving up future
draft picks. Well, do you think Golden State's going to
give up future ones when they got a forty one
year old Lebron and a thirty eight year old Curry.
Of course not those are gold mine lottery picks. So
(19:28):
what Rich Paul's probably saying is, hey, listen, you gotta
trade for AD or you ain't get Lebron and this
for me, that's an easy one. If I'm the Warriors. No,
we're not doing that. So you have to trade for
ad and pay him, and you got forty one year
old Lebron and Curry's thirty eight. Like, no, there's nothing
there which points it back to Cleveland. Some people think
(19:50):
Minnesota could be a sleeper. I would be absolutely floored
if Lebron said, yeah, I can't wait to play with
LaMelo Ball and Rudy Go. I don't see that at all. Now.
The other news that came out on Wednesday was kind
of shocking to me. But the Lakers are putting the
(20:12):
full court press on Jonathan Kuminga and I'm like, wait
a minute. Jonathan Kamenica was on the Warriors, got shipped
to Atlanta. Why would Atlanta give up on Jonathan Kaminga?
But is he that toxic? I know he kind of
flamed out in Golden State, but really, cominga, they're gonna
bail on him. I mean, someone instantly tried to tell me, Oh,
(20:35):
they're saying they don't want any bad contracts on the book,
so they can go and swoop in and grab Anthony
Edwards and bring him home Anthony Edwards from Atlanta obviously,
and you know, we want to keep our books relatively clean.
And I'm looking at the bench and its like they
got Kingston Flemings, Corey Kispert Wiggins who they got from
okc Resa say, I mean they had guys, but is
(21:00):
there really no room for Kaminga? Like I guess Dyson
Daniels is a lockdown defender. Jalen Johnson is kind of
their point forward, and Kaminga is like an odd man out.
It's weird. He is crazy talented, it's never he's never
put it all together. But what the Lakers are selling
Kaminga on is, Hey, we're not gonna be able to
(21:21):
pay you much this year, but you're gonna play with
Luka Doncic. He's gonna elevate your your skill level, He's
gonna elevate your stats. You're gonna look awesome. And then
remember Malik Bunk. He came to the Lakers, showed out
and got a massive deal with the Sacomino Kings. Could
you do that? Do you want to come play in La?
(21:42):
Spotlight is on you a lot of TV games, Luka
Doncic Austin is You're gonna get yours, you probably start.
I mean, they have to tell him he's starting right,
otherwise he can go get ten fifteen million dollars from
I don't know the bulls whoever people can pay him.
But can you take that big of a haircut? Sometimes
you got a bet on yourself. Kaminga is still a
young guy. He's twenty three years old. Do you take
(22:08):
a bit of a step back, say, you know what,
I'm gonna eat it for a year. I'm gonna grind,
I'm gonna do whatever I have to do, and then
after this year, I could bound somewhere else. To me,
that's not the worst player in the world, dude, you're
twenty three, and frankly you need to kind of fall
in line and show teams that you can be a
team player. Because the Golden State stuff ended badly. I
(22:28):
don't think other than Kevin Durant versus Draymond, I can't
recall any player who like beefed with Steve Kerr, you know,
and then you go to Atlanta. You guys make the playoffs,
You're good, and it's like, well, that's kind of weird.
They don't want him again. So we'll see what happens
with that, but I think Kuminga. Listen, you're talking Luca Reeves, Kuminga, Mamu,
(22:52):
I'm not gonna say his last name. And then Walker Kessler.
So they're third in the West for sure, right because
Spurs Thunder whichever way you want to put those two,
those two are the best. But I'll tell you Denver
they just keep hemorrhaging players every year. It sounds like
they're gonna have to get off Cam Johnson or Braun
to afford Peyton Watson, Timberwolves. There'll be an okay regular
(23:17):
season team, probably about fifty wins, but nobody's scared of
that team. LaMelo Ball if anything, he's gonna take shots
from Ann and losing nas reed, that's a big loss.
Anything happens to go Bear. They got nothing unless the
kid Bearringer as any name but Burner big Euro unless
he somehow becomes a superstar. I guess they like him
(23:38):
a lot. But I can't put Denver in Minnesota above them.
Phoenix is nothing special. The Clippers are rebuilding. Who else
is there? The Lakers are the third best team in
the West. Houston, I guess has the argument, but I
can't get over how bad they looked in that playoff
loss to the Lakers. That's my problem with the Rockets.
(24:01):
I can't get past that. But as we get closer
the season, I'll take the blinders off. Anyways, enjoy the
soccer see tomorrow.
Host
Jason McIntyre
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