On today’s episode, Jason discusses the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team’s disappointing loss to Panama in the Copa America, why it’s clear that the club may need to move on from embattled coach Gregg Berhalter, why he had no problem whatsoever – and actually, found it kind of touching – that LeBron James pulled some things to ensure that his son Bronny James got taken by the Los Angeles Lakers in the second round of the NBA Draft and why the Philadelphia 76ers could be stuck holding the bag when free agency starts if Paul George decides to take his talents elsewhere.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Fire Fame. It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight Fire for Friday, June the twenty eighth. It was
a banger of a night in sports. I cannot wait
to dive into it. Quick programming note, I'm hosting The
Herd again today and then back next week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yes, yes,
I will be working on July fourth. How about you? No, okay,
(00:33):
you can watch me not talk about a dumb hot
dog eating contest. I will not touch that. You can
bet your bottom dollar. So the podcast will take a
quick brief hiatus on Monday and Tuesday. Trust me, we
will come back heavy with USA Soccer takes on Wednesday.
Should they win or lose, they will be a big
story in sports, and let's just dive right into that,
(00:54):
shall we. Oh, I forgot subscribe, rate and review. Sometimes
I bury that at the end of the podcast and
who knows how long people listen. But somebody smart was like, dude,
you got to mention that at the beginning of every podcast.
That's what all the big guys do. I was like, uh, okay, sure, subscribe,
rate and review everybody, but you guys already do that.
That's how you're here. Anyways, I'm in a somber mood, folks.
This USA lost to Panama just crushing. I'm not gonna lie.
(01:17):
I was like, legitimately bent out of shape. This is
quite devastating. Now listen, I don't want to go off
too hard on anyone. Greg Burholter is gonna come under
fire and he's coaching for his job Monday night against Uruguay.
That much we know. I've talked about that on the pod.
I mentioned that on the Herd. This should not be
news to anyone. You can't lose to Panama. Yes, even
(01:40):
if you go down a man for the final what
seventy minutes, Like that's an inexplicable loss. And there are
some macro issues afoot. But I will just let me
get this out of the way. Early Tim Waya is
a great, great young player. Okay, he made a colossal mistake.
He apologized, I get it. Let's just we got it.
We gotta call it like it is. He made a
(02:02):
massive blunder. If he shoves that guy and said he's
hitting him in the head, he gets a yellow and
he stays on in the US almost certainly wins, but
he went to the head and I was dumb. Now.
Burholter after the match said we were prepared for this referee.
We talked about it. We know essentially that this guy's
a clown and we had to watch ourselves and Tim
Waya didn't. And this is what. So now that we
(02:24):
got the way apart out got it, Tim Waya screwed
the US. It's bad people make mistakes. You know, we've
all been there before. I do have to say, even
down a man, I still felt like, all right, we're
the better side. We can maybe get a goal. And
they did a tremendous goal from Baligan to give nothing
(02:45):
lead and I'm like, okay, we're in this. We're not
gonna give up two goals. Maybe they get the tie,
but you know, Burholter will make adjustments and it will
be okay. Four minutes later, the defense just getting carved
up like Swiss cheese, and I think it was Robinson
who had the ball go between his legs and then
the goalie was like a second late to it and boom,
(03:07):
it's won one. And from there it just was all downhill.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Panama dominated possession as they should up a man and
some of the advanced stats. For those of you who care,
XG expected goals, which is the hot button number in soccer,
probably the number one stat.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's up there.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I don't know if it's number one for sure, but
without question it's important. And the USA won XG by
almost any Now, there's definitly several different websites that track
expected goals and US had them on all of them.
The Ricardo Peppi late header that one hurt could not
go in, probably should have. It was a pass was
(03:46):
a little behind him, but still, I mean, I don't know,
you kind of got to finish that. US had their
chances and gave up a late goal, you know, losing
your goalie. And that's one thing that pissed me off.
And I'll get to what I'm really really pissed about
is Turner gets drilled in the first I don't know,
twenty minutes. He goes high and he basically gets taken
(04:07):
out by a Panama player who was not a play
on the ball. It should have been in my opinion,
that's a red card. Turner went down, he was down
for like six minutes. He left the game at halftime
because he was shaken up. That's a legitimate foul. Should
have been a red. When you let that go as
a yellow, and when you let that go is nothing.
Panama felt, Okay, we're embolden. We can get physical here.
(04:31):
And Panama fouled the US eighteen times. The US had
four fouls eighteen to four. That was the tracking. So
from the jump after they knocked down Turner and it
was like, no big deal, Panama, they just went off.
I mean the trip of politic late if that happens
at a rec league game or what the got some
of the guys I play with, that's a brawl like
(04:52):
that is some of the dirtiest stuff. Some of these
Panama just cheap shots left and right. I was irate,
but the US couldn't. They were not in a position
to fightuse way, I got himself thrown out. You can't
get two guys tossed that. It's definitely over. It's just
it was disappointing. I mean, the guy dove in the box.
How don't you not get to dive for? How do
you not get a red for the dive in the
sixty third minute, tried to draw a penalty kick ref
(05:13):
initially ruled PK, then they go to var and it's like,
oh my gosh, this is a terrible dive. Nevertheless, they
get the goal in like the eighty third minute. I'm
trying to take positives out of this, but again, this
was a story that you could feel it coming. The
US is no longer a scrappy underdog. They're marked men.
They've got a lot of guys playing in top leagues
(05:35):
across the world, and I don't want to say they've
gotten soft, but they got bullied by Panama and now
they've got to come out and beat Uruguay, who just
smoked Bolivia. I mean, the US beat Bolivia. It should
have been worse than two nothing. Uruguy smacked them around.
