Top 5, Talking Tennis! - Bumper to Bumper 7/7/26 Hour Three

Bumper to Bumper with Dan Barreiro!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
For Dan Barrero's top five and five brought to you
by Gutter Helmet of Minnesota.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Never Clean your gutters Again. Learn more at gutter helmet
m dot com.

Speaker 3 (00:10):
People listening going, I thought Barrero was supposed to be
back today, Guards. He told us yesterday Dan would be
back on Tuesday. Yeah, I did, and that was the
information that we had at the time. Brett Blakemore was
going to get a day off to more in his
US soccer team losing to Belgium last night in the
World Cup. Guards he was going to go back to
the usual chair and all would be right with the

(00:30):
bumper to bumper world. The travel gods, though, they had
other ideas for the Larry David of the fan Dan Barrero.
They had other ideas, And he has not yet made
it back from his fourth of July pilgrimage. So I'm
guessing he will have a story tomorrow. Maybe maybe he
won't want to get into it. Maybe it's been too frustrating.
I don't know. Maybe we'll be back tomorrow. Maybe we'll

(00:51):
be back tomorrow. That's a great point. Yeah, I have
no idea. I'll be here one way or the other.
You're in for me on Thursday, I think to be
talk about that. No, but I'm in that's in your text.
We it's somewhere. Yeah, July ninth, I need you in
for me. I don't think I need you for the
tenth anymore. But we're here, and Brett Blakemore gets the
top five of five.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Well we'll start there.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
The dream is dead, World Cup correspondent dead, the US
playing great soccer dead, the US loses embarrassing fashion. For one,
I think it's about as bad a game you could
possibly I heard Mark Rosen, who heard Chris Hockey compare
it to the forty one donut game for the Vikings,

(01:37):
oh Man, where it was just over from the start
and you were never in it to begin with. I
don't know if I'd go that far, but it's certainly
certainly was felt close to me.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, no, I see what they're saying. The one difference is, yes,
it started horribly. They were playing terribly. They played terrible,
and that that's the reality of it. Is as fun
as the whole experience was from the Paraguay match on
from Seattle to La to Santa Clara back to Seattle

(02:10):
and everywhere in between on the West Coast. It was
awesome to see the scene country Roads, the red card stuff.
It was awesome until it wasn't. And the headline is
what a horrible way to go out? What was a
really of what was really a fun ride. And the
difference between forty one doing it is for sixty two

(02:32):
seconds we were in it again. Yeah, after all of it,
after the dreadful start, they're pumping up the crowd. It's great. Yeah,
I could barely get the worst so back tweet out
and I looked up and they were already down again.
That's how quickly it resurfaced. And then even then you're
still in it. It's still a one goal of game.

(02:53):
That was certainly the message at the half. It sounds
like until one of the worst plays that you'll ever
see by our our goaltender, who I know soccer people
have been down on and he's like the one MMLS
guy that we have, so they're bitter about that hit.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Number one is the keeper number two, Tim Rings. Yeah,
they were both responsible for.

Speaker 3 (03:11):
All three of the goals, all four and those are
the last two lines of defense, right yeah. Is he
the sweeper your guy? Tim? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:18):
The man bun yontare yep.

Speaker 3 (03:21):
Sweeper you like that he's the sweeper. Then you got
to go those are the two most important people to
keep the ball out of the net, right And they
didn't have a great day. And so that's where it's
different from forty one donut, that there were moments where
you felt like they weren't that far away, that just
one thing could forty one donut. They were down twenty
one nothing in three possessions. It was over. Mitch Berger,

(03:43):
the punter on that team, has talked to Dan on
this show that in the second quarter he was talking
to Robert Smith, the running back on that team, about
their vacation to Can Kuhn that they were scheduling for
the next week, like that's how bad forty one donut was.
So I get the point. I can't quite go that
far because there were glimpses of hope.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
I think just that everyone wants to overcomplicate it and
make it and there are problems we talked about pay
for play in the developmental systems and political figures getting involved,
and there's everyone just wants to overcomplicate and make it something.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
The reality was the US played like garbage.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yep, they didn't play as good as they did earlier
in the tournament and they lost to a better team
that didn't play like garbage. And that's I think that's
the long and the short of it.

Speaker 3 (04:25):
We will talk more World Cup in the five o'clock
hour as well, because we've got to wait another four
years to do it again. Well, we may as well
empty the World Cup notebook about it and talking about
the US.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
The US.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
You can get into other stuff here in the top five,
but the US, the cosmic significance of all of it,
we're going to get back into in the five o'clock hour.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
Tom Brady put out a tweet and it said, quote, yeah,
so that might top twenty eight to three? What's he
talking about? Argentina earlier today? Down two goals to know,
which we all know is the most dangerous lead in soccer.
Egypt should have done and just kept it scoreless for
as long as humanly possible. They it comes down to

(05:07):
eighty third, let's see that.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
No, the seventy ninth minute.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Before Totten mossper remember, Christian Romero cuts the lead to
one with a header, and then Messi five minutes later
scores the time goal. Seven minutes later, Enzo Fernandez scores
the game winning goal in regulation. They had ten minutes
and stoppage time to spare down two goals. In Argentina

(05:34):
roars back and wins in regulation, didn't even need extra
time to do it. It was if you were watching. Yeah,
it was an electric game. That's got to be the
word for it. Electric, right, Yeah, I know. We love
to do the win probability. We do the win probability
for everything. I mean, the win probability for Egypt had.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
To be like ninety nine percent, right at one point
in that match, it had to be. It had to
be over ninety right, because you said two nil with
how much time left, ten minutes.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
At the eightieth minute, they're down two goals.

Speaker 3 (06:06):
So that's that's got to be ninety five ninety six,
ninety seven percent win probability. Not that it matters what
the percentages. The point is, how rare is that? Like,
that is a miracle. That's you want to compare Vikings,
that's the Minneapolis miracle. In the final minute you need
to play, you're down to your last time out. I

(06:26):
think it's third down case Keenum to digs touchdown, walk off.
That's to me what that that's closer to a Vikings
deal than forty one, don't it is last night? Are
you looking for the win probability? Well?

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Was it?

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I thought ESPN would be my savior, but they don't
have it on so we'll just move on. But I'm
sure you're right. I'm sure it was something in the
ninety percent range. Right now, we're going extra time Switzerland
and Columbia. That's going on at the moment. Yesterday as well,
we saw Spain, although we already talked about it's Spain
beating Portugal. So to be Belgium and Spain in the

(07:01):
elite eight the quarterfinals. So there's your World Cup update
it I will admit as a soccer guy in tomorrow's
the first day without World Cup games. Yeah, in like
three weeks, I know there will be some withdrawals, but
they're already to me, there already is withdrawals because I'm
already emotionally less invested than i was yesterday.

Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, this is for the final spot in the quarterfinals, right,
did you say that?

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yes, it's correct, So all the other quarterfinal matchups will
be set in Switzerland Columbia an extra time right now,
the first half of overtime. Make that makes sense to
decide who is still scoreless in that game as well.

