July 22, 2023 • 19 mins
Jason Smith and Mike Harmon debate if soccer can surpass hockey and become the fourth major sport in the US within the next five years. We got all the big headlines from around the National Football League. And the progressive play of the night.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching fsrles give.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Us you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome inside our four of The Jason Smith Show
with my bass friend. His name is Mike Harmon. Do
live from the ti rag dot com studios tirac dot com.
I help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free roadhazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack
dot com the way tire.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Buying should be.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We got Jordan Schultz, big time NFL insider front of
the show coming up at about twenty minutes all the latest
news in the NFL, including why some people are a
little upset that Daniel Snyder is out of the NFC East.
But trust me, there's a really, really, really good reason
for it. But there are no bigger stories tonight than
(01:12):
what happened in soccer and just think about that for
a second.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
How cool that is.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
We had Leono Messi's MLS debut in the League's Cup
against cruz Azul. He scores in it four minutes from
the end of the game on a free kick to
win it, and the United States women's national team in
their first game and the Women's World Cup. A little
bit of a disappointing win, but a win is still
a win. Three nothing over Vietnam. Sophia Smith with a
(01:37):
couple of goals. Lindsay Ram plays really well. Let's talk
women's national team first before we get to Messi. Okay, Now,
when we talked about the team last night, and I've
told you my fears and concerns were, We're not gonna
find people who can score.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We got to find people who can.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Score because I don't know if Alex Morgan is still elite. Right,
So you you had good news and bad news tonight
because you saw Alex Morgan. Wow, she struggled, got subbed
doubt in the in the sixty second minute, has a
horrible penalty that was not even close. Gets lucky that
an offside didn't negate one of Sophia Smith's goal. So
(02:14):
not a great night, and it didn't fill me with
warm fuzzies that she's going to score. Meghan Rapino, how
much does she have left? She's not gonna play a
lot of minutes. So that's the tough part. But the
good news is Sophia Smith, who they're gonna have to
count on to score. And really she may be the
most important player on Team USA because she's the one
(02:34):
that's gonna have to score. The biggest question for the
team is going to be are they going to be
able to score enough goals? Because as the competition gets better,
it's gonna be a lot of teams, a lot of
zero zero games and teams playing for extra time and
playing for penalties because this is not a United States
team that's going to be able to rack up a
lot of goals. Yeah, they had a lot of shots
sight against Vietnam. They're the worst team and the worst
(02:55):
team in the entire tournament, and they only scored three goals. Yes,
you think they're going to get better, but the competition's
gonna get better. So tonight was not one of those
Hey I feel awesome or oh my god, I'm at
the bottom.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's a mixed bag. It's kind of a zero sum game.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I still have the same concerns that I had last
night after tonight's game against Vietnam. Even though they won
the most important thing. They won that was great and
they're moving on. It was a shout out there. Okay,
that's great, but there's nothing that makes me feel like, hey,
their issues coming into this World Cup is solve because
this is not the same team that we saw win
the last couple of World Cups. This is the most
(03:30):
vulnerable team of the women's national teams that we've seen
in quite a long time.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
No, sure, it's I mean there's turnover, there's injuries, there's
so many things swirling new players that you're trying to
integrate in the When you're doing that, the short turnaround
between the league season of the NWSL and this is.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Not your friend, right, You don't get a run.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Up and the extra workouts and that space that you
would otherwise right to if you're constantly with your national squad.
So to that end, yeah, you've got got a little
bit of flux, a little bit of chaos there. Obviously.
You know, we look at the veteran leaders. You mentioned
(04:13):
alex Morgan, Repino playing her minutes but you know, corner
kicks just got to find and finish right.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
They had space and that was the thing.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
I take the encouragement from tonight, Jason as there were
a lot of opportunities and some of it's just timing
and a little bit of bad luck that come your way.
And obviously that terrible penalty kick effort by Alex Morgan
is what everybody's going to be flapping their guns about,
even if you don't care about soccer at all, time
is up. That's it, and it's like no, no, no, okay,
(04:44):
you know what, unlike the Canadian hero Saint Clair and all.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Your favorite player that cost your sandwiches last night.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
But I mean two nights in a row though, I
mean we see legends for the respective countries fail and
a big opportunity now in this case in the United States,
bludgeons Vietnam with shots and eventually you get the three
to zero final. Uh your point, Smith and her An,
They're they're gonna have to be huge and absolutely huge.
