US Mens Freese on Primetime, Fixing It For Argentina, and British GP Yellow Flag Drama

[00:00:04] Speaker A: All right, welcome back, sources from the sofa. I am on the road here in Corona with the other guys, Aaron and Jason. I'm actually at Aaron's spot right now. Just got done having some Indian food for dinner and we were just talking about the other night. I finally got to step inside Wood Ranch. Is, is that what it's called? Wood Ranch? [00:00:31] Speaker B: All right. [00:00:31] Speaker A: I got it right this time. [00:00:32] Speaker B: All right. [00:00:33] Speaker A: Wood Ranch. And I gotta say, man, I, I, it's quite delicious. Highly recommend it. I'm not really into big on chain restaurants, but Wood Ranch, if there's a restaurant that I can start frequenting in, frequenting ever so often, it would definitely be Wood Ranch. Old Fashioned was a little too sweet, but the beers are cold, the beef ribs were phenomenal and I definitely like the sides of the mashed potatoes and corn. It was really good and I KO'd afterwards, so. So much good food. We have a big pod to talk. Basically we're going to recap the World Cup. We just got done with the round of 16. Lots of drama. Last time when we were on the pod, it was right when Balugun got the red card and from at that point we thought he was suspended for the next game against Belgium. The US was playing really good at the time. They dominated throughout and, and looked really sharp throughout the group stage. And we had every reason to believe that they would show out in the round of 16 and move on. Oh, I'm sorry, yeah, move on to the round of eight. There was a few upsets, a few crazy calls. Var or var, however you want to call it, not looking good so far in this World cup. FIFA, if they're trying to beat the corrupt allegations, not doing a great job either after this round of the World cup. FIFA, if you're on the socials, it stands for, let's see if I can remember it here. Fixing it for Argentina. FIFA for Argentina. Based on today's game. Me and Aaron were talking with the owner of more curry in Corona. It's quite delicious. Go check it out if you're in the IE. But we watched the Argentina game this morning at 9 o'. Clock. Argentina 132 against Egypt. Egypt looked really good. One of my favorite players, Salah and the rest of the squad were looking really sharp. A couple of goals got called back allegedly for a foul that happened what felt like 20 minutes way beforehand. We'll ask at his opinions and it seems like VAR kind of only helps out the bigger countries. Smaller countries are 0 and 9 when they're trying to challenge you and they're trying to get a call their way, so lots to talk about. I don't know if you guys want to talk about today's last of the round of 16 games or you guys want to go back to yesterday's dismal performance by the United States against Belgium, which ended up being an ass whooping for different reasons. Which way you want to go? [00:03:10] Speaker C: I'm not Roman. You got me all hungry. You know, you're talking about Wood Ranch, which is a deep cut on the pod. You know, going back to earlier during football season. We were telling you about Wood Ranch. Then you're talking about your delicious time at Aaron's friends restaurant at. More curry over there. So just, you know, you. You're just talking about food here, so I'm very hungry. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah. But I was kind of surprised Aaron got the lamb curry. I know this guy ate lamb. That show is pretty good, man. That shows pretty good. And then I couldn't make a decision. I. I don't know how to read a menu and has too many options, man. But we also got the butter chicken wrap. That was pretty good, too. [00:03:45] Speaker C: You've silenced Aaron because you got him on mute right now. [00:03:48] Speaker B: So, you know, Jason's gotta go there, man. I know he likes that China fusion, so it's right next door, man. Got. You gotta. Gotta stop in, man. [00:03:56] Speaker C: The China fusion really giving the podcast listeners a great thing on the. The finest eateries in Corona, California. [00:04:03] Speaker A: China fusion. That looks pretty good, man. I gotta try that shit. I don't know. I have a soft spot for fast food, Chinese food. [00:04:10] Speaker B: It's. [00:04:10] Speaker C: It's. It's a good spot. I do like the China fusion. They got some good dishes. The orange chicken, the. You know, the kung pao. Shrimp's really good there. [00:04:18] Speaker B: Rome. [00:04:18] Speaker C: I'm all hungry now, man. Cheese. [00:04:19] Speaker A: All right, cool. Well, let's recap then. The whole round of 16 then, because it's a lot of matches. Canada, Morocco. That was on Saturday, July 4th. I had a pretty good 4th. Me and my daughter, well, she just spent the whole day swimming. Had some good barbecue. And my friend Will's and Bonnie's in Livermore. Will knows how to cook, man. There was some ribs there, too. Some brisket, some baked beans. He made baked beans from scratch. Oh, that was really good. The Mac and cheese was pretty good. The potato salad, that was pretty good. The Mac salad. [00:04:50] Speaker C: How do we go? How do we go? Talking about the Morocco game into now, what you had in July 4th. [00:04:54] Speaker A: I'm just remembering what I was eating for the July Doing the. [00:04:57] Speaker C: Apparently, this is the food pod that we're doing right now to talk about that. [00:05:01] Speaker B: You. [00:05:02] Speaker A: So I might have been, like, a little drunk this past week, and I'm a sucker for macaroni salad. I had some macaroni salad in the fridge, and I had, like. I made some tortas, you know, like, it's a sandwich, not a. Not the other kind of dorta. Forever's thinking that. But I had a thortha, nice thick sandwich, and you know they're gonna go bad. So I put a little mayo in it, put a couple slices of ham, and then I filled the rest with macaroni salad. Like, the left leftover container that I had for, like, barbecue with some of the neighbors. And that show is delicious. I had so much Mac salad this week. But you're right, though. I don't know why we're talking about food, because I'm still kind of hungry. [00:05:40] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:40] Speaker A: But. [00:05:40] Speaker C: Okay. All right, let's recap the game, and then we can talk about what you ate on July 5th. Now, after that, I mean, nice. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Does Morocco sound like macaroni or what, man? Is that how we got there? [00:05:51] Speaker C: I don't know. I think it was more of July 4th, and we were at his friend Will's house, and then he made all this. This great spread. [00:05:57] Speaker A: So, you know, yeah, dude, Rocco does sound kind of like, all right. So, like, all right. No. No match. Morocco took care of business. Paraguay, France. Paraguay played a really physical game. That was the only time, only way that they're gonna beat France, but France took care of business. Etched that way with the 10 victory. It was a tough match for them. Brazil, Norway. I called the upset from Norway. They don't have a lot of experience in the World cup, but Brazil hasn't looked great either. But Holland, Harland, whatever his name is, just Holland dominating, stepped in. He kind of plays like Lionel Massey, where he's kind of, like, walking the field, kind of chilling. And all of a sudden, right when he sees, like, an open hole, he. He dashes in, scored a couple beautiful goals. Well deserved win. Norway. I think it's the first time that they've gone to the quarterfinals. Later that day, Sunday, Mexico, England. One of the best matches of the World cup to date. England even got a red card. Mexico played really good. And then the final 20 minutes or so, they just kept on crossing the ball to nobody available. There was, like, no imagination to the offensive side. They kind of reverted back to the way Mexico has played in past tournaments, and it was very underwhelming. Because other than that, that was very physical. And England still got another goal down a guy. Three, two. They etch away from Azteca. That was a fun game. Portugal, Spain. Tough match. Nobody can score. Spain finally gets one in the final minutes. I'm happy because Spain's my team. And Ronaldo. Bye bye, buddy. Off to Never Neverland. That was yesterday. That was the appetizer before the USA Belgian game. 50, 50. Pick them. I had USA winning maybe like a 3:2 match. 2:1 match. Belgium scores in the what, first 10 minutes. USA finally gets the equalizer. About 20 minutes later, a phenomenal free kick from our guy. That had one in the last game as well. Belgium responds 90 seconds later, if that, and we're like, what the 2:1? Every goal that Belgium scored, I know it's 4:1. The last two goals were absolute dog, but we'll come back to this game. But the USA team, they just look like they had cement in their feet. Looked like the pressure was too big. And. And Freeman, or Freezeman, whatever his name is, froze as. As our goalie. Like, abysmal play. And it was quite embarrassing. I thought if they. If we could have just at least played a good game, it would have pushed soccer so much further ahead. I. I feel like they might. Might have costed soccer advancing in this country five or six years. That's how bad of a game it was. It was complete, dog. Today we had Argentina and Egypt. Depending on who you are, man, you think Egypt got robbed just like the way Senegal got robbed last week or Cape Verde got robbed against Argentina again. So back to back games. Argentina benefits from FIFA calls, if you want to call it that way. But at the end of the day, though, three goals in the last 10 minutes or so. Quite phenomenal. The last one coming in the. In extra time. Three, two. Man. Unbelievable. The first Argentina has come back from behind in any World cup knockout game. First time in Messi's career as well. In the last game, Switzerland, Colombia. Really good game. I wasn't really sure who should win it or who deserved to win. [00:09:35] Speaker B: It. [00:09:35] Speaker A: Seemed like pretty evenly matched. Looks like Colombia dominated pretty big portions of the game, but Switzerland had some great counter attacks. But we go into penalties and Switzerland prevails. 4, 3. So now we have our matchups going into the quarterfinals. France against Morocco on Thursday, followed by Spain, Belgium on Friday, Norway England on Saturday, which is a double header with Argentina and Switzerland. So every game has been phenomenal. I feel like this, like, has been one of the better World Cups. Every game has felt magical, competitive Very aggressive var of. Of a few, you know, black guys. [00:10:19] Speaker B: Var. [00:10:21] Speaker A: It is not good. I feel like it is kind of mess of the game a little bit. They kind of screwed over a few small countries that were very well deserving of creating some upsets. Moving on to the round of 16. We saw a couple examples today. The Argentina, Egypt game and then aside from maybe Morocco, Canada, because that was a blowout. Canada gave their best effort. The worst game of the World cup so far was a USA Belgium game. That was the ugliest game I've seen in a long, long time. And this is a very talented USA team. A lot of people say like, oh, you know, like, you know, what makes everyone think that you. That the US should have won because they were finally playing like a European team. Like they, they passed very well, they were attacking very well and I, you know, they have the talent. But I don't know if it was Trump intervening and getting Baligan back in the game. I don't know if it's all the drama, if like all of a sudden like all the pressure kind of built up because everyone's saying like this is the biggest game of the USA's storied history in the World cup and all these young guys careers, it was too much though. Everyone had led. The goalkeeper was absolute trash. You've seen all the memes, you've seen harden in a bill's uniform and they're saying that was a USA team in the round of 16. There's De' Aaron Fox in a USA jersey. They're saying that was a USA team in the round Of 16. It was just. What do we compare this to, Aaron? I really can't remember. But as far as like complete meltdowns, when you're, you're supposed to show up on the biggest stage, this is, this ranks up there. It's up there, you know, it's up there. It's like, it's like Rocky showing up to play, you know, fight Mr. T when he thinks he's going to be defending his 11th title and then he gets knocked out in the third round, you know, and then it sends it back to reality. Like that's what kind of reminded me of, I don't know. Give me your two cents, guys. In the round of 16. And what you think of the USA Belgium match? [00:12:26] Speaker C: Well, so much to digest, Roman. You know, you got all this food. I mean, you're just firing on all cylinders right now. Just recapping the round of 16. [00:12:33] Speaker B: Dude, that 10 minute monologue going on there. Yeah, I Know a lot there. [00:12:38] Speaker C: I thought he was, you know, just gonna do this whole show. He was using the herd with Colin Cowherd right now. Just gonna do the whole talk to himself monologue right now. So. But yeah, I. I think we'll start with the USA Belgium. I got some thoughts in the other games, too, but, yeah, I, I don't know what you compare it to. Rome. I'm sure there's going to be stuff out there you can put for, you know, showing up at the