Speaker 3 (07:37):
It's a top five to five tradition to have the
host repeat something that the person leading the top five yes, correct.
So we will monitor that. We may even do a
live listening because we can do that. We may even
do a live listening, especially if they get to PKS
at the end.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
That would be fun.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I looked at a article on bleacher Report and it
said one word to describe the off season so far
for each NH team MM. For instance, the Florida Panthers,
the word is intriguing because they got the other Kachuck brother,
the La Kings.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
The word was old.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
The word for your Minnesota Wild lackluster, really lackluster, It.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Says the Wild.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
You're still looking for an elite number one senator to
take this team to Cup contender status.

Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
Losing Zugerello, Tarasenko and Johansson is going to sting on
the production side, which was already an issue for Depth.
Adding Blake Coleman in a trader Calgary should help, but
there's more work to be done by Bill Garrion.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Lackluster the word.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
If you're Minnesota Wild, and I don't entirely disagree, but
I also will say, let's wait for the picture to
be painted before we start calling it lackluster.

Speaker 3 (08:43):
Well, that's it the whole premise of the article. I
get why they're writing it now. Yeah, but it's not
done yet. It's it's judging a painting before it's done.
It's judging a road before it's done, it's judging the
building before it's done. Yeah, the signs maybe aren't great,
and some of the people that they've lost, you can
flip a coin on some of them, whether it's important

(09:05):
or not. I think the Zucarella thing is kind of
a buzzkill personally, because it seemed like he wanted to
play here and we know how important he is and
has been. I'm also fine with giving Caprice off a
little bit of the Dumbo thing, removing the feather. You
can fly without it, yeah, shout across the bout a
little bit. Oh just yeah, we got to be able
to do it without it. And I'm fine with breaking
up the band a little bit. But there's one big

(09:28):
speaking of feather's feather left. If Quinn Hughes assigned to
an extension that goes from lock lackluster to what pretty
solid right, wouldn't you say? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
I mean it's still good because a.

Speaker 3 (09:42):
Lot of their moves have to do with there's only
so much they can do because of how much money
they're eventually going to give him, right, that is true,
So there's a few dominoes. And obviously they're also waiting
for the Dylan Larkin thing. So it'd be hard to
not be lackluster when you're waiting on those two big pieces.
Or am I missing something?

Speaker 2 (10:00):
I just don't.

Speaker 1 (10:02):
The reason I don't fully disagree is because I just
don't know what we're going to get out of some
of the new guys, Like you know, Calvin Pickard's going
to be the backup to the wall in Saint Paul
until Gus bus is reading. You'll probably go to Iowa
Blake Coleman depth scoring piece on the probably second or
third line, and Ali Mada will be a depth defenseman.
But then this Max Schavanov, who they're really fired up about, who,

(10:25):
by the way, they announced earlier today, he'll be forty nine,
which this could maybe pst material. That's not a goal
scoring number. Not a goal scoring number, forty nine, got
to get him something lower.

Speaker 3 (10:37):
You're really in tune with the kids.

Speaker 1 (10:42):
I'm mostly being sarcastic. I'm about eighty five percent.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
I'd say it's like fifty to fifty because you got
your background, you go back twenty four hours. One of
the reasons you thought the US struggle against Belgium the
last time is because their uniforms were too similar.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
If you go back and watch that game, it was
a joke. You couldnot tell who.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I got a couple of texts last night about that.
I'm sure he did, said the uniform thing I got, Yeah,
he was. He was dug in on the uniform.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Was it from the Moleski?

Speaker 3 (11:08):
No, it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
Okay, we're good.

Speaker 3 (11:09):
It could have been so forty nine. So you think
Bill Garon should make you think John Hines should make
him change his number.

Speaker 1 (11:15):
I'm thinking you got to go a little lower, worse.
You know, A twenty three, you know, and eleven. That's
that's a goal scorer number. Anyways, I'm just being sarcastic.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
You know what we're going to get out of those guys,
is my point.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
I don't so to me, my word would be mystery
because we just don't know what we're going to get
from the new guys and if they can fill the holes.
But it was obvious to me in that playoff series
that the hole was number one center and you could
circle it in that line at sixteen times.

Speaker 2 (11:43):
It was obvious that that was what they were missing.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Switzerland with a grade A chance right in front of
the Columbian net. It was saved by the goaltender. That
that definitely missed the show. No it was. I mean
it was point blank you'll see it right here, just
a rocket saved by the Columbia goaltender to keep the
score at nil nil. One oh three forty is the

(12:09):
time on the clock.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
So there you go, the latest on Lebron Watch.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
It seems I only know Brian Winhorse is a casual.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
You're you're a soccer casual. I'm a basketball casual.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
I know him from the two fingers in the air meme.

Speaker 3 (12:24):
It's the best.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
You know, I'm talking. I can't even remember what it was.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
He was outlining some team's plan. Yeah, and like very
dramatic and deliberate about it.

Speaker 1 (12:33):
Yeah, something is lining up with plans of It was
just brilliant.

Speaker 3 (12:38):
It's a great picture.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
It really is, like, oh that's something is hinting towards
something else.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Well, his his radar must be up.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
He's saying that Lebron the vibes, the vibes are headed
to Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Again your thoughts.

Speaker 3 (12:51):
He's been in. That's the one that wouldn't be the
gut punch. Gut punch to me, going to Denver it
would still be the toughest because if he goes to Denver.

Speaker 2 (13:02):
Is that in the mix or is that us saying
they haven't been told no.

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Well, I guess they haven't been told no. So that
would be the one where because right now Minnesota doesn't
feel realistic even though they haven't been told no either,
and even though we all heard what Rich Paul, his agent,
said to Max Kellerman on their podcast about why Minnesota
would be intriguing to Lebron, Denver to me represents even

(13:28):
though they won a title and they have the best
player in the world, Nikola Jokic, enough of a wild
card in this whole thing where you could say, Man,
if he's going to go to Denver, he could have
come here. I know their winters are a little milder,
and there's great golf, which I think we're all obsessing
too much about the golf. People are like, do we
have to give him our top one hundred golf courses?

(13:48):
Do we have to tell him about the Classic up
at Madden's, Like what are we doing here?

Speaker 1 (13:52):
But you watch that video with him and Bob does sports,
you'll you'll check a tune on that.

