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Download the PayPal app today, save those offers, start scoring rewards, terms and exclusions apply, see paypal.com/rewardsterms, credit card points, subject to issuers, terms and conditions. . The Bill Simmons podcast we are live on Netflix right after Team USA got knocked out of the World Cup. I've Anthony DeBundo and Chris Ryan here.
One of the mentioned Oli, new rewatchables is now up and Zach Lough and I did a basketball podcast yesterday if you missed it. Alright guys, I don't know why, but I had hope I was excited for this game. I especially when Balagnik got thrown back in with the Seattle crowd. I watched the whole two-hour pre-game show.
Ironically, I also saw the Odyssey today. Just a three-hour, just a grueling, trying to get through it, watching our hero try to land the plane at the end, and was hoping maybe they were going to come alone, just trying to land the plane. Man, I was hoping there was some parallels for America today and CR, there was not.
It was a terrible, terrible, terrible performance by us. Another pod, another colonoscopy here for us. Yeah, that was a real talent disparity and maybe a little bit of a wake-up call. That's been an awesome tournament.
“I think that the country has embraced the sport.”
It's been really, really like one of the greatest couple of sporting weeks of my life. But that was Real Madrid's goalkeeper, Manchester City's wing, or came on in the 60th minute. And, you know, T-Loughman's just won the Europa League with Austin Villa, and I thought maybe that extra 15 to 20% of talent really kind of put us in our spot.
What did you think? Anthony? What did you think about it?
We wondered what would happen the first time this defense actually got tested because the
three games that the starters played were not against teams who were going to test them. And I couldn't have imagined they could have failed that test anymore. I mean, it was every single time. It was very simple. Belgium played a long ball.
They won the long ball.
“Our defense panicked, dust panicked, re-empanicked, Richard's panicked, Freeman panicked.”
And they gave away the ball over and over again. And any team, I mean, Belgium were fine, but I thought they made it to way too easy. It's ridiculous. This was, it felt like karaoke of all the things you would be worried about in a bad America game, right?
Most of the guys, we talked about this for the tournament. The guys, I was the most worried about were remin-desked. That's the was unplayable. I mean, that was like, he was so bad that he could start a half of the time. Rem looked every bit 38 years old.
The keeper had one of the worst f-ups we've had in a long time, and the World Cup game. And then the other piece was, hey, it would be nice that Paul Sik just was awesome and
stayed healthy for an entire game, and he's stunk in the first half, and then got hurt
in the second half. And Sierra was almost wondering, everybody talking about Balgan when he got the red card he was out. And then the dialogue for three, four days was, he's our best guy. We can't lose our best guy, and then he comes back.
Our best guy is back, and you know, it could have gone one of two ways for Paul Sik where it's like, oh, he's going to show everybody who the actual best guy in this team is, or he was going to have the game he had today where he looked like he was a freshman in the high school playing varsity. Yeah, I don't know whether or not, Paul Sik was still carrying that calf injury, and
whether that had anything to do with it.
Obviously, he kind of kicked through a Belgian player on that foul, and basically hurt
himself. You feel bad to see his tournament end that way. I still go back to what I just said originally, it was even our best player, it would be kind of middle to your Belgian player, you know, like our best of our best was would be maybe Belgian bench players, and I got to say, one thing that kind of jumped out at me was
more than even the balligan red card being overturned was when they announced the starting
Lineup, and I know each one of these guys has different reasons, but when Bel...
start to broina Lukaku or Doku, I was like, I think they're getting ready for Spain. Like, I kind of wondered what, I mean, to born it and come on, Lukaku comes on at the end, scores the the final goal.
“Doku was basically toying with us, and I think it could have been worse.”
Honestly. Yep. Like, I think we got lucky a little bit to get out of there without giving up six. The bundle, can you explain resting the three guys, and like, what would be the NBA equivalent of somebody doing that?
How about Joe Mazz, never mind, just, just, just, no, it's not, yeah, so I mean, you know,
if you go back to the round of 16, round of 32, Belgium was down to, no, they were getting pumped, like, swarmed by Senegal. They had no answers, and they pulled off Doku in Dubrana in the 65th, 70th minute, and it literally felt like Rudy was waving the white flag, Rudy's got to see it, and you're like, all right, that's it.
I even tweeted, like, his final move is manager of Belgium is removing his two best players. They didn't actually play better. They just scored two goals. I mean, Senegal's goalie had a miss hat.
They just started shipping balls up to Lukaku, and then they survived. So I guess the plan was like, we're going to ride with the guys who brought us here, and it was Luca Bocchio, but they clearly made a change, too. They changed up their midfield completely and played more defensive midfielders, and
the first 10 minutes of the match.
“Well, I think, Oh, Nana, the guy who ended up getting hurt, may have won every single ball”
in the middle of the park for about 10 straight minutes, and I'm just like, oh, boy, this is not going well. And then when he got hurt, they actually played better. That was their only good 15 minutes was right before halftime, and still just didn't matter.
But like, he has his sub-whose scored the crazy, freezing mistake. Yeah, I've been knocking him. Yeah. It started last match, too, and he plays for, like, club bruise. He's a fine player, but the tactics were just, they shredded our press.
And that was the one thing. It's like, we can press them. And they were like, no, you can't. We're kicking it over the press, over and over and over again, and I mean, just no answers. They lost every second ball.
Yeah, we lost all the 50/50 balls. The passes felt like we couldn't get three or four straight passes in a row. Everybody, the 1v1 stuff, like, I was think back to the Paraguay game, which feels like it was 100 years ago now. And pull a sick just destroying their left side for half-hour straight.
I don't know if anyone beat anybody 1v1 for an hour on our side. And the only guy who felt athletically, like, he could be on the field with those guys was ballgame. And it felt like over and over again, they almost unlocked them, or he would make this run,
“but then the pass was behind them, and then finally, what was that 12 minutes left?”
He's ripping down the left side. It was interesting that he went toward the close post on that shot, but he hit it about 700 miles an hour, and it almost was so hard, and it almost went in. But it felt like if they had gotten that goal, then maybe the crowd gets into it, who the hell knows?
Yeah. But anything's a positive approach. They needed a little bit of something like what Mexico had last night. First of all, I feel like the crowd kind of got taken out of it a little bit. I mean, maybe a good one.
Yeah. I mean, maybe all crowd, the number that compares to Jessica, you know. Yeah. I mean, as much as Belgium is better, they panicked. They gave a ball, I mean, there's a ball at land.
Three U.S. defenders are standing in the penalty area. All three of them just watch the ball bounce in their penalty area.
That's like 101 soccer defending 101, never let the ball bounce in your penalty area.
And the one Belgian guy gets on it, Guy Raskin. I watch a lot of soccer. I had to Google him, like he plays for Rangers in the S.P.L., like he's not, you know, this is not like they ran into a world-class team here. Belgium was played off the park a week ago by Senegal.
I'm leaving. So they have four goals in this game, Belgium, CR. The first one, screw up by three defenders, just all the, the, I thought you, oh, you. And then this score. Second goal, it's a 1v2, Guy beats both guys, goes baseline, crosses it, wide open, gets
it. Portugal is in the running for worst goals, this country's ever given up in a World Cup. And that was exactly true. I don't know what the top five is, but it has to be in the top three where you have just multiple things collapsing all once.
Then the fourth goal, which the game is over at that point, but that was also something that you would see in like, you know, a J.V. soccer game. Well, I will note that Belgium went for that fourth goal too. So we should not underestimate the, the, maybe, how much they hate this team, or he wouldn't have happened over the last couple of days, and how much that might have, I mean, it's
the World Cup. Those guys don't need extra motivation, but we may have, you know, the balligan thing may have just created a certain sense of like, these guys think that their president's going to fucking try and beat us, like, no way, like that fourth goal, they didn't need that
One.
And, and I feel like that was pointed. You're saying that was the F, F, you go. Yes. That's a little factor to the, to the crowd, don't who could have been out in the corner, like, dribbly run circles, and that wouldn't have, we wouldn't have been able to take
it off of them. That felt like they were going for a fourth. Yeah. The one narrative I'm not going to accept is like, oh, we would have won if Trump had a gotten bow, bow, and back, like, we set that end of it, I think, the team was terrible.
That was the worst we've played, not always at the worst we've played all tournament, but
I've watched a ton of soccer as you guys have. That was the worst anyone's played for, like, about a week when we were talking about, like, these final 32 final 16 games, that first hour was about as bad as we've seen any, but like couldn't complete a pass, defensive screw ups, nobody was dangerous, our best guy was invisible.
“That's what's so bad he had to come out was, it was really rough, but I think Belgium,”
I like beer, chocolate, it's been pretty good. Well, if the waffles are solid, other than that, I don't have a lot of tolerance for these Belgian CR. That's it. The movie, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on, come on.
Love that movie. Very good. What else? What else? Is there anything else to like about Belgium?