biggest moment. I mean, definitely wasn't like the super bowl this year for the Patriots, just kind of no showing when they get there, too. But I don't even think it's that because that was. That was championship game, no showing. But this was. This was something that the hype train was about. And it is a consistent theme with U.S. soccer is the unfortunate part, because I agree with you, there was something different about this team. The style of play we talked to in the previous pods, you know, these early games in the, in the, in the group stage, and then versus versus Bosnia, like, they're attacking, and the first 25, 30 minutes of this game, man, they were just on their heels the entire time. Just never had the ball. It felt like Belgium was playing 13, 14 people out there because they couldn't move, you know, move the ball. And it just looked like a completely different team early. And it was. It was like, man, we're. It felt like we're going to get blown out. And then you had this, you know, the. The set play goal by by Tillman. That was a phenomenal shot. Ties the thing up. Okay, this is going to be momentum. And you're like, all the wins was out of the sails, you know, 90 seconds later when. When they score another goal. And then at that point, you know, it felt like Belgium was like, okay, we have. We have. We have the talent, we have the defense. We can just pack it in. We didn't allow the U.S. like, I think the U.S. actually had time of possession, you know, in the second half, definitely. And it just felt like we could never get the ball in the box. Like, we're just passing the ball back and forth through the midfield and the defenders, but, like, there wasn't anything penetrating at all to give, like, really great scoring chances. And the backline defense of the United States is like. It felt like a little bit of a liability. Even in the group stage when they gave some of those, you know, the BS goals versus Paraguay and some of the other stuff, like, we just can let anything slide at Any moment. And that's what it felt like in those, in that first goal and the second goal. Like it was just like, man, we're just letting something so easily go by. And you know, I were, we're ready to recover and then we're just, we're pressing to try to make something happen. And Belgium was kind of packing it in because the third goal, I mean just an all time terrible play by, by Freeze as the keeper and then Heim the defender trying to defend back there in that goal and he's trying to kick it instead of just standing in front of it and taking, taking the shot. So there was just so many things wrong with the game. And Rome, you made your commentary on what it did for U.S. soccer. Yeah, like this is where we lose. Like this team felt better. It didn't feel like we were like lucky to be there around of 16 like before. It's like, hey, there was a, there was a momentum across the country with this and at some point I've long felt like, yeah, soccer is going to break through in this country. Like it's, it's huge at the youth level and you know, it's huge internationally. You know, it has the potential maybe at some point it could be the third or second biggest sport. I don't think it ever tops the NFL. But there's an ability that at one point, maybe in the future, like soccer, baby, tops basketball because of its, its reach around the world. Like I think it's definitely has that [00:15:52] Speaker A: potential point it, it definitely has potential being the second most popular sport here in the country outside of football because it's already passing all the numbers on, on every other sport, attendance wise and jersey sales, all that stuff. [00:16:03] Speaker C: But yeah, like the supporting locally for all these teams is like amazing when you think of like the club level, they have a, they, it's a smaller fan base for every club for mls. But like, dude, you just launched an expansion franchise and they got, you know, 15,000, 20,000 people that are like every game or whatever it is for you know, markets like Portland and Seattle and Atlanta and Miami and you know, anything we do out here in la, San Diego is a brand new franchise down there. They're selling out every game out there. They went to the championship in their first year. So there's, there's a for it, but there's, there's things structurally and I, I don't think we just spend the whole time out there about this, but like youth soccer at this level, there's a ton of commentary on how that goes because it is like, you know, it's travel hockey, travel basketball, where you got to pay like, you know, tens of thousands of dollars for parents to be able to get into this. So we're pricing out potential commercialism that's [00:16:49] Speaker A: ruining it in our own country. [00:16:51] Speaker C: Right? I mean, it's, because it's like, I mean this stuff's owned by like, I mean there's, there's stuff on travel, sports everywhere where it's like hedge fund own stuff on everything. We're not like Europe. We're like, man, these guys at the club level for, you know, Real Madrid or any of the English Premier League teams, like they have youth academies and stuff, like they're paying you to come to them to build the star and they basically get return on their investment here. But now it's like, hey, you're paying in for this to be a corporatization and there's, and there's a ton of that. So there's that. And then even the MLS is a league. When you compare it against our other major sports league, it's a very, you know, a financially tight league. You play for mls, you don't play for the, the individual teams and there's all these rules and exceptions for the salaries and stuff. So we're always going to get, you know, England, European stars past their prime and like, you know, kind of a second tier of athlete. If at some point that changes and we're able to attract the biggest athletes in the world and stuff, then that it turns on his head. But to your point, Rome, the momentum of this team, the country's behind them. It's the, it's one of the best things about the United States when it comes to sports. Like this is a, bring everyone together in this country and everyone's, you know, most of the part, everyone's rooting for this team. And this kind of just like, man, like I, if we would have went out in a shootout or when went out like in a one goal thing where it's pressing us at the end, like it would have felt different. But like, you know, this is like, hey, we just got embarrassed on the world stage right now and we're, hey, we're the 15th or 16th best team in the world and that just doesn't cut it for what we expect from American standards. [00:18:21] Speaker A: It was crazy. This most talented team and I could have sworn we, we were ranked in the top 10 like 10 years ago. So it's just, it's just kind of pathetic. The only guy that played well was Tillman. Everybody else was complete abysmal. And Pulisic, I never thought he was the top billing for this team. Everyone was trying to make him a superstar, but he doesn't seem like he has that killer instinct. And then now when we go back because, dude, people are hammering down the US Team now. Plastic. He skipped the Gold Cup. He wanted to save himself for the World Cup. He only played one full game. When you add it all up. And he kind of rested and even his comments afterwards saying like, well, you know, now he gets to rest his ankle. You rested the whole World Cup. You didn't do. You're too busy doing Michelo, you know, you know, commercials with, with Messi. Aaron told me about Visa. I don't want to see this guy's face ever again. And Baligun, you know, he, he got the, the pass from, from Trump. Was that why he wasn't as aggressive? I, I don't know. Like, it just, it was just a disgusting performance from our team. [00:19:24] Speaker B: The moment was too much room. [00:19:26] Speaker C: Yeah, the moment was too much. I, I pull. You're right. A polistic. I know he's getting hammered every which way. I mean, I was in a group shack with my friends who don't watch a ton of soccer like, you know, and I think we watch a little bit here and, and everyone's obviously skim for the World cup, but they, A couple of my friends asked, hey, the best player is Pulisic, our best player. I'm like, I don't think he is. I think he might be the talent, most talented player. But you look at Adams and Weston McKinney like they play for some big time clubs and have big time contribution. Pulisics had, you know, he's out in, in playing for, I think it's A.C. milan. You know, he was going like a goalless streak for like months on end out there. [00:20:03] Speaker B: Six months, right? I think six months he hadn't scored in a major competition, right. [00:20:08] Speaker C: And so like he hadn't played great for at the club level. Hasn't done much at the, you know, the U.S. level. And this was the time really to step up and be this. If you're going to be like you said Rob, you're going to have all the commercials and you're going to be the superstar. It's time to, you know, step up in these big moments. And he just, he does. Wasn't there like Baligan was still in the starlight. And that's why I think the red card was so thin because like, man, this guy's scoring in Every game. And Pulisic didn't score the whole World cup. And he said like, I think he had a good half, first half versus Paraguay. Like, you know, it was like he looked like the best player on the team. I was like, damn, he does. He's the most talented. He was blowing by Paraguay in all sorts of time that first half where the US Came out to play that first game. And since then it's just like it, it didn't feel like he was there and you know, which is unfortunate because hey, he was going to be the, the, the big hope for the United States. We have our striker, that's going to be the guy. And he, and but hasn't lived up in the club level and then skipping the Gold cup, he was, you know, criticized for that. And because of the rest he did. It didn't perform and it didn't pay off. So I mean there's going to be obviously some retooling. We'll see if Puccino comes back. I think. [00:21:16] Speaker A: I hope so. I hope so too. [00:21:21] Speaker C: He unlocked something that was there and he didn't get the full World cup cycle. He got two years out of this. And I think there's something to be said on like what he can do and encourage these guys to put a roster together in four years where he gets an entire time to build what he needs to, wants to build. [00:21:35] Speaker A: I was pretty critical of the US kind of squandering this four year window because they played well the, the last World World cup and they should have went on to another knockout round. They under performed in that as well. And that was a young team baligun. At least he's young. I think he might be like the breakout star that our country needs. And I, I heard there's a couple young kids coming up that are like 17, 16 years old right now. So next World cup, hopefully Pichettino stays. The next one's gonna be really huge. It's gonna be in Spain and Portugal. This team has a talent to at least get to the elite eight, you know, if matchups line up well, you know, final four. But this is underwhelming. One thing I didn't like was Alexi Lawless was like really critical of the coach, saying like, you know, this is why we paid Pichettino like the big money. He better win this game. You saw him on the sidelines like he knew his team just didn't have it that day. Like they had cement in their feet, they were dragging. They were just missing assignments. Freeze. Which I hope he never makes another U.S. men's team. Like that was an abysmal performance. He looked like Kwame Brown out there. It was so bad. But I in totality what Pachino was able to do with this team and like kind of unlock things. I hope he comes back because we need continuity. We can't be doing, you know, two coaches, you know, back and forth. But you know, they, we have some international tournaments coming up right away, so they got to turn it around and, and the Gold Cups next. So we'll see what happens. [00:23:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean I think there's an opportunity there. I, I don't agree with majority of what Alexi Lawless says. I've, I've, I've, I've, I've enjoyed Zlatan. I, I said like the last pod. But like that first day that Zlatan, Henri and Lawless around, I was like, man, this, this panel is not there. But as these guys have gotten reps, man, like that is a, that is a great show. That with Rebecca Lowe and Zlatan and, and Henry and just like it was today, man, it was trending. I don't know if you saw it. Whereas Latin was basically talking about, you know, people missing penalty kicks and stuff. He's like, I've missed a penalty. Henri's, you know, missed some penalties. Well, they've, the Lawless would never get a chance to even kick a penalty, but he would have missed it too or something like that. I mean, Zlatan's a hell of a guy, man. Like, he was entertaining. We played for the LA Galaxy when he came out here and just kind of, he, he just knows he's like a wrestling character to a degree, but he's just, he sums up every moment like perfectly where things are at. And I think just. It's just a great entertaining part of watch. But Lawless, man, like I just, I know he's trying to be some sort of hot take person and be the voice of U.S. soccer to a degree. To me. I'll give you a wrestling term