Speaker 3 (13:56):
Denver is enough of a wild card where it would
make Minnesota feel like it was actually a possibility. So
that would hurt more than going to Cleveland, like going
to Golden State, easy, right, Mike Trudel said yesterday, it's
his buddies, it's his peers. They actually have guys that
have played with him for a decade plus. All these
other teams, a lot of them have younger guys that
aren't really his peers or around his pier and had

(14:18):
playoff battles with them like he has with Stephen Draymond,
Steve Kerr coach on the Olympic team. Like that makes sense.
Cleveland obviously makes sense. It's where he's from, it's where
he started. He's already won a title there. The assistant
general manager is one of his oldest friends who's also
from Ohio. That's who Rich Paul said was one of
the X factors of this whole thing. It's like a

(14:39):
brother to him. And so when you talk about the vibes,
as Windhorst did in that clip, the vibes are high, Yeah,
because that's his home. He's been an acron all weekend.
He was hanging out at the night club that he
that he built there, hanging out with his friends. I
get it. Like that one would be an easy one
to digest if you're a Wolves fan. All Right, he's
going back home Miami. I could see it because he's

(15:03):
been there too, and he likes Riley, he likes Spoe.
Obviously playing with Giannis is a big deal. But so
those three, I'd be okay with Miami maybe less so,
but the Denver one and Philly's in the mix too,
but the Cleveland one would be the easiest that makes
sense besides Golden State. And still be bummed because I mean,

(15:27):
you should see my phone from like friends of mine.
But what's going on? Yeah, just waiting like is this
really gonna happen? Could it happen? Because most people do agree,
and a couple of reporters have written this, if it's
a basketball thing, the Wolf should be top two or
three choices. They have the best young superstar out of

(15:47):
all those groups. I think in Anthony Edwards, they have
LaMelo Ball who went healthy, can be very exciting. They're
gonna have a good defense, they've got Jaden McDaniels, they've
got a good coach, they have really good infrastructure and
a nice spot to slide into. Every team that he's
considering kind of has that as well. But that's where
it's gotten people's antenna up is. Johnny writes about the

(16:10):
push they're making for him. Sam Quinn from CBS goes
flat out and says this is where he should go.
Max Kellerman says, to Rich Paul's face on the podcast,
this one intrigues me the most. So that got everybody
into a lather. That's what has accelerated the hopefulness, even
though it's still a very small chance.

Speaker 1 (16:29):
In two thousand and let's see, this was twenty twenty two,
Utah traded Royce or Yeah, they were sending Royce O'Neill
to the Nets in exchange for a first round pick,
and Brian Windhorse said, what's going on in Utah. It's
a very strange trade, and that's where the finger mems ca, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Yeah, we something's going on in Utah. It's not lining up,
it's just genius.

Speaker 3 (16:54):
It's good one of my favorites. Anything else in the
top five and.

Speaker 1 (16:57):
Fives played as well, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (16:59):
And Buxton is going to the IL sounds like officially,
so we'll get more details on that. And speaking of
we were talking about aging athlete Lebron James, another ageless
timeless wonder, had an epic performance today that I do
feel like we need to spend a couple of minutes on.
I'll give you details on it when we come back

(17:24):
in for Barrero.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
This is justin Guard on the Fan.

Speaker 1 (17:32):
This Friday, if you can come watch all the World
Cup action with Nordo at mccues and Savage, great part
of town, well out the quarterfinal matches on tons of games,
prizes and of course great drink specials. The party starts
at two pm. We'll see you this Friday. I'm mc
hughes and Savage.

Speaker 3 (17:53):
Ratch on Brian Campan text line is six y four
six eighty six Guards the inn for Barrero today not
supposed to be, but Dan has some issues. He hopefully
will be back tomorrow. Clayton in Rochester who will get
to MSP first Dan or Lebron Dan or Lebron Well,
I say hopefully Lebron. I want to have Dan back.
I'd like him to be back to host the show tomorrow,

(18:14):
but I'd take one for the team and host again
if Lebron showed up at MSP tonight. You find something
to talk Yeah, we would find something to talk about.
That's one text. The other one from nine to two.
Oh guy JG. Did you see Ant delivered the game
ball in Atlanta today? Does it bother you as much
as it does myself that he's representing another city like this.
I know it's his hometown, but it's a city with
an NBA franchise that is likely going to target him

(18:36):
in three years, So it's a bad look for him.
My simple answer, yeah, My simple answer is no, it
doesn't bother me. It's his hometown, it's where he lives.
It's a rare opportunity. We didn't bid on the World Cup.
Our people said we we got out of it. We
had the opportunity to put a bit in and we
said we're not going to do it this time. We're
not going to do it this time around. We were

(18:58):
just coming off the Super Bowl. We already asked Corporate America,
A corporate Minneapolis, and Saint Paul for a lot of money.
The fan has learned. FIFA demands a lot of its
host cities in terms of what you give up and
what they're allowed to do. So had we hosted one
at a People stadium, I bet Anthony Edwards would have
delivered the game ball here. But we didn't, and Atlanta

(19:19):
was the place, so it doesn't bother me. I get
to paranoia. I remember when Kat throughout the first pitch
at a Yankee game before he was traded to the Knicks.
Like everybody's from somewhere, and in major cities, they all
have sports teams. So where do you draw the line.
I don't have a ton of problem with it. You know,
I'm a tennis guy.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
You enjoy it.

Speaker 3 (19:41):
I love it.

Speaker 1 (19:42):
I didn't even know there was a tennis channel until
i'd come in after you and see that there was
a tennis channel on.

Speaker 2 (19:47):
That's what was left on the TV.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
And about four times a year I put it on
that TV in that room and I'll watch stuff. And
this is how I'm old enough to remember. You wouldn't
have been here, I don't think yet. When did you start.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Working twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3 (20:01):
Yeah, you were not here yet. This was I want
to say, like twenty twelve or twenty thirteen. I was
hosting I want to say, Sunday Sermons. Maybe it might
have been The Cake Show and Andy Murray was about
to win Wimbledon and snap a seventy five ish year
streak or drought for someone from Great Britain to win Wimbledon.

(20:24):
I think Fred Perry was the one before him. It's
all googleable, and he'd been close. He'd lost to Federer
in the finals, He'd been to semi finals, the whole deal,
and so the weight of a nation, the weight of
a region because he's from Scotland, was on this guy's
back and he finally got it done. I want to
say twenty thirteen because the twenty twelve Olympics he actually

(20:45):
won the gold medal at Wimbledon in London after having
lost the final to Federer, and I remember doing that
Sunday show and the entire last set. I was basically
like common during five three four when he's eating his lunch.
I wasn't paying attention and I was hosting the show,

(21:08):
so I'd be talking. I don't know if I had
a guest on and I would just be watching the
TV that I'm watching right now for Andy Murray. So
I feel like it's some positive growth that I had
no idea that Novak Djokovic was in the middle of
the longest quarterfinal in Wimbledon history, and that he was
that he won in a match tie break, which when
you get to six al in the fifth set, you

(21:30):
play a ten point super breaker. It used to be
you would just go until you won by two. And
people may remember the John I Isner Nicholas Mahoot match that
went seventy sixty eight. I think over three days. We
had John Isner on the show that same day. By
the way, if you want to go back twenty ten,
and I had no idea this was going on. And

(21:51):
it's an interesting deal because the phrase is, how does
the phrase go? You can help me with this.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
I think.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
You live long enough. It's about living long enough to
be the hero. The hero dies a villain or.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
So you either die a hero or you live long
enough to see yourself become the villain.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
There you go, Thank you night. I knew you could. Yes, yeah,
Novak Djokovic has reversed it in my opinion because to me,
he used to be a villain. He used to be
a guy I did not enjoy. He was one of
the disruptors in the Roger Federer Andy Murray. Certainly, I'd

(22:31):
say Roger Federer Rafael Nadal rivalry. That was the big
rivalry for seven eight years. And Djokovic and those two
are like Mount rushmore of just class. Like like Federer
looks like he was born at Wimbledon. There's a great
picture of him last night. He's literally the only person
left in the Royal box. He's watching. I think a