I can't say I've never been, I think at this point in the world cup, there's no, there's
no, like, friendly, friendly opposition, you're going to figure out a way to get mad at everybody. I thought one of the things that Belgium kind of exposed for us is a lack of identity. I mean, it's so hard because you're here, you're watching all this stuff about the USM&T and you're like, right, yeah, like we believe in this and like, this is incredible
and this is happening, but I don't really know if like, I could tell you how the US wants to play, you know, and I thought Belgium kind of exposed that, like, not that I would want to be Paraguay from the France match, but they obviously had an idea. We're going to like, kick the hell out of France and try to like make it into a referee to match that might come down to pens.
We did not seem to have that game playing coming into this. I'm sure poached, you know, I had something in mind, but as soon as Tim Riem got kind of put on skates, the plan seemed to go up in smoke, would you, would you think about, like, the way that poached Tina set us out Anthony, you know, Riem getting dunked on really did feel like the turning point in a lot of ways because they had played so bad.
Yeah, 30, 30 minutes in, Toman hits the free kick, you know, you're like, we have our own Leo mess, we're back, we got this, and it felt like they felt like they were back and then they like switched off again and they didn't stop the cross.
DEST, the first time he was asked to defend the entire tournament completely disaster and
“that's why he's, you know, that's why they had to change the formation.”
So he didn't have to play right back. You go back four years ago, same exact thing. It was desk getting picked on over and over again, by the, by the Dutch, and they, they beat us with very similar, ask goals if you go look at those goals. So it feels like the same pattern, they're running into the same wall, but, you know,
poached Tina did have this team playing so much better and more cohesively. I just think they got, they got surprised, really got to see it through a, through a change up and they got out of class, but they got, they, they, there's no way, you can tell me that this was just Belgium, this was the U.S. giving them the game. I also wonder, I thought, I really like Burhalter and it felt like when he came in.
Sebastian. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When he came in and then all of a sudden, we had more speed on the outside and he's
a little point guardish and, you know, all of a sudden, the corner kicks, he only had a, I think, one or two, but the corner kicks, he's just the best guy in the game.
“Yeah, the shots from distance and the shot from distance and the shot from the crowd.”
Yeah. Yeah. I just thought he, you know, and he's kind of gritty, which that was one of the things that you really noticed today was there was not a lot of nastiness. Like, Paraguay, who was at a disgrace on 4th of July, like that was just the combination
of the soccer game. Yeah. But if that was us, we would have been like, I, I was there, I mean, I'm going to compete. And it was just loving every second of it, screaming, yeah, the entire goal was to
2004 pistons, you know, a much better opponent, basically, and it worked. But, you know, for us, we had this great crowd, it was something, I bet on England yesterday. And one of the reasons I did it was because of something CR said over the weekend about, or maybe it was when we did the colonoscopy pod about, these guys are in pressure
stadiums all the time. Like, it's not like they were, oh my god, the crowd psyched me out. You know, they, all of these guys have played in the worst possible locations everywhere. England did a PR, like, masterclass. They were, as soon as their previous match ended before Mexico, they were like, well, we're
not going enough to have enough time to get used to the altitude, and we know it's going to be tough, and we're going to be the underdogs in Azteca. And then after the match, Harry came and was like, yeah, like, our Declan Rice was like, altitude wasn't that bad, we were right, you know, like it was fine, right. And I'm sure there's, there's 10 stadiums that those guys are playing in all around.
So with St. Louis Belgium, like, oh, the crowd's going to be nuts and Seattle, but guess
When they're not nuts after you give up a goal in eight minutes, and you can'...
a pass for 40 minutes.
“All right, so big picture, what, what do we build on from this to Bundo?”
Because it feels like we have two thirds of a core of something really good, and built
around Balgan, who I, I thought was just dangerous and awesome, the whole tournament. And there's some speed now, there's some young legs, but it feels like a stopper. Maybe, maybe they have to figure out what's in for all is, is sorry guys, I have two filly fans on here, but his, his pool sick and bead is just like he looks great. And in February when we're playing Charlotte or New Orleans, but when we actually need him
in April, May, June, you can't count on him. Like, what are the three things you're looking at that we'd have to build on from this? Not as little harsh on pool of sick. I mean, he's bad in this tournament, but he has carried the US through some really dark times, really dark times in the last five to six to seven to eight years.
So I think it's Balgan, Tillman and pool of sick that come away from me as like the core you can build around, but it starts at the back. I mean, they have one good center back, maybe two with Freeman, but goalkeeper's a problem, do replaces Tim Riem, the back defenders look pretty bad against Turkey. That's where it starts, it has to start there, because they are not going to be able
to defend good teams with with the guys that are on out. What do you think, McKenney and McKenney and Adams are the, like, are they unassailable as a central midfield partnership? Because I do think to your point about, like, we were unable to kind of like route away through Belgium at certain points.
Like, you wonder whether or not someone with a little bit more composure on the ball and all like, you know, those guys give so much effort, they're like all engine, but I don't know if there is a guy in the England as the America set up that could do that, that
“is a little bit more of a playmaker, but I think we were kind of crying out for something”
in the midfield there. That's the number one issue with US talent development right now, I mean, they just don't have that guy. There isn't, there isn't a Kevin DeBrona, there isn't a Kigori teelman's even, there isn't a Leandro Trossard who's going to come in and play make like that.
McKenney did a pretty good job the first time, but then today he was bad.
And you do wonder, are McKenney and Tilman too similar, and now, and what they do. And do you have a pastor, who is that person? I don't know that that person exists, I don't think he does, at least I haven't seen him. People hoped it was going to be G. O'Raina and honestly, like, you know, G. O'Raina's very polarizing figure, but when, when Raina's the sob at half, you don't feel great
about the second half, because Raina is a bigger name than he is a performer at this point, his career. And he had the great goal in the opener, but he gave them basically zero in the second time. Well, so what's the, what are the goalies stopper on the horizon prospects?
Do we have people that are like brewing? There was a guy's cleaning and the people hyped up, but that hasn't really come to fruition yet. It's probably not going to be Matt Frees' long term, he's already 27. This is where it gets hard.
I don't know. It's also about, like, what, you know, I, I hope, and I guess the soon push Tino's going to stay on, uh, fingers crossed, or at least half of a cycle. If not another full-world cup cycle, that might be a little bit much to ask because he's pretty young, and it's hard for me to imagine he's going to do what five or six years
then as the US coach and to be fair, like, by the time we get to 20, uh, 28 say, like, you could maybe go and try and get, like, you know, if we, if you put enough money in front of one of these guys, you could get somebody, you could get, you could get, you could try and go for Pat, or whoever, like, you could go for somebody and try to bring in, like, one of the biggest managers in the world, which is what they just did.
It's just, you know, he had, he had a really nice run of games and then, and then the team kind of fell apart and I don't know if he had, like, I don't, I mean, he seemed like a little surprised by how bad things were going and didn't really have, like, a counter
“move yet, you know, and that's what he really did to develop.”
I got to say, I was really surprised. I don't know why I thought I really thought that we're going to play well today. I don't know if that meant they're going to win, but I was surprised, they stuck. I didn't, I got to say I didn't see that one coming. I really thought, like, uh, especially with getting Balg and back, and Belgium had looked so bad in that Senegal game for two thirds of the game, and it was like, maybe we can catch these
guys. And I thought maybe it was going to be a little bit like the Canada Morocco match where it was like, we play our asses off and really do well, but like, there's just, like, a class difference. And they, they, they wind up turning it on at the right point in the match.
I did not expect to get both raised. All right. So let's go. Glass have full for a second.
Sure. So they made the sweet 16. The tournament, although we do this all the time with the World Cup where everybody decides this was this watershed that this has been going on since 1994 in this country, where every time either America makes a run or when we had it
Here, everyone's like, this is it.
happening for 20 plus years, and especially Premier League, LaLiga, and the, when, once the
HD on the TVs and once he is paying charge showing in, all these other channels bought in,
“like, soccer's here. Like, people know Holland is. It's not like he's like, oh, who's this guy?”
Who's this guy in Norway who came out of nowhere? Like, people fucking know who all these guys are. So soccer's here. We're one of the best 20 teams, which I think considering we didn't make a World Cup recently, that's, that's a bonus. And then, I don't know, I do think, I think those three guys you mentioned earlier at DiBundo, like, that's a good foundation. And now we just have to steal somebody else's really good player and make them, like, I'm come here and live here in America.
Mike, and how we do that. Maybe you can tell. Is it a Netflix rom-com? Where no, that's in place in
MLS. Can we, yeah, choir him by eminent domain and wait, they can suit up? This would be a really
good Netflix rom-com where the person who runs the U.S. soccer team, they decide they're going to cheat. You know, those rom-coms where there's some sort of, there's a bet or there's some sort of, like, that there was a play, but then the person actually falls in love with who they're supposed to tempt. And then they find out 20 minutes left. Let's do that. Let's get one of those people. I'm ready for those. My wife would watch them, maybe. I don't know. Let's steal somebody, though.