(05:16):
Julie Ertz is gonna have to play bigger minutes, So
getting her reps in the NWSL with Angel City is
going to be huge for her. You know that she's
routed back into shape to play in this what is
likely her last World Cup. So I mean that that's
the thing, the changing of the guard, the number of
(05:38):
injured players, and you know what, sometimes the warm ups
aren't aren't as clean and crisp as you'd like, right,
I mean remember that first footage you saw of Aaron
Rodgers that you know he sailed most of those passes.
They didn't showing was good, but they didn't show it right,
they showed anything. So you know, I left it to
your imagination. For you, it became at a sprint to daylight.
(06:01):
For the real world, it became a oh it's a
pick six.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
If I didn't see it, he didn't sail it, it
doesn't matter, it's not real.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I mean it was so bad that I was able
to put it on TikTok with Christopher Cross's sailing behind him.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Why TikTok? Well, is it gonna be a tack? All right?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So look, it was as we are because we were
wrapping everybody at a big bear hug here at Fox
Sports Radio, and I watch it as part of the show.
Whether you're nine or ninety, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
So with this going on, Look a zero Sum game
for the United States. Didn't solve issues, didn't make you
feel like things were out of them. But it's one
of those Okay, we got to see something a little
bit more as a tournament goes on. So not not
to something everybody wants to have. Oh this is the greatest,
they're fine, Oh this is awful.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Sometimes, look, this is what it is. The game was
what it was. They had a lot of chances, they dominated,
they couldn't score. You like to think that's gonna happen
a little bit more as a tournament goes But the
teams are going to get a a lot better than Vietnam.
So yeah, kind of a zero sum game.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not quite the same.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
In the debut in the MLS of Lionel Messi all right,
making his debut tonight in the League's Cup for Inner
Miami against Cruz Azul, and it was everything you hoped
it would be. He comes in off the bench. Right
after he comes in, they give up the lead. Right said,
Messy is overrated. He stinks we paid all that money
(07:28):
we give they give up the lead.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
But be sure to catch live editions of The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
With just a couple of minutes left to go, Inner
Miami gets a free kick about ten yards out from
the eighteen. You know, Messi's gonna take it, And this
is how it ended up here.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
It is.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Messi.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Apple TV on the call Messi's goal. He curves it
in just inside the post, wins the game for Inner Miami.
They blew the final whistle about a minute after that.
After he scores, the stands are going absolutely insane. He's
walking around the field getting high fives and congratulations everybody.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It really was.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
It was like when Ripkin played in twenty six thirty
two and we got through the fifth inning and he
started walking around just high fiving all the fans all
the way, right, That's what it was like for mess
He's like, Okay, we gotta give this guy a minute here.
We got to alright, to givehim some time to celebrate.
He had a big goal. Look, we're in a moment
(08:47):
and sometimes we don't understand we're in that moment. And
I want to tell you we're in that moment for
soccer right now where we've had three major sports in
the country for a long time, right Football baseball. Basketball
used to be football, baseball, basketball, hockey, hockey fell off
twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Gary Bettman drove it straight from Hey, we're the number
four sport in the country too. Hey we're a sport
that people don't even know still exists, which I hate
because I love hockey, you love hockey. But this is
where it is. We have three major sports now within
five years again, within five year prediction, soccer is going
to be the number four sport in the country. The
unofficial say not, Well, but it's not, but not to
(09:29):
the level it's going to be at to the not
to the interest level. It's a big sport now. But
what's going to happen because now we're finally at that
time where the entire country is embracing soccer. Right, you
got to go back when Beckham came over for the
first time to play MLS. It was a really big deal,
but the rest of the league, the rest of the
(09:49):
country were ready to embrace soccer. No, in the end,
Beckham's going to be remembered as the conduit, the guy
who came over and kind of you know, broke up,
broke open the door a little bit to say, hey,
soccer is going to succeed in the United States. What
do we see after that the MLS played, they grew
and now look at where the MLS is right. The
MLS is incredibly healthy. They sell out, all the teams,
(10:10):
sell out every game it's national broadcast, and it's no
signs of slowing down. They're expanding. The MLS in a
great spot. But you're looking at a time in the
world right now where you have the popularity in the
United States of the men's and women's national teams, where
we talk about them more than just when the World
(10:31):
Cup comes up. We talk about when there's a coaching
change or when they're playing the Gold Cup. They become
a big deal. And MLS is now a big deal
in a lot of cities. Look at the popularity of
shows like Welcome to Wrexum, which is about a small club,
a Division six club in Wales that gets a lot
of attention, the popularity of Ted Lasso most popular shows
and all of television and it's about soccer. And now
(10:53):
you have Messi who has come over that is going
to be playing at a high level for the next
couple of years and he's going to have an influence
and an impact on the game. Unlike anybody else. He's
the guy that's kicking open the door for soccer in
the United States. What the crowds are gonna be like
games he's gonna be traveling to because again MLS is
not quite the level of competition in Europe. And that's understandable,
(11:14):
but it doesn't matter. You're talking about what's here in
the US. He's gonna raise a level of play, raise
a level of involvement and interest level. This is the time,
This is the time for that. See change in soccer.