(22:51):
couple of players come out. Everybody else in the Royal
box is doing something. And Federer is just such a
tennis nut and such a respectful guy. He's front and
center waiting for these guys to play. Like, to me,
Federer is my favorite player that I've probably ever watched.
And that's with all due respect to Andre Agassy, but
Federer and Nadal and adult, great sportsman, great competitor. They
were a great rival. Djokovic was like this punk disruptor

(23:13):
that rubbed people the wrong way, that said controversial things,
did controversial things in his post match interviews, like he
criticized Andy Roddick in a postmatch interview in New York
and got booed like he was just this guy. It's like,
I just don't like this guy. There's something about him.
I just don't like him. He's not like Feeder, he's
not like Thedal, he's not even like Murray.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
I don't like him.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Well, he's thirty nine years old. He has the most
major championships of anybody. He broke that record. He's got
twenty four. Okay, he plays like five times a year
because the grind is too long. He's thirty nine. Okay.
He just played for five hours and fifteen minutes and
beat the third player in the world, Felix's Auger alias

(23:57):
Simae from Canada, who's had this. He's been kind of
one of the next up and comers for the last
few years, and now he's completely come into his own.
He's a top four player in the world. He's definitely
a Grand Slam threat. I don't know how old he is.
We could look it up quickly, but he's probably twenty three,
twenty four to twenty five. What's his name here, I'll

(24:17):
just google all right, I'll just click it and we'll
see how old he is. Here, he's twenty five. He's
been around for a while and Joker just beat him
in the longest quarterfinal in Wimbledon history five hours and
fifteen minutes, thirty nine years old.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Now his rope if you weren't working, is that a
five hour like sit down? We're watching this? Is it
a let's join in three hours in? How does that work?
Yeahs a tennis guy. It's hard, it's tough. And that's
one of the things that works against tennis. One of
the thing that works for soccer is you pretty much know,
even with extra time how long it's going to be.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
It's two hours, yeah, on the nuts.

Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah. And so with tennis, one of their issues is
how do you get people to do what you just said,
to sit there for five hours and fifteen minutes for
a quarter final. I probably wouldn't do it for a final,
and I've done it. I did this last year the
French Open final with Sinner and Alcarez. I started, I'm

(25:20):
just going to watch it for a while and we've
got stuff to do. It's Sunday morning and it ended
like five hours and I watched every single second of
it because it was so good. Like it because it
depends on the level to answer your question, but I
have like Nadal and Federer, I've sat for five hours Djokovic,
feder Djokovic, Nadal, I've sat Murray, I have sat for that.
I never plan on it. When I was younger and

(25:42):
didn't have any kids, I could plan on it. Now
you can't plan five hours a five hour block unless
you're just home and it's on. So if I wasn't working,
if I was home and I didn't have any parenting responsibilities,
I would have stuck with it because I only learned
about it because the text line multiple people are like, hey,

(26:02):
jokers in a blood bath right now. It's an absolute battle.
I wish I would have seen it, but I'm a
World Cup guy now. So I was watching Switzerland Columbia,
which is in the final couple of minutes of extra time.
But I just want to give this dude his flowers,
because I think we take for granted, like with Lebron,
everybody just assumes like, oh, yeah, he's Lebron, He's gonna
be here and he's gonna be good. He's forty one
years old, like I was. Again, I said this yesterday.

(26:25):
I was at my first college in two thousand and three.
When I watched him play on ESPN two for the
first time as a junior in high school. He was
a junior and they televised one of his games at St.
Vincent Saint Mary's. That's how long this dude has been
in our life. Serena William's coming back, same thing. I
remember watching her as a teenager. Like the fact that
she even got out there and played as well as
she did is absurd. Tom Brady go down the list, right,

(26:49):
Djokovic thirty nine, five hours and fifteen minutes against a
dude who's fourteen years his junior, and he beats him,
and now he's in his eighth straight Wimbledon semi final,
which I think is a record, and his reward is
the number one player in the world. Yonyx Sinner, who
is one of the top two guys going right now

(27:12):
with al Karez who is injured. So I want to
give him his flowers because thirty nine, man like, it's
absurd that he's continuing to do this and not playing
very much like every sport, you have to play it
to stay good. You have to compete to stay good,
to keep your form. Golf, soccer, bet right, or you
get the rest versus rustling. He pops into like seven

(27:34):
or eight tournaments a year, a couple outside of the majors,
and the fact that he's doing this at thirty nine,
like wanted to pause and give him his flowers. And
I'm glad I didn't know what was going on at
the time, because we had a pretty meaty discussion going
on in the three o'clock hour about you sports, and
I would have been heavily distracted. So anyway, Sinner and

(27:55):
Djokovic on Friday Center Court, the semi finals of Wimbledon.
We're gonna get be to the soccer. A couple of
final thoughts from our World Cup correspondent Brett Blakemore on
the match last night, the Polisic meat grinder, the bitterness
surrounding him, and whether or not how we judge now
the US run in the World Cup now that it's
over all that coming up.

Speaker 1 (28:16):
Justin God for the action with Kfan, breaking sports news,
exclusive contests, and more.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
You can follow KFA N one zero zero three on.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Instagram, TikTok, Facebook x and YouTube YouTube.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
Stay connected and follow the sports leader.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
The fan may do a live listen in because we've
got penalty kicks here Switzerland and Columbia right for the spot,
the final quarter final spot in the World Cup. Did

(28:57):
I get the teams right?

Speaker 2 (28:58):
You did?

Speaker 1 (28:58):
I don't like this way to decide that such a
big game, but watching it as a neutral is fantastic.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
It's so good.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
But it's kind of what you have to do, isn't it. Yeah?

Speaker 2 (29:09):
I mean they can't just run around.

Speaker 3 (29:10):
You got forever. It's thirty minutes of extra time plus
the injury time or stoppage time. Yeah, at some point
you kind of have to. Did you mind it when
Brandy Chastain want it in the Roads Bowl for the
US in nineteen ninety nine, you think to beat China?
Does that sound right?

Speaker 2 (29:25):
I just know the iconic shot.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
There's a statue at the Rose Bowl of that pose.
It's the best. So we've got Columbia here we go
up first. Should we do a live listener? We have
that ability, like, yeah, we may as well do it,
and we'll sprinkle in United States World Cup stuff as
we go. We are your home for the World Cup.
This is in Vancouver. A lot of drama.

Speaker 2 (29:49):
I don't know if it'll sync up with what we're seeing.

Speaker 3 (29:51):
It probably won't. Kid Hero versus Kurble. Brilliant penalty. We'll
know that' the first one. Get your song.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
We're pretty far behind.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
You made man not first, do you think so? Just
like ten or fifteen seconds, probably right now, our guys
lining up.

Speaker 4 (30:10):
The guy that just scored, no chance, none of that
subtle set picks his spat right down the middle.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
Now this is interesting, Yeah, brilliant penalty.

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Can callub thea celebrations were take a bit of a
flare up involving Yerry Miner of Mamola Kanji.

Speaker 3 (30:25):
It was walking Grant Shacker up the fission and they.