Who could, there's nobody? Is there? Well, we've already got that. We've already got that with the German. I mean, did your dad ever have a different Germany? Please come closer. Let's get more of him. That's Tillman, Balagin, are all dual national guys at the U.S. convinced to play for us. I mean, that was one thing, you know, Burhalto doesn't get a lot of credit for much these days, Greg Burhalto. But you know, one of the defining features of his coaching and his running of the
program was getting more talent in the front door. And that has led to, yes, they've established themselves as like a pretty consistently teensish team in the world. How you get to that next step? I mean, there's been a lot of teens that have tried for many decades and it tends on to be like the same eight teams almost every time. So you said that before before the tournament, what's it? Eight teams ever that won the tournament? Yeah, you're a guise one of them and they were like,
and now when you look at, you're a guise one of the fans of us now. Round of 16 was par. That's been par for this team forever. I mean, I think the frustrating thing is like, you get one on home soil, you get the best managing you've ever have. You get the most dominant group stage. And then you still look, I argue they looked worse in this match than they did against the Dutch four years ago. Like, that match was more competitive than the final score leads on this match was less competitive
maybe than the final score leads on. Yeah, this felt like could've been worse. Yeah, you look at the Fandoids right now, France favorite minus 175, Spain plus 340, Argentina plus 450, and CR's England at 5 to 1. And then Norway just like 17 to 1, come here they're Holland during the day in Miami. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's like you're really fun just I'm putting everybody on my back bet. We need to go sell some sunscreen in Miami this weekend. That's a good business idea.
So did this come down to that Senegal didn't hold on to that lead. Senegal didn't hold on to that lead
“to nothing because that's what we would have played, right? I felt like we matched up better with”
Senegal than we did with Belgium. And I know everybody wanted to call Belgium washed and like they kind of are, but it's still a big difference in passing quality from what Belgium can offer versus what the Senegalese did. I would have preferred to have played Senegal. We still want to hear what what's your relationship with number 10 on Belgium, the left wing, the little guy who tried to start, he plays for our own nuts. Yeah, he just won the Premier League with and was very instrumental
at the end for Arsenal. So I I recognize him in acknowledging, but I'm I'm not an Arsenal fan. So it's a little bit tough. He he really schooled us. He was he was getting doubled at times and just seemed to be able to get the ball where he wanted to go. I hate Arsenal, but I actually like trust our quite a bit. He's probably my favorite Arsenal player. I'm allowed to have one these days. You know those wings are scary when they're just completely still and the defense is paralyzed
“and they haven't even done anything like, oh god, what's he going to do? What's he going to do?”
Is that what's happening? You think about the like the just in terms of your question about like where do we go from here? I mean, it's interesting that the three host nations of the cup went out in three successive days, right? So Canada then Mexico then the US. I don't think it's going to
diminish people's interest in the tournament just because there's still so many incredible players playing
and this has been a tournament that's been defined by the fact that like Jude Bellingham, early in Holland, Leon Homessie, Killingham Bapay, Harry Kane are all dealing. Like this isn't like, oh yeah, I have to learn who this guy is. It's like, no, these are the best players in the world and they're playing like it. So I think that this will remain of really kind of central sports story for another 10, 12 days, but it is disappointing that all of those
Host countries went out over the weekend and we're not going to get any of th...
or the quarters rather. What was the highlight of the tournament for you, DeBundo? I know what it is for CR. Oh, England three Mexico two or the best games I've ever seen, a three Cabo Verde 2. That was also one of the best games. And they were happening last week. I mean, it was unbelievable,
“but those two matches, that's why we love the game. Yeah, we went into the Azteca,”
Darren Fletcher. I want to give a shout to Darren Fletcher. He is called so many different sports now. He calls a lot of stuff in London. He's called baseball, but he has been so good these last two international tournaments. He did Euro 2024. He did and now he's, you know, I think the number one guy, no disrespect to strong and Stu, but like him and Hargraze are so fun. They made the game interesting.
He's always working in these NFL or other sport references that kind of work, but don't really
quite work, but you can see what he's trying to do. I love those guys. And then yeah, I mean, it was just the scenes. I mean, I was singing a lot on to the anthems last night in my living room. There's so much fun. See, I drew well up there in Wonderwall after the game or now. I did, I think the bar that I was in was was not quite an England bar. Believe or not. Oh, and then I was in barely got out of their last. Yeah, no, it was fine. Everybody was cool,
“but I think there were a couple of like silent fist pumps to myself. So, so walk us through the,”
through the night last night for you. I get a red card with 30 minutes left. This turns into pre-2004 red socks territory of like, oh, god, here we go. Here comes the fuck job. Well, and then two cool puts on all these center backs, not all these, but he puts on like he basically decides, okay, like this is what it's going to be. We're going to defend fortress and we're going to put all like we're going to put damn burn. We're going to just head away everything. John stones out there.
We're going to pull off cane at a certain point. We're going to pull off Sokka. And he just was like, if we're going to, we're going to either live or die on these the 90 minutes plus 11 minutes to stop each time. And I thought that was brilliant and incredibly brave to do it that way, because if they had gone to extra time or to pens, he doesn't have the best players on his team out there to get a goal or even to kick penalties. I mean, he's got center backs taking penalties.
So I thought it was amazing that they were like, I don't think these guys can get it over our heads,
and we're going to prove it. Who is the six seven guy you brought in? Damn burn. A lot of people are having for big, a lot of people made fun of two people for taking damn burn. And it was like, this is the, this is why you bring them for this one reason is you bring them in for this. It was like watching an MBA center just clearing out the paint, throwing it around. I thought that game was
“awesome. I really loved it. I think England's really good. I'm not just saying that because CR's here.”
I don't see why they couldn't win it CR. It's a really weird setup right now. There's like some star dust around messy. France definitely looks the most competent. I don't know what's going on with Spain. They kind of seem to be playing with their food like in a lot of these matches. But I think I think right now, I just, I think it's France's tournament to lose. Like, they're just, it's so overwhelming. How much talent they have. What do you think, DeBunna?
Well, that's very convenient. You say that CR because I wrote a piece for the ringer today, is this France's tournament to lose? Everybody has crowned France. France has not yet played a team that will challenge them in midfield that will try to keep the ball that will try to press them. And that's because most teams can't. Power why can't do that? Sweden certainly can't do that.
Norway's backups can't do that. And so France looked very good and always does against those
kind of teams. But we have seen Spain in the past the last couple of years, beat France by saying, we're going to keep the ball and your press isn't good enough to win it off of us. And that has worked for Spain. I think it could work for England. I think it could work for Argentina. I mean, people forget it four years ago now. But Argentina was kicking France's ass for the first 70 minutes of that World Cup final. It wasn't until in Bob base, you know, sprinkled the pixie dust,
the die game turned around. And so, and like certainly, if you get into an end to end contest, nobody is beating France. But I think all three of the other favorites have a, have a good decent matchup. To just say, hey, we're going to keep the ball. And you're not going to be able to get it off of us. And good luck. Because they shop, they don't want to press. They don't like to press. Spain's defense has given up. What is it now? One and a half total expected goals and five
games, ridiculous. How good their their presses. And so they get Belgium. Who just Morocco? Morocco France. France. Yeah. England. I would be shocked if it wasn't France and Spain. Yeah. I only saw the second half of the Spain tape today, because I was at the Odyssey for three hours. Classic Portugal though. I wasn't surprised at all by by their, uh, not personal goal at all. I mean, this is, we talked about this in the pod we did before the
tournament that DiBundo was like, are they going to accept that this guy shouldn't be out there
When it actually matters.
time on that. I never saw him come out. He was out there. It's hard time. He kept making
“subs in the broadcast. Dark kept saying, you know, there's a time that see all seven comes off.”
I mean, he was like, he should have been Lukaku for them. He should have been the closer. Yeah. And or even if he's capable of that, I really don't know what he, what he really is able to do. I mean, he started patting himself on the back for scoring on his back as Dan. And it's going to. You know, I mean, while like his, not necessarily is generational cohort, but the guys who he would consider, you know, he's a part of that group. All those dudes have
like seven goals are leading their teams and rodaldas divisive and rodaldo can't run anymore. It was really funny. I mean, the stat that came out at the Croatia game. He had one touch in the penalty area. And it was the penalty that was, you know, handed to him and then his back up comes in Gonzalo Ramos, who again, four years ago had the hat trick at the World Cup. People seem to ignore that. And he scored on his first touch in the winning goal for Portugal.
So we're like, oh, maybe Marchinez will sub in and we'll go with Ramos. No. And there were
opportunities today. You know, if you wanted to be critical of Spain, there were chances like
were a more functioning attack. It's not just Ronaldo. Leia was bad off the bench. Netto gave them nothing. Felix gave them like they're all of their attackers were bad today. Yeah. But, you know, Martin, Martin might have tried to create some chances because they're midfield hung in there. I mean, those two midfields went toe to toe today. It was a pretty even game. And Norway with their keeper with Holland, they have no chance to do it. 2011 maps.