Everything is coming up soccer over the course of the
past few months, and now we're gonna get it and
in five years. Look, it's gonna be great for us
here on sports talk radio because hey, hey, we're gonna
(11:34):
get talk about su It's gonna be a whole thing.
People gotta get up on soccer man, because people are
gonna want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
We're gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
About big MLS games or an MLS playoff game or
a championship or something like that, or what a player
has done or said, or we're following this star because
more people are gonna come to the MLS, more stars
will come play in the MLS. But this is gonna
be the Messy Show the next couple of years, and
it's gonna be a traveling circus unlike anything else. You
watch and see the impact. And when we're talking a
(12:00):
few years from now here, as we were closing in
on twenty twenty eight, twenty twenty nine, you watch the
level of importance in the level of how soccer is
received here in the US. Again, four major sports are
gonna be the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, and
all of soccer. Because it's not just the MLS. It's
going to be the MLS and the men's and women's
(12:21):
national team. He kind of roll it all into one.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah, I mean, just remember when we get to the
messy side of things, meubles I not MESSI the idea
that you've got the the changing demographics here of the
country for one, but just just looking at from the
MLS side, and Messi's still playing at a high level, right,
(12:44):
just won a World Cups. It's not hey, a diminished
diminished guy. You know, Hey, he's no longer WWE material,
but he can go on one of the fringe cards
and still you know, make it on the indie circuit, right,
I mean this is still you know, he's playing at
a high level and he's playing in a league that
(13:06):
continues to get better. And we watched his laton and
the effect he had a bit here in Los Angeles
right where he'd be one of the leads on these
sports segments on the evening newscast locally and certainly when
he had his flair for the dramatic and made a
big play that showed up as one of your top
ten highlights night after night on your list show of
(13:30):
history here. But he also brings out the big stars,
which means you start transcending into other categories beyond just
sports coverage. Right, Kim Kardashians showing up, Well, that'll be
on all the entertainment shows. Lebron James, he could say
he was there and it makes it about him. Look,
(13:51):
Lebron boy, what a passionate man he is for all games.
And maybe he'll be an ambassador for soccer. I mean
that was what the late Kobe Bryant was, right. He
was featured in a ton of soccer commercials and products
from you know, the sports card, memorabilia whatever. Like his
fandom was celebrated so much so it's had the momentum
(14:14):
and now I'm Messy with some heroics like tonight. Yeah,
that's enough to carry it to the next level, no
question about it. Maybe folks will decide to dial up
the random MLS game man, come out to Los Angeles
and go see it. When LAFC and the Galaxy get together,
sold exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Tights one hundred thousand people sold out. It's what the
great ones do, man, they raise that level. And then
Messi is that great one. I'm telling you, Beckham was
the conduit. Messy's the guy breaking the door open. That's
how it's going.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
Before we get to the play of the night, how
about one hot take to end the week with. Well,
let's go, we're getting we're getting ready for a big
hot weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Temperatures are hot. How about this?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Uh, Tonight was another night for Otani Watch twenty twenty three.