It was not even close. So now Monday in Kansas City,
(05:56):
the US has to beat Uruguay to advance. Otherwise I
don't think a draw will get them out of the
group stage. I mean, obviously, if Bolivia somehow, you know,
knocks off Panama, then crazy things can happen. But almost
certainly Greg Berhalter will be coaching for his job on Monday,
pulling out all the stops. I'm pretty sure he will
not have way out due to the red card. I
(06:18):
think the guy that a lot of people were calling
for was Musa. Why didn't he play in the midfield?
Dynamic player the US. I know they won XG, but
they didn't really create much. And it's tough to get
overreactive about that because they're down a man. It's tough
to create down a man, you're on your heels a
whole damn time. I don't know, it's just extremely disappointing.
(06:39):
I would say this for years, the US has been
searching for that goal scoring machine. I remember when Josie
Outdodoor was supposed to be the guy. Like Josie out
Theodor was good, but he was supposed to be great.
Balligan looks like a stud. He looks like they're number nine,
a striker whose job it is to score goals. He
had a phenomenal goal, he nearly had another really good
(06:59):
one offs from Polistic, but it was just it was
just one of those games, like not a lot of
great takeaways, Like I don't see how you can defend
Berholter for not getting out of the group stage and
the defense of oh well, if way it doesn't get tost,
they probably win. I don't want to hear that make adjustments. Man,
this is Copa America in the United States. This is
(07:22):
our last major tournament before the twenty six World Cup.
And we don't get out of the freaking group stage
with the alleged Golden Generation. And listen, maybe Golden Generation
is strong. They've thrown it around with Netherlands and Belgium
and a lot of countries. Get the Golden generation tag
where you've got guys who were there for two, three,
four World Cups. Croatia had a couple of good runs.
(07:44):
This is supposed to be the US. This is their time.
The guys are ascending, and it's just like, come on,
it's just a devastating loss. We'll see how they do
against Arguay. They're gonna be underdogs. I'm I don't want
to be a home ern and take to win. I'm
obviously rooting for them heavily. Uh If if Turner's not
(08:04):
able to come back and Horrorvath starts, listen, I'm not
going to crush Horrorvath. But that second goal, I mean,
the ball came right at him. It was a rocket
from in close. But I mean, if it goes off
his face, the US gets a tie and they're in
good shape. If he's able to somehow deflect it, you know,
a different story if Peppi is able to put one
in and Pepi, you know, had a couple good chances
(08:25):
against Bolivia. This is a this is a pull out
all the stops on Monday. It's for all the marbles,
as I say, And obviously as a network, you know,
I worked for Fox and them having the US bounce
that before the group stage at COPA would be devastating.
We'll see, uh, I am. I'm going to try to
remain optimistic. The soccer hanks are going to chime in
(08:48):
heavily all weekend, and I'm waiting for the list of
potential Burholter candidates. Once he's bounced, who replaces him. I'm
on a soccer text thread with some dads and I saw, oh,
we got to go get klop and you know, they're
they're gonna name all these European guys and I'm like,
are they coming over now? Listen, you are coming into
a good job. It's it almost feels like, I don't
(09:09):
want to say, totally feels like but the Golden State
Warriors had Mark Jackson and they were like really good.
Remember they had a I think they got to the
second round of the playoffs one year and then the
next year they lose in seven to the paper Clips,
and I think that's when they decided, let's move on
from Mark Mark Jackson. We've got the splash bros. We
need to tweak. And I believe the next year they
ended up winning the title with Kerr and Draymond made,
(09:31):
you know, the small ball. I don't know how far
the US is away. It feels like they were a
small tweak and I know the soccer pewerists are going
to say, I can't compete with Argentina. Okay, can't be Panama.
I get it. I understand. I'm not gonna freak out,
but it feels.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Like they're close.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And obviously, as a big soccer guy and as an American,
I'm rooting for them heavily. But yeah, so it's just
a crushing loss and not what I wanted on a
Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
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Speaker 2 (10:11):
The good news is that we did have the second
round of the NBA Draft. Now here's what's interesting. The
NBA draft decided we don't want to go up against
presidential debate. We're gonna push the second round up to
like I think they started at like five pm Eastern
or maybe six, but it started super early, and so
it was done well before the debate. I should add
at this juncture, I swear to you I did not
(10:35):
consume one second of the debate. I did not watch
any of the videos while on social media. I promise
this is not just me acting tough and funny. I
did see some of the memes because you can't help it,
and there are some funny lines, but I promise you
I did not watch a second. I refuse to get
involved in that nonsense. It's total garbage. I'm sorry. Both
(10:57):
sides are kind of an embarrassment. I don't want to
watch two foles with gray hair yell at each other
and lie and it's just I don't need this, so
I avoided it all. Now, I did watch the second
round of the NBA Draft, and obviously, you know, there's
a couple big moments that we can get into, but
unquestionably the biggest one is Bronnie James going to the Lakers.
(11:20):
At fifty five. It happened, It was exciting, and of
course it invited calls for nepotism.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Come on, this is not right.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
There's so many people the Lakers should have drafted, and
just stop.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Just stop.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Where were you when Yannis was dragging his brothers into
the NBA? Where are you when owners hand the franchise
over to their relatives? Were you when gms and coaches
hire their kids into the front office and of the staff.
There's no outrage? But why is her outrage here?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Because it's Lebron James. Oh, I've got you. Oh, okay,
because it's you don't like Lebron. Well, that's fine, just
say that you don't like Lebron. This is wrong. His
son't or doesn't deserve a spot. You can say whatever
you want, but the nepotism stuff is kind of hollow,
and Woje kind of picked this apart and did a
good job of that. This happens throughout the league. You
got we talked about this. It's not what you know,
(12:19):
it's who you know. Get to the front of the line.
If you're able to cut awesome, and then you've got
your chance to prove it. And the Bronni's son. Lebron's son,
Bronni will have a couple of years here to prove it.