“No, they certainly do. I definitely think. I definitely think. I think Norway is very, very well.”
We're going to know exactly what they want to do. They have Odegard, they have Holland. Like they could do one. They might be the best coach team in the tournament. Their coach has done an incredible job of maximizing what they're good at and trying to hide as much as possible what they're bad at. It's like we can't defend why. So we're just going to like, we're going to turn it up. And then the minute we win the ball, it's go, go, go. We're sending a bunch of numbers
forward. Holland, Holland, Holland, where's Holland? Oh, he scored. Oh, he scored again. It'll be interesting to see the two cool when they get when they get Norway on Saturday. Whether two cool starts, stones are even Dan Burn to deal with Holland working back there because even Gabrielle who plays for Arsenal for Brazil, like, seemed small against him. And they're going to need they're going to need to muscle up with him.
So big picture we're parachuting above this tournament. It feels like it's been an A or an A plus. When you think that world stuff, you have black eyes and like things were like, whoa, that happened. And certainly this one has, but as like a sporting event and as like a piece of like a spectacle, it's just been incredible. How is that way you made earlier about all the best guys are playing their best? Is the number one thing you would want with any of these things? Like,
“I hope that's what happens in 2008 when when they have the Olympics basketball, right?”
You want all of these guys to also be at their best when they're going against each other. It feels like that's been happening. And then the Cape Verde thing was incredible. Yeah. And the even America just even getting to where they got to today was really fun. But I just ordered a jersey. I can't wait to wear it. Cape Verde and the fact that messy can still do it at this level. But it feels like out of anybody in the tournament, even though all these guys are absolutely super famous,
it feels like Holland has won over the casual fans the most because the people that aren't watching, you know, some day at six in the morning, I'm Pacific Time and just kind of parachuted in these cups. But people are just like kind of dumbfounded by this guy. Yeah, he's probably the newest addition to like kind of super galaxy of stars that we have. Yeah, I mean, him and Belling him. So if you watch England and you watch Ray on the Dred, Jude's not like a new
name or anything. But I think his performance in Mexico was like, that's the kind of thing they write songs about. And both guys embrace it. Like you said earlier, like they play up to the startup. You know, Jude does the patented wide arms and Holland has all of his celebrations. He's
hilarious on social media. I saw his tweet got like 22 million views in the first like two hours
that it was posted his selfie. Yeah, that's the way 91 it has 91 million now. Or it's maybe it's 100 by this point. And he's just hilarious. And he's so he's so quintessentially Norwegian, right? He like fits every stereotype that people think of when they think of like the Vikings and then they're doing the rowing and everything. And they've definitely probably been the fanbase that is one over the most people, too, because of the iconic row for sure. And what people
are going to be talking about? We can filly rowing yesterday right after 101. I can't tell you guys like living in filly where we've had, you know, Ecuadorians, we've had Brazilians, we've had the French, the Iraqis, we've had the Paraguayans, just seeing the different communities, the Croatians were awesome. Seeing the different communities cycle in and out of the city for like the last two weeks. And then the fourth of July being Saturday with France game. And then downtown center city was
Just absolutely jumping all night Saturday into the to the wee hours in the p...
city has never been more fun. Being a host city has been has been a dream. And I can't wait
to week it to do it again in 12 years. Yeah, the game sort of the other side of town for LA, but it's been so cool to see like the Mexico fans showing out, especially in the side of LA. And like I was at the, I watched the Ecuador game at a bar and it's just like this is, this is what it's all about.
“It's so fun. Well, the best thing for us here, that's not the case everywhere, but for here,”
the games are on a normal time. Yeah, we can construct days around. And that's been, you know, something we lose when the thing is overseas, the games are on in the middle of the night and we're in shape like that. And I think that's going to happen with the Olympic basketball too, which will be a shorter version of this, but same thing with all the prime time games and all that stuff everybody will be watching. I think it's, I think it's been in a plus. I've loved it. I've loved the
gambling. I love the rational confidence I have now. I was like, there's no way Portugal beats Spain today. That's not happening. I don't see it. You want to just a dream world come for the, I mean, the sports books have gotten crushed every, the, the back to back times, we're in Bapay, Cain and Holland, both scored two goals. This, or in Bapay, Messy and Holland, both scored two goals. People are just, I mean, if you bet any good player, they automatically score. It's like this has been
a dream. Well, the two goals too, right? If you do in the Holland two goals with Norway to win, which is usually like 4 to 1, 5 to 1. Yeah. You're just cleaning up on this. What we're going to say, see, I was just going to ask whether or not you thought there would be much of a post tournament kind of a counting of like the, the balligan red card and Trump getting involved in
“sports karma or anything like that. I think if the, if the game wasn't such a blowout, I don't think.”
Right. I think it's cool. If he scores the, like, and we went to one, or if he scores the final pen, yeah, it's, it's a much, much better story. Trump could have done anything he wanted, that we were going to be Belgium in that game. It's the fact that they were just resting guys that would have been like two of our best five guys, like, I don't know. I think I think that one will come and go. I do think it was interesting now, interesting precedent being set
of the president and be like, "Hah, sports." What did I say? Get in and throw an elbow for rally. I think he has a very open audience in FIFA. Yeah. I mean, I think there's a two-way street, and, you know, one of the things that makes the world cup so fascinating as a historical object is, like, the sort of in, in the cross, the crossing of the streams of politics and governments and different, you know, from these different countries and how they get involved with what
happens on the field. So it's, it's not the first time that's happened, but it was certainly, like,
“holy shit, he's really doing this. Did he imagine if he had also gotten involved in the J. L. Brown trade?”
Yeah, I don't like this. If a full investigation tried to figure out what the subjects are doing here, the bundle. Yeah. Do you have a J. L. Brown trade opinion before we go? I know you did this
time game like show. I've always loved J. L. Brown. He's loved it. He's so happy to have him. I think
it's, it is going to be weird. I'll be like, we'll be a better regular season team. It's going to be fun. They had to do it. It makes a lot of sense. I'm, I'm pleasantly intrigued, but I don't know. Things just always end badly. I'm programmed to expect the worst with the, with the sixers. Much like I am with the U.S. men's national team in the round of 16. But you know what? I already have my eyes on it. Copa, America, 28. We need to get more matches against good teams.
We can't just keep beating up on Conca, and that's going to be the chance to do that. So well, even in the 2020s, having, you know, this is a big difference between where we were 12 years ago, which a lot of the guys that we had out there, guys that you said this before the tournament, guys that are good leagues playing on good teams. So, you know, you figured that keeps going. I'm just going to be an interesting development over the course of the next couple of years. I saw
a couple of MLS teams have been talking about like, they want their model to be like, we develop young players and sell them to Europe. And that's going to be both financially good. And it's also good for like US soccer because those guys will then get experience in these leagues and making it less about the designated players and seeing if they can get a messier or a weapon down ski to come play for them. Those kinds of developments are probably good for the USMNT, if bad for MLS,
maybe, or maybe not. But the ultimate thing that they're going to really want is to create, how do, how do US national teams play and create this kind of playing identity that I think coach could probably do. I just don't know if he's going to stick around for the long haul. I hope he does. I love Maurice who punched you know, he has done such a great job with this team. And I know today went really badly, but I still think he's the man for the job and look,
he's bought in. We like him. He likes us. Kumbaya. Let's have some fun. The Netflix audience, we did a little poll who's going to win the world cup and Netflix audience
says France, but only 54 percent. Who was second? I don't know how didn't tell me who was second.
I'll tell you this.
fuck it back for me. It would be very England to go win at the Azteca and then show out flat Saturday.
“The window, we can hear in the Mariner gambling show, keep doing those social media clips you're”
doing as well and we'll have to have you on one more time before the end of the world cup. I'm sad, but we press on. There's more soccer to be had. We're going to take a break and I'm going to come back with old friend Jason Goodsepsi on right after this. This episode is brought to you by Mikkelob Ultra. We're in the heart of the World Cup. Look at these little special bottles from Mikkelob Ultra. Every play matters here. FIFA World Cup 26 for you. The stakes are just
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You can hear him on the way to second podcast. I made an appearance early. I'm due for another appearance. Ironically cut back a little on the pods. The next couple weeks probably won the two week for the next three weeks. One of the reasons is I got to do my zodiac deep dive. I got to get ready for
for this my zodiac killer way to second appearance. Jason, you just watched the USA game. We just
covered it for 40 minutes, but give us a give us your takes watching from afar. My main takeaway was I knew we were in trouble when we were doubling Leo Trasard. I knew we were in trouble when Leo Trasard who is one of my favorites for Arsenal. Super sub microwave score as an Arsenal score. Love him. He's maybe five seven. I don't know what the stats on him are. But he's holding off our defenders like he was prime shack. And I knew at that point like we just didn't have
the physicality to be in this game. We came out soft. We looked like we were afraid of contact. We didn't initiate any contact. We weren't getting up in the air. And it's just a bad performance all around at every level. You know what I realized actually I've just over the last 40 minutes Jason. What's that? Sierra Sierra's team England. No, this is fine. This is the good son. You're sad. You're sad. We lost, but really deep down. I have to listen to it.