Wow wow wow wowow wow wow wow wow wow wow
wow wow wow wow. I need a wow got a
standing ovation after giving up four home runs in the
Angel Spin over the steel of the Steelers, over.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The pilots again.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
But uh, that's not important. What is important is at
least at every day for the next now, for the
next ten or so days, is gonna be new stuff
about Otani. Today was the Dodgers have become the betting
favorites to get show Heyotani if he doesn't stay with
the Angels, and that the Angels are gonna wait until
the last possible second before making the decision to trade
(15:47):
show Heyotani. Now here's where I I give you because
you know me, I say Otani's gonna go. You see
Otani's gonna stay. Here's the one part where I can
see him staying. Going off John Paul's report, the Angel
are gonna wait till the end. Well, of course they're
gonna wait to the end. They want to wait and
see if they're in contention in ten days they lose
ten in the row, do they win ten in a row?
(16:08):
But how much of this is saying we're gonna wait
till the end, and when the end comes and they
can't trade him, they're gonna say, oh, it just got
too hard.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We couldn't do it. It's like, like, like, how much
of it is gonna be? We wanna we want to.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Just satisfy everybody. We don't want to trade him. We
want to keep him, but we can't just keep him blindly.
We want to say that, hey, if we lose, we'll
try to trade him. But how complicated is the show, Hey,
Tony trade gonna be? It's gonna be incredibly complicated. A
team trading forum is gonna want to know will you
sign with us in the off season, will you not?
What are you open to? What kind of prospects are
(16:43):
we giving up. It's not gonna be something that's put
together at the last minute, and Otani trade is gonna
take a while to put together, and the Angels maybe
just want the optic out there that will trade him.
But meanwhile, we know when it comes down to the
end it's gonna get too tough. We can say, oh,
we throw our hands up in the air and it
was just too hard, and we get to keep him.
But it makes it look like we're doing the right
(17:04):
thing for our ball club. If we start losing, we
will look into trading Otani. But oh, look, we just couldn't.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
Do it No, it makes perfect sentence. I mean, I
think we're we've been saying all along. Right, it's gonna
take something really over the top to make this make
sense because Moreno's gonna have to talk about it forever. Hey,
this is what we got, Cause let's face it, how
many of those prospects that we keep hearing about will
actually pan out to anything? And anybody that's in a
(17:34):
contender that's trading for him, well, how much are you
gonna give up.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
From your current major league roster to bring him in?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
What if they get Mookie Betts. He's a pretty good prospect.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Kind of a big deal.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It might work out.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Sure, well, I think he's got a little bit of
a track writer. But just the idea that you know,
you drag it out and you just say, hey, we're
doing our due diligence, and we were waiting to be
overwhelmed with an offer, and that day never came.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Right.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
It's like Daryl Morey with the James Harden situation, or
the Portland Trailblazers with Dame Lillard. It's like, hey, we're
not in any hurry to do anything. If you're desperate
enough and you can overwhelm me and send me a
brains truck full of whatever that I'm in. Otherwise, tough haul.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I can see that conspiracy theory optic absolutely happening. Time
now for the Play of the Night, brought to you
by Progressive Progressive making things even easier to help you
bundle your home and car insurance together so you can
save on both. Learn more at Progressive dot com or
call one eight hundred Progressive. Well, when your MLS debut
(18:35):
goes about as great as could possibly happen, well, Leonel Messi,
you get to be the play of the night here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It is.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Messy any otherwise.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
TV on the call, Messi scoring in extra time off
a free kick, telling you, Mike Harmon, soccer is gonna
be the fourth major sport in the country, and Messi's
arrival is the last thing that domino that needed to
fall into place the next five years.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You just watch what happens to soccer.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Get in there and sell, sell, sell, Let's go.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
It got messy. In the MLS tonight, TJ TJ clearly quotes.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Uh Twitter and out about a Fresco Mike is swelling dome.
Our best of podcast goes up in a few minutes
on iTunes. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can get
at The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Coming up next,
it's bern and Bernie Fratto. Keep it right here, Direck
dot Com Studios.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
This is Fox
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
The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon at Foxsports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every night on the
iHeartRadio app by searching fsrles give.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Us you're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Greetings, Welcome inside our four of The Jason Smith Show
with my bass friend. His name is Mike Harmon. Do
live from the ti rag dot com studios tirac dot com.
I help you get there, an unmatched selection, fast free shipping,
free roadhazard protection, and over ten thousand recommended installers tirack
dot com the way tire.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Buying should be.
Speaker 4 (00:51):
Well.
Speaker 1 (00:51):
We got Jordan Schultz, big time NFL insider front of
the show coming up at about twenty minutes all the latest
news in the NFL, including why some people are a
little upset that Daniel Snyder is out of the NFC East.