It's sink or swim, baby, He's got to work. Nothing's
gonna get handed to him nothing. He's not going to
just see the court because he's Lebron's son. It doesn't
(12:40):
work like that. Obviously. Yes, Lebron being on the Lakers
led to them drafting Bronni, but he had to at
least put himself in position to get here. And don't
tell me he's not at least worthy of a look
in the NBA. And again at fifty five, you want
to go over the guy who were drafted in the fifties. Listen,
(13:01):
Kevin mccullor from Kansas was a really good player. I
think he was at Texas A and M. He's had injuries,
he's older, he went fifty six. I don't know if
he's a pro. He could be an one of those
super veterans who's instrumental for the Nuggets as a role player.
But a lot of these second round guys are gonna
have problems with making the roster. And I just don't
want to hear the outrage O'brownie shouldn't be there. It
(13:23):
just seems a little silly. Listen, he's Lebron's son. It's
a cool story that a father and son are going
to get together and be on the court at the
same time. We've literally never seen that in the NBA.
It's pretty damn cool. I don't know about you, guys,
some of you surely have kids. Our audience kind of fluctuates.
We've got some young, some middle aged, some older, and
(13:46):
I'm sure some of you have worked with your kid
and that's pretty damn cool. Now, I have yet to
play like a legitimate game of pickup with my son
and other dads. And you know, my kids are a
little younger. I decided to well not I decided, but
like I got married kind of late and we were
in no rush to instantly churn out kids. You want
to have fun and travel and all that fun stuff,
(14:08):
and so you know, I'm not on the younger end
when it comes to playing Who I know some guys
who have, you know, college age kids. To me, that's crazy,
But if I had a kid in college, I'd be
playing pick up hoops with them. My old neighbor who
listened to this pod, actually he's like fifty one, and
he's got a kid college freshman, and we've played ball together,
(14:29):
and it's like, it's kind of cool playing with your son.
It's fun. I just get to coach my kids. But
I just think it's pretty awesome that Lebron gets to
play with his son. Like, I don't know how you
can hate on that. It just feels like you really
just don't like Lebron, which is fine. Don't try to
play the nepotism card and just keep it, keep it,
keep it real. Hey, you know what, I'm not a
Lebron fan. I think that's kind of lame that the
(14:50):
Lakers to just say you don't like Lebron. Don't say
that it's dumb that a father gets to play with
the son, because that's pretty damn cool. Now, what's gonna
happen with the rest of the Lakers roster? I'm not
certain now. I gassed up Dalton Connect on yesterday's podcast.
I love that pick Lakers add two guys to the roster.
Who's gonna get the short end of the stick? Well,
(15:10):
obviously we know what their like core group of eight
or ten guys are. I do wonder about you know
what do we do with Whi Chafino. Is he gonna
you know they drafted him last year. Is he gonna
even make the team? What do they do with the
Max Christi? Does JJ Reddick see something in some of
these guys who on the Lakers didn't do anything last year,
(15:32):
and does he think like, hey, I can make something
with that guy. I can make it work. He's had
a long time, he's had a good runway to figure
something out. He's done a lot of podcasts with Lebron.
It's not like he's just entering the job and being like, oh,
let's see what we've got here. He knows well in
advance who he wants. Obviously, Polinka is gonna have a
large say in the matter as the GM, but listen,
(15:53):
Lebron's gonna have to say as well. Stars get star treatment.
Torrean Prince almost certainly will not be backs. We'll see
what happens with Max Christi, Dinwitty, I don't know he
was in the rotation last year. You know you can
you could obviously Lebron a d We'll see about Russell
Ruy Hachi Mora is potential trade bait. Austin Reeves hopefully
(16:14):
not going anywhere. Gabe Vincent could be trade bait. Vanderbilt
could be trade bait. Hood Schafino, I don't I just
don't know what if he has any value anywhere? Maybe
a by Low. We'll see what happens with christin Wood,
Jackson Hayes, player option, Cam reddis player option. Like start
getting down this list, Maxwell Lewis Bronni is probably gonna
take someone's spot. But again, it's a long season. Let's
(16:37):
not overreact to Bronni being on the team. The Lakers
have bigger fish to fry. For instance, D'Angelo Russell. What
do you do with that?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
That?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
To me is a big movement piece for the Lakers.
Do they lose him for nothing or are they able
to somehow flip him for somebody valuable. We'll see other
second round moves that I thought were mildly interesting. Mike Gosh,
my Knicks continue to slay this friggin draft and weak
Tyler colek Are you kidding me? One of my favorite
(17:09):
players in college basketball, lefty point guard for Marquete. For
my Fox Sports mock draft like three weeks ago, I
had colec going like twenty three to the Bucks, and
I said Listen, this is an overachieving, undersized point guard
with a good handle, a great feel for the game,
good mid range in a perfect world, okay, where everything
(17:32):
breaks right, work ethic, opportunity. You're telling me Kyler, Tyler
Coleck can't get on the path, the path toward Jalen Brunson. Now,
I'm not saying he's gonna be Jalen Brunson, but the
opportunity to lead a team. Now, Brunson's dad was in
the NBA obviously, which which is something Tyler Kohlik's dad
didn't do. So it's in It's literally in his genes
(17:55):
to be a baller and a hooper. And trust me,
I just came back from a volleyball tournament. You can
see some of these teams that are really really stacked,
and you see their players, and then you look at
the parents and you can see, oh, that dad's like
six ' five. I bet that guy played volleyball. And
then someone on our bench says, yeah, dude, that guy
was in the Olympics like eight or ten years ago.
(18:16):
He was a beach volleyball Olympic guy. And I'm like,
are you serious? And you could just see it's like
a real thing, folks. I'm not making this up. I'm
sure your kids will get there and they'll be playing
at levels and you're like, oh my gosh, that guy's
really good. Oh yeah, his mom is in the BYU
Hall of Fame for volleyball and his dad just got
into the Colorado Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame or whatever
(18:40):
the school is. It's like, Okay, if that's your parent,
you're gonna have a leg up. So obviously Brunson had
that going for him. Colek is everything I want in
like a backup point guard, which is what Brunson was.