Speaker 5 (30:29):
Seemed to be indecision in the Swiss line as.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
To who's taking the first one.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Oh no, that's already problem in Granit Shacker.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
But this is hardly I feel preparation for nice Granted Jacker.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
You want your Maine man, your captain, your leader, most
experienced tone.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Don't you have this already ready to go exactly forecast?

Speaker 5 (30:53):
Yeah, it's writing down on him in Vancouver, most experienced
man in the Swiss team.

Speaker 3 (30:59):
The cat big moment.

Speaker 5 (31:03):
Score is just about but he's got a piece him
a gold cap.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
But what most coase.

Speaker 4 (31:08):
He didn't hit it is convincing as I thought he
would juck. He's gold me a brilliant striker of the
boat concas guess right, just what he gets his left
hand on it. Just not strong enough. He's just a
little bit too low, can't get enough power.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
Imagine standing there.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
The worst the worst place to hit these penalty kicks
guardsy is to the side and about halfway up that's
the worst post. Either low into the sides or high
into the side. The middle is danger zone. Like you'll
see this replay. It was right in the middle and
that's why I got a piece of it.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
Not a very good shot, all right, but the first
two have been converted. Now then, Dovinson, do you wonder
what it's like to stand there in front of this
is Vancouver, ninety thousand people missed in your entire country's
hopes and dreams hinging on your shot. Is there a
more pressure filled moment for an athlete than this? I
go back to Gordon Bombay in Mighty Ducks. It's a

(32:03):
triple d the triple deck. It was for the championship,
and we know how that ended.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
For some reason, they didn't pay the power bill and
the lights were all off.

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Spoiler alert whether or not he made the triple deck
or not for Mighty Ducks. All right, So now it's Columbia.

Speaker 5 (32:19):
Smashed them to the top, smashed them to the top.
It's the first mistake, and it's a Columbia mistake here
it is.

Speaker 3 (32:30):
What do you think of the goaltender goal keeper? I
can tell smash It was kind of dancing back and forth,
you know, kind of like all that's missing is the
thundersticks that you get behind the basket out of Timberwolves game,
trying to distract. He had him be they had him beat. Also,
what do you think of the goltender after he's nowhere
near the ball? It hits the crossbar and he puts

(32:52):
his finger up. It's like the defensive back that.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
I was about to say, we have the exact same
thing here. It's an incomplete pass that Jaii Alexandri is
on no.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
And he does the straps yeah you know? Or does that? Yep? Exactly?
All right, so Colombia makes the first mistake. Swiss in
pole position here, no renult whatsoever. Really, Colombian fan devastated
on Fox to give Switzerland the lead in the shootout.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
Still to step Talty brilliant, calm as you like. Aye,
these things looks like she's on the trading fiction that.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
This is the best crew, right, everybody likes this. I
think this is the crew Dan was talking to.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
Let's let's see this.

Speaker 3 (33:37):
I mean it works when.

Speaker 4 (33:38):
The keeper goes the other way.

Speaker 3 (33:40):
Really cool and composed.

Speaker 2 (33:43):
Oh yeah, that was easy.

Speaker 3 (33:44):
That was practice pitch. I think it's easier. I'm gonna
start doing that on my women's basketball cause bar Brown
three from the wing, brilliant like she's in the practice,
absolute class. Grace Kroholski brilliant, so smooth, false, that's there.
Silverman missed a great chance. He's not from Switzerland, thinks
so Switzerland leading to one count pass gets it under curvil.

Speaker 5 (34:09):
She just got it under curvel. Relief and celebration for
the Columbia number twenty one.

Speaker 3 (34:14):
It's two too. Yeah, that's a big shot. Columbia could
not afford to go down three to one here in
the p case.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
Usually these are you're expected to score, like, if you're
a keeper in this, if you save one, yeah, you're
a hero, right, you know. So it's not like ooh
he guessed right though, Yeah, man, so cam Puss.

Speaker 3 (34:34):
Went right, underneath the keeper. He guessed right steps.

Speaker 5 (34:37):
Forward for Switzerland, the only Swiss player to miss in
the year of twenty twenty four shoots out defeat against England.

Speaker 3 (34:44):
Raw. See that is high level what he's announcing right there. Yeah,
that is a deep cut Switzerland, nicely done out just
to put them back ahead. That is a nugget. You
think he's thinking about that right now? Bright Probably it's
in the back of his mind. The twenty twenty four
far gus.

Speaker 5 (35:03):
Always playing over them.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
Run for Switzerland a better right method, It's anyone's game.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
Guards just for a second, shoots out and it makes
your tournament to Switzerland the level of two too.

Speaker 3 (35:19):
He had such a brilliant game of kin cheap. That
is the tough part. Let's see it. I mean it's nowhere.
Oh no, he airmailed that one. Yeah, he goes right
down to the turf. Oh, get up, buddy. That is heartbreak.
I hope it doesn't cost him. Yeah, you should feel
for him.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
I hear the Jacksonville Jaguars are inquiring about his services.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
I mean, Ray Finkel missed a field goal in the
Super Bowl and never recovery and his teammates go, what
do they call that the cobra. You put your hands
on top of your head. Sorry, oh hey, his keeper,
his keeper picked him up the penalty cake.

Speaker 5 (35:59):
But a brilliant sorry by the Swiss goalkeeper. And it's
not fan seed Swixeland once again.

Speaker 4 (36:04):
What I say that is and it's at that high
I have mentioned, it's not it's not low and it's
not high. It's just perfect for the goalkeeper.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah, you can't go middle guardsy.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
Oh yeah, I can't that. You can go straps on
that one. If you're just joining us, pot it down
to us a little bit. If you're just joining us.
We are in penalty kicks here Switzerland and Columbia. Final
spot in the quarterfinals on the line. It is nil nil,
a clean sheet for both. The winner of this penalty

(36:37):
kicks shootout we'll take on Argentina on Saturday at eight o'clock.
Argentina with a thrilling come from behind victory. Today it's
against Egypt.

Speaker 5 (36:46):
Agent say to wake Seam for the winners. I just
said that they need that goalkeeper. He's in schools down
the middle. I've fancied swixcelland Columbia now have to score.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
How risky is it to go right down the middle.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
Take some kahone.

Speaker 1 (37:03):
It's high risk, high reward because if if they dive,
you look like a genius. But if they just stand
still and they just catch it just nonchalantly, you look
like an idiot.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
Oh yeah, and that wasn't very I mean that's where
the Swiss guy that missed it was going middle. He
just airmailed it.

Speaker 5 (37:20):
In trouble to Kansas City to play Messi in the World.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
Champions Seran fans already crying in the crowd.

Speaker 5 (37:27):
Fools on the fifth penalty.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Take your rocket, swift the guy that just missed its
feeling better. World Cup Finals, all right, so save here
in Colombia is out. Columbia wouldn't want.

Speaker 5 (37:40):
Any other player in this circumstance, Paul Lewis Das.

Speaker 3 (37:47):
Sends in The Rose Girls. They survived.

Speaker 1 (37:51):
It's a lifeline for Columbia.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Just what he had to.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
I mean, it's back at it again, Luis t Has
going over to the goal.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Kip Has really player, referees had to intervene.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
No means trying to hit a mine.