But trust me, there's a really, really, really good reason
for it. But there are no bigger stories tonight than
(01:12):
what happened in soccer and just think about that for
a second.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
How cool that is.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
We had Leono Messi's MLS debut in the League's Cup
against cruz Azul. He scores in it four minutes from
the end of the game on a free kick to
win it, and the United States women's national team in
their first game and the Women's World Cup. A little
bit of a disappointing win, but a win is still
a win. Three nothing over Vietnam. Sophia Smith with a
(01:37):
couple of goals. Lindsay Ram plays really well. Let's talk
women's national team first before we get to Messi. Okay, Now,
when we talked about the team last night, and I've
told you my fears and concerns were, We're not gonna
find people who can score.
Speaker 3 (01:52):
We got to find people who can.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Score because I don't know if Alex Morgan is still elite. Right,
So you you had good news and bad news tonight
because you saw Alex Morgan. Wow, she struggled, got subbed
doubt in the in the sixty second minute, has a
horrible penalty that was not even close. Gets lucky that
an offside didn't negate one of Sophia Smith's goal. So
(02:14):
not a great night, and it didn't fill me with
warm fuzzies that she's going to score. Meghan Rapino, how
much does she have left? She's not gonna play a
lot of minutes. So that's the tough part. But the
good news is Sophia Smith, who they're gonna have to
count on to score. And really she may be the
most important player on Team USA because she's the one
(02:34):
that's gonna have to score. The biggest question for the
team is going to be are they going to be
able to score enough goals? Because as the competition gets better,
it's gonna be a lot of teams, a lot of
zero zero games and teams playing for extra time and
playing for penalties because this is not a United States
team that's going to be able to rack up a
lot of goals. Yeah, they had a lot of shots
sight against Vietnam. They're the worst team and the worst
(02:55):
team in the entire tournament, and they only scored three goals. Yes,
you think they're going to get better, but the competition's
gonna get better. So tonight was not one of those
Hey I feel awesome or oh my god, I'm at
the bottom.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
It's a mixed bag. It's kind of a zero sum game.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
I still have the same concerns that I had last
night after tonight's game against Vietnam. Even though they won
the most important thing. They won that was great and
they're moving on. It was a shout out there. Okay,
that's great, but there's nothing that makes me feel like, hey,
their issues coming into this World Cup is solve because
this is not the same team that we saw win
the last couple of World Cups. This is the most
(03:30):
vulnerable team of the women's national teams that we've seen
in quite a long time.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
No, sure, it's I mean there's turnover, there's injuries, there's
so many things swirling new players that you're trying to
integrate in the When you're doing that, the short turnaround
between the league season of the NWSL and this is.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Not your friend, right, You don't get a run.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
Up and the extra workouts and that space that you
would otherwise right to if you're constantly with your national squad.
So to that end, yeah, you've got got a little
bit of flux, a little bit of chaos there. Obviously.
You know, we look at the veteran leaders. You mentioned
(04:13):
alex Morgan, Repino playing her minutes but you know, corner
kicks just got to find and finish right.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
They had space and that was the thing.
Speaker 5 (04:22):
I take the encouragement from tonight, Jason as there were
a lot of opportunities and some of it's just timing
and a little bit of bad luck that come your way.
And obviously that terrible penalty kick effort by Alex Morgan
is what everybody's going to be flapping their guns about,
even if you don't care about soccer at all, time
is up. That's it, and it's like no, no, no, okay,
(04:44):
you know what, unlike the Canadian hero Saint Clair and all.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
Your favorite player that cost your sandwiches last night.
Speaker 5 (04:54):
But I mean two nights in a row though, I
mean we see legends for the respective countries fail and
a big opportunity now in this case in the United States,
bludgeons Vietnam with shots and eventually you get the three
to zero final. Uh your point, Smith and her An,
They're they're gonna have to be huge and absolutely huge.
(05:16):
Julie Ertz is gonna have to play bigger minutes, So
getting her reps in the NWSL with Angel City is
going to be huge for her. You know that she's
routed back into shape to play in this what is
likely her last World Cup. So I mean that that's
the thing, the changing of the guard, the number of
(05:38):
injured players, and you know what, sometimes the warm ups
aren't aren't as clean and crisp as you'd like, right,
I mean remember that first footage you saw of Aaron
Rodgers that you know he sailed most of those passes.
They didn't showing was good, but they didn't show it right,
they showed anything. So you know, I left it to
your imagination. For you, it became at a sprint to daylight.
(06:01):
For the real world, it became a oh it's a
pick six.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
If I didn't see it, he didn't sail it, it
doesn't matter, it's not real.
Speaker 5 (06:09):
I mean it was so bad that I was able
to put it on TikTok with Christopher Cross's sailing behind him.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
Why TikTok? Well, is it gonna be a tack? All right?
Speaker 5 (06:20):
So look, it was as we are because we were
wrapping everybody at a big bear hug here at Fox
Sports Radio, and I watch it as part of the show.
Whether you're nine or ninety, let's go.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
So with this going on, Look a zero Sum game
for the United States. Didn't solve issues, didn't make you
feel like things were out of them. But it's one
of those Okay, we got to see something a little
bit more as a tournament goes on. So not not
to something everybody wants to have. Oh this is the greatest,
they're fine, Oh this is awful.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
No.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Sometimes, look, this is what it is. The game was
what it was. They had a lot of chances, they dominated,
they couldn't score. You like to think that's gonna happen
a little bit more as a tournament goes But the
teams are going to get a a lot better than Vietnam.
So yeah, kind of a zero sum game.
Speaker 3 (07:04):
Not quite the same.
Speaker 1 (07:06):
In the debut in the MLS of Lionel Messi all right,
making his debut tonight in the League's Cup for Inner
Miami against Cruz Azul, and it was everything you hoped
it would be. He comes in off the bench. Right
after he comes in, they give up the lead. Right said,
Messy is overrated. He stinks we paid all that money
(07:28):
we give they give up the lead.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
But be sure to catch live editions of The Jason
Smith Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern,
seven pm Pacific.
Speaker 1 (07:38):
With just a couple of minutes left to go, Inner
Miami gets a free kick about ten yards out from
the eighteen. You know, Messi's gonna take it, And this
is how it ended up here.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
It is.
Speaker 4 (07:55):
Messi.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Apple TV on the call Messi's goal. He curves it
in just inside the post, wins the game for Inner Miami.
They blew the final whistle about a minute after that.
After he scores, the stands are going absolutely insane. He's
walking around the field getting high fives and congratulations everybody.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
It really was.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
It was like when Ripkin played in twenty six thirty
two and we got through the fifth inning and he
started walking around just high fiving all the fans all
the way, right, That's what it was like for mess
He's like, Okay, we gotta give this guy a minute here.
We got to alright, to givehim some time to celebrate.
He had a big goal. Look, we're in a moment
(08:47):
and sometimes we don't understand we're in that moment. And
I want to tell you we're in that moment for
soccer right now where we've had three major sports in
the country for a long time, right Football baseball. Basketball
used to be football, baseball, basketball, hockey, hockey fell off
twenty five years ago.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Right.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
Gary Bettman drove it straight from Hey, we're the number
four sport in the country too. Hey we're a sport
that people don't even know still exists, which I hate
because I love hockey, you love hockey. But this is
where it is. We have three major sports now within
five years again, within five year prediction, soccer is going
to be the number four sport in the country. The
unofficial say not, Well, but it's not, but not to
(09:29):
the level it's going to be at to the not
to the interest level. It's a big sport now. But
what's going to happen because now we're finally at that
time where the entire country is embracing soccer. Right, you
got to go back when Beckham came over for the
first time to play MLS. It was a really big deal,
but the rest of the league, the rest of the
(09:49):
country were ready to embrace soccer. No, in the end,
Beckham's going to be remembered as the conduit, the guy
who came over and kind of you know, broke up,
broke open the door a little bit to say, hey,
soccer is going to succeed in the United States. What
do we see after that the MLS played, they grew
and now look at where the MLS is right. The
MLS is incredibly healthy. They sell out, all the teams,
(10:10):
sell out every game it's national broadcast, and it's no
signs of slowing down. They're expanding. The MLS in a
great spot. But you're looking at a time in the
world right now where you have the popularity in the
United States of the men's and women's national teams, where
we talk about them more than just when the World
(10:31):
Cup comes up. We talk about when there's a coaching
change or when they're playing the Gold Cup. They become
a big deal. And MLS is now a big deal
in a lot of cities. Look at the popularity of
shows like Welcome to Wrexum, which is about a small club,
a Division six club in Wales that gets a lot
of attention, the popularity of Ted Lasso most popular shows
and all of television and it's about soccer. And now
(10:53):
you have Messi who has come over that is going
to be playing at a high level for the next
couple of years and he's going to have an influence
and an impact on the game. Unlike anybody else. He's
the guy that's kicking open the door for soccer in
the United States. What the crowds are gonna be like
games he's gonna be traveling to because again MLS is
not quite the level of competition in Europe. And that's understandable,
(11:14):
but it doesn't matter. You're talking about what's here in
the US. He's gonna raise a level of play, raise
a level of involvement and interest level. This is the time,
This is the time for that. See change in soccer.