Remember he was the second round pick. Now, I'm not
saying Tayler Colex is gonna be an all NBA guy.
I'm not saying that, but the track is there, especially
with the Knicks getting to work every day with Brunson,
(19:02):
that's amazing. So I absolutely love that. That's a great,
great get for the New York Knicks. I don't want
to delve too much into the Kyle philip Kowski story
with Duke, so he fell out of the first round, tumbled,
a lot of people had him in the lottery. He
felt a thirty two. He's going to the Utah Jazz.
Interesting story popped up Jonathan Givoni, the ESPN NBA draft guy.
(19:25):
He started Draft Express and I know him. He's close
with some of the Australian basketball owners, so I've been
I've hung out with him a few times. Nice guy.
He went on Zach Lowe's podcast and kind of dropped
the ball. Well, yeah, Philip Kowski's falling because there's questions
about this girlfriend he has, who happens to be like
six years older and she's been dating him for like,
(19:49):
I don't know, four years, so he was technically underage
or whatever. And next thing you know, they're engaged and
she's Mormon. And now Philip Kowski does talk to his
family anymore, and his family is going on Twitter talking
about and it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, this is TMI baby. However, However,
apparently teams were a little nervous, like this situation seems
(20:12):
awkward to a young guy at Duke who's a really
good player doesn't talk to his parents because of a girlfriend,
that might be a warning signal. Now he was drafted
by the Utah Jazz, so we know, you know the
Mormon situation in Utah. I'll leave it there. Good luck
to Fillowkowski. Other names that kind of popped up. I
(20:34):
liked aj Mitchell, the kid from UCSB man. I'll tell
you the guy is a smooth game. Oklahoma City continues
to do well in the draft. They really just hit
a couple home runs. I like the kid Bona going
to the Sixers of former UCLA big Man. Like a
good rim runner, rim protector. He should make the roster
(20:54):
in Philly. I think he's a solid player. And the
other one, Jamal shed the Houston stud goes to He's
going to end up in Toronto with the Raptors. She'll
have a chance because Raptors are not good.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I do want to wrap up because free agency happens
this weekend. I just want to quickly wrap up with
one note on Paul George and he feels like the
biggest name who could possibly go somewhere because in a
weird way, I mean, you guys know that the Sixers
(21:40):
have all the cap space in the world and they
have a lot a lot of interest in adding a
stud alongside Embiid and Maxi. This is where it gets tricky. Okay,
who's out there? Michael Bridges is a chess piece that's
now off the board. It looks like Donovan Mitchell will
(22:02):
be returning to Cleveland. I don't even know if he's
a great fit with Maxi, but let's just take Donovan
Mitchell off the board. You're now left with hm. Who
else do we have? Oh, there's Paul George. It sounds
like Karl Anthony Towns will be staying in Minnesota. They're
just gonna say, to hell with the tax, let's give it,
let's run it back and try one more year. And
(22:25):
then you start looking around and you're like, all right,
so Kevin Durant probably not going anywhere. I Bradley Beal
has the no trade cause let's just forget the Devin
Booker stuff. So you keep going down the list and
you're like, who's out Chris Pauling doing Jack squat? Okay,
I don't know who the Sixers are gonna get. Where
(22:46):
are the options for Philly when it comes to free agency?
And that's when the question looms, Well, shucks, is Joel
and bid gonna be pissed. Like obviously James harden in
with the Clippers. He ain't going back to Maury. That's
definitely not happening. Russell Westbrook, I don't know what he
adds and you start keeping going down unless you're like,
damn there, There's not a lot of guys that Philly
(23:09):
could target. Now. Darryl Moray has been known to pull
a rabbit out of a hat. He's very creative. Surely
he has targeted someone. But Ognernobi staying with the Knicks. Now,
if you look at the wording from Woes when he
reported it was Ognernobi intends to sign the max deal.
So that's a hands off Philly. He's ours and that
(23:30):
we're giving him the max. It's just it's an interesting
situation when you when you look at who's out there,
and I mean again, like KCP is gonna be leaving Denver.
But Casep's not a star. He's a good role player.
He's gonna want big bucks. He's probably gonna end up
going to a not great team. I just I'm not
(23:53):
really sure where Philadelphia goes to find that next guy.
If it ain't Paul George, tell me who is it
Trey Young? Nope, that's not it, is it Dejanta Murray?
I don't, I don't. I just don't know what you do.
What they need is a wing, and Folks, I'm gonna
be honest with you, there are a dearth of wings
(24:15):
who have interested? Who would the Sixers will be interested.
I'll mention Cam Johnson of the Nets. If they decide
to tank, he's he's got some value. But again, that
is he shifting their lottery odds. Remember Philly's in a
division with Boston and New York. They are firmly third
right now. Getting Trey Young's not doing anything. They need wings,
(24:37):
and I just I don't see. I don't see it
out there. So I think the Sixers are really worth
watching and it will be interesting if things don't go
well in free agency. What card do they play at
this point? Well, guess what we got our powder dry?
When some when some team underachieved and they want a
dumble star, that's awesome toe at the deadline. Okay, Joel Embiid,
(25:00):
please stick around, don't ask out again. I'm not pooh
poohing the Sixers here. I just don't see where they're
getting their next stud from They're gonna have to get
extremely creative. And if you can look at the list
of free agents like I like Zach Lavine, I think
that might be the best option. But are they going
to want to take on his salary? DeMar DeRozan? Does
that do anything for you? Again? You just look around
(25:22):
the league, folks. It's getting very dicey in Philadelphia. If
you're a Sixers fan, it's officially time to get nervous.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
All right.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's it for this week. A phenomenal week of sports.
Thank you Soccer, Thank you NBA Draft. Next week it'll
be NBA free agency After that, probably a little Coba America.