right now. Rome. Aaron, are you familiar with X Pac Heat? [00:24:20] Speaker A: No. [00:24:21] Speaker C: So old WBF wrestler X Pac. He was the 1, 2, 3. Yeah, he was sick. [00:24:27] Speaker B: 6 was it. What was the other name he went by? [00:24:29] Speaker C: He was 6. He was 6 in WCW 1, 2, 3K before XPOT heat was called where you get booed out by the crowd. But in wrestling you're not getting booed because you're the villain. You're booed because everyone freaking hates you and you suck. And that's where like I don't know if Lala's trying to get like heat on this, but like he's just got Xbox, man. Like no one cares what, what he says at a certain point right now for every which way about not caring. So like I think Puccino, like you can, you can say what you want, but he didn't get the full cycle. He had this team going at another level and at the end of the day the players got to perform and we talked about Pulisic. I think that backline for the U.S. you know, you know, defense. But is. Is something to be a huge question mark for the, for the, the opportunities other teams are able to get very quickly and you know, the goaltendings, the keeper situation like Freeze I think was like basically a tournament time decision, you know, beating out whoever did. We didn't have the big time goaltender because man, I mean we didn't even talk through some of the goaltending performances. Like throughout that, that, you know, the round of 16, you were talking through Rome like the goalie from Cape Verde in that performance, you had the guy, you know, even, even the Mexico England game, like England's goalie was like just all over the place too. Like there was some great keeper performances that you know, the US Plainly did not have and that was, that was a strength for us before we had, you know, we had Tim Howard. I think he was the most decorated like player on that roster. He played for like Everton and got [00:25:54] Speaker B: that big time record for most saves right before that got tied, I believe by. In this World Cup. [00:26:00] Speaker C: Yeah, so I mean that was our thing. Like hey, we can get keepers, man. You, you let a U.S. guy, you know, have the position where you can play with your hands. We're going to put a top guy out there. And so that's, that should be a strength of ours. And it wasn't then I think just the defense looking backwards like what are they going to do that sure up in these four years or if you're talking the Gold cup or some of these other tournaments going forward. But I think, I think Puccino is the guy, man. I think he's the guy got around and have some continuity and you know he's had success at Tottenham. He coached the best players in the world at psg and yeah, I think this is what you need. Yeah, Chelsea. [00:26:32] Speaker A: So if we had Tim Howard, we'd be definitely moving on to the next stage and we'd have a pretty good shot of making it even further. So yeah, dude, deep defense, goalie was Definitely not there. [00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it was lacking. I mean, Matt freeze. Romy touched on it. That'll be the last time we see him. I mean, the embarrassment that he put out there, I mean, he was all over the place. Obviously kicking the foot into the ground there. It's going to go down. I mean, Jason touched on early, like that second half. We had a lot of possession, not really good threats, but, you know, we were. We were pushing forward, kind of had momentum on our side. Kind of felt like, okay, like, as long as we keep it within one goal, we can get the equalizer. And then you just kind of have a deflating play like that. I mean, it's. It's deflating, right? You're kind of wondering, like, hey, man, did he get fouled? And then you look at it, you're like, oh, dude, kick. Kick the grass, right? So they get the goal, they go up 3, 1. And it was just kind of, you know, deflating because we didn't. We had what, one? I. I think Rome. I told you. Look at you can't win a game when you're in, like, the 85 minute and you got one shot on a goal. I don't care how good you've been playing, you're not going to beat a team like Belgium, who was fortunate to get in, right? They were down 20 against Senegal. Get that goal in like the 85th minute, then it's the uppage time, they get a goal to tie it. And then at the 125 mark in extra time on a PK penalty kick, they advance and beat Senegal. So, you know, Belgium's actually gotten better as the tournament gone on. I mean, they were, you know, maybe on the outskirts looking in. They had to beat New Zealand because they drew the first two games, beat them, won the group because Egypt, you know, kind of rested their guys. They got that second in the group, which ended up then playing Argentina, because we could have ended up playing Egypt as that if they had won that group. So kind of maybe was not a great matchup for the U.S. i mean, Belgium, the size, I mean, passing. I mean, the U.S. i mean, the turnovers they were doing just unforced. Just really the moment was too big for them. And, you know, the stars. The stars for the U.S. they just weren't there, right? I mean, Tillman, I thought he was the only guy we gave a passing grade to mean Rome when we kind of graded out the players. But everybody else not there. [00:28:42] Speaker A: It's. [00:28:43] Speaker B: It's, you know, everybody's kind of jumping off the bandwagon here of Team usa. It was a successful, I believe World cup for us. I mean we hosted it here. We had a lot of momentum. This is the best we all agreed that we've seen this team play with aggression, going out scoring goals. First time they were behind and you know, Jason touched on it. Look at the goalie situation. I mean Matt Freeze hadn't been tested. We didn't play him against Turkey. A we brought in the other guy. He was bad, he was terrible. So they went back to Matt Freeze. Bosnia didn't have the athletes to play with them. Us, we were too quick. And then Belgium just executing their passes too easily. The back line defense was not great. And look at Belgium made it look easy. And I touched on it with Rome like, hey, maybe it's a good thing because if this moment was too big for us, imagine going back to La pain. Spain, who is this tournament's gone on has gotten a lot better. We'll touch on these other games but Spain I think would have probably rolled us at least 30 if not 450 the way they're able to pass and just kind of play the game of soccer. So I mean for the US I agree. I think the next four years are going to be big. Hopefully we can keep the coach. Hopefully we can build on the momentum. Hopefully the popularity goes up in sport. Agreed. It could become the second most popular sport. I mean football obviously is America's sport and his here to stay barring anything crazy. But soccer, if more athletes decide to get into it. Mls, everything is growing. Obviously we're going to need the athletes to play and compete against these top tier teams that have, you know, youth clubs that Jason touched on all these youth teams. So yeah, let's, let's see what happens. But I'm excited for USA Soccer and when the World cup comes around in 2030, I'll be excited again when it's in in Spain, Portugal and what Morocco. So looking forward to it. [00:30:27] Speaker A: Any final comments? [00:30:29] Speaker C: US or the World cup overall? [00:30:31] Speaker B: Either or. [00:30:32] Speaker A: I, I know since we didn't talk since last Wednesday, I think when we record the pod, there was some pretty good games. Man, what am I missing here? Egypt against Australia. That went to penalty. [00:30:47] Speaker C: I mean I would really talk about that the England Mexico game because I mean, yeah, just atmosphere and at Stadium Azteca, you know, just the craziness from a goal perspective and where things were at in that game, it just, I mean Jude Bellingham just, man, it was just crazy with him than them getting the red card basically on the 11 on 10 for the entire second half. Pretty much the most part for England. I mean, that was. That was a hell of a game. And I. I don't know if you can. I mean, I like. So you can get much better. But you saw the Argentina game today too. But I. I think when you looked at the atmosphere and everything of that game, I don't know if much beat it. I thought Seattle was going to give it a run from an atmosphere perspective. But hey, I was saying I don't want to go with the US Thing a little bit. I was. I was disappointed it didn't have the vibes because it was in at night there. Like it was like something everyone was hyping it for, like a Monday Night Football. You know, goofy things happen with the Seahawks whenever you play these Monday Night Football games. Seattle. But it being at like 5pm out here in the west coast and it was like bright and sunny. Like there's something about that stadium when it's, you know, the Pacific Northwest and the stars are in the sky and it's dark and it's pitch black and that stadium's rocking. But I think the. The Azteca Stadium in Mexico City definitely had that vibe because it just. There was like a. There was like a graininess to the camera that just looked like. It was like the camera was like shaking at certain points. And like, you know, obviously there's memes flying back and forth about, you know, the England team being able to get out alive. Like, you have set enough. You had them setting up fireworks at their hotel. I think England booked 15 different hotels to try to throw them off, but they still found out which hotel they were at. Harry Kane's voice in the Post interview. The guy had like, like zero voice. Sounded like a Muppet. That was some great. [00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you see the. The dub over with Bert? [00:32:44] Speaker C: Yes. Great stuff, Great stuff. So I don't know that that was. That was a thoroughly enjoyed game Sunday night there that I think the Sunday. Both games, because even the Norway Brazil game was. Had. Had drama. You talked about, you know, Holland, man, like that guy, you know, best player in the world. I know you were talking what Messi can do, but, man, his ability. You mentioned the way he kind of does that messy, like where it's kind of like he's kind of walking around, but the dude's like an apex predator out there. It's like the shark just like waiting to hunt his kind of food. And he's like walking, walking, walking. Slight jaws. Sprint header goal. And it Just like, just like the stuff you watch. And I think he's getting. Might be one of the bigger wins of this tournament. For people that are not familiar with him, he's like the English Premier League's, like, record holder for most goals in a season and obviously has tons of success at Manchester City. But I think he's getting kind of like the US Glow up right now. It's like, man, I think there's gonna be a ton of Manchester City fans coming out of this because they're just such big fans of him. I think Norway probably is going to be the United States's team is going to be my guess right now. They're. They're into the, this, the, the Viking experience. These guys are putting on with the, with the row, you know, thing at the end after they're winning and, and everything about this Norway team. [00:34:00] Speaker A: Well, Holland as well, man, he's pretty young. I think he's like only 24, 25. And so he's just so much. He's built so much bigger than everybody else. This guy looks like a football player, almost like a tight end, so he definitely towers over a lot of guys. He's. He's deceptively quick, man, when he has to. And he's turning out to be so. He's. He's 6 5, man. That's huge on the pitch. [00:34:26] Speaker C: He's. I mean, he's like, he's like the tight ends, you get, that has wide receiver skills. [00:34:30] Speaker A: 210 pounds. Like, come on. That's. That's humongous, dude. Messi. My height, 5 7, and I weigh more than messy. This guy's barely 160 wet. [00:34:41] Speaker C: Now you, you watch Holland go through the defense. Like, I, I. You're like, is this legal for him to just plow through people with the ball? Like, you're just, like, getting out of his way. It's just, it's just crazy. It's impressive to watch. That looks like name. [00:34:53] Speaker A: He looks like some, like, Game of Thrones character he was talking about. [00:34:57] Speaker C: There was all sorts of means. It was like, you don't go against a Targaryen on a Sunday. Basically, like that, because he just, he looks like Aemond or Daemon Targaryen from House of Dragon right now. [00:35:09] Speaker A: God. Oh, dude. He does. [00:35:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:35:13] Speaker A: Oh, my God. That's hilarious. [00:35:17] Speaker C: Yeah. If you're up, if you're up in House of the Dragon, there's a lot of memes coming for this Norway England game where it's like a, if you watched this last week, you had one of The High Towers versus Targaryens. I'm not gonna spoil anything. [00:35:29] Speaker A: But that's the comparison because my old babysitter hasn't paid for HBO account, so I haven't been able to watch anything lately. Emma, if you're listening to the fucking podcast, since Andrew hasn't jumped on to talk F1, pay your bill because one of your old clients got so awesome hbo. [00:35:45] Speaker C: Well, I'll just tell you, Rome, if you've watched the first two seasons of House of Dragon, a little bit of a disappointing coming off Game of Thrones. You start of season three, first two episodes, fantastic stuff. See episode three. Last night was really good too. [00:35:56] Speaker A: So I've liked House of Dragons almost as much as House of Cards. Or not House Cards. I'm getting all mixed up now. [00:36:03] Speaker C: Game of Thrones, now House of Cards, way different show. [00:36:06] Speaker B: But wait, Cards. Where are we going on that one, man? Like, hey, House. [00:36:10] Speaker C: House of Cards is the, like the. The massive example of a great television show that just fell under the worst. Like there's never a bigger drop off of first season to last season. [00:36:19] Speaker B: I didn't watch the last season. I didn't even watch the last season of House of Cards. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Okay, real quick. House of cards, perfect example. USA came out on fire. House of cards, great. Three seasons, round of 16 when. When what's his face gets caught for funneling young kids and then the whole show disappears. Like that was the US House of Cars. That's a parallel right there. That's the parallel. The USA team was a House of Cards show. [00:36:48] Speaker C: It's. It's not a bad comparison because I think if you season one of House of Cards, I put that up there as one of the best single season episodes of TV. [00:36:56] Speaker A: It's great. [00:36:57] Speaker C: And then season two and three are really good. They don't live up to season one. I think that's what you look at US's second and third grade in group play. You get to season four. It's pretty good. But yeah, five and six, it just goes down the drain. And season six is the worst season of like so fast. [00:37:11] Speaker A: I never watched the last season. [00:37:13] Speaker C: It's. It's. It's bad. I mean they tried to save it the best they could, but I don't know. We're going on a tangent. I. I do. I wanna. I wanna go back to soccer. I just want to bring up too because the. Norway. Brazil. Brazil. I. I want to think of like an sec. Football. Like Compa. Who. Brazil is of like this like perennial champion. I mean, I don't know, maybe they're Notre Dame. I don't know. We just tell them they're the best ever. They won all these forever. [00:37:38] Speaker B: I want to go that far. [00:37:42] Speaker C: I mean, I'm throwing a shot at my own team right now. But like Brazil, like we're talking my entire adult life I've been talking about how everyone's great Brazil, but they show up in these moments, man, like they're. They didn't look great this whole tournament. And Neymar out there, like, I know he used to be one of the best players in the world. He's basically way past his prime. He comes in just talking mad crap. I I compared his penalty kick goal is that this is the A Rod, you know, 2003 solo home run when the Rangers are down 10 1. Just trotting the bases like he did something big. Like he talked so much crap on this penalty kick that was like utterly useless as time expired. [00:38:18] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean he had the penalty kick. I mean didn't he get like a. He probably could have even gotten two yellow cards or a red card right before that. I mean he just was literally just jumping on people trying to cause problems and fights. Yeah, Brazil, a lot of shakeup. I mean, why did. They're not their best player. Vinnie Jr. Not shoot the penalty kick. I don't know what that was all about. [00:38:38] Speaker C: Fire the manager. Now that was a fireable offense. What are you doing? [00:38:41] Speaker B: But that's kind of what he just jumped in too, right? Carlos or whatever, he just kind of jumped into that team if like six months ago. So, you know, he's one of the bigger, you know, coaches managers in the club level scene. So we'll see if they keep him. But Brazil, they don't have that mystique. I think we talked about it when this, when the first couple games of the World cup they just don't have that mystique. Right. I mean they are the what, five time World cup champions haven't won it Since. Was it 94? Is that the last time they won it? Only team ever to win what? Back to back countries to win back to back. We'll see if Argentina's can do it this year. But yeah, Brazil wasn't high up on them. I mean they were fortunate. I mean they got the goal, what. One minute left and stoppage. Time to beat Japan just to get to this game. And Norway, you know, Norway, I'm happy Nori won. So I mean Norway, England is going to be a great matchup on Saturday afternoon. [00:39:37] Speaker A: I guess the comp for Brazil would be like, who's won a lot of championships? But now they're just living on their. On their. On their laurels, on the history. I could do a basketball comparison. UCLA still living in the past with John Wooden. You know, football. Yeah. Let's see. Texas, maybe. No, Texas is still kind of in the mix. Ohio State came back. [00:40:05] Speaker C: Brazil's in the mix. But you're trying to think like the. Brazil's last World cup is what, 30 years ago at this point. [00:40:12] Speaker A: I think we were kids when they last won, right? [00:40:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So the last US World cup or [00:40:19] Speaker A: whatever, when they said on the telecast that Neymar and like a lot of this squad that's like, aging out, they never made it past the quarterfinals for Brazil, that blew my mind because I could have sworn they've been near the end this whole time, but they. They've had issues on their own. Seems like. I don't know. It's just bizarre. But good point, though. Japan. [00:40:40] Speaker C: I'll fact check. Us. [00:40:41] Speaker A: We were so less than the World Cup. [00:40:46] Speaker C: Last one. The World cup in 2002. [00:40:48] Speaker B: That's Germany. [00:40:49] Speaker A: Okay. [00:40:49] Speaker C: In Japan. Yeah. So 24 years. [00:40:52] Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. Nice. Yeah. Still a long time for them. Let's see. I'm excited for the next round. I only got one team left in this, so. Spain. I'm going all in on Spain. Any thoughts before things kick off on Thursday? We got a couple days before this thing kicks off. Any bats? You guys have any favorites? Maybe top two favorites because we're down to the final eight here. Final 16. [00:41:23] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure there was only three. There was only three betting favorites that I think based on the trends of World Cups that were like, say, they could win based on history, and it was France, Spain, and Argentina. So I think France and Spain probably clearly the top two when it comes to that. You're looking for that as a chance to win, so I think that's still probably this favorites. I mean, France, they played some close games. I mean, their last. Their last game had a lot of questions for the physicality in that game and what the. What Paraguay was trying to do with. With France in that game and how aggressive they were with Mbappe and some of the other French stars. So, I mean, that. That team just on the eye test, when you talk about if they were to play the United States, like, man, the. The speed the French have in the midfield and stuff like that, and to be able to break away and put themselves in the scoring position, I mean, they. I mean, I think they have three of the 10 best players in the world. [00:42:14] Speaker B: Potentially, the French team's B squad could beat our A team. [00:42:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah, I think. I think it's perfect, Aaron, like, so I. I don't know. It's hard. Things hard to go against France. I think they're, you know, they're minus 170 against Morocco right now. Morocco is a really good team, but I. I think this is an opportunity. I won't say it's an easy game for France because I think nothing's easy this far, but I think there's still them. Them versus them in Spain. France and Spain are the two. We're probably gonna consider this. [00:42:43] Speaker B: This is a rematch of the semifinals, too. Cup in which France beat Morocco. [00:42:48] Speaker C: So, yeah, Argentina, I mean, you talked a little about that game today, man. They are just. They're living on Messi right now, and it's coming down to the wire in every which way. I know you can. [00:42:59] Speaker A: I guess two scares back to back now, but if you look at the past World cup winners, they've had a couple scares in the middle, then they kind of break away, and when it. Maybe that repeats again. But if they. I like their gents against Switzerland. I like them against either Norway or England. Morocco can upset France. I think they have the town to do it. We'll see whether that happens. I don't know if you guys can pull up the odds for that. Belgium, I was gonna. I was surprised they. They played as well as that. They played against the U.S. of course, I. I think that's more of a us not showing up kind of thing. But they're lucky to be at this stage because they should have been knocked out by Senegal a long time ago. So Spain, I think, has been tuning up and getting hot at the right time, so I like to move on as well. [00:43:44] Speaker C: France is the biggest favorite. Spain's right behind them. Minus 165, I'm seeing. And then Argentina, minus 140. England. Norway closest to a push with England only minus 115. So I think. Which makes sense, I think. I think Norway's got the best player in the world. England's got, you know, more balanced. They do got, you know, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane and stuff, so they got. They got stars of their own. But, I mean, you're. You're talking. [00:44:11] Speaker B: You're. [00:44:11] Speaker C: You're in the heavy hitters, man. You got the best in the world in a bunch of these teams right now. I. I don't know. I don't. I think Morocco could be close, but I think that's probably it's the betting reason for a reason. This France seems just really good. [00:44:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean Morocco, I like this team. I mean they didn't, I mean look at Morocco was bad that first half against Canada, I mean they played terrible. Second half, they turned it up, beat him 3, 0. The counter attacks towards the end of that game. They got some goals there against Canada, but yeah, I mean France has got to be probably the favorite. But I mean here's the thing. France and Spain, if they do advance, they're going to play each other in the semifinal in Rome. I think you made a good point. Argentina, they've been there, I like them over Switzerland. And then you've got basically Norway, England, I think Argentina is going to get back to the final there as well. Looks that way. Tough games, they found a way to win. And then Spain, France, you know, maybe they kind of beat each other up. So we'll see what happens. But yeah, it's gonna be close. I mean I'm looking at the odds right now. France is the favorite, followed by, it looks like Spain, Argentina, then England. So you can get Belgium, Switzerland and Morocco at almost plus 3,000 to win this thing. Morocco's could be a sleeper though. [00:45:30] Speaker A: So just like the last World cup you have France, Morocco and Argentina. There are three of the last eight. They, they were in the final four last time, so that's, that's nothing. Belgium has not been this far in quite some time. This is the first time Norway has been in the final eight in their history, which is surprising. Switzerland's making a rare appearance I think in quite some time as well. So we got some new blood at least in the final eight. [00:45:58] Speaker C: Yeah, the, the bracket shakes out. I mean, I think you're looking at it because you're looking at a France, Spain, potential showdown in the semifinals, which if you're going against your FIFA, against FIFA conspiracy theories about Argentina. Rome, like Argentina is primed to have the easier of the semi final round matches if they get past Switzerland. And so I mean, yeah, you could see Messi getting. He has the easiest path all the way to the finals versus what like Mbappe has. [00:46:27] Speaker A: So Switzerland hasn't been to the quarterfinals since 1954. It's been a while. That's amazing. That is amazing. I gotta look up Belgium though. [00:46:45] Speaker B: The first World cup was what, 1950? [00:46:49] Speaker C: No, there was ones and there was ones in the 30s. Right. Because that's the US as farthest ever. There was like 1930 when. [00:46:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it was like semifinals. I mean this is. Well, Belgium's had some good teams. They just. I don't believe they've gotten past the round of 16 in quite some time. Maybe 2014 in Brazil, they might have got to the final eight. [00:47:11] Speaker A: Okay, I got it right here. Belgium actually got third place at 2018. They stunned Brazil in the quarterfinals. So I guess recently They've had some 2018. Not. Not. I guess they weren't in. In the last World Cup. So crazy. All right, Var, is this something that FIFA needs to look over? I feel like, especially with the goal that got overturned. What game was that? Was that. That was against Argentina, right? Cap Verde scored the equalizer in the final minutes and they said the guy was offsides because somehow the spike, the sensor was felt on the ball, on the hair follicle that bounced off the guy, which made the. Their guy offsides, even though they couldn't even find when the ball was actually kicked into the Gun Croatia game room. Oh, that was disgusting. [00:48:08] Speaker B: Dude, it's Portugal. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that, like, like, we've. We've gone to a point now with, like, instant replay has kind of ruined a lot of sports. Yeah, I. I think we should just go back to just saying if. If it visually looks good, let's just run with it because I'd rather do that than some of this like, like in the NFL. Like, was it a catch? Was it not a catch? Even if it was a catch, because the way the NFL rule was written by like, some Shakespearean, biblical, you know, it's not a catch. It's really confusing. [00:48:41] Speaker B: Rome, that's like these guys referee coming in. One's got the first down by a yard. The other guy's another full, like, three feet behind that mark. Right. Kansas City. Right. We talk about those guys at their home where Josh Allen looks like he clearly has a first down. And then the guy comes in and like, moves the back two feet. You're like, dude, what are you doing, bro? He's all the way up here. And then the other referee is like, I don't know. He's like a mad freeze. He just kind of gets out of there, doesn't know what to do. But no, I, like, I. I think Var is fine. [00:49:09] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm not. I'm not as against it as you are. I mean, obviously there's a lot of questions. I mean, even we didn't really touch. Touch a ton on the fallout from. From Baligan. But, like, I mean, that VAR was like, crazy because basically the VAR was ruling. Ruling a red car, which I think was out of the parameters of even Their like authority on it because the referee actually didn't call anything on the field and it jumped to a red card. So there was questions, which is like, I think some of the main reason it was overturned. I know you kept mentioning Trump and there's obviously, you know, he obviously will take credit for anything, but like. But yeah, I think there's some questions on the way it's applied, but I mean, the technology, it's going to be here. I mean, I think you look at ABs and major league Baseball right now, like I'm a massive fan of like abs. [00:49:50] Speaker A: That's pretty good. [00:49:51] Speaker C: This thing gets, this thing gets the calls right. It turned into a strategy play this year. I think. I don't want to jump into baseball right now because this is our traditional summer ignore baseball besides our fantasy league. But there's like six or seven umpires that are taking like the early retirement right now because they're getting embarrassed by the ABS on a daily basis right now that are going to be retiring at the end of the season. So I mean, this is where the technology gives the precision. And the thing. Thing with it is just there's too much money involved with this now. Rome, like we're talking betting odds of these next things going on and when you, and you want to leave, you know, some of the older, you know, spirit of the game, you really think it's down to the human error. It's like there's millions of dollars changing hands on some of these decisions and if there's ways we can get things right from a technology perspective, you're gonna do it now. It's just about respecting what the integrity of it is. I mean, the VAR room just looks corrupt as hell. It looks like this dark under cave from like Austin Powers that Dr. Eva would have is like everyone's in the dark, like watching these screens and there's like a green light on or something. Like it looks corrupt as hell. I mean, it's just like give, give me a better visual. I don't know what the hell we're doing with this, but I, I think it's here to stay. Rome. I don't think the technology is going to go in a way there because I think there's examples of how they continue can make it better. [00:51:05] Speaker A: Okay. Var. One thing I don't like is the offsides either. I, if, if you have like a, a pubic hair that's past defender, you're off sides. I don't like that. I think it should be like a full body length as long as like some part of your body is. Is matching the defender. Let him go. Like, we should be rewarding breakaway speed, timing. I like to penalize because I got an elbow. Because Var catches an elbow. Pass a defender. I don't like that part either. [00:51:31] Speaker C: Listen, I hate. I'm this guy on this podcast and with my entire friend group or a big basketball friends who've just been bitching for freaking, you know, a month right now about offsides and how much they hate it. I was like. But like, let's not be the Americans in the podcast talking about, like, we don't watch any soccer in this. We're complaining. We're offsides. This is the rule thing. You know, I'm a hockey guy. Would I prefer there's an actual line that defines offsides, like in hockey? Yes. I think it's gonna be enough sides. But I've heard all the arguments about, like, you shouldn't let somebody behind you and this and that and blah, blah, blah, and want to see scoring like it's part of the game. I think this is the part where the technology is actually even, like, better because it's actually giving you the heart of, like, where things are at, you know? Yes. Your toes off sides. It is what it is. You Rome, you just said it. It's about timing. You need to get your timing right if you're going to score some of these goals. And it's part of the strategy and everything that's about this game. So we don't fix the sport just because we don't like the way, because we can't understand it. [00:52:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I. I'm kind of more lean towards Rome here on the offsides thing. I mean, look, if you're like half an inch because you're big toe, you are a size 15 and the other guy's a 14, it shouldn't be offsides. It's. It's a great play. Now, you. You can't be. I don't agree with the whole body part. Like, but I mean, I, I would, I would give like, you know, give them, give them a foot. If you're as long as you're within a foot and you can be at least a foot offsides, you know, and you make a great play. I'm all for that. So I would agree with Rome on that. I mean, I mean, I think when we get down to it and we're like, you know. But you could go back to Jason and the ABs, right? You can get a strike by being in the strike zone by 0.01 of an inch, so. And I'm all for the ABS and that strike zone, but that's, you know, that's different between being offsides and a strike. But yeah, I mean, I, I would agree with Rome. I, I think if you're just within a certain parameter, let it go. We need more scoring, but it's not one of these things where you can be like just kind of camping out like three yards beyond the play and be like, oh, hey, just kick it over these guys and I'll score. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Final thoughts? I think the US being absolutely destroyed on social media is rightfully justified. You know, I think that game might have costed some momentum, some serious momentum of the sport here in the country, I don't know. But it was such an abysmal showing it. I don't know what's gonna happen. But one thing I do like though, like all the fair weather fans like Dave Portnoy and everybody else, they jumped off so quickly after that ass beating saying like, I don't want to hear about soccer in four years. Just don't talk, you know, talk me into it anymore. And a lot of people saying like, you know, I don't know why everyone thought the U.S. could have won. Well, because the U.S. was playing really well and, and they actually look like a real team this time and they actually have the talent. So, you know, that's why. So for the people that do watch the sport or actually we're catching up, they recognize that that was not a great game. But the talents there, we're right there knocking on the door. Just, we, we need a star. We need like a Dennis Rodman on the US team. We need a wemby like guy on the US team. We need, we need someone with personality. Not someone camping out in the background, but Michelob commercial. So good World cup showing. Very disappointing though because of how good this team actually looked and pretty large stretches for the tournament. So excited what the next World cup will bring for our country. But God, dude, I cannot stop thinking about that fucking goalie. Like, it's really pissing me off, dude. Like all day today it's just. I kept on replaying that. That son of a. Just kicking the dirt, him just like falling backwards as like the goals are just flying past him, you know. It was a bad game, dude. It was a bad game. [00:55:20] Speaker C: It was. And I, you know, I. There's an element which I can think you're right, Rome, that it. I don't know if it put us back. I just think maybe it stopped some progression of the game in this country, but I still think it has a lot of forward momentum and I think the passion we're talking through of how pissed off we are about this loss and everything I speaks to, like, when we get into this international competition, it's always going to have the chance. You know, you talked about the next tournament, the Gold cup, you know, you know, it won't be the size of this, but are we going to get hyped up playing, you know, the countries in kind of our area? You know, I think it's a CONCACAF type tournament or something like that. But, you know, I, I think there's elements to like when it's us versus the world we're all in as a country. You talked about, you know, the gold medal game for the US Men's hockey team. Anything was there, Olympics related. We just get up for these, you know, us versus the world. So four years from now, it's going to be the biggest thing again. It's going to be in a different time zone. Won't be as, you know, convenient for us with, with being in Spain and Morocco and Portugal. I think what Aaron said, but I, I still think there's a lot of momentum behind this team. And I, I think what, what you need out of is it like, did you galvanize enough people? Not just the US Team, but I think just the sport. You know, I mentioned Holland. You know, you talk about Messi a little bit playing with mls. If you're, if you're watching France and Mbappe, does it get you to turn into La L there? Are you watching Premier League Saturdays on Peacock for. To see how some of these other guys. I mean, are you going to watch, you know, someone like Chris Richards who's on the US Team, who, who might be actually the best player on the team? You know, he was the one questionable going and he plays for Crystal palace in the Premier League. Is it. Is it gets. Does it get some people to watch some of these games? And I think that's what you're looking for. There's. There's momentum every time we have the more players playing in international top teams in the league for the United States ever and then exposes you to some of these other guys from these other countries that could potentially like draw interest in the game. So I think the US Men's soccer team, I think is a big portion of it, but I think there's some other things to go at. And then that. Guess next year, Rome, we have the Women's World cup and then. And that's hey, we're the best in the world in that. We're expecting something up in that. I think that drums up soccer interests for, you know, the country. But, you know, hey, the women's professional soccer and how that's grown in this country as well too. And that's momentum for the sport. [00:57:33] Speaker A: Maybe I might go buy a Trinity Rodman jersey. Maybe that's what I'll do for that one. [00:57:37] Speaker C: Yeah, you mentioned Dennis Rodman on this side. I don't really want a personality, Dennis. I was like, I want. I want the absolute like top talent guy that's going to score. I don't care if he says anything. You know, that's what we need. But, you know, Trinity Rodman I think is the more appropriate with needs for the men's team. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Tennis Robin on defense, sprawling around, goalkeeper wouldn't let a ball fly through. Definitely want that in the team. Not freeze. Freezing in action. Disgusting. Anyways, looking forward to the final eight. We'll see what the VA Argentina system has to bring us in the final rounds. The Fix it for Argentina tournament. It's the social. Dude. Social media is not happy with Argentina and FIFA right now. FIFA is getting beat up left and right. Good luck with that. [00:58:26] Speaker C: I will tell you one thing, social media, for those that are still on X or Twitter, man, it's just, it's great stuff like this is. It's. It's a world experience right now. The translation thing in X is just an all time level. The. The inappropriate comments from other countries. Realize that in America we could talk through things, but the, the level of racism and other things in other countries is, I think, unmatched compared. [00:58:55] Speaker A: Do you have an example? [00:58:56] Speaker C: I mean, there is a Paraguay senator, I believe that. [00:59:00] Speaker A: Oh, I saw the most violence. [00:59:05] Speaker B: There was some. [00:59:05] Speaker C: There was. There are some crazy tweets coming out of Latin America about the German team after they lost. And you could put two and two together of. Of what they were talking about there. For the German team going home. I was like, there's. There's some unmatched inappropriate stuff on Twitter right now. [00:59:23] Speaker A: Yeah, the, the Paraguay. Yeah, that one's pretty good. I just. [00:59:29] Speaker C: I'll leave it on. I'll leave it on a funnier one. I saw Rome just to just, you know, it's all like, you know, super inappropriate racism on Twitter. But the. You're such a big fan of Matt Freese, the goalie. They. There was a still image of him, you know, obviously just drilling his toe into the turf like four feet ahead of the ball. And the Meme was basically like, me, after me. Me just basically curbing my 52 degree wedge after getting a drive 300 yards down the middle on my second shot. And it's like 100 true. It's like you get that great drive and you're like, all right, I'm just gonna chip this up a little bit and get on in two. And I freaking just like take like eight pounds of soda in front of the ball and barely touch it, dude. [01:00:10] Speaker A: One thing I like about the memes, it was like a lot of disappointment, anger, and then today it just turned into like straight comedy. Like NFL memes. Took it up like another step today, too. Good stuff, man. Good stuff. Aaron, final comments? [01:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, like you guys said, I mean, look, once the next big tournament comes, if the US does well and then build up towards the next [01:00:33] Speaker A: World cup, everybody will be back up [01:00:35] Speaker B: on the hyper train. I mean, look, it's here every four years. I mean, we're going to be rooting for Team USA and, you know, look, I thought they'd beat Belgium. I mean, I didn't see them getting, winning another game past that. But this, that we all thought was kind of a winnable game. I mean, we all kind of looked at it and said, look, they'll get past to the group stage. They should be able to win a game in the knockout. They did. I mean, they got to where we expected them to at least get. They played a lot better than they didn't. They got our hopes up high. But, I mean, look, the future of US soccer looks good. We'll see if they can continue to build on it. We put in the infrastructure, looks good. We put the money in, we got the coach. Let's see if we can keep them, and we'll see what happens. You know, I think what's really helped out a lot, Jason touched on it, too, is look at this. World Cup's been in our time zone. It's allowed us to watch a lot of these games. I mean, last time it was in Qatar. We have to wake up at like 3am, 4am I think the final started at 6am the final hero being a week and a half on a Sunday, at noon on a Sunday, perfect for all of us to get stuff done in the morning, relax, watch the game. So, yeah, but I'm hyped for the next one World Cup Rome. I mean, me and you already touched on it. You know, we may even look to go to Spain, Portugal for that one. It'd be more affordable, it'd be nice. We'll see how everything looks. But yeah, it's something. It's. It's on the bucket list to do list. [01:01:52] Speaker A: If I'm not married before, then I'm definitely finding my wife at that World Cup. I'm just calling it right here, right now. If I'm not. If I can't find someone decent that I can settle down with by then marrying somebody from Portugal or Spain, Morocco from my home country. It's happening at that World Cup. Guarantee it. [01:02:12] Speaker B: I thought you fell in love with the fans at the Qatar there, at the Bay Area Stadium there. Rome last time. [01:02:19] Speaker A: You're on, dude. My Arabic friends are like, roman, what happened to you? What happened? I was like, dude, I will convert right now if I get myself beautiful Arabic woman. Dude, they were fine as. Dude, it all covered up beautiful eyes, eyelashes. I don't know. I totally dug it. And their food's delicious. [01:02:36] Speaker C: I don't know. Rome, I don't get a lot of advice for you going to this. I mean, you just mentioned you're going to the host countries for finding a wife. But I mean, this, this is your opportunity to go to one of these things where you have all the women in the world, like descending on a particular place. So I don't know if you want to limit yourself just saying you're looking for a Spanish, Portuguese or Moroccan wife. I think you just, you know, I mean, I think. [01:02:55] Speaker B: I think every man should have one in each continent personally. But, you know, that's just me speaking. [01:03:00] Speaker C: Well, that's Aaron speaking. Lifetime bachelor. Yeah, he's just speaking there too, so. [01:03:04] Speaker A: Oh, man. All right. We just. I'm surprised. We actually talked about an hour about the World Cup. I think that's the first ever. But we'll talk. End the pod F1 Silverstone. What the happened? [01:03:23] Speaker C: What didn't happen? [01:03:24] Speaker B: Right. [01:03:25] Speaker A: It just sounded like a big fucking turd of a mess. And then now I'm hearing a bunch of rumors about like all these drivers switching teams. You're hearing about Verstappen. Is this rumor Going to McLaren true? [01:03:38] Speaker C: Well, it started a couple weeks ago that verstappen to McLaren. Zach Brown, McLaren CEO was very dismissive and quickly, like, I'm happy with the current driver lineup. The only time, you know, Verstappen would be considered as if Piastri and Norris are gone. And if they, you know, something like just he's very happy in his car. But more rumors today that Piastri's wants out, which we talked about a year ago when he didn't win the World Drivers Championship that he wants to be gone. So the hot rumor today was basically a Verstappen and Piastri switch between red bull and McLaren. If Max is really pushing. I mean, if you start with Verstappen on this weekend at the British Grand Prix, he basically goes out complaining all year. [01:04:26] Speaker A: He's been complaining all year for basically what happened. [01:04:30] Speaker C: He's out of the crashes, out of the race because the back wing closes at the wrong time. Base spins out the car into the gravel, creates a terrible yellow flag that created a downward effect. But, I mean, he was pissed. Basically calling the car a box for the. For a month. Like, happened once, okay? But now this is a trend. And he's hated the regulations overall. Like, thinks the car is a joke, doesn't like racing it. Now you're talking about Red Bull not being really competitive with Mercedes or Ferrari. And I think there's just more, you know, palace intrigue when it comes to the Red Bull organization overall, where they've let a lot of people go. You know, they lost. You know, they got rid of Christian Horner. They got, you know, they lost a bunch of engineers to different teams and, you know, just the racing part of the Red Bull organization. [01:05:22] Speaker B: Why have a lot of engineers left? Is there a story behind that? [01:05:25] Speaker C: Well, you had Adrian Newey. He basically got some ownership things of Aston Martin. It was part of it. You know, Jonathan Wheatley left to be Tim, team principal at the Sauber Audi project. You had Max's race engineer. Just got a deal with McLaren, I think, starts in a year or two years or something like that. So, I mean, a lot of that started with a Christian Horner kind of, like, controversy where he had, you know, potential inappropriate relationship or whatever with. With an employee there. And they were talking about getting Christian Horner out, and Red Bull ended up keeping him. And then there was a power struggle when, you know, I think it's Dietrich. He was the founder of Red Bull, you know, the company Red Bull, not Red Bull Racing. He was a big supporter of Christian and when he was gone and like, different things. So I think the power structure of the Red Bull parent company into how that goes into the, you know, different entities that Red Bull does own, including the racing team, has gone. And I think there's a lot of buzz around, you know, hey, the racing side of this isn't here. And I don't know if Red Bull's gonna be able to compete with the works team with Mercedes the way Ferrari's is. You know, McLaren has, you know, figured a Lot of things out and there's potentially other teams out there. I mean, Max is looking for the absolute best drive. I mean, Red Bull's not a bad team. They are still one of the top four teams. And I think it even hurts even more with the. I think it's the a duo thing where they're monitoring the engine performance, where Red Bull said they have the best engine out there and it's like, cool. You have the best engine, but you're not even close to the best car versus behind Mercedes, Ferrari, and even potentially McLaren. You know, they're basically the fourth team on the grid. And so I think just Max is under happiness, where it's like, it doesn't seem like this guy loves Formula one at all. He likes racing in the, the GT series and whatever in his Verstappen racing stuff. So, I mean, you're getting to this time of year where it's just a big politics game. And I think Max is the biggest domino that's out there. [01:07:13] Speaker A: When's the next race? [01:07:15] Speaker C: Next race is in two weeks at Spa. So historic track. Looking forward to that. But I mean, get more into the, the British Grand Prix. I mean, the race really came up to the last. The Verstappen incident. Yeah, happens with, I want to say, four laps to go or something like that. Seemed like a pretty basic incident. Silverstone, one of the longest tracks on the F1 calendar. [01:07:43] Speaker A: People talk about that. They kind of screwed over Hamilton on this one. [01:07:48] Speaker C: They did. I mean, Hamilton takes a pit stop, basically was getting on some fresher tires because you had Russell behind him that was on a. A set of fresher tires. And there was an ability to stop, you know, enough time to potentially pass him because he got in right out. He got back out of the pits right after Russell and the race ends up ending under caution, which was just crazy because it's like, hey, you kind of screwed over Hamilton being number one. You screwed over Kimi Antonelli to a degree, because he was. His car was just busted all to hell somehow with one of the rim protectors and everything. And he ended up like, you know, not being able to outrace his five second penalty for track limits. [01:08:31] Speaker B: They didn't rescind that. [01:08:33] Speaker C: Not that I believe it. [01:08:34] Speaker B: No, I know. I mean, I know he was on the, I mean, even the broadcast team. And Kimmy's like, well, look, dude, everybody does the track limits to gang and advantage. I'm not gaining an advantage. I'm basically just holding on, trying to stay on the track. [01:08:46] Speaker C: Yeah, his, his car was Basically just everywhere when it came down to it. I mean, George had his own problems. He had basically a puncture or a developing puncture that he had to come in for the extra pit stop. He ended up lucking out with, you know, the, the yellow flag and everything. So it was an interesting race overall because of, you know, the Kimi situation, Max crashing out. You had, you know, other, other drama throughout the field. But it was a big win for Charles LeClaire who's just had a nightmare, you know, basically month or so playing second fiddle to Lewis Hamilton after he signed the big extension with Ferrari. So the championship lead as we go into it, like Kimi's lead man, has just kind of evaporated and now you're within basically one. [01:09:33] Speaker A: Yeah, one race, right? It's like 24 points now. [01:09:35] Speaker C: Yep. One race of George and, and Lewis is right behind that too. And George making, or, I'm sorry, Charles making an outside claim in fourth being, you know, he's like 71 points behind or something. But like you, you really got a top three battle right now. And depending on Mercedes reliability, Lewis I think is the only driver that's finished every lap this year. And so that's consistency when it comes to the end. If George and Kimi aren't going to be consistent finishers, if Mercedes doesn't have the reliability and even if Lewis isn't winning and dominating races, if he's getting every lap and getting 18, 15 points in podium finishes behind those guys, it's going to be, you know, tough in the end where you're going to continue to get those tracks. I mean, Lewis looked good in qualifying, he got the sprint pole. Kimi was able to pass him and be dominant, but, you know, I think the consistency is what remains. And is it consistency versus reliability? Mercedes continues, has the best car total. Wolf's putting a lot of stuff out there for the Mercedes sign saying, like, I don't know if Ferrari's got the cost cap to. He could keep bringing updates. Yeah, upgrades to this system. So, I mean, there's a lot of palace industry going around when it comes to some of these teams. It's going to be, I think it's going to be a triple threat down to the championship. And if, if, if Charles, it's a great result for him because if he doesn't close the gap, you're going to start giving everything favorable to Lewis because now he turns into the Verstappen role of a year ago. If, hey, this one driver versus a, you know, a pair going into battling A championship when we had Noris Piastri and Verstappen sticking his nose in. Now you got Lewis sticking his nose in an Antonelli Russell duel. So, you know, a couple weeks ago, Rome, you were. You and I were hard on the Lewis bandwagon. George kind of stymied out with the win last week. Lewis is still poking around there. And I think it's entirely possible I'm not going to go completely off my take at the beginning of the year where Aaron and I talked about this is George championship to win this, this could be his one, this could be his one. We're in an era