Speaker 4 (38:05):
Games just soends Cooper the wrong way.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
Really cool to go with that pressure from that sneaky
That was sneaky, a little stutter stab. So all eyes in.

Speaker 5 (38:17):
This stadium in Vancouver fall on the number seventeen of Switzerland.

Speaker 3 (38:23):
Ruben Vargas, Vargas, bar Gas. The Vargas doesn't get any
bigger from the final spot and grabbed.

Speaker 5 (38:37):
The tenship in this stadium in both hands. Bargas has
to score the other. Vargas has to save this to
send Switzerland through.

Speaker 3 (38:58):
There it is, I'm Switzerland hens.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
The Kansas City's an be missing Auctionsina.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Take a look. That'll do it for the Swiss. Roger
Federer across the pond in England, I'm sure is rejoicing
in the Royal box. Switzerland advances. So how does this

(39:33):
score get noted? It's nil nil and then they just
say PK.

Speaker 1 (39:38):
That's I think it does change on the competition, but
I think in the World Cup it it's officially listed
as zero zero, but then under that it'll be four
to three PK.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
All right, crank it back up a little bit. I
want to hear these play by play guys. You're brilliant.
I want to hear how they set the scene homes in.

Speaker 5 (40:00):
The most traumatic of circumstances. Vinson Sanchez a shoot, show
up missing in the penalty shoots out Ruben bargaso in
Hard Greaves with the most important kick, having his footballing life.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
But there's a start Mountain peg O Kuble, exceptional penalty
from Vargas.

Speaker 3 (40:18):
The Swiss player that missed is so happy right now.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
They just showed them, doesn't That's what the lead his
Instagram account.

Speaker 3 (40:25):
Switzerland march on.

Speaker 5 (40:27):
He's Argentina versus Switzerland in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Darren, thank you for.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
All right, that's great, that's great, so good. Love the
live list and the others. Columbian players obviously in tears
on the pitch, on their hands and knees.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Do you think this is going to set back Colombian
football for decades? This loss?

Speaker 3 (40:52):
You do wonder about their youth system?

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Think about it?

Speaker 3 (40:54):
You do wonder do they do pay for play like
we do? Do they need a manager change? So the
tournament rolls on without the United States. The quarterfinals are
now set. You can hear a lot of it right
here on the fan. France, Morocco, Spain, Belgium, Norway, England,
Argentina and Switzerland got matches on Thursday, Friday and then

(41:18):
a couple on Saturday. But the US, the fan has learned,
won't be a part of it. And if you're just
joining us, we open the show first of all, kind
of doing a welfare check. Chad Abbott came down just
to check on Brett during the first break. He doesn't
come down to the studio very often. The only time
I see him is when he's mad at common if
he needs to talk to Dan about something and didn't

(41:40):
get to him before the show, or welfare.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
Checks, or if PA missed a break, you may come
down for that.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
He may come down for that sure, or come in
to make sure you know Halby's doing stuff on social
media for the morning show. But really there's just a
handful of reasons. But I think the most common appearance
of Chad Abbott in the studios we did something wrong
and he wants to yell at us in person. He
used to just call the phone over to your right,

(42:08):
and when that phone rings is all the one person
on the other side and his extension popped up, You're like,
oh no, what did I do? But today he came down.
He will come down for a welfare check if something
is gone wrong, and he did that for you today.
I think a lot of us did that for you today.
The only text I sent you last night was I
was very concerned whether or not you were going to
make it home in time for the match, because I

(42:30):
know you've got a little bit longer drive now that
you move down south a little bit. I didn't really
want to bother you while the meltdown was happening, Yeah,
because I could imagine how bitter you were, because as
we talked about it at the top, as a sports fan,
nothing hurts as much as something that is so highly

(42:50):
anticipated that goes so wrong so quickly, and it just
doesn't feel right from the jump. And that was the
US against Elgium last night. And when it ends, it
ends very very quickly. The three week ride has been
three weeks since we watch that. Yeah, the Paraguay match

(43:10):
on that Friday night, that kind of got this whole
thing going. Country Roads becomes a new national anthem. Seattle,
the soccer city hosts a match. It's unbelievable. They hosted
last night. You've got La, You've got Santa Clara, it's
all good. People are fired up. Could they possibly get
to Friday against Spain two o'clock would have been right
during the show, how good would that have been? And

(43:31):
it just screeches and it halts, and it's done. And
it sucks when it's over because it's just over. And
now you've got to wait for most of us. You'll
catch in. You'll stay up to speed on what happens
with the team and what do they do with the
coach and will they extend them? Will they Now we'll
get your thoughts on should they in a minute. But

(43:51):
eight teams in the quarters, breton US is not one
of them on our home soil.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
It's also it's one of those where if you think
about it with prospective and you say, would we have
taken the US winning their group, comfortably winning in the
round of thirty two and losing to a better team
in the round of sixteen most everyone die hard and casual,
would it probably went, Yeah, that's about right, that's about
where we are. So from that perspective, it's not that bad.

(44:20):
But just the way that it happened, the fashion of
just embarrassing. I mean, they didn't look half the team
they were for the entire tournament. It just whether it
was the lights or two bright for him, whether the
outside noise got to them for whatever reason.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
The fact of the matter is they just weren't. They
didn't play well.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
They played like crap, and that's what happens in a
tournament like this. You can miss one penalty kick, yeah,
and you're out. The margins we just saw. The margins
are small, and the margins were very big for the
US and at least in that game, because they were
just terrible start to finish, every single player bad.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
The Belgium had it. There was one play in particular.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Where the ball got to Balgan on kind of the
the box and the offensive zone to put in hockey terms,
and he tried to do a little fancy.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
Flick yeah, kind of behind him.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
And the Belgian.

Speaker 1 (45:13):
Defenders have seen that before, watch that in the tape
and immediately intercepted in.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
The ball one the other way and they had us
on locking cap they did.

Speaker 3 (45:22):
We talk about strapped, Yeah, we were strapped. It seemed
like in the first handful of minutes understandably they were nervous. Yeah,
like you see that in every sport. You see it
in at every level when a team is leveling up.
And there's no doubt playing Belgium last night the US
was leveling up from who they played. Now we can
argue about Paraguay, like they were obviously ready for that,

(45:45):
and first matches you don't know who's playing, how they're playing, Like,
there's a probably an acclamation period maybe for both teams.
I'm sure the US was just jack to get out there.
I mean they right, they've probably training, They're like, this
is it, We're here there. Two warm ups were good,
let's do it, let's go. They were clearly ready to go.
And as you get in further into the tournament, as

(46:05):
you said, there's more tape, there's more scouting on tactics,
and when you're leveling up, which the US was to Belgium,
who was a good team, who's top ten in the
world right, I think they're ninth in the world rankings.
US is seventeen. Think it's hard. It's hard to ease
your way into that match, even though the Belgium form,
as you've told us and others have told us, was

(46:27):
not on point really for much of the tournament. Tells
you really how good of a soccer country they are
that they kind of ease their way into the bit.
But when you're going up and this is the biggest
moment that all of these guys have probably had in
the game. There's going to be some nerves and we
saw that on full display. And unfortunately that they never

(46:48):
got out of that, and even when they did kind
of get themselves back in it where they're only down
a goal, then the other meltdowns started to happen. And
can't do that in a round of sixteen game in
the World Cup. The fan has learned.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
Think about this.