After that, your boy might take a real vacation. And
I can't wait to talk to you next week. See then,
This is Straight Fire with Jason McIntire.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What is up straight Fire Fame. It's me Jason McIntyre.
Straight Fire for Friday, June the twenty eighth. It was
a banger of a night in sports. I cannot wait
to dive into it. Quick programming note, I'm hosting The
Herd again today and then back next week Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Yes, yes,
I will be working on July fourth. How about you? No, okay,
(00:33):
you can watch me not talk about a dumb hot
dog eating contest. I will not touch that. You can
bet your bottom dollar. So the podcast will take a
quick brief hiatus on Monday and Tuesday. Trust me, we
will come back heavy with USA Soccer takes on Wednesday.
Should they win or lose, they will be a big
story in sports, and let's just dive right into that,
(00:54):
shall we. Oh, I forgot subscribe, rate and review. Sometimes
I bury that at the end of the podcast and
who knows how long people listen. But somebody smart was like, dude,
you got to mention that at the beginning of every podcast.
That's what all the big guys do. I was like, uh, okay, sure, subscribe,
rate and review everybody, but you guys already do that.
That's how you're here. Anyways, I'm in a somber mood, folks.
This USA lost to Panama just crushing. I'm not gonna lie.
(01:17):
I was like, legitimately bent out of shape. This is
quite devastating. Now listen, I don't want to go off
too hard on anyone. Greg Burholter is gonna come under
fire and he's coaching for his job Monday night against Uruguay.
That much we know. I've talked about that on the pod.
I mentioned that on the Herd. This should not be
news to anyone. You can't lose to Panama. Yes, even
(01:40):
if you go down a man for the final what
seventy minutes, Like that's an inexplicable loss. And there are
some macro issues afoot. But I will just let me
get this out of the way. Early Tim Waya is
a great, great young player. Okay, he made a colossal mistake.
He apologized, I get it. Let's just we got it.
We gotta call it like it is. He made a
(02:02):
massive blunder. If he shoves that guy and said he's
hitting him in the head, he gets a yellow and
he stays on in the US almost certainly wins, but
he went to the head and I was dumb. Now.
Burholter after the match said we were prepared for this referee.
We talked about it. We know essentially that this guy's
a clown and we had to watch ourselves and Tim
Waya didn't. And this is what. So now that we
(02:24):
got the way apart out got it, Tim Waya screwed
the US. It's bad people make mistakes. You know, we've
all been there before. I do have to say, even
down a man, I still felt like, all right, we're
the better side. We can maybe get a goal. And
they did a tremendous goal from Baligan to give nothing
(02:45):
lead and I'm like, okay, we're in this. We're not
gonna give up two goals. Maybe they get the tie,
but you know, Burholter will make adjustments and it will
be okay. Four minutes later, the defense just getting carved
up like Swiss cheese, and I think it was Robinson
who had the ball go between his legs and then
the goalie was like a second late to it and boom,
(03:07):
it's won one. And from there it just was all downhill.
Speaker 1 (03:10):
You.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Panama dominated possession as they should up a man and
some of the advanced stats. For those of you who care,
XG expected goals, which is the hot button number in soccer,
probably the number one stat.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
It's up there.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
I don't know if it's number one for sure, but
without question it's important. And the USA won XG by
almost any Now, there's definitly several different websites that track
expected goals and US had them on all of them.
The Ricardo Peppi late header that one hurt could not
go in, probably should have. It was a pass was
(03:46):
a little behind him, but still, I mean, I don't know,
you kind of got to finish that. US had their
chances and gave up a late goal, you know, losing
your goalie. And that's one thing that pissed me off.
And I'll get to what I'm really really pissed about
is Turner gets drilled in the first I don't know,
twenty minutes. He goes high and he basically gets taken
(04:07):
out by a Panama player who was not a play
on the ball. It should have been in my opinion,
that's a red card. Turner went down, he was down
for like six minutes. He left the game at halftime
because he was shaken up. That's a legitimate foul. Should
have been a red. When you let that go as
a yellow, and when you let that go is nothing.
Panama felt, Okay, we're embolden. We can get physical here.
(04:31):
And Panama fouled the US eighteen times. The US had
four fouls eighteen to four. That was the tracking. So
from the jump after they knocked down Turner and it
was like, no big deal, Panama, they just went off.
I mean the trip of politic late if that happens
at a rec league game or what the got some
of the guys I play with, that's a brawl like
(04:52):
that is some of the dirtiest stuff. Some of these
Panama just cheap shots left and right. I was irate,
but the US couldn't. They were not in a position
to fightuse way, I got himself thrown out. You can't
get two guys tossed that. It's definitely over. It's just
it was disappointing. I mean, the guy dove in the box.
How don't you not get to dive for? How do
you not get a red for the dive in the
sixty third minute, tried to draw a penalty kick ref
(05:13):
initially ruled PK, then they go to var and it's like,
oh my gosh, this is a terrible dive. Nevertheless, they
get the goal in like the eighty third minute. I'm
trying to take positives out of this, but again, this
was a story that you could feel it coming. The
US is no longer a scrappy underdog. They're marked men.
They've got a lot of guys playing in top leagues
(05:35):
across the world, and I don't want to say they've
gotten soft, but they got bullied by Panama and now
they've got to come out and beat Uruguay, who just
smoked Bolivia. I mean, the US beat Bolivia. It should
have been worse than two nothing. Uruguy smacked them around.
It was not even close. So now Monday in Kansas City,
(05:56):
the US has to beat Uruguay to advance. Otherwise I
don't think a draw will get them out of the
group stage. I mean, obviously, if Bolivia somehow, you know,
knocks off Panama, then crazy things can happen. But almost
certainly Greg Berhalter will be coaching for his job on Monday,
pulling out all the stops. I'm pretty sure he will
not have way out due to the red card. I
(06:18):
think the guy that a lot of people were calling
for was Musa. Why didn't he play in the midfield?