right now. Or last year, Lando, it could have been his one. This could be George's one right now. Because Kimi could be taken over. He also looming too. It's been not as much talked about because we're talking Verstappen going to McLaren. But the Verstappen and Mercedes stuff to me is still super intrigue. I mean, if the Mercedes car isn't as reliable and you need Max to come in and get some more consistent results and you want to kind of put something on. I mean, it's been talked about. Do you need Verstappen if you're Mercedes? But I don't know if total or maybe Mercedes still want Verstappen or. Verstappen's going to negotiate to get to that because he sees, hey, this is a team that's got some reliability things, but ultimately they're going to give me a car that's going to win. [01:12:16] Speaker A: I. I know with the drivers because LeClaire finished higher this time. [01:12:21] Speaker B: He. [01:12:21] Speaker A: He left. He leaped over Norris. But top five drivers is base. It's basically them including Norris. And then there's a pretty big gap after that. So I, I still think even Norris, he's been pretty consistent just getting between, like fourth and seventh place and quite a few races staying in it. I'm kind of intrigued if he can actually steal a couple wins, if they can actually put anything together. Maybe like still like a third place and then drivers. I'll be looking out after that. But it's. It's pretty. To me, it's just five guys at the top. Everybody else is pretty much below that. [01:12:58] Speaker C: I would say it's only three. I think it's only Antonelli, Russell and Hamilton. I. I think. I think McLaren's gonna have to go on a run of winning races and somehow jump over Ferrari and Mercedes. I don't think they have it in it this year. McLaren's McLaren's big thing over Mercedes during the ground effect era was their how they build the chassis and the arrow of the car like Mercedes. The Mercedes works team, you know, is about the engine. They produce the best engine. They know how to get the maximum out being it's the Mercedes team. McLaren was able to take the Mercedes engine during the GrandFX era and pair that with great development of their aerodynamic packages. That's not what this car is built on. It's built on the engine and the electrical power and everything like that. But there's still problems with it. Ferrari has, you know, Ferrari's got the, doesn't have the straight line speed of Mercedes and a lot of stuff and doesn't have the power but they've got the reliability. They got the start and can they continue to do that down the road? I, I, I think Lando and Oscar could potentially get some podiums but I think you're looking at a third and second place. They're going to need wins to pass over the Mercedes guys. Only two constructors have won so far this year and you're not gonna, you're not going to erase almost 100 point deficit right now without stringing together a ton of wins to be considered in. So I, I'll disagree with you on that. Rome, I think it's a three way battle right now and Charles is kind of, kind of the almost play spoiler to get take points against the Mercedes [01:14:16] Speaker A: guys we saw last year. But McLaren doesn't have the car. [01:14:20] Speaker B: They ain't got the car. Yeah, I think, I think LeClaire can get back in the mix of this thing. But those, those four drivers, those two teams, everybody else is on the outside. I mean Red Bull, they have brought some upgrades. Verstappens looked a lot more competitive but like Jason said, he does not like the new regulations and the rules and yeah, McLaren just doesn't, they don't, they don't have the car, they don't have it this year. So it's going to be tough for them to get in the mix and win this thing. But it's, it's a two team race and four guys, I believe that's it. [01:14:54] Speaker A: The same points wise, LeClaire's not even close. Dude, it's like points wise, you got a group, LeClaire, Norris, Piastri and Verstappen all together because they're, they're pretty close in points but there's a pretty gap between the top three and then those three guys. That was my stance. [01:15:08] Speaker C: No, absolutely. But I think I Think we're. We got that. We got SPA coming up and then I think the Hungar ring in Hungary after that. You go into the break in August. So, I mean, you got two big races here going into this break, and then it's going to be drama, man. I think we're going to be talking a ton more about, you know, they call it silly season in racing, but, you know, what's. Is Verstappen going to make it removed? Is Verstappen potentially just quit and retire? I think there's a lot of controversy, you know, around that. If he doesn't, if he doesn't get what he wants or doesn't see something, is he just gonna, you know, he's gonna take it off, take a year off or a couple years off and until he lands the role that he potentially wants as an F1 or is he done all together? [01:15:47] Speaker A: There's some Reddit boards that have been talking about it, how Verstappen's been behind the scenes kind of threatening retirement, quitting mid season. Just given that, we just tired of all the. Well, that's. [01:15:57] Speaker C: That that's been out there. I mean, that's beyond Reddit at this point. He basically has said it himself in a lot of interviews. He just doesn't like, you know, at the F1, you know, F1 at all. He's hated the car. He said this couple years going out of the drawn effect there, he hated the car. Now how much does he like the car when it wins? And we know we're going to make changes to it next year. There's already some stuff in development. I forgot, you know, what news and drama behind that. But. So there's going to be some changes, potentially more internal combustion power versus the electrical stuff and changes the way they can use, you know, some of the arrow, you know, tools and boost things in the car. So I think there's some stuff there. But I mean, the Red Bull team, I know you want to keep Max, he's the star of the program, but there, there's been, you know, there's been some other things within this team, like Isaac, I. E. Sock or Isaac, I think it's Isakajer, but he's been really good. I mean, he's aging the points. I don't want to say he's the most successful second driver for the Red Bull team, but like, you know, Yuki Sonoda was a disaster last year. Sergio Perez, great started with Red Bull, but was, you know, a disaster there. Hazard is getting, you know, he's eighth in the points. He's, he's, he's, he's within the top eight which is what you need to do if you're the top four teams. And he, you know, he out qualified Verstappen in this race at Silverstone. He obviously had a favorable result. He did, you know, well in the Monaco Grand Prix. So he hasn't been a complete overall bus. And then you look at the Red Bull, the, the Racing Bulls. Liam Lawson really good the past couple weeks, I mean and Lawson's up to 10th in the points. The Racing Bulls team is basically the, the out of the midfield teams. They're the, they're the fifth in the racing. [01:17:26] Speaker B: Was a laughing stock last year, right. And they've been, yeah, like you said, they've been competitive. They're like basically 8, 9, 10, almost [01:17:33] Speaker A: every race right there. [01:17:35] Speaker C: They're the fifth team on the grid, so they're just a step below. And so Lawson and Arvid Lindenblad are doing both things. Lawson was basically, we were talking, I think at the beginning of the year is like, is he out his way of F1? He had a shot with the Red Bull last year, lasted two races. Goes to Racing Bulls. Doesn't have a great year but he, he's improving. And so hey, if you got Lawson there and you're getting rid of Verstappen, The Red Bull junior program has Nikola Tesla. He's a Bulgarian driver in F2. He, I believe he won this week at the F2 race in, in Silverstone and he's leading the F2 championship right now. He's 19 years old. He's the kind of the next prodigy that they were thinking is going to take over and basically kick Lawson to the curb if you lose Verstappen. Do you have the internal pipeline that you want from a Red Bull team that's going to just grow this crop of young drivers? You may not have the car to win the world championship, but you're going to give, hey, basically a bunch of, you know, young 20 somethings from Lawson Hajar, you know, Teslav, Lynnblad. You got this young group of drivers that could basically go through this era and just learn F1 into building into the end of this regulation set or even the beginning of the new one in four or five years from now. So I, I think Red Bull's got options and then on the next couple races you're going to see. So I think there's going to be an element of, of catering to Verstappen, but I think you're gonna See what's the future of Red Bull racing Because they do have a bunch of stuff in the pipeline. [01:18:55] Speaker A: Nice. I think that does it. [01:18:59] Speaker C: I got one other thing wrong. It's racing related and I just, you know, because I'm gonna bring you, I'm gonna, I gotta get some Indy car in a little bit because we're talking American motorcycle open wheels. [01:19:10] Speaker A: I knew it. [01:19:10] Speaker C: You knew it. You know, I mean, you know what I'm gonna talk about. [01:19:13] Speaker A: I have an idea. [01:19:15] Speaker C: Okay. Well, I mean huge news in the silly season of IndyCar. The McLaren IndyCar team got rid of two of their drivers. Two young drivers, Christian Lungard and Nolan Siegel basically said your services are no longer required after this season. They signed six time IndyCar champion and former Indy 500 winner Scott Dixon from Chip Ganassi Racing who's raced for them for 25 years. Will Buxton who's the IndyCar play by play guy for Fox, former F1 commentator, really enjoy him. He compared this basically to the Hamilton to Ferrari or the Tom Brady to Buccaneers where as a legacy guy being a team forever in a six time champion go into McLaren Racing. And then Felix Rosenquest who races for Meyer Shank Racing won the Indy 500 that I was at this May leaves them. He already announced two weeks ago he was leaving and he going to McLaren. So now McLaren's putting together basically a stacked driver lineup when it comes to like, like tenure and bona fides for going into potentially new regulations for Indy in 2028. They're building something I think McLaren racing for the IndyCar and getting a group of veteran drivers to pair those two guys with Pato Award who's kind of like, I don't say the most popular guy from an IndyCar perspective. So big moves in I think from the IndyCar side for McLaren Racing. And now there's Christian Lungard who they're getting rid of. He's won two races this year, was runner up this last weekend in the race for IndyCar. You know, does he go to Chip Ganassi Racing where Scott Dixon just vacated. Chip Ganassi Racing's got Alex below who's one of the best drivers in the world, won the Indy 500 last year and four time indie series winner. Tons of great stuff, man. So like I, I got you in on F1 Rome. I don't know if I'm gonna get you on IndyCar but man, there's just a lot of great stuff happening in IndyCar right now. [01:21:02] Speaker A: I did read up on that news, but didn't know all the details. But thank you for updating me that Indy cars. Oh no. There's only so much tracing I could watch. I'd rather be the one racing. [01:21:19] Speaker C: Well, I 100 agree with that. I mean that's why I may sit here right next to, you know, the, the iracing machine I got, you know, so I can play the F1 game on there. You know, so we, so we got that. Rather be the one racing too. IndyCar, I mean they just go to some great American racetracks. AT F1 doesn't go to this weekend. They're at the mid Ohio track which is really good there at Elkhart Lake a couple weeks ago in Wisconsin, which is one of my childhood favorite tracks that's out there from an American perspective. They've done some cool things with street races that are. Could be like an F, you know, an F1 comparison. It's never gonna get to the F1's level worldwide. But from open wheel motorsports, like I'll continue to say, As a child, IndyCar was my first dream. It was massive in the 90s before the Cart Indie split. I think now it's got its time to really demonstrate an audience for like people that are just looking to watch some racing and be like F1 but different in a lot of ways too. In the different way these cars set up and also like these are some of the best drivers out there that either didn't get a shake in F1 or just have gone a different path. I think Alex Palo I've talked a ton about, he's dominant in this series. Like a verstappen, like in cars that are much more similar because these are the Indy cars for the most part are very, you know, they have the same chassis and everything like that. You're. You're going for fine tuning and differences. There's only two different engine manufacturers. But Palo has dominated this series and I think he'd be a tremendous F1 driver. I know Carlos Signs and some of the guys because Kim coming out of Spain have said that. So there's something in the IndyCar realm, but it's still a niche sport. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie. But I'll keep you updated as the news kind of goes in and we'll see if we can get you the itch to watch some IndyCar racing. It's generally always the same time. You don't need to wake up at. At 6am for. [01:22:56] Speaker B: At. [01:22:56] Speaker C: For IndyCar. It's generally at 9:30, 10am every weekend. You're on Mute. [01:23:00] Speaker A: Oops. Yeah, I caught a little bit of it. All right, final thoughts. Are we US crashes out of the World cup round of eight? Next? Drama building up and F1. Any other comments? Anybody watching our good shows? [01:23:19] Speaker C: I mentioned House of the Dragon and then you had the final season of the Bear on Hulu and fx. I'm a big fan of the Bear. I know you're in the restaurant industry. You probably, it's probably too close to home. You're probably going to give me some BS on how it's not real or something, but it's real to me. [01:23:32] Speaker A: So I only watched the first season. It was pretty good. [01:23:37] Speaker C: It was pretty good. Okay, Big fan. Like the last season, it basically takes place all within like one day in a restaurant. So. [01:23:44] Speaker B: Wow. [01:23:45] Speaker C: It's like seven, the first seven episodes. All basically the spoiler alert, I guess, but it's basically like one day. So it's kind of, it's kind of like a whole building on what it is from a restaurant. [01:23:54] Speaker A: So like it's a big old meltdown. [01:23:56] Speaker C: There's meltdown drama, things like you basically got to have like the perfect shift to keep the restaurant alive type, type, type storyline. And I think there's a lot of [01:24:04] Speaker A: those scenarios, man, I've been in those scenarios. [01:24:06] Speaker B: It's wild. [01:24:08] Speaker C: I like, I like the. Elise, I mean, you worked in the restaurants. You can tell us more than anything. I like the realism of. I love the Chicago on it. There's, there's a certain. As a person that grew up in the Chicagoland area and, you know, goes to Chicago quite frequently, there's, there's, there's unique vernacular that I think they nail in this show that make it distinctly Chicago that, that I enjoy. [01:24:30] Speaker A: Nice. I like it. I'll have to catch up on it not to catch up on that for sure. Well, I guess it's on to baseball and women's basketball. [01:24:40] Speaker C: Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, baseball, there's a ton. You know, the White Sox are in first, I'll tell you that. And then, you know, Aaron and I, you know, we got the NL only fantasy league, you know, going on right now. Rome, you know, we're getting to the All Star break. You know, we got a, a couple months left. I do just want to be. I was very cocky early on, but want to be transparent. Aaron kind of called it the lead shrinking a little bit. We're down to a 12 point lead when it comes down to it. So not to the days of me having the 20 point lead. [01:25:11] Speaker A: So it's shrinkage and it's not even cold outside. That's the tough part. [01:25:15] Speaker C: It's very tough. You know, we just got, you know, the boys of summer. We got some injuries. I mentioned the last pot or Neo Cruz out probably till after the All Star break and just a little bit to the aggression, so we'll see what happens. You know, Aaron over there making a lot of moves every week, you know, really building towards next season. [01:25:33] Speaker A: It feels like he showed me his roster today or what may. It was yesterday and he showed me the standings. I like, dude, where are you at? I only saw like the first, like, top six, seven teams. Scroll down. It's the bottom half. Like, oh, man, rough year, huh? He's like, look at this guy. This guy's out, this guy's out, this guy's out. [01:25:50] Speaker C: Like, all right, then the injury book takes us out, man. It's hit Aaron really hard. Aaron's a championship general manager. No disrespect to everything. He knows what he's building for. Yeah, it's gonna come around for him. He's gonna shock us. I, I feel you, Roman. I'm honest with you. I got a small window here. I got some. I got some heavy contracts this year and next year, and then I'm gonna be losing some key guys. So I'm not getting cocky. I mean, this is, this. There's going to be a tool for rebuilding. I, I gotta win this year. [01:26:18] Speaker B: Year. [01:26:18] Speaker C: It's. It's a must win for me, to be honest with you. [01:26:20] Speaker A: You're the Landon Norris of your fantasy league. This year. [01:26:23] Speaker B: It is. [01:26:23] Speaker A: You gotta win it. My one year. [01:26:25] Speaker C: This is my one year. This, Lando. And then you're never just. I, you know, I, I'm, I'm a little cocky in the calls, I'm not gonna lie. But they will never hear the end of it. I'm just gonna let them know, like, they will never hear the end of my one championship. [01:26:37] Speaker B: Got a good team, man. He's got a good team, like I said, rooting for him. Obviously, I'm out of the mix. Been a rough year. I, I mean, I like my roster, but, like, it's every week. I mean, I got two pitchers that went down this week. It's just every week. I think I'm just gonna start building some momentum. It just, it just doesn't happen. But I like the young players. I got, I got some nice contracts, some good keepers. I'm gonna have money to spend next year, man. I'm coming in like the New England patriots with that 300 million dollar payroll next year. I'm gonna be happy, man. I'm happy where I'm at, but not happy where I'm at in the standings. But, but I'm good, man. I'm good rooting for Jason to get it. But like I said, it's only going to get tighter, man. It's only going to get tighter. That first one is not easy to win. I don't care what people say. It's tough. It is not easy. [01:27:25] Speaker C: I know I'm going to have some decisions to make as we get towards the, we get towards the roster expansion in September, and I'm going to probably need to beef up on a bunch [01:27:34] Speaker B: of trade deadlines coming up on August 2nd, third in our league. [01:27:38] Speaker C: It is, I got, I got, I get a lot of crap trades from, from a few guys in the league on the daily basis. [01:27:43] Speaker B: I'm not like, you know, Trader Bob, we'll just throw him out there. I mean, Trader Bob, Trader Bob, he [01:27:50] Speaker C: traded Ethan Holiday, which I looked at that and I was irritated looking at how the hell that La Flama Blanca got Ethan Holiday out of this, out of this trade for a bunch of jabronis from Colorado that Trader Bob got. [01:28:02] Speaker B: So, yeah, that trade is bad. I mean, he tried to trade me Holiday too, but he wanted Matt Olson, Michael Harris, and like, Ivan Herrera. I'm like, dude, you want my three best players for a guy that's not even coming up till 20, 28? I mean, I'll trade for him, but I'm not gonna do that for that. And then he, I mean, I would have been very. [01:28:20] Speaker A: He got crap. [01:28:20] Speaker B: He got crap in return. [01:28:22] Speaker C: I, I, I, I, I just, like, I was dumbfounded. Like, he didn't even get a guy that's owned like, more than 40 in leagues like Forge, dudes that I feel like you're added in free agency. Like, I was just like, I, I was kind of speechless when I saw that trade go through. Like, he did not offer me Ethan Halton. I would have taken it because I need some guys for the minors. My minor league is not impressive. So I, I, this is where it's at in this league. Rome, you got some GMs out there. Some of these guys, you know, the old school guys in this league, they just like to make trades. They just like doing deals and it's just like this. Like, I just want to make a deal to shake things up. And like, I, I, you know, Aaron's smart. He's not just trying to shake things up. But a couple of these guys man, they just. They just want to make trades and I'm just like, I'm just not trading you a guy just cuz. [01:29:04] Speaker B: But geez, Bob, the only guy that's in two trades. [01:29:09] Speaker C: No, I got La Flama bank sends me. [01:29:12] Speaker B: Yeah, Mike sends a lot of stuff over. He's been begging me for Ivan Herrera and Michael Harris. [01:29:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Michael King is the one they want from me because he's. He's an expiring contract. But he's honestly my best starter. Like, so I'm like, I'm not going down to the penny stretch. I can't give away my best starter for like junk, you know? [01:29:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:29:32] Speaker C: So I. Yeah, he sends a lot. I think Forkham Devilson's a few as well. So. Yeah, I've never gotten one. [01:29:36] Speaker B: I've never gotten one from forkham Devils. When DeAndre ran the team, used to get some. Danny always Danny. Here's what Danny. Danny always hits me up. He's like, he wants my closer. I'm like, dude, I got one closer and I'm first place in saves. Why would I get rid of a closer for a bum starting pitcher? I don't need them. [01:29:53] Speaker C: Bob sent me a bunch of trades for my. For I. I have the best. Or I had the best closer in the game. Like, I may, you know, maybe number two behind yours. And like, I only have one closer too. Why would I be trading my closer for the one guy I got that? Like, I don't understand your logic. [01:30:07] Speaker B: And I'm like, they're not expiring contracts. [01:30:10] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:30:12] Speaker B: Or we can extend it. [01:30:14] Speaker C: Yeah. We lost Rome. We just. You Rome. You asked for the fantasy talk. I give it to you to end every show right now. [01:30:20] Speaker A: I. I think that that's all I could take right now too. I'm pretty. [01:30:24] Speaker C: You know. [01:30:24] Speaker B: There was a bonus though, again in this league. Three home runs. There's three home run bonus today. He got 10 RBIs too. [01:30:35] Speaker C: He did. [01:30:35] Speaker B: Luckily, we don't have a bonus for that. We should. I mean, we get 10 RBIS. That should be a bonus. [01:30:39] Speaker C: Well, that's the one thing about my run this year. My room's just going to sleep on us for the. For the viewing audience. And we're in the audio medium right now. We're putting him to sleep. I guess the. The Curry and the Wood Ranch and all that good fourth of July food starting to take it out. But yeah, Aaron, I got tons of bonuses last year. I have yet to get a bonus this year. [01:30:56] Speaker B: I have not gotten a bonus this year either. I Usually get at least. At least two or three. [01:31:00] Speaker C: That saved me a bunch of money last year of losing. So, like I. I get no bonuses. [01:31:04] Speaker B: It's kind of, I think, was it last night or over the weekend? I had two guys each had two home runs in a game. I think Olson and I had somebody else at 200. So it's always getting two home runs. And then. Yeah, I. What's that dude for the Brewers? Was it Ashby? How does that dude got 12 wins as a reliever? He just pitches like one inning like every two days and somehow gets over win. It's ridiculous. Yeah, and got a Bonus too, for 10 straight wins as a reliever who owns himself. [01:31:36] Speaker C: Okay. [01:31:37] Speaker B: I'm like, God, Lee, you gotta be kidding me. [01:31:40] Speaker C: All right, Ron, you can end the pod now. [01:31:42] Speaker A: Yeah, no, I. I was reading up on the Egyptian Argentinian thing, and Egypt's coming out. They're making a lot of sense. I was kind of wondering. I was thinking about a computer and you know, since Aaron was pro Argentina on. On the ref side on this one, I'm do a comp. Lakers, Sacramento Kings. [01:32:06] Speaker B: Not even close, dude. That's not even close. That was majorly rigged. This was not rigged. [01:32:11] Speaker A: Laker hater. That's all I want to hear. [01:32:14] Speaker B: That's just fact. You're like, my dad talked to a referee guy that was part of that crew who said those games were fixed. I'm just. That's on the record. [01:32:21] Speaker A: You're like Trump, dude. Only convenient. If you're part of the fraud, it's all good. [01:32:26] Speaker B: Hey. Oh, let me put it this hot. Let me put it this way. Go ahead, Jason. [01:32:31] Speaker C: No, I was like top tier thing floating. It was like a tick tock or something of like some African dictator. Was like, like, fraud is not. It's like fraud is not always bad. It's bad unless I'm involved. Then it's okay. [01:32:43] Speaker B: Hey, that's true, man. If you're on the right side of something that goes bad. Bad. It's not that bad, dude. It's just not. But let me put this way, Rome, let me say this. If. If USA had been playing in that game and that foul had happened, we'd all be crying for foul and happy that it got called back. So we can't complain. It was the right call. It's just the bottom line, if the. If roles were reversed and that was Team usa, we'd all be sitting here [01:33:06] Speaker A: like, oh, man, Var got it right. [01:33:08] Speaker B: They got it right. We all know it's true. [01:33:11] Speaker A: It's like getting fouled. When you, like, you're grabbing your rebound on one side and you drive it down the court, pass to your teammate, and they get a dunk, and they're like, oh, no, that doesn't count because the foul happened, like, 10 seconds ago. Oh, no. I'm just not. I'm going for Argentina. I'm just saying that goal should have been allowed. We should have got some extra time. We should have went to penalty kicks, possibly. Who knows? Messi was on fire anyways, like, those last few minutes. But I don't know, we might have gotten robbed a little bit. FIFA living up to its name, that's all. All right, I'll do it. Sourcing the sofa. Geez, what a long pod we are out [01:33:52] Speaker B: there.