Speaker 1 (47:00):
The first warm up game for the World Cup they
played two before they got into it was against Senegal,
and the US played their starters in the first half
and dominated them, dominated them. I think it was either
two goals or three goals. It just they looked completely
the better team. That same Senegal team later on in

(47:21):
the actual tournament plays against Belgium and are up two
goals on them and it takes a miraculous comeback for
Belgium to be even in it.

Speaker 2 (47:29):
So and that's a team that the US spanked, you know, two.

Speaker 1 (47:32):
Weeks ago, and then of course to complete the circle,
Belgium comes into Seattle and spanks US. So but really
it was I don't know why I keep doing the
spanking thing, but it was really US spanking ourselves, Like
all of the goals were so I don't know why
it went down that road. All the goals were so
preventable and they were mistakes and they were just getting

(47:53):
out efforted. Like the first one that there's a ball
that's just a pop fly, none of the US players
go after it. I thought you were going to have it.
I thought you were going to see that in baseball
all the time. Guess what that sucker drops and now
it's in your net because Tim Reim got beat on
the back door. Second goal, no one comes out down
the wing, simple cross in and the guy jumps over

(48:14):
Tim Reim and scores, you know. And the third one
we've talked about it the goalkeeper his brain fell out
or something happened.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
So and then the even the fourth one, there were.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Two chances to where the US could have cleared that
ball out of the box and tried to be all cute,
turn the ball over and it's in your net.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
So all of them were preventable.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
It was just the US.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
It's not more complicated.

Speaker 1 (48:40):
You don't have to be dramatic and say it's going
to set us back twenty years, because I think the
progress that they made the Fact that we're still talking
about it and at six o'clock tells me that it's
made some progress and headway in this country, at least
as far as the interest level for this specific team.
They played well enough to earn that, but they also
they just played horror. I think it's just as simple

(49:01):
as that.

Speaker 3 (49:01):
Chris Hockey was listening to the last segment. If you're
still listening now, Chris Brett talking about all the spanking
is at five point fifty nine. If you need Halvy
to grab that tomorrow five point fifty nine if you
need the Brett Blake Moore spanking conversation, final half hour
of the show, A little more World Cup, little more Lebron,
a little bit more about the topic that we spent
pretty much an hour on in terms of the youth

(49:23):
sports stuff in our country. Started with soccer, branched out
to hockey, basketball, lacrosse, all of it, baseball, We got
text on all of it. We'll get back to all
of that in our final half hour in for Barrero.

(49:46):
We've got a million texts and talkbacks and tweets, and
I got texts on my phone about our three point
thirty to four thirty ish discussion about youth sports in
America guards Agan for Berrero. By the way, we hope
Dan will be back tomorrow. Had some travel issues yesterday.
Hopefully he's willing to share why he was delayed and

(50:07):
why he is not here today. He was supposed to
be back today, but he's not tough travels, So we'll
see what the Larry David of the fan wants to
share tomorrow. But the US loss last night followed a
predictable pattern post match where immediately the match which as
you said, Brett, it it was just a bad match.

(50:30):
It was a tough time to play their worst match
of the tournament. Correct, And do I think that the
USA still has work to do on a global stage
when it comes to competing with some of these powers
the eight teams that are remaining. Of course, as much
fun as we had about them arriving as a soccer
nation because they finally got a controversial, corrupt FIFA call

(50:53):
go their way with the red card being suspended for Balligan,
they have not yet arrived as a soccer power. They
may never arrive. There's a million things that are working
against them in that regard. The same reason why I
mean the US is a power in a lot of
different sports, right, like American football. There's a reason why
they call it American football. Like we could do all

(51:16):
the world tours we want and expand and put games
over in Germany and Brazil and London and Ireland and
all the places. The Vikings have been the last handful
of the years. The Packers too, and there's never going
to be a team. And I don't even know how
they would compete in this, but we're never going to say.
And the NFL really lost a foothold to the you know,

(51:36):
the Argentina Football League or the European Football League. It's
just never going to happen. We have a head start,
it's part of our fabric. We're better at it than everybody.
And that's just kind of how it goes. The US
is up against it when it comes to soccer, right,
But that doesn't mean that there can't be improvements in

(51:57):
the system and all of those things. And that's what
a loss Las night opens up today. Really last night
into today, it's been a number of tweet threads. It's
been a number of thread threads, it's been a number
of Instagram videos and a number of columns that have
been written online and elsewhere talking about the broken US
system and how we're never going to compete at the

(52:18):
highest level in soccer if we don't do X, Y
and Z and become more European. We talked a lot
about that concept and really broadened out to a number
of different sports. And one of the things that's consistent though,
I think at all of our sports and I just
don't think we're giving ourselves the best chance really in
anything because of how all our stuff is set up.

(52:43):
There are so many financial barriers, almost immediately because really
the biggest idea and I'm trying to localize this as
best I can, or to dumb it down as best
I can. Why do most of the state championships in
this state and other states? When you watch a state tournament,

(53:08):
who do you mostly see there? You see the biggest schools,
You see the powerhouses. You've obviously got the private schools
and things like that. Well, for example, why historically was
Eden Prairie just a football power Well, they had like

(53:29):
five thousand kids at the high school, and that means
they have I don't know, do the math, ten fifteen,
twenty thousand kids that are playing sports like every single year,
just over and over and over and then from that
big pool to get to the top of the pyramid,
what do you have to be? You have to be

(53:49):
really damn good at all the sports, basketball, hockey, name it.
It's kind of the usual suspects of who makes it
the farthest, and there's a million different reasons. There's money,
there's financials, all of that, but at the core of it,
if you have a big group, the ones that emerge
from that group because of natural competition year over year,

(54:12):
year after year, over and over and over again, you're
going to be really good. And one of the problems
the US has just in general is we're such a
big country. We're such a vast country. It's hard to
bring all and it's hard to bring all that talent
together to compete in their various sports over and over
year after year. To bring it to my sport, tennis.

(54:34):
One of the reasons why they had the boom in
the eighties, eighties and nineties, Nick boll Terry started the
Tennis Academy in Bradington, Florida. It became IMG Academy or
it was bought by IMG. Now we know IMG. They
have basketball they have football, they have everything right. It's
a huge private school where people go down to Florida
and they just turn their life over to sports. Well,
in tennis, the theory was, I'm going to get like

(54:57):
a hundred of the best Americans and they're going to
come down here and they're going to beat the crap
out of each other every single day. It's going to
be dogg eat dog out of that Agasy Curry or
Chang David Wheaton from right down here in Deepavin, Minnesota,
like all these guys became pros. Monica sell Us and
a corn of Cova. Like the number of number one

(55:17):
players at the Boltary Academy produced is ridiculous. But the
theory was, you bring everybody together, you beat the crap
out of each other for like five or six years,
and whoever survives that is going to be really, really good.
In a lot of our sports, we're limiting the talent
pool immediately because of how much it costs to do everything.
And by the way, one of the few things I