You're a globe of soccer. No, you let go. McColle Culkin tonight. And you're
“hanging on to a lasherwood. England. That's what's happening. Have you been obsessed with the”
World Cup Jason? What's been your relationship with it? I love the World Cup. I've been Alexie Wallace. I've been I've been waiting with faded breath. Low these 20. It feels like years but more for the US to kind of finally upshift out of this get one game into the knockouts and then get knocked out mode, which it seems like no matter what the talent is. And certainly I think this is the most offensively capable team that I can remember seeing since I started paying
attention. We still got knocked out because listen there's a reason that Tim Riem at 38 is still starting for this squad. And that's because you saw what the team looked like against Turkey. And
it wasn't good when he didn't play. And so we're just not we there's always something and
this time it was that we just couldn't get organized on the back and just looked Shambalek had a good
“strategy I think, but just didn't execute in moments and it all fell apart. Just like in basketball”
and a playoff series when somebody's like that guy kid defend everything. He wants it him. You know, I think they knew Riem in certain circumstances was going to be a problem for us. And you know, his athleticism is much diminished and and I think that they started like saying like what's tough as dude and obviously then he kind went on till a little bit I think but it was it was he we got picked on in that department. Yes, funny. I really got in a soccer 0809 range was when I
Really like started become watching and and trying to understand it.
affair with Tottenham Hotspur. Yeah, and then if you go back to my archives, there's a couple of decent times multiple times to be of course the couple weeks. Yeah, but and then my daughter started playing and I was in this whole club soccer world and my one of her first coaches said something that is always stuck with me ever since because when we went to 11's we you know you go from like 90 to 11 to 11 and the coach said 11's are tough because if you don't have 11,
the ball always finds the person you don't want it to find and it felt like we had the the two for me and and was poor Rem who's 38 not totally his fault and then death to I just didn't really trust and it just felt like and they kept they also kept attacking the sides too in a way that I
thought like seemed intentional in the first half but just felt like the ball was always finding the wrong
“people in this game and that's what happens in soccer. Yeah, death is completely washed it was it was”
tough. Yeah, and like that's I if I was going to take like a kind of silver lining I think these are the kinds of problems that more accomplished nations also face where you're like oh man well like we haven't quite figured out right back or we haven't quite figured out the right side of our midfield or we need a center back to replace Rem like other countries have had to deal with stuff like this we don't necessarily have the most eye popping talent pool where you're like well obviously this
dude is coming next but I'm sure there are U.S. soccer freaks out there who are like screaming at their televisions of their phones right now and being like I know who's next it's coming you know but it's like I think that I think we're actually the problems that we have are good problems to have you know they're they're their soccer problems not like can anybody on this team play right
“I agree I completely agree with that. I think that the people forget like you look at the world”
cup and it's like everybody mostly plays bad even the really good teams mostly play below their level I think part of the part of the thing that's so frustrating for the U.S. is like we are bad at minimizing the holes in our squad and that seems to be a recurring issue year after year and for instance like I'm not saying that we should become overnight like a paragoy style
sh*t house or a squad right but we're never pulling a jersey like hardly ever are we pulling
a jersey hardly ever are we going hard into a tackle on purpose you know and it's like those little things can minimize some of your shortcomings sometimes and we just we play like we're above that sometimes and to your point CR it's also the fact that while this is the most talent that I can remember seeing particularly on the offensive side it's also not great we don't have any world class players yeah it would be nice to have a top six from the league player like a
top six club guy on our team and we just don't yet do we need like a dream on green type we bring wash down the luxury just like he's just getting very close to the line game after game you're worried about him maybe he could also pass and play in tight spaces like if we you know if we could come up for do so if we could somehow produce a who skits like in order to concentrate Argentina basically somehow you know jacy who is your MVP of the
“world cup so far we still have two weeks left I think Holland just in the way that he's captured”
people's imagination and in the way that he just always scores he always scores and you know
what's going to happen he seems to like lolly gagged through periods of play where he's just kind of strolling around and then he sees a sequence unfolding he just is in the right spot the way he runs you know the the way he seems to play up his Viking ogre kind of image at moments and in his clear sense of humor I just think he's been he's been unreal he's been dealing it an unreal level see our no no John Wick bad guy stuff for him or anything it's Hollywood I mean he's doing him at
your city so you know like nobody except for was like them and so it's like he plays for the like the most sort of like evil empire team that's in the Premier League I think but you know if I did just to go along with what Jason saying like Holland would be my my number one pick in number two one a would be messy who could be doing a 2019 Tigers masters here you know like yeah that could be like going out like like like the goat that he is yeah and Bellingham I think is the other one
who even the real soccer fans know who that is but the super casual ones like wow this guy's really good
Number 10 I think he's I think he's I think he was just incredible in the Mex...
man city context bill they're currently facing 115 Premier League charges for circumventing like
“their version of the salary cap so it would be like if as well as in times of hundreds 15 coins”
yeah and you're talking to an arsenal and a Liverpool fans or yes we do take it personally as he's taking it personally well funny when I was thinking about when I was trying to pick my EPL team in '07 yeah everyone was telling me how they were the clippers they were like the sad sad clippers yeah and then the net quickly flip um favorite national anthem jacy and anything really knock your socks off as we hear to get to the courties next week yeah Mexico
it's great last night Mexico was was bone chilling last night I will also say I at one note I have for a for Potion team you say I love why don't we do the arms around each other we've been doing it on Denver during the anthem did just during the anthem everybody else is like arm and arm and singing it's a good note head up like and we're like a foot away from everybody think France's anthem is still really strong yeah yeah martial arts great yeah I think that's that's
way up there too there's been there's been some clunkers I don't want to name any countries but
“there's a couple or like wow well that's it that's what you're rolling with you know with the”
Brazil anthem when it's in Brazil you're like this is the most incredible thing I've ever
ever heard but when it plays it like met life you're kind of like where's this one going like this like you know because like it just doesn't have like the entire crowd is into it so that's yeah won't be your move would you be a post your eyes and and saying or would you be a belted out or would you just be trying to stay cool I think personally I would go the route of the Mexico players are just a crying and screaming at the top there longs I am not too cool for the anthem
like in that case yeah you beat would you do that J.C. little crying some tears I would definitely you would see the cords in my neck standing out that would be the level of intensity you would be like Nick Seriani just like tears like bubbling out of your your face but no no no singing
now I would do the head back with the eyes closed intent the intense one I always think that one
that one looks really great who do you have when in the cup Jason I mean this is this is not like some wild prediction but I think this is France's tournament uh this means that's not going to happen everybody say in that you do when everybody agrees on that then then the rules of soccer have to drop it somewhere right? I can't spin to to win it but I picked spin to win it based on this this stupid idea I had that Jeremy was going to beat France earlier uh and obviously that was
quite wrong so don't listen to me but I did it just does seem like it whatever game you want to play
“France can play it you want to you want to have a shootout they'll kill you if you want to try and”
kick them they don't care if you want to sit back they don't care like they do there's nothing you can do to really fluster unless what Debundo said which is like can can spin keep the ball away from them forever you don't think you do to fluster Francis to give them a lead with two minutes left in an NBA game. Say CR what would how many more wins the Zingla need though? Four quarters that me three more wins would that change your life like no I mean both
yeah it's I think it would be incredible for my family but and I would just I wish I would be there
I'm sure it would be just an amazing experience to be in England for that to happen that's actually where my parents met was during the six pro cup so it would be very tempting to want to go over there for the celebrations but it is it's it's still like I'm playing dress up a little bit you know I can't I can't shed the soccer hipster accusations that you know you were in for J.C. who's your team now you're just jumping on Norway that's it for years I've been
and I remain this it's France with the Netherlands is a backup so obviously France but now I'm going France Norway okay I'm going for Norway and I'm gonna bet on them at 17 to one or whatever the hell it is and do it that way I don't think that's that bad of that yeah so now we have soccer dying um we're gonna go down a less games and then the tournament's gonna be over and then we're gonna be staring at each other whimmeldins is about as boring as it gets oh basketball
we are now moving into this Lebron he's orchestrated we can't pretend like nothing is happening in sports when we can do a frame by frame analysis of Brad Stevens's press conference so that was
The most exciting thing that happened not soccer today was the Celtics press ...