Dynamic player the US. I know they won XG, but
they didn't really create much. And it's tough to get
overreactive about that because they're down a man. It's tough
to create down a man, you're on your heels a
whole damn time. I don't know, it's just extremely disappointing.
(06:39):
I would say this for years, the US has been
searching for that goal scoring machine. I remember when Josie
Outdodoor was supposed to be the guy. Like Josie out
Theodor was good, but he was supposed to be great.
Balligan looks like a stud. He looks like they're number nine,
a striker whose job it is to score goals. He
had a phenomenal goal, he nearly had another really good
(06:59):
one offs from Polistic, but it was just it was
just one of those games, like not a lot of
great takeaways, Like I don't see how you can defend
Berholter for not getting out of the group stage and
the defense of oh well, if way it doesn't get tost,
they probably win. I don't want to hear that make adjustments. Man,
this is Copa America in the United States. This is
(07:22):
our last major tournament before the twenty six World Cup.
And we don't get out of the freaking group stage
with the alleged Golden Generation. And listen, maybe Golden Generation
is strong. They've thrown it around with Netherlands and Belgium
and a lot of countries. Get the Golden generation tag
where you've got guys who were there for two, three,
four World Cups. Croatia had a couple of good runs.
(07:44):
This is supposed to be the US. This is their time.
The guys are ascending, and it's just like, come on,
it's just a devastating loss. We'll see how they do
against Arguay. They're gonna be underdogs. I'm I don't want
to be a home ern and take to win. I'm
obviously rooting for them heavily. Uh If if Turner's not
(08:04):
able to come back and Horrorvath starts, listen, I'm not
going to crush Horrorvath. But that second goal, I mean,
the ball came right at him. It was a rocket
from in close. But I mean, if it goes off
his face, the US gets a tie and they're in
good shape. If he's able to somehow deflect it, you know,
a different story if Peppi is able to put one
in and Pepi, you know, had a couple good chances
(08:25):
against Bolivia. This is a this is a pull out
all the stops on Monday. It's for all the marbles,
as I say, And obviously as a network, you know,
I worked for Fox and them having the US bounce
that before the group stage at COPA would be devastating.
We'll see, uh, I am. I'm going to try to
remain optimistic. The soccer hanks are going to chime in
(08:48):
heavily all weekend, and I'm waiting for the list of
potential Burholter candidates. Once he's bounced, who replaces him. I'm
on a soccer text thread with some dads and I saw, oh,
we got to go get klop and you know, they're
they're gonna name all these European guys and I'm like,
are they coming over now? Listen, you are coming into
a good job. It's it almost feels like, I don't
(09:09):
want to say, totally feels like but the Golden State
Warriors had Mark Jackson and they were like really good.
Remember they had a I think they got to the
second round of the playoffs one year and then the
next year they lose in seven to the paper Clips,
and I think that's when they decided, let's move on
from Mark Mark Jackson. We've got the splash bros. We
need to tweak. And I believe the next year they
ended up winning the title with Kerr and Draymond made,
(09:31):
you know, the small ball. I don't know how far
the US is away. It feels like they were a
small tweak and I know the soccer pewerists are going
to say, I can't compete with Argentina. Okay, can't be Panama.
I get it. I understand. I'm not gonna freak out,
but it feels.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Like they're close.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
And obviously, as a big soccer guy and as an American,
I'm rooting for them heavily. But yeah, so it's just
a crushing loss and not what I wanted on a
Thursday night.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in the nation.
Catch all of our shows at foxsports Radio dot com
and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to listen live.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
The good news is that we did have the second
round of the NBA Draft. Now here's what's interesting. The
NBA draft decided we don't want to go up against
presidential debate. We're gonna push the second round up to
like I think they started at like five pm Eastern
or maybe six, but it started super early, and so
it was done well before the debate. I should add
at this juncture, I swear to you I did not
(10:35):
consume one second of the debate. I did not watch
any of the videos while on social media. I promise
this is not just me acting tough and funny. I
did see some of the memes because you can't help it,
and there are some funny lines, but I promise you
I did not watch a second. I refuse to get
involved in that nonsense. It's total garbage. I'm sorry. Both
(10:57):
sides are kind of an embarrassment. I don't want to
watch two foles with gray hair yell at each other
and lie and it's just I don't need this, so
I avoided it all. Now, I did watch the second
round of the NBA Draft, and obviously, you know, there's
a couple big moments that we can get into, but
unquestionably the biggest one is Bronnie James going to the Lakers.
(11:20):
At fifty five. It happened, It was exciting, and of
course it invited calls for nepotism.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
Come on, this is not right.
Speaker 2 (11:30):
There's so many people the Lakers should have drafted, and
just stop.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Just stop.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Where were you when Yannis was dragging his brothers into
the NBA? Where are you when owners hand the franchise
over to their relatives? Were you when gms and coaches
hire their kids into the front office and of the staff.
There's no outrage? But why is her outrage here?
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Because it's Lebron James. Oh, I've got you. Oh, okay,
because it's you don't like Lebron. Well, that's fine, just
say that you don't like Lebron. This is wrong. His
son't or doesn't deserve a spot. You can say whatever
you want, but the nepotism stuff is kind of hollow,
and Woje kind of picked this apart and did a
good job of that. This happens throughout the league. You
got we talked about this. It's not what you know,
(12:19):
it's who you know. Get to the front of the line.
If you're able to cut awesome, and then you've got
your chance to prove it. And the Bronni's son. Lebron's son,
Bronni will have a couple of years here to prove it.
It's sink or swim, baby, He's got to work. Nothing's
gonna get handed to him nothing. He's not going to
just see the court because he's Lebron's son. It doesn't
(12:40):
work like that. Obviously. Yes, Lebron being on the Lakers
led to them drafting Bronni, but he had to at
least put himself in position to get here. And don't
tell me he's not at least worthy of a look
in the NBA. And again at fifty five, you want
to go over the guy who were drafted in the fifties. Listen,
(13:01):
Kevin mccullor from Kansas was a really good player. I
think he was at Texas A and M. He's had injuries,
he's older, he went fifty six. I don't know if
he's a pro. He could be an one of those
super veterans who's instrumental for the Nuggets as a role player.