Everything is coming up soccer over the course of the
past few months, and now we're gonna get it and
in five years. Look, it's gonna be great for us
here on sports talk radio because hey, hey, we're gonna
(11:34):
get talk about su It's gonna be a whole thing.
People gotta get up on soccer man, because people are
gonna want to talk about it.
Speaker 3 (11:39):
We're gonna talk.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
About big MLS games or an MLS playoff game or
a championship or something like that, or what a player
has done or said, or we're following this star because
more people are gonna come to the MLS, more stars
will come play in the MLS. But this is gonna
be the Messy Show the next couple of years, and
it's gonna be a traveling circus unlike anything else. You
watch and see the impact. And when we're talking a
(12:00):
few years from now here, as we were closing in
on twenty twenty eight, twenty twenty nine, you watch the
level of importance in the level of how soccer is
received here in the US. Again, four major sports are
gonna be the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, and
all of soccer. Because it's not just the MLS. It's
going to be the MLS and the men's and women's
(12:21):
national team. He kind of roll it all into one.
Speaker 5 (12:23):
Yeah, I mean, just remember when we get to the
messy side of things, meubles I not MESSI the idea
that you've got the the changing demographics here of the
country for one, but just just looking at from the
MLS side, and Messi's still playing at a high level, right,
(12:44):
just won a World Cups. It's not hey, a diminished
diminished guy. You know, Hey, he's no longer WWE material,
but he can go on one of the fringe cards
and still you know, make it on the indie circuit, right,
I mean this is still you know, he's playing at
a high level and he's playing in a league that
(13:06):
continues to get better. And we watched his laton and
the effect he had a bit here in Los Angeles
right where he'd be one of the leads on these
sports segments on the evening newscast locally and certainly when
he had his flair for the dramatic and made a
big play that showed up as one of your top
ten highlights night after night on your list show of
(13:30):
history here. But he also brings out the big stars,
which means you start transcending into other categories beyond just
sports coverage. Right, Kim Kardashians showing up, Well, that'll be
on all the entertainment shows. Lebron James, he could say
he was there and it makes it about him. Look,
(13:51):
Lebron boy, what a passionate man he is for all games.
And maybe he'll be an ambassador for soccer. I mean
that was what the late Kobe Bryant was, right. He
was featured in a ton of soccer commercials and products
from you know, the sports card, memorabilia whatever. Like his
fandom was celebrated so much so it's had the momentum
(14:14):
and now I'm Messy with some heroics like tonight. Yeah,
that's enough to carry it to the next level, no
question about it. Maybe folks will decide to dial up
the random MLS game man, come out to Los Angeles
and go see it. When LAFC and the Galaxy get together,
sold exactly.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Tights one hundred thousand people sold out. It's what the
great ones do, man, they raise that level. And then
Messi is that great one. I'm telling you, Beckham was
the conduit. Messy's the guy breaking the door open. That's
how it's going.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Jason Smith
Show with Mike Harmon weekdays at ten pm Eastern, seven
pm Pacific, Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
The Jason Smith Show with My best friend Mike Harmon.
Before we get to the play of the night, how
about one hot take to end the week with. Well,
let's go, we're getting we're getting ready for a big
hot weekend.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Temperatures are hot. How about this?
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Uh, Tonight was another night for Otani Watch twenty twenty three.
Wow wow wow wowow wow wow wow wow wow wow
wow wow wow wow. I need a wow got a
standing ovation after giving up four home runs in the
Angel Spin over the steel of the Steelers, over.
