Chris Wittyngham previews the MLS Cup Final | Messi and Mascherano look to prove doubters wrong - video Dailymotion

WQAM-AM / AM 560 Sports WQAM

Apple TV MLS broadcaster Chris Wittyngham previews tomorrow’s MLS Cup Final between Inter Miami and Vancouver.

Transcript

00:00All right, our friend Chris Whittingham is joining us.

00:04He's in sunny South Florida, the epicenter of the soccer world,

00:09the American soccer world, and he's on the Toyota of Hollywood Hotline.

00:14Whittingham is a soccer broadcaster for CBS and MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.

00:20The MLS Championship can be seen on Apple TV tomorrow.

00:24Pregame starts at 1 p.m. with our friend Kevin Egan,

00:28and it doesn't get any bigger for Inter-Miami fans than tomorrow,

00:332.30, Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

00:35By the way, last I saw, Inter-Miami is a minus 145 favorite to win.

00:41Vancouver Whitecaps are plus 300.

00:45What do you think the vibe is going to be like tomorrow, Whittingham?

00:48We have an experience down here, an MLS Championship,

00:51and certainly there's never been one with Leo Messi in it.

00:54So I was asking Kevin Egan yesterday, like, are there going to be celebrities here?

00:58Is this going to be, like, filled with pomp and circumstance,

01:02unlike anything we've seen in soccer down here?

01:06I think so.

01:07I think they're going to make every call that they can possibly make.

01:10At the semifinal, they had Carlos Alcaraz, the tennis player, there.

01:14David Beckham has certainly had his fair few celebrities come through,

01:19and I feel like if you're going to make some calls,

01:21there are obviously a lot of people that are in the States for the World Cup draw

01:24that was held this afternoon.

01:26Any of those people that want to come around tomorrow, I imagine,

01:28have a standing invite and will try and get through the door.

01:32So, yeah, I think it'll be an incredible vibe and atmosphere,

01:34and I think a lot of people will probably go into it thinking that it is a coronation,

01:39that it is just Miami are going to win.

01:41It's going to be easy.

01:42I'm here to tell you that it won't be.

01:44It will not be easy, but I think that'll kind of be what the vibe will be tomorrow

01:47is that you're watching Inter-Miami play a home game.

01:50You're one home game away from winning a championship,

01:52and with Lionel Messi, that usually means you go win.

01:55But I don't think it will be that simple,

01:57but I think that'll kind of be the feeling walking in,

01:59that people are there for a party.

02:00People are there for we're about to watch Miami and Messi win a championship.

02:05Yeah, I was going to ask that, too, because I don't want to jinx us,

02:09but the stadium's opening next year.

02:11Messi came over.

02:12It's the stadium Messi built.

02:14Now he wins the championship.

02:15Like, it's lining up to be perfect.

02:17Does Vancouver know that they're supposed to be the duck

02:20on this beautiful mission of perfection?

02:23No, no, they do not.

02:25They do not know that at all because Vancouver are a team

02:27that have been ruining the party all season long.

02:30As a matter of fact, Hawk and I went to the second leg

02:33when they played in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in May,

02:36and Vancouver played Miami off the park that day.

02:38That was another one where Miami were on the brink of going to the Club World Cup,

02:42and it was a chance for Miami to once again prove themselves

02:45as one of the top teams in this part of the world,

02:47and Vancouver played them off the pitch.

02:49They've been really good all season long, finishing second in the Western Conference,

02:52knocking LAFC out, who were another team, I think.

02:55Some people were kind of hoping that this final would be Miami against LAFC,

02:58and Sun Hung Min.

02:59Again, Vancouver were much better than them for most of the game before a red card,

03:03and in the Western Conference final as well against San Diego,

03:07another team, expansion team, great atmosphere,

03:09and they just went in there, cool heads, and played them off the park no problem.

03:13So they are certainly well capable of doing that, this Vancouver team.

03:17But yeah, I agree with you, Crowder, that sort of that narrative is perfect.

03:21It's perfect for Inter Miami as a club to have reached this point six years into their history.

03:26When they came into the league, David Beckham involved in the ownership,

03:29and there was this idea that it was going to be so easy to attract players

03:32and build this amazing team from the get-go.

03:35That didn't happen.

03:36And it took them about four or five years for them to really find their stride.

03:39But everything that Miami could deliver as a soccer market,

03:43they could potentially deliver over the course of the next six months,

03:46starting with this playoff run and going into the opening of that new stadium

03:50that's supposed to open by the Miami airport.

03:52It is anything any soccer fan could have possibly hoped for

03:56when they started as a club six years ago.

03:57And it just requires them to go out and win tomorrow.

04:00There's a lot of layers to this game.

04:03Yesterday, Kevin Egan, the first thing he brought up was,

04:05Tomas Mueller and Leo Messi and how Mueller has honestly dominated that matchup.