But a lot of these second round guys are gonna
have problems with making the roster. And I just don't
want to hear the outrage O'brownie shouldn't be there. It
(13:23):
just seems a little silly. Listen, he's Lebron's son. It's
a cool story that a father and son are going
to get together and be on the court at the
same time. We've literally never seen that in the NBA.
It's pretty damn cool. I don't know about you, guys,
some of you surely have kids. Our audience kind of fluctuates.
We've got some young, some middle aged, some older, and
(13:46):
I'm sure some of you have worked with your kid
and that's pretty damn cool. Now, I have yet to
play like a legitimate game of pickup with my son
and other dads. And you know, my kids are a
little younger. I decided to well not I decided, but
like I got married kind of late and we were
in no rush to instantly churn out kids. You want
to have fun and travel and all that fun stuff,
(14:08):
and so you know, I'm not on the younger end
when it comes to playing Who I know some guys
who have, you know, college age kids. To me, that's crazy,
But if I had a kid in college, I'd be
playing pick up hoops with them. My old neighbor who
listened to this pod, actually he's like fifty one, and
he's got a kid college freshman, and we've played ball together,
(14:29):
and it's like, it's kind of cool playing with your son.
It's fun. I just get to coach my kids. But
I just think it's pretty awesome that Lebron gets to
play with his son. Like, I don't know how you
can hate on that. It just feels like you really
just don't like Lebron, which is fine. Don't try to
play the nepotism card and just keep it, keep it,
keep it real. Hey, you know what, I'm not a
Lebron fan. I think that's kind of lame that the
(14:50):
Lakers to just say you don't like Lebron. Don't say
that it's dumb that a father gets to play with
the son, because that's pretty damn cool. Now, what's gonna
happen with the rest of the Lakers roster? I'm not
certain now. I gassed up Dalton Connect on yesterday's podcast.
I love that pick Lakers add two guys to the roster.
Who's gonna get the short end of the stick? Well,
(15:10):
obviously we know what their like core group of eight
or ten guys are. I do wonder about you know
what do we do with Whi Chafino. Is he gonna
you know they drafted him last year. Is he gonna
even make the team? What do they do with the
Max Christi? Does JJ Reddick see something in some of
these guys who on the Lakers didn't do anything last year,
(15:32):
and does he think like, hey, I can make something
with that guy. I can make it work. He's had
a long time, he's had a good runway to figure
something out. He's done a lot of podcasts with Lebron.
It's not like he's just entering the job and being like, oh,
let's see what we've got here. He knows well in
advance who he wants. Obviously, Polinka is gonna have a
large say in the matter as the GM, but listen,
(15:53):
Lebron's gonna have to say as well. Stars get star treatment.
Torrean Prince almost certainly will not be backs. We'll see
what happens with Max Christi, Dinwitty, I don't know he
was in the rotation last year. You know you can
you could obviously Lebron a d We'll see about Russell
Ruy Hachi Mora is potential trade bait. Austin Reeves hopefully
(16:14):
not going anywhere. Gabe Vincent could be trade bait. Vanderbilt
could be trade bait. Hood Schafino, I don't I just
don't know what if he has any value anywhere? Maybe
a by Low. We'll see what happens with christin Wood,
Jackson Hayes, player option, Cam reddis player option. Like start
getting down this list, Maxwell Lewis Bronni is probably gonna
take someone's spot. But again, it's a long season. Let's
(16:37):
not overreact to Bronni being on the team. The Lakers
have bigger fish to fry. For instance, D'Angelo Russell. What
do you do with that?
Speaker 1 (16:45):
That?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
To me is a big movement piece for the Lakers.
Do they lose him for nothing or are they able
to somehow flip him for somebody valuable. We'll see other
second round moves that I thought were mildly interesting. Mike Gosh,
my Knicks continue to slay this friggin draft and weak
Tyler colek Are you kidding me? One of my favorite
(17:09):
players in college basketball, lefty point guard for Marquete. For
my Fox Sports mock draft like three weeks ago, I
had colec going like twenty three to the Bucks, and
I said Listen, this is an overachieving, undersized point guard
with a good handle, a great feel for the game,
good mid range in a perfect world, okay, where everything
(17:32):
breaks right, work ethic, opportunity. You're telling me Kyler, Tyler
Coleck can't get on the path, the path toward Jalen Brunson. Now,
I'm not saying he's gonna be Jalen Brunson, but the
opportunity to lead a team. Now, Brunson's dad was in
the NBA obviously, which which is something Tyler Kohlik's dad
didn't do. So it's in It's literally in his genes
(17:55):
to be a baller and a hooper. And trust me,
I just came back from a volleyball tournament. You can
see some of these teams that are really really stacked,
and you see their players, and then you look at
the parents and you can see, oh, that dad's like
six ' five. I bet that guy played volleyball. And
then someone on our bench says, yeah, dude, that guy
was in the Olympics like eight or ten years ago.
(18:16):
He was a beach volleyball Olympic guy. And I'm like,
are you serious? And you could just see it's like
a real thing, folks. I'm not making this up. I'm
sure your kids will get there and they'll be playing
at levels and you're like, oh my gosh, that guy's
really good. Oh yeah, his mom is in the BYU
Hall of Fame for volleyball and his dad just got
into the Colorado Indoor Volleyball Hall of Fame or whatever
(18:40):
the school is. It's like, Okay, if that's your parent,
you're gonna have a leg up. So obviously Brunson had
that going for him. Colek is everything I want in
like a backup point guard, which is what Brunson was.
Remember he was the second round pick. Now, I'm not
saying Tayler Colex is gonna be an all NBA guy.