Speaker 4 (15:25):
The pilots again.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
But uh, that's not important. What is important is at
least at every day for the next now, for the
next ten or so days, is gonna be new stuff
about Otani. Today was the Dodgers have become the betting
favorites to get show Heyotani if he doesn't stay with
the Angels, and that the Angels are gonna wait until
the last possible second before making the decision to trade
(15:47):
show Heyotani. Now here's where I I give you because
you know me, I say Otani's gonna go. You see
Otani's gonna stay. Here's the one part where I can
see him staying. Going off John Paul's report, the Angel
are gonna wait till the end. Well, of course they're
gonna wait to the end. They want to wait and
see if they're in contention in ten days they lose
ten in the row, do they win ten in a row?
(16:08):
But how much of this is saying we're gonna wait
till the end, and when the end comes and they
can't trade him, they're gonna say, oh, it just got
too hard.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
We couldn't do it. It's like, like, like, how much
of it is gonna be? We wanna we want to.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Just satisfy everybody. We don't want to trade him. We
want to keep him, but we can't just keep him blindly.
We want to say that, hey, if we lose, we'll
try to trade him. But how complicated is the show, Hey,
Tony trade gonna be? It's gonna be incredibly complicated. A
team trading forum is gonna want to know will you
sign with us in the off season, will you not?
What are you open to? What kind of prospects are
(16:43):
we giving up. It's not gonna be something that's put
together at the last minute, and Otani trade is gonna
take a while to put together, and the Angels maybe
just want the optic out there that will trade him.
But meanwhile, we know when it comes down to the
end it's gonna get too tough. We can say, oh,
we throw our hands up in the air and it
was just too hard, and we get to keep him.
But it makes it look like we're doing the right
(17:04):
thing for our ball club. If we start losing, we
will look into trading Otani. But oh, look, we just couldn't.
Speaker 5 (17:10):
Do it No, it makes perfect sentence. I mean, I
think we're we've been saying all along. Right, it's gonna
take something really over the top to make this make
sense because Moreno's gonna have to talk about it forever. Hey,
this is what we got, Cause let's face it, how
many of those prospects that we keep hearing about will
actually pan out to anything? And anybody that's in a
(17:34):
contender that's trading for him, well, how much are you
gonna give up.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
From your current major league roster to bring him in?
Speaker 3 (17:39):
What if they get Mookie Betts. He's a pretty good prospect.
Speaker 4 (17:42):
Kind of a big deal.
Speaker 3 (17:43):
It might work out.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
Sure, well, I think he's got a little bit of
a track writer. But just the idea that you know,
you drag it out and you just say, hey, we're
doing our due diligence, and we were waiting to be
overwhelmed with an offer, and that day never came.
Speaker 4 (17:56):
Right.
Speaker 5 (17:57):
It's like Daryl Morey with the James Harden situation, or
the Portland Trailblazers with Dame Lillard. It's like, hey, we're
not in any hurry to do anything. If you're desperate
enough and you can overwhelm me and send me a
brains truck full of whatever that I'm in. Otherwise, tough haul.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
I can see that conspiracy theory optic absolutely happening. Time
now for the Play of the Night, brought to you
by Progressive Progressive making things even easier to help you
bundle your home and car insurance together so you can
save on both. Learn more at Progressive dot com or
call one eight hundred Progressive. Well, when your MLS debut
(18:35):
goes about as great as could possibly happen, well, Leonel Messi,
you get to be the play of the night here.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
It is.
Speaker 5 (18:47):
Messy any otherwise.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
TV on the call, Messi scoring in extra time off
a free kick, telling you, Mike Harmon, soccer is gonna
be the fourth major sport in the country, and Messi's
arrival is the last thing that domino that needed to
fall into place the next five years.
Speaker 3 (19:14):
You just watch what happens to soccer.
Speaker 4 (19:16):
Get in there and sell, sell, sell, Let's go.
Speaker 3 (19:20):
It got messy. In the MLS tonight, TJ TJ clearly quotes.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Uh Twitter and out about a Fresco Mike is swelling dome.
Our best of podcast goes up in a few minutes
on iTunes. Wherever you listen to podcasts, you can get
at The Jason Smith Show with Mike Harmon. Coming up next,
it's bern and Bernie Fratto. Keep it right here, Direck
dot Com Studios.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
This is Fox
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Mike Harmon
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