which I respect that they had to say what they're gonna say but on on the one hand did the we didn't want to have 70% of the cap tied up with two guys okay but then they also tried to trade
for Janice who would have tied the cap up with 70% and also Paul George makes 50 million a year so
I still don't know Jason you haven't Sierra and I have talked about this in the pot already you haven't given your take yet what is it well my take was and I'm waiting for it is the classic Brian Curtis now they tell us story because it simply must be there the only answer to this is all the whispering about the relationship between Tate and Brown all that stuff must have really amounted to something and they really must have felt like listen Brown is not going to
submit to the kind of team that this was in the past and we will not dedicate ourselves to the kind of team that Brown wants and it's gonna be a problem if we let it go any further than this
clearly they were under the gun and it's interesting that Brad Steven said nothing that betrayed
them being under the gun he made it you know to your point he really framed it as a purely fiscal decision when it's like you don't you still have two players amounting to that much money and
“like so well he did use the word usage which that's what the one slip or he's like when you have”
70% of your cap tied into two players and a high usage for those two players we came to the conclusion that this isn't going to work and that that usage means we don't need to pay two guys to just trade do doing banjoes anymore with the way the league is was my interpretation as effort yeah that's fair it's like exactly me he was like it's kind of like what Kirk said
during the colonoscopy pod when he was just like they want to be oh well you're the one who called
the pod back I don't know now that is what it's got it's like they wanted to be a one contract team they want well that's what they say they wanted yes they were looking for yonis maybe they feel like yonis was like this big or better trade asset that could have spun or whatever I don't think we're going to know who won this trade or whether it was a giant mistake
“by Boston until next spring because I think they'll be you were saying this is that they're going”
to be good and they'll regular season they're going to be good has good regular season basketball teams they play and they're going to be good people be better shaman every better the jacis point about the now they tell us I don't think it's going to happen just because I think there's so conscious about what's happened with the red socks and patriots and years past when those pieces come out after the fact and everybody in Boston is too crazy about sports and has knows all the
signs and can read between the lines of pieces like that and I just don't I don't think they're going to do it I think they're going to take the high road if there is stuff I don't I don't see them doing it the only stuff that's going to come out is this antler stuff like you know I talked about this on the pot a week ago but brown and tata being in France together but not interacting and people that were there like this is weird there won't guys over there and just like
and you know tate them taking forever kind of like how and be it hasn't done the welcome to fully post you for jaly brown like you could read between the lines with some of this stuff CR you just can I guess that's true I mean I saw that in b was at the Brazil match in Brazil really delia I was going to say we might not have to wait for now they tell us because we'll just have to wait for jaly to do a twitch stream where he's like now I'll tell you he did one
the night that the trade happened and seemed to be pretty good pretty confused and pretty upset
“and I think he's getting his head around becoming a rival like you know he's going to”
go to a rival team I think that like he's a competitive dude and he probably was like I will be a Celtic probably for life you know the Celtic thing is so strange to me because there's like on one hand this like like mythology about their relationships to their star players and those players relationships at the city but like this modern era has been about turnover I mean Isaiah Thomas the Kyrian or Mahir word iteration you know Paul Pearson K G being traded to Brooklyn like those guys
don't sell late you know like whatever they do like mark a smart sir yeah they they don't like it's like yeah we're going to take a beating for two months and then people are going to be back at the garden so like I respected I think that sometimes they get a little bit of like like they get like a little bit too much leeway when it comes to like we're like a institution that really respects the players who play for us and keeps them in our hearts and
it's like you guys fucking trade people when they have like dislocated hips like give me a bread
Jesus you're just saying you're far from a lot of pain this week
now I mean it that Isaiah Thomas thing was tough to defend but that was previous ownership I will say
“the new owner chism looked like he was getting a rucan alder and that's yeah yeah yeah you go”
from like oh my god I bought my favorite team I'm gonna bring my whole family we're sitting courtside this is so great I'm having such a good time and now you know the worm has turned if Jesus was done like we're a traitor we were still doing this like we would probably have like a Tom Dundin match be a billchism group chat post that you were manufactured here is with that in mind see our here is what I would pitch to you and be like see I'm working on a take I don't
this is all I have but help me flesh this out because I think this is a piece
the second apron era has turned every owner into James stolen yes that's a great take
it's a right turn over your drink and dull and juice yeah every contract or bad contract yeah yeah yeah it's like so hard to be smart the cut the the cat fights against itself
“to retain your best player you have to give them a contract that's immediately bad immediately”
and it's all about depth but now but like the rosters are squeezed and inevitably everybody smart looks done under this under this regime yeah even look at work walters in the and the lakers like the Dodgers would keep Lebron on the team and just to have him like wave at the crowd every every night like they don't care about money but like he obviously knows that that team is going to be decimated if they have lukeau Lebron and AR like all and like that
that salary tier so you're right Jason it's just like the idea of like a cubiner or a balmer who's going to be like all just spend my way out of it you know like nope it's not going to happen anymore well this starts previous version of this the connective tissue was the Bradley bill contract whether wizards like well fuck what are we going to do I get I mean he's our best player in the moment they sign it it becomes one of the worst contracts in the league now we have the next
version of this which is you kind of can't have two of these yeah so the pistons are you know pistons when sixty one games last year they didn't know if they want to bring durin back because
the moment that contract is eight million dollars a year too high it has all of these crazy
ramifications the other way when brown sign for three hundred four million the mistake in retrospect was maybe trying to knock that number down a little but it was a previous it was wick the previous owner he wanted to take care of his guys they just won the title and you know it plays out the way plays out but it's weird to hear a team say look man I know he was six then VP last year but that contract's a little too rich for my blood like we do ringer ringer one hundred I don't care
where you have jaylin but he if you had him outside the top twenty that would have been insane
“there's three teams yeah I think there's a corrosive effect that we're going to see over time too”
where there's a connection with players that yeah but cities have and I mean you're watching that video of the kid crying because jaylin brown was his favorite player it's like that's that's real that happens and I think if you have a system that's based on just too much of that who knows what you lose like obviously the parody era from the perspective of the actual parody is a success they wanted to create this and they've created it with eight new champions in
a row it's unprecedented but you know like the league was built on a specific kind of dominance that allowed characters to develop over time with the fanbase and there is a connection with with teams and with the communities around them that maybe he's getting severed you know and and is that good and also with this model of having one big star and then a lot of turn over in your two through ten say for us yeah yeah with everybody else I mean like the sixers have kind
of done that around in bead and star two over the last ten years and it's it's sold ending after a while where you're like who is this year's Marco Bellonelli who is this year's jay reticue is this year's Robert Covington who is this year's XYZ it's kind of awesome even though the nicks were like thrown somewhat thrown together you know initial Robinson was the longest tenure Nick it's kind of awesome to watch that core come together piece by piece over the years
and develop and build out and like those guys are now folk heroes like they'll never buy another
Drink or chipotle bowl in New York City again and if you were in fewer teams ...
that if they all buy by this like we can have one star and then it's up to the GM to just find like the right rotation of guys every year it's it's a huge issue for the league I don't think they see it I think they're just focused on how much can we make from the media deal can we add to expansion teams can we grow the league can we create NBA Europe every decision they're making is financial
which includes this last CBA where you have this second apron and I've talked about this with
other sports too you you're basically it's a protection against yourself yeah it's it's like if if like I give one of my kids like a credit card they can use but it's got a limit on it and it's like if you go over the limit the card just automatically can only use the gas station yeah
“that's what the second apron is it's like yeah you can you can go about the second apron but”
your picks get frozen you can't make two for one trades there's all these tax or Peter shit that happens and you have to be a fucking idiot and you see somebody like James Dolan who you know has not been shy about spending money that's for sure he gives away every court side seat around the team like it you know on the one hand doesn't seem to care about money at all but even he understands yeah we can't have Mitchell Robinson anymore we're going to have
to replace him with Andre Drummond and he'll cost $12 million less but this is what we have
to do by the way since Jay sees her yet you've been on the podcast since the next one the oh my god $2,000 $2,000 yeah what happened you just like was it like the end of the Odyssey what was the leg for you it was the end of the Odyssey were three thousand year old
“story yeah well though the word I can honestly say that game foreign to game five was”
the peak of my life they're like I'm not even joking it it was the most remarkable period of my life that I've ever felt I flew back to the parade it was just like I got to a point of my life you know you watch 20 years of bad next teams after the 90s and so I got into a point where I was like you know what this is be good let's just get in the mix get in the playoffs every year be respectable don't be a dumpster fire don't be a scandal played 17 win team like
just just compete and I'm fine with that so I put away for real any actual hope that I would ever see this and so yeah so it was like given the romcom where you're given up on love and then
finally you found somebody on a trip to Tuscany that was it that was 100% right now I will say this
and this is very not like me after we smoked the caps smoked that caps pack in the Eastern
“Conference finals I was texting you know my next groups and I'm like I really I think we're going”
to win it I think we're going to win it if you it especially if we got the spurs just looking at the underlying stuff we'd beat them uh what was it two out of three in the in the season pretty comprehensively on the same game plan every time we almost beat them in the game we lost you guys when the cup against them right one the cup against them in a game that they were trying to win the next did the double they did the double didn't get for credit for it first I think
that's when he raised the banner when it let me just separate the banners but I think there should be a double banner with like an attachment where the cup like attaches the cup banner attaches to the bottom of the regular banner and let me also say to critique Adam Silver a little bit more they that's his baby the cup and the fact that they didn't play up much more this historic double that has happened and new bars been set for NBA greatness a new bar in a new house
it's parody yeah right in an era of parody a new bar has been set the cup predicted the NBA finals and for the first time in its history a team has gone done the double one both and the and that should be trumpeted everywhere and frankly hasn't and that is a miss from Anne Silver. The 53 years felt like it kind of trumped the cup which I understand. Yeah I do. When they were down a lot of points in game for sure because this this I went through basically the same experience you did with
the red socks and game for and game five in the Getsy Yankees. Yes. Where it's like too great these sporting events that just blend together now and where I don't even remember what happened and what game anymore but there were also like a couple dark moments where you really like look at your past and and you think like oh man and that the real doubt starts creeping in what was
That must have happened in game for a couple times right game for it wasn't t...