I'm not saying that, but the track is there, especially
with the Knicks getting to work every day with Brunson,
(19:02):
that's amazing. So I absolutely love that. That's a great,
great get for the New York Knicks. I don't want
to delve too much into the Kyle philip Kowski story
with Duke, so he fell out of the first round, tumbled,
a lot of people had him in the lottery. He
felt a thirty two. He's going to the Utah Jazz.
Interesting story popped up Jonathan Givoni, the ESPN NBA draft guy.
(19:25):
He started Draft Express and I know him. He's close
with some of the Australian basketball owners, so I've been
I've hung out with him a few times. Nice guy.
He went on Zach Lowe's podcast and kind of dropped
the ball. Well, yeah, Philip Kowski's falling because there's questions
about this girlfriend he has, who happens to be like
six years older and she's been dating him for like,
(19:49):
I don't know, four years, so he was technically underage
or whatever. And next thing you know, they're engaged and
she's Mormon. And now Philip Kowski does talk to his
family anymore, and his family is going on Twitter talking
about and it's like whoa, whoa, whoa, this is TMI baby. However, However,
apparently teams were a little nervous, like this situation seems
(20:12):
awkward to a young guy at Duke who's a really
good player doesn't talk to his parents because of a girlfriend,
that might be a warning signal. Now he was drafted
by the Utah Jazz, so we know, you know the
Mormon situation in Utah. I'll leave it there. Good luck
to Fillowkowski. Other names that kind of popped up. I
(20:34):
liked aj Mitchell, the kid from UCSB man. I'll tell
you the guy is a smooth game. Oklahoma City continues
to do well in the draft. They really just hit
a couple home runs. I like the kid Bona going
to the Sixers of former UCLA big Man. Like a
good rim runner, rim protector. He should make the roster
(20:54):
in Philly. I think he's a solid player. And the
other one, Jamal shed the Houston stud goes to He's
going to end up in Toronto with the Raptors. She'll
have a chance because Raptors are not good.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app. Search FSR to
listen live.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
I do want to wrap up because free agency happens
this weekend. I just want to quickly wrap up with
one note on Paul George and he feels like the
biggest name who could possibly go somewhere because in a
weird way, I mean, you guys know that the Sixers
(21:40):
have all the cap space in the world and they
have a lot a lot of interest in adding a
stud alongside Embiid and Maxi. This is where it gets tricky. Okay,
who's out there? Michael Bridges is a chess piece that's
now off the board. It looks like Donovan Mitchell will
(22:02):
be returning to Cleveland. I don't even know if he's
a great fit with Maxi, but let's just take Donovan
Mitchell off the board. You're now left with hm. Who
else do we have? Oh, there's Paul George. It sounds
like Karl Anthony Towns will be staying in Minnesota. They're
just gonna say, to hell with the tax, let's give it,
let's run it back and try one more year. And
(22:25):
then you start looking around and you're like, all right,
so Kevin Durant probably not going anywhere. I Bradley Beal
has the no trade cause let's just forget the Devin
Booker stuff. So you keep going down the list and
you're like, who's out Chris Pauling doing Jack squat? Okay,
I don't know who the Sixers are gonna get. Where
(22:46):
are the options for Philly when it comes to free agency?
And that's when the question looms, Well, shucks, is Joel
and bid gonna be pissed. Like obviously James harden in
with the Clippers. He ain't going back to Maury. That's
definitely not happening. Russell Westbrook, I don't know what he
adds and you start keeping going down unless you're like,
damn there, There's not a lot of guys that Philly
(23:09):
could target. Now. Darryl Moray has been known to pull
a rabbit out of a hat. He's very creative. Surely
he has targeted someone. But Ognernobi staying with the Knicks. Now,
if you look at the wording from Woes when he
reported it was Ognernobi intends to sign the max deal.
So that's a hands off Philly. He's ours and that
(23:30):
we're giving him the max. It's just it's an interesting
situation when you when you look at who's out there,
and I mean again, like KCP is gonna be leaving Denver.
But Casep's not a star. He's a good role player.
He's gonna want big bucks. He's probably gonna end up
going to a not great team. I just I'm not
(23:53):
really sure where Philadelphia goes to find that next guy.
If it ain't Paul George, tell me who is it
Trey Young? Nope, that's not it, is it Dejanta Murray?
I don't, I don't. I just don't know what you do.
What they need is a wing, and Folks, I'm gonna
be honest with you, there are a dearth of wings
(24:15):
who have interested? Who would the Sixers will be interested.
I'll mention Cam Johnson of the Nets. If they decide
to tank, he's he's got some value. But again, that
is he shifting their lottery odds. Remember Philly's in a
division with Boston and New York. They are firmly third
right now. Getting Trey Young's not doing anything. They need wings,
(24:37):
and I just I don't see. I don't see it
out there. So I think the Sixers are really worth
watching and it will be interesting if things don't go
well in free agency. What card do they play at
this point? Well, guess what we got our powder dry?
When some when some team underachieved and they want a
dumble star, that's awesome toe at the deadline. Okay, Joel Embiid,
(25:00):
please stick around, don't ask out again. I'm not pooh
poohing the Sixers here. I just don't see where they're
getting their next stud from They're gonna have to get
extremely creative. And if you can look at the list
of free agents like I like Zach Lavine, I think
that might be the best option. But are they going
to want to take on his salary? DeMar DeRozan? Does
that do anything for you? Again? You just look around
(25:22):
the league, folks. It's getting very dicey in Philadelphia. If
you're a Sixers fan, it's officially time to get nervous.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
All right.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
That's it for this week. A phenomenal week of sports.
Thank you Soccer, Thank you NBA Draft. Next week it'll
be NBA free agency After that, probably a little Coba America.
After that, your boy might take a real vacation. And
I can't wait to talk to you next week. See then,
Host
Jason McIntyre
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