04:10And I think it's an interesting wrinkle into this entire matchup.

04:14But who wants this more?

04:18Let me frame it that way.

04:19Who wants this more from Inter Miami's perspective?

04:21Obviously, Jorge Mas and all that and the fans.

04:23But Leo Messi, I think, genuinely, we've talked about this on the show, Woody,

04:27how he really wants to win.

04:30He's playing his ass off in these games.

04:32This hasn't been just a vacation for him.

04:35But Javier Mascherano, who has been ridiculed, criticized.

04:41We talked about how he replaced Tata Martino, who had won an MLS Cup,

04:45won the Supporters Shield last year, set an MLS record.

04:48And then really, you know, I think the narrative was Messi just wanted his boy here,

04:52who really didn't have the resume to have this position yet.

04:56How badly does he want it?

04:59Because I think it might trump anybody else on that Inter Miami squad.

05:03Yeah, I think you saw so much of the evidence for that,

05:06or for really both of the narratives you just laid out in the Easter Conference final game

05:10against New York City.

05:11First off, with the incredible verbal spat between Leo Messi and the captain for New York City,

05:18Maxi Morales, it has since been translated what was said, which is basically,

05:22hey, I thought Rodrigo DePaul kind of followed you around, not the other way around.

05:27And Lionel Messi is saying, you got to respect me.

05:29Rodrigo DePaul said, yeah, I could probably buy your team.

05:32Like, there was an incredible amount of verbal smack going back and forth.

05:35That's good trash talking right there.

05:36Right.

05:36So basically, Rodrigo DePaul and Maxi Morales are from the same club in Argentina.

05:41And Maxi Morales is saying, well, if you're going to leave Europe, why didn't you go there?

05:44You're not actually a proper fan of that team if you didn't go.

05:47And he goes, well, if I never end up playing there, I'll just buy the team,

05:50which is an incredible comeback.

05:52But I think so you saw sort of that level of sort of intensity between the star players.

05:57But also, every single goal was celebrated by Maxi Morales like it was the winning goal of the World Cup final.

06:02It was an incredible triumph for him and his coaching.

06:05I think in some ways, it's a very difficult job to manage Inter-Miami because it's much about the politics

06:10as it is about sort of your decisions and what you think about the game and how to implement the style of play.

06:15And the most difficult thing that's happened over this last month is that Luis Suarez has basically proven to be

06:20a 12th man, as it were, to sort of borrow a phrase from basketball.

06:23He's sort of the first guy off the bench, a guy if you need a goal.

06:26But the team functions better without essentially Lionel Messi's best friend in the team,

06:30which is a difficult thing to do.

06:31It's difficult to go to Lionel Messi and say, hey, there's some pretty solid evidence now over the last few months

06:37that your best friend in the team would probably be better served on the bench.

06:41Are you OK with this?

06:42And they decided over the two weeks of the international window that, yes, that was OK.

06:46And they've since gone out and destroyed Cincinnati and destroyed New York City.

06:49So I think for him, not just in terms of that sort of idea of nepotism, of it being, you know,

06:55Messi's friend that's the coach of the team, but also over the course of the year,

06:59he mushed it out and was really criticized.

07:01It's a difficult team to coach because it's a lot of older players.

07:04You're trying to figure out a style of play in a young man's athletic sport,

07:07how to figure out how to get all these old guys on the pitch and work together.

07:10It has not been easy from day one.

07:12There have been several fans that were calling for him to be fired over the course of the season

07:16and now he's a game away from winning the title.

07:18So, yeah, I think definitely for both of them,

07:20but I think the outward demonstration will definitely be for Machado after the game

07:24in terms of how vociferously he will celebrate if they go on to win.

07:27Again, the MLS championship is tomorrow.

07:31It kicks off at 2.30 in Fort Lauderdale, but you can watch Apple TV.

07:34Apple TV has the coverage beginning at 1 p.m., the pregame,

07:381 p.m. with our friend Kevin Egan.

07:41Whittingham, before we run out of time, they had the World Cup draw today

07:45and Solana had mentioned it in the headlines.

07:49What is your take on the U.S.'s draw?

07:52Pretty solid. Pretty solid.

07:53I think in terms of if the hopes are to advance,

07:57the United States should be capable of winning all of the games in their group.

08:00And that is not necessarily a given when you look at some of the teams

08:05that could have come out of, let's say, so they're a pot one team.

08:07The nine best teams in the world were in that pot,

08:10so they weren't going to play any of them.

08:11So it's kind of that next group of teams.

08:13And right now, it looks as though the best of that bunch is Morocco.

08:17You avoided Morocco.

08:18You avoided the strong South American teams that were in that pot as well.

08:22And instead, your pot two was Australia.

08:25And that is as best case of a scenario as there is.