doubt because I still thought okay I thought yeah I thought we go back to yeah I thought we were the better team and I thought we were going to win the series so I thought okay we go back to San
“Antonio I think we could still win the series but that said you know down when he nine in the second”
quarter I just turned the sound off I'm like okay this is a wash we're not winning this game we had trouble game three flipping the karma and then down 29 and game in game four absolutely and despite the fact that I'd seen all these come back now going back to three seasons I was just like okay you know just like that's it we're not gonna get this one that's fine and I didn't start to get like feel that a little I mean it was 2018 like in the middle for even into that fourth
but when they couldn't when the spurs couldn't make it more than that I started to get it you know I started to get really interested and then you know as the run was developing you started to feel it and they just the spurs looked so tired they looked absolutely gas I thought the one you know obviously the next one won't go down double digits early in every single game
but it was very smart of them that no matter how many blocks when when we would have in the first quarter
they just kept running at him run at him make him jump make him turn around make him react to things and it's like a boss battle where you're just chipping away at the energy bar of like the video game
“boss so that you get to the end and he's he's tired and that's what happened every single game”
followed that exact plan CRD think new spurs had coach Billy Donovan we'll be able to fix some of that title yet we've got to put you on this Google meet Mitch my bad we're doing sorry guys was there meeting no no you just didn't want to waste your time honestly like you got you got together with the other assistants we just want to come up with some ideas for you you want to give a speech go for it yeah we'll just go back afterwards and maybe just clean that
up a little bit that's like we just did from how we did hand that rocks a crate oh yeah yeah yeah yeah don't hire back at Marta Marta Marta Marta Marta Marta Marta is your daddy it's like I'm really down I mean it's only one a couple titles and coach two other teams that was a really nice game Jason's description of this whole experience was so moving that I'm going to trash the joke I was going to make about them raising not only the NBA finals
banner the cut banner but also the contract of payments to dark money payments to Jill and
fronts in that they're obviously making yeah can we do that on wait a second can we can we let me
just say this and I'll say this with it in a complete sincerity that I've just it's just a thing
“that I've noticed and I think everything is aboveboard it is it is notable like the massive”
jump in production level that the roommates pod underwent like kind of suddenly yeah oh the shootout I max but that being said like I I am completely I believe that everything is aboveboard and and right let me ask you this did you guys feel like it was a red flag in the moment how much pop of it was talking to the team and making speeches I didn't think it was a good thing like an I mean I know what yeah it was just it was written that there was an American and I I wonder if
the spurs would rather that had knockout out or if the spurs were like get this out that pop is still like the new rockney of this team um I do you are there filming the romance pot and 70 millimeter starting to remember 70 millimeter I'm active they have no cinematographer yeah wait does just like so what's the scale so what to be are we supposed to watch as the world
cup winds down jc oh wow what do you want to do these days second season of the agency which is
a show I know that which is itself an adaptation of in the beauty of the legit from French television is out and I think it's it's not as good as the bureau but it to me it's good enough it's pretty good and the changes they made to make it to you know kind of like American intelligence it more just hit for me and so I can run that back I haven't watched one episode can I bang that out this yeah yeah like it I think you like it yeah it's fat is it shame fast bender just fast bender
it's it's fast bender pretending to be an American spy and it doesn't quite totally like but it's still sexy so this made or anything but he's basically playing like like yeah I mean he has some weird sex but still like yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's part part of the process of them yeah he's a fine see our what's been your favorite thing of the summer you know there's a show on Apple called star
City that's been it's like a spin-off of another show they have called for al...
in the Russian the Soviet space program in the sixties and seventies it is really good that sounds
“like CR madlips it's like I can only be me they have one of the co-show runners of the Americans”
for all mankind guys but it's really good uh I've been hate watching the living hell at a Cape Fear which I think is one of the worst shows I've seen in the last five six years and now it's hit the point it's six episodes in um I could tap out right now and not even care about what happened or do I just hate watching my way through the rest of this I'm more interested like when shows like this when they don't work and they become campy trying to read the signs of some
of the act like they have good actors in this like when did Amy Adams felt like around episode four episode five I think when Amy Adams showed up on the ground we you guys aren't all doing accents it's just me right she the hope was starting to flicker out of her eyes I would say um one of the things Apple does amazingly well from a comedy standpoint it's the worst parenting you've ever seen in your life and they'll do it over and over again with these these like wealthy
“families some sort of drama crisis thing and Apple's just like do you need to be aware of if these”
parents didn't care that their kid chopped his toe off and seems like a complete maniac and a disappeared for four dollars yeah like might be putting himself or other people in danger like no it's like hey Bobby we're gonna go out for for dinner tonight you stay home with the dog they just I don't know what it is so at Apple like this seems like they're laying now they have like three different lanes and one of these lanes of these wealthy crimy families in disarray couples that
hated each other like press share yeah yeah it's like press these divorce divorce pulp yeah um did you finish the bear jacy i i did not finish the bear but i'm getting ready to to struggle through it with all respect to the bear that was a fan of the final season i think you know yeah they did especially right hip style what's that they did pit style just like everything Monday set mostly on one day yeah oh wow okay yeah what do we say now see our what are we missing
now in the TV landscape what are we not doing i mean there's a lot of genre stuff on dragons
“pretty good this year i think it's it's just that we don't really have like i you know that i mean we”
actually really don't have like a white lotusy succession kind of like normal people behaving badly show that everybody kind of falls in love with um trying to think of like what what's coming that's even exciting but uh feels like it's drifted back toward movies i made this point yeah it's a week ago where um it fit i wonder if the creativity is starting i finally saw obsession do you like it oh it was really good i didn't love the lead actor would be my uh my one okay but
i'm like i didn't you shallomay isn't that movie that's like one of the best movies of all time i think he his his bill is like five times the budgeted it i guess hey if you put shallomay in that lead part we're talking about this movie for 25 years from now did you you i'm sure you did not see this but
the main actress from that movie indie never ready oh he too he too what do you have why don't
you know me at this point and you're like i'm sure you didn't see this but what you were busy about it oh like anything happens without be knowing with heat too um i have this question actually speaking of heat it's a milkback question from victor long time fan diehard magic fan in Orlando recently i was rewatching the town and the entire fenway house was for three million dollars realize and this is what bis back beyond but made for the spurs this season had
me thinking are the prizes and high smoothies too small or mba contracts too big what would deal McColley have had to do to get a year of debunker salary for the best man I saw this issue i have noticed this in some of our high things where they're like we got to take this down
and i want it to be like 29 million dollars what if they should go back and ADR like what's
if because if you go back to like the 1950s wars and they're like robbing a horse race track and it's like what's to take 10 grand and he got a 10 grand nice it's like we should go back and be like a million dollars it's like we were talking about when Jason was on for the survivor like oh that mr. beast bumped it to two million bucks it's like this was a million dollars in 2000 yeah the NBA salary cap was $18 million in 2000 or whatever like how is it not 10 million
dollars to win some ever now um so high smoothies higher would you bump it up CR yeah but i think
We actually have a lot of really ridiculous high movies where they go for lik...
a billion in crypto off this guy it's just that those hard is good as dead of thieves and heat
in the town and stuff do you want to quickly have the heat to come or say yeah let's talk talk about the old being sure let's let's look that this is this is the thing that has been
“rumored for a long time i think everybody was waiting to find out if he was going to be Neil”
or Chris and he's any sure let's he's going to be a star of the movie i get asked this question all the time and i'm sure both of you do too for people in our lives like what do you think is this really happening i i'm going to listen i'm going to go you're going to go i'm glad i'm glad they're doing it i'm obviously going to see it i'm so care that it's happening i am aware every single casting anything that's happening with this thing i'm just nervous this one we've seen this go wrong
i ended up not seeing glad eight or two on the advice of many people um just in general some of the scary bad sequels that we've had um that you end up just kind of forgetting happened and Michael man who um you know are all time favorite he's been a nine rewatchables movies including today with Ali but um when you get directors in their 80s jc yeah gets a little dicey like i i don't know if i want people directing expensive movies or running my NFL team or there's just
this was a conversation i was having with some friends recently like who is the director in their
“80s historically who is like crushing it and um i i think there there are there are different”
variables like but at the top level of triple a type of movie it's like kind of nobody kind of nobody like i said and this even gets dicey yeah yeah kuba kubrik still at the fastball to the very end and to be fair to Michael man he's still from everything we've seen semi recently still got it but yet it pia people no but this is super cool for quick it is this is the difference is it's not just him making a movie but i would support if he was 100 years older on make movie it's just
why haven't we done he too before now why are we doing it now i know he wrote the book but is it worth doing yeah i mean you could say and i will hear the argument that this is like release got returning to the alien universe where it's like but release got it makes can still make
two movies a year and they're not always that good and he shoots with five cameras and it seems like
he's getting a little fast and a little sloppy the thing that gives me some confidence and she too specifically is the presence of Jerry Brockheimer who himself is not a spring chicken 82 years old but is like one of the great shomans and i hope that the combined forces of these two very old men will make up for whatever deficiencies the other has and make sure that this is like i just don't think the caprio signs on for this and is like let's hope it's okay you know like
it is true he has had him comfortable taste over the years and we don't have it's just yes he knows yeah and he has to know there's going to be three things in this movie that i do that people are going to be breathless over you know and otherwise i just don't know why like why why didn't you just before he then you know or whatever else like he just doesn't make his choices idly well i saw i don't i won't spoil anything from the out of city today because i mean you guys haven't seen it
“you're also an embargo on it i think you're going yeah um the only thing i'll say is uh”
crystal and guy who you know over the course of a long movie there's going to be a couple set pieces in there you know like like when you're watching an awesome WWE championship match there's going to be a couple bumps that they thought about ahead of time and that you're going to be like holy shit um and that's that's what a Michael man when his movies are really cooking
have like three four sections in there that you're just like wow this stuff i'm always looking
for some in heat too also is stuff that hasn't that is not heat like it's from like it'll be either in the desert or it'll be in in central america or whatever and and it'll be like different than heat so the city stuff will be cool but i i'm looking for it if they bring it page for page out for that stuff there's there's another existential existential questionnaire jacy um you know CR's obviously known shawn longer than me um they've been friends since when mid 2000s really 2000s
you've done a lot of big picture appearances with them seen a lot of movies um we started the rewatchables from a heat podcast we did heat i feel like is RIP and i'm really going to be interested to say i handle this i think with heat too i feel like that's i feel like i should
Be in pole position for the first part of the sea are you are in pole positio...
America that's why not all of you why not why not don't we i am for it yeah maybe that's maybe
“that's what needs to happen because i think let's hear that let me just say as a fan”
is it a fan of y'all also that's what i want to see is that trio jacy say and don't choose CR that it should be being shawn together the three of us for heat too okay i don't know maybe what maybe American maybe we do a poll America vote but we've done we did the three heat are the four heat well we've done two heats in Michael man we have not done four heat yet i'm ready because i i have i have some thoughts for recent watches i have more heat
i have any more heat opinions we have a couple of ways to go we can do the blind heat rewatch no notes we can do heat but we're not allowed to talk about the nero patchino like there's still oh wow yeah there's still a couple of tricks up our sleeve oh that was my favorite one where
we like we give the nero patchino a red car yes the first one of the pot they're just out of the pot
we're resting them for heat five you're done let do patchino think it all um how excited you for the out of siana scale when it's in jacy i'm i'm excited it's you know it's it's a it's gonna be a like an iconic you see no one is one of the iconic guys currently working you could argue that he's the best director currently working certainly the only one currently that would be allowed to make a film like this and i mean i'm all in considering that this
has its roots in him not getting to make Troy it's been just eating that long i'm excited i'm excited i sat next to somebody you've both potted with over the years many times valley ribbon in the screening today and let's just say she was digesting a lot a lot of things yeah a lot of things in a wheelhouse there's books i don't you know
“there there's this whole other level for this movie that if you want to go back and then also”
dive into i was going blind i could barely remember anything from you know that i read these books in high school you know so so i was kind of re re re remembering a lot of the stuff that was in there but um i know there's an embargo i saw people tweeting about it i think i like to say
like i saw it and i liked it but they're like full review and and plot i thought it was incredible
and most importantly my god mad Damon you know i still feel like he's alive in the Damon versus Leo thing i know i'm like one of the only people holding onto it but if we go best best like seven mat Damon movies versus best seven in the caprio i feel like he's in the myth this is a very exciting argument to have this is it is a really interesting one i just think his
“basketball reference page is better than people really i think i tried to do the i tried to make a”
Damon versus Cruz take take case that you guys laughed me out of your off of a set for like during rewatchables but Damon Leo is a good argument to make i remember by HBO show 10 years ago playing that one up right after the Martian because Damon had momentum but Leo's been steady he's a little bit younger but Damon's career also like you go back to basically school ties is 92 93 range so he's he's been 35 years now banging out watchable movies with with Leo would i think
you would have to say no titanic we don't put titanic in the mix because i just think with titanic
it takes Leo to a level that Matt Damon has never seen honestly honestly it might happen with the
Odyssey oh i know titanic was okay titanic was a billion dollar movie that won a bunch of awards i don't know if that's not happening with the Odyssey like that it's fucking sold out all through all through the summer and LA already but like titanic was the type of like cultural impact that like the Taliban had to ban it but it was that role that is true you know i mean people going eight nine times to be fair to be expanding stuff left and right so yeah but when they
were like uh no music no makeup for women but and also titanic cannot watch that movie in the borders of Afghanistan period like i think that is a crazy crazy crazy impact it's uh it's a pretty awesome achievement i'm really happy for Damon it is impeccably well-cast okay people know this i think from the i and d_b_ dude you guys know who charlie's the wrong place in this movie
I forget but i i know that she's fairly important i want to say it's Cersei m...
she plays she plays calipso uh calipso okay and she's well cast oh oh oh oh
she's gonna okay i'm gonna say that also happy from my my girl Anne Hathaway but yeah no it was uh it's really something i'll be interested to see what the reaction is it seems like everybody had that reaction like holy shit i'm excited for burnt off just burnt off you're no but the horse no no you're dead you're not so i intentionally read nothing and new nothing i knew a couple of the people that were in but there were a couple where i was like
and when i saw burnt though i gas for now i started laughing i'm sad no idea my god do you see her but those are the most fun kind of movies anyway uh yeah i see what else you look for pop culture
“was the summer CR anything me oh i can't remember for resident evil uh the Zach Kriger”
follow up to weapons and it looks awesome jacy same that you know love the video games me too and the trailer knocked me out can you reality nothing are you out of reality now jacen no i'm i'm well i'll tell you my most dirty reality secret is below deck i watch it you're round oh my god my wife is like like just just inhale's it what is it about below deck i don't really understand it it's a perfect reality procedural it's it does the same formula
over the course of like two episodes and it just does it like an on an assembly line it's charter comes in there is workplace dynamics and then there is the cool down where they all go out to
“the club or whatever but for me the thing is they're all truly working they're actually doing”
a crazy job out there on the high seas and you can't beat the stakes in reality television of if this all goes wrong somebody drowns it's interesting has that ever happened on below deck it's almost happened several times so what's happened my wife really enjoys the different people that come in that that rent the boat the different types of people they pick and then really Johnny Damon she was all excited about that but she really likes the tipping at the end and the
dynamics with that and whether the people i just i can never buy it by and to it's here i'm out
i can't say this is the least amount of reality i've watched it a long time yeah you might be
“happy to get over between areas i i'm also probably age now i think when the challenge just”
became a professional sporting event yeah i've been people screaming at each other testing up at a closet yeah nobody's took it up at a closet or a bathroom anywhere i was like i don't know i don't know where we go with this um all right guys i think we covered everything i think so her america is gone the next her mba champions the Celtics are incomplete flux a j brown is on the on the patriots he twos coming out just a lot crazy shit's happening right now uh jc i will see
on wait a second in the next weeks yes um c_r_ i will see if we're watching the next way people can
watch us do i'll eat today thanks to Eduardo and gal and Chris and Jack and everybody that's about if i i'm gonna be back one more time this week not sure when so i've stayed tuned for that thanks for watching on Netflix must be 21 plus in president select states for Kansas and affiliation with Kansas star casino or 18 plus in president d_c_ can tuck you away i'm a game problem call 1100 gambler
1-800 my reset call 888-79-7777 or visit c_c_pg.org/chat and Connecticut or mdgamblinghelp.org or call 800-327-50-50 for 24/7 support mess chusets or call 877-8 hope and why or text hope and why in New York for Louisiana call 877-77-0787-0787