(55:40):
disagree with Andy Roddick on Who's a Tennis guy is
that you don't have to have money to be a
good tennis player. And he cites the Williams Sisters. He
cites andre Agassi, he cites Novak Djokovic, who came from
war torn Serbia. What he leaves out though, is all
those guys the Williams Sisters moved all the way across
the country, from Compton to Florida to training an academy,

(56:00):
presumably for free. Andre Agassi went from Vegas to Florida
to training that academy, presumably for free. Novak Djokovic got
good coaching, presumably for free. So there's a little bit
of a myth there that you don't have to have money.
Eventually you do, and eventually that comes into play. But
at the youth levels, the second your kid shows any

(56:21):
aptitude for anything and wants to take it to a
different level. Here in the United States, the table Stakes,
the entry fee gets to the thousands of dollars before
they're ten years old, and that is across the board.
And as a father of kids who plays a bunch
of different sports that want to go from reck to
maybe a little bit more, you know they're not going

(56:43):
to be professional, but they when they're seven, they're not
beginners anymore, and they want to play and they actually
like to win and that's fine, and there's really no
middle ground and there's no option. And that's where I
think we got to figure something out to make the
barrier to just keep playing as many people keep playing
as long as they can. In any sport, that's how

(57:05):
you develop the best of the best. And in soccer
it doesn't seem like we do it that way, right
Is that fair to say? And so because we always
get the argument, well, if our best athletes played, I
think it's Lebron James played soccer. I don't know. He
might be good, he might not be. I don't know,
he might not have the aptitude for it. He's a
great athlete, he's one of the all timers. I don't

(57:26):
know what you have been a good would you be
a good striker? I put him in the goal. He's
got good reach, good catch radius. But you got to
keep kids playing as long as they possibly can, with
as many kids as they possibly can, and that's how
you get the cream to rise to the top. And
that's one thing we do definitely have backwards. And it's

(57:47):
hard because you just I wonder how many people we
lose in any sport because immediately it becomes a financial
burden on whoever's paying for it, parents, grandparents, the Association
for scholarships. Like, there's just a lot there that I
think we lose out on, and we get a lot

(58:07):
of I got a lot of texts on this, so well,
if you don't like it, don't play. But that's kind
of the point, Like you shouldn't have to be making
those decisions when your kid is seven or eight years old.
There should be options, there should be pathways. I mean,
I don't know about everybody's seven or eight year old
that they have, like mine doesn't know what they want

(58:28):
to do on any any given fifteen minutes, let alone
what they want to do with the rest of their lives.
Like why are we having to choose at that young
of an age? Now? Are there some that were born
with skates on and take their knocks in the penalty
box and their moms the referee that are going to
be hockey players no matter what. Of course, there's always
the outliers, but it feels like what used to be

(58:48):
for outliers, the Agasys Djokovic's, William's sisters that go that
move away to train, seems like everybody's doing that now.
And the last thing I'll say about it is well,
if you don't like it, don't do it. If your
kid likes to play, they do have to keep doing
it a little bit for it to be even fun
for them to play with their friends because all their

(59:11):
friends are getting better. And if they want to just
be on the.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
Team, yeah, the friends are going on the road trip,
I want to.

Speaker 3 (59:18):
Be with them, yeah, or the pools, or they made
the team or they made this level. Like, it's not
as easy as if you don't like it, don't play,
because if your kid likes to play, you want them
to have fun with it, and it's not fun. If
they're no good, it's not fun for them, or if
their friends are. So it's complicated. As I said it
at the beginning of the whole conversation, I have very

(59:39):
few of the answers. I think we all kind of
know the same problems, and really the only thing we
could do together to change it is to change it
as parents. How we decide what we say yes to,
how we are developing them or helping them develop the
things we're funding. It's a complicated mess. I have not
a ton of faith that it's going to change. But
the only thing we can do is just kind of
talk about it together and continue to hopefully move forward

(01:00:02):
to make sure as many people get to play as
long as they want to play before they even hit puberty,
and know exactly what they're going to be good at
and what they're going to like and if it's fun
for them. I don't know, it's a novel concept, but
it seems like the financial barriers almost immediately pop up.
And if you're lucky enough to have the money to
be able to do it, that's good. But if you don't,

(01:00:24):
it kind of sucks that you have to make those
choices before they've even I don't know what the right
metaphor is, before they're even in middle school. Just seems
a little backwards. We'll put a wrap on the show.
Let you know what's hopefully coming up tomorrow with the
hopeful Dan Barrero return.

Speaker 2 (01:00:40):
All of that in the show Rap next justin guard
in Ye.

Speaker 3 (01:00:44):
It is brought to you by American Pressure commercial grade
pressure washer since nineteen seventy five final segment Bumper to
Bumper Cake Show. Addition Guards the and Brett Blake Moore,
here been a kind of a two prong show again
today really three we talked World Cup, We talked to
you sports. We got into a little bit of war
off the Brian windhorse speculation that he thinks the vibes

(01:01:04):
are good, The vibes are high for Lebron to return
to Cleveland for a third time. He was drafted there,
he returned there, won a title there, and now maybe
he wraps up his career there. We will, of course,
be on Lebron watch until we're not until all the
teams are told that they are no longer in the mix.
USA Soccer did the proverbial thank you fans post full

(01:01:29):
page ad. What did they do?

Speaker 2 (01:01:30):
So? Butts? So they did? Do you know you were there?
You supported us?

Speaker 1 (01:01:35):
YadA YadA, We're happy for you, which is all well,
and good country roads, which they did sign home the
last words of the statement where country roads take us home.
So but there was a passage in this I thought
you would find interesting given the major topic of the
show has been U sports. It says to every kid walk,
to every kid who watched this team and dreams of

(01:01:55):
wearing this crest one day, keep playing or start playing today,
will be cheering for you, will keep doing the work
to make sure every child who wants to play can
do so. That means more places to play, more great coaches,
referees and mentors, and a game that's welcoming, affordable and
fun for everyone.

Speaker 2 (01:02:13):
There's a home for everyone in soccer.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
Let's hope they're right. Let's hope they do that. It's
one of the how I know, well exactly the money's
got to come from somewhere, because you do need money.
And I got a text here talking about the tennis
angle of it. Wait, did you just say he said
that you have to have money. I thought you said
they went to the academy for free, so they didn't
have to have money. They were just good, and they

(01:02:36):
probably got good when they had no money. I'm confused, Huh.
I could see maybe where the confusion is. The point
is they got to a certain level on their own,
but then to go to the professional level it takes
a lot. It takes a lot of money to travel,
to train, to have the coaches, and not everybody can

(01:02:57):
do that, and it's not for everybody. But the point is,
at some point you need the money and someone's got
to provide it, whether it's you or somebody else. And
a lot of the money these European federations. I understand
it is provided for a lot of these clubs and
the training, whereas here in the United States it's the opposite.
The parents are footing the bill.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
That they look at it as an investment in the
players because they can sell them off later potentially, and that's.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
What happens to me. The MLS doesn't have that, no,
and probably never will, but it's something worth looking at.
Good job and emergency duty as always.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
Brett Blake Moore, you say jomp, we say how high.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
Thank you for all your contributions as World Cup correspondent.
We will talk to you about soccer in four years.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
I love it. See then,