08:29Australia are, I think, a team that has less talent than the United States.

08:33And so you're off to a good start there.

08:35Then you're playing Paraguay as your second game,

08:38which again, middle of the pack team in South America,

08:41not a team that I think the United States should be overawed by.

08:44And then the last team will be the winner of one of the European playoffs

08:48for the final spot in March, most likely to be Turkey,

08:52or as they now say, Turkey-A.

08:54So I think that's another one where Turkey,

08:57I have a solid team with solid players.

08:59I actually think that their talent level is maybe slightly above the U.S.,

09:02but at home, you should be able to at least get a result against them.

09:05So now you're getting to the place where you're starting to dream a little bit,

09:08which would not have been the case probably even in June

09:12when the United States got hammered by Switzerland

09:14and lost as well in a home game against Turkey-A.

09:18They've put in some good performances over the last few months.

09:20They had a good gold cup.

09:21Pochettino, the manager,

09:22seems to have things going in the right direction.

09:24So I think you can, in the overall,

09:26feel pretty good about the U.S. advancing.

09:28And now you're looking at it going, all right, so if they advance,

09:30and if they win their first knockout game,

09:32then their first real difficult challenge is in the round of 16,

09:35probably against Belgium.

09:36Belgium, if you win the group and you play Belgium in the last 16,

09:41that's the sort of game that the growth of American soccer will be measured against.

09:45Can the United States beat a team like Belgium,

09:48which is a pretty high-level European team,

09:50if not a great high-level European team,

09:53in a game of consequence at a World Cup to get to a quarterfinal?

09:56And that's the whole ballgame.

09:58That's what this entire tournament is about for the United States.

10:00So it seems as though, for the moment,

10:02they will be in a position to take advantage of the moment,

10:05which is the home World Cup,

10:06presuming they live up to expectations,

10:08which is obviously not a given.

10:10Real quick, Witty, because we're up against break.

10:12We've got to go.

10:12Would there be, if Inter-Miami wins tomorrow,

10:15would there be a parade?

10:17Would there be a...

10:18I would presume so.

10:19Like a giant local celebration?

10:21I would presume so.

10:22I don't have any insight into what the club has planned,

10:25but you would have to think,

10:27to be able to have a parade with Lionel Messi at the center of it,

10:30you could probably draw a crowd somewhere.

10:31I didn't know if it would be like a parade

10:32or if it would just be a celebration at a stadium.

10:36Yeah, maybe.

10:36I don't know.

10:37I honestly don't know.

10:38But you'd have to think,

10:40with the draw that is Lionel Messi,

10:41with the way that you'll probably capture some attention

10:43in this community on a Saturday afternoon

10:45with no University of Miami football or anything like that,

10:48that you should be able to draw a crowd

10:49at some point next week to celebrate Inter-Miami,

10:52winning a championship,

10:53that obviously being presumptive

10:54that Miami go on to do it in the first place.

10:56Yeah, I didn't even want to bring it up.

10:57I don't want to jinx them.

10:58Chris Whittingham from Apple TV.

11:00Again, Apple TV coverage starts at 1 p.m. tomorrow,

11:04pregame from Chase Stadium in Fort Lauderdale.

11:07Thank you, Whitty.

11:07I'll see you at the Brownies at the stadium.

11:10Thanks, guys.

11:11There you go.

11:11Chris Whittingham.

11:13Talk a little footy.

11:14Talk a little footy on the show.

11:15Like, serious footy.

11:16Like, we weren't even goofing around.

11:18Like, serious footy.

11:19I enjoy that.

11:21I don't know what we've ever done.

11:22But he did it vociferously.

11:25He did do it vociferously.

11:28Excellent use of that word.

11:30Hey, I stole it from him.

11:32Oh, you did?

11:33I didn't even hear him say it.

11:34I did hear him say much like the NBA, the 12th man.

11:41He got that wrong.

11:42It's the sixth man in the NBA.

11:44Well, I think he was just using an example.

11:46The NBA uses a sixth man.

11:47In soccer, there's 11 players on the pitch.

11:50So he was saying the 12th man like the NBA.

11:53I don't think that's the way that he said it.

11:55I understood what he was trying to say.

11:57I think he got it wrong.

11:58But I didn't want to correct him while he was on.

12:00I want to make fun of him while he's gone.

12:02The 12th man's a crowd at an American football game.

12:06That's right.

12:07Seattle.

12:07Which is why he didn't say like the NFL.

12:10He said it like the NBA.

12:11Stop defending him, all right?

12:13Stop defending him.

12:13He knows more than you.

12:14He's like the NCAA.

12:15And he hates you.

12:17All right, we got it.

12:20Y'all are trying to take football away from me.

12:22I'm not having it today.

Chris Wittyngham previews the MLS Cup Final | Messi and Mascherano look to prove doubters wrong

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended