00:00Jason, good morning. Thank you for joining us. We have been getting our World Cup Team of the Day
00:04every day for a couple months now. We've had so much anticipation for the World Cup. It's finally
00:09here. How excited are you now that we finally have this massive event underway? We finally have games
00:15to talk about. That's what's cool about this. I mean, all the buildup is fun. There are a lot of
00:20different stories coming in, which we always see with any big event, any time before the Olympics,
00:25before previous World Cups. People are going to pick at different things, whether it's tickets,
00:31whether it's travel. This is all normal. Now we're talking about games. We saw two really good
00:36ones yesterday, and hopefully the games today, especially the one tonight, can live up to all
00:41the hype. Yeah, and a lot of games to come. I want to ask you about just the scope of
00:46this World Cup,
00:47and I want to do it my own special way. You have WrestleMania. That's good, right? But WrestleMania
00:52too, they have it in three different cities with three different main events. So with the World
00:56Cup, not just one nation, not two nations, but three nations, and the largest World Cup that we've
01:02ever seen, just kind of break down what this means to see the expansion of an event that already had
01:07a
01:07lot of pomp and circumstance attached to it, and obviously a lot of rabid followers.
01:13What I really love is that you're seeing teams get here for the first time, and the game is ready
01:20for a team like Cabo Verde, like we're going to see here in Atlanta on Monday, a team that I
01:25think
01:26can get out of the first round and be a big surprise. You're seeing some teams that we haven't seen
01:31in a
01:31long time get back into the tournament, and the game is just at a point worldwide where you're going
01:37to have billions upon billions of people watch every match during this tournament. This is the
01:45one thing, even more than the Olympics, this is the one thing that worldwide everybody is talking
01:52about. Just yesterday in our city, it was amazing going through downtown before FanFest got really
01:58started and seeing people in Mexico jerseys, people in just all kinds of jerseys, but a ton of Mexico fans
02:04going to the FanFestival at Centennial Olympic Park. I watched the game at Brewhouse Cafe,
02:10my usual hangout spot in little five points, the OG soccer bar in Atlanta, packed, packed early,
02:16packed before the opening ceremony started. It's just such a uniting event in the world for people
02:24to come together and talk about it and all the roller coasters that we're going to go through over
02:27the next month plus of great games, of controversial games, of amazing goals, amazing saves, all of those
02:35things that we're all going to be talking about each and every day.
02:40Jason, I was reading, believe it or not, an article about the U.S. men's national team's chances in the
02:48tournament. It's like 13 stats that prove why they will win. Well, I'm not going to go that far,
02:53but let's talk about where they stand and I think it's group D and what are their chances of maybe
02:59winning that group, getting out and making a run in the World Cup? I think they win the group. I
03:04think
03:05they should win the group and it's not an easy group though. That's the point that it's kind of
03:10hard to make it, honestly, because this group is the tightest group in terms of FIFA rankings,
03:17so you don't have an easy game in it and that can be a challenge. You've got three teams that
03:24are
03:24mostly evenly ranked and I think the FIFA rankings are decently accurate in this,
03:30but the U.S. is going to be favored in every game, not by a lot. So every game is
03:36tight,
03:36but you go in as the favorite. The U.S. has beaten Paraguay. They've beaten Australia in the last 12
03:41months. Turkey hasn't been to a World Cup since 2002. They are very talented, but they've always
03:48been very inconsistent at the national team level. But if you start well and you get Paraguay and you
03:54get Australia first, if you start well and build momentum, that's what you're looking for from this
03:59U.S. team. No, they're not a favorite to win the World Cup and that's okay. There's only eight
04:04countries that have won the World Cup in the history of the tournament going back to 1930. It is not
04:09easy to
04:10do and there are a lot of great soccer countries that we associate with the game that have never
04:16won the World Cup. So I think the idea of you have to win the World Cup, no, we'd love
04:21to. You're not
04:22quite there yet. You're the number 16, number 17 team in the world. I think the FIFA rankings just
04:27updated this morning and the U.S. is 17. We don't go into a college football season with the teams
04:34that
04:34are ranked 16 and 17 and say they have to win the national championship. We're realistic about
04:40it and I think we need to be that here. You're getting into a point now with soccer in this
04:44country where you're producing more and more talented players. The depth of the national team
04:50pool is really deep. What you want to see happen, and this is the part that there is a little
04:57bit of
04:57magic to it, you want to see the global superstar or two or close to it come along in a
05:05generation.
05:05And that isn't always easy to make happen or predict. It happens with an Argentina, it happens
05:12with a Brazil, it happens with an England. You get a cluster of great players that come together.
05:17What I like that the U.S. has done from just a global soccer perspective is you're producing
05:22more and more talented players. So your ground floor has gotten higher and higher. This is a good
05:29team. You're hoping that Christian Pulisic, you're hoping that I think Serginio Dest could be a
05:35really big player in this group. You're hoping that Valerian Baligan up top can climb that ladder
05:40and be close to global superstars in this tournament to put a good group of players over the top and
05:47make a deep run. Well, and as you're talking about global superstars, I am curious in your
05:50opinion, Jason, which American player of those you're naming, like who could become a household
05:55name by the end of this entire tournament? Christian Pulisic is one because he's going to be
06:01a goal scoring leading figure in the attack. And we talk usually household names are going to go to
06:08the attacking players. I'll give you the other one. And we've been talking about him a lot on
06:12Atlanta soccer tonight on my soccer down here platform. Alex Freeman is just everything you want
06:19in a defensive player. The son of Antonio Freeman, the great Green Bay Packers wide receiver.
06:24He is big, strong, fast, and smart, and he can score goals as a defensive player, but he can also
06:33defend anybody. He can win the aerial duels. He can run with guys. He can body guys off the ball.
06:40He's really forced his way into this team. He developed in Orlando, came through their development
06:45program, their academy, then their second team, then their first team. He moved in January to Villarreal
06:52and took a really big bet on himself to go to Spain in a world cup year, knowing he was
06:57going
06:57to have to fight his way into a lineup with a team that had been, that was in mid season.
07:02And he did.
07:02And he played consistently at the end of the year in the two pre-tournament friendlies. He was as good
07:07as anybody in the U S shirt. Now he's a defensive player, so he might not get some of those
07:12headlines
07:13that he should, but in terms of overall importance and what he can do for this group. And I think
07:18what he
07:19brings and his backstory and all of that, he should be a star coming out of this tournament.
07:24But Jason, let me ask you a question that I feel like you and I share kind of a unique
07:29bond,
07:30if you will, a kinship on this station, because obviously when people think about soccer in
07:35Atlanta, they think about Jason Longshore. I hope when they think about baseball, maybe they'll think
07:38about me at some point. But when you get the opportunity to do it like we have for so long,
07:43to cover a sport that you clearly love, you have passion about, and you get to share that
07:47with people and you have an event like this in your own backyard, it doesn't get any bigger
07:52than the world cup. How excited are you to have this experience as well and have it be right here
07:56at home in your backyard? It's pretty crazy to be honest. It's a, you would have never guessed
08:02as a kid that you'd get a world cup in Atlanta. I mean, I've written about it on soccer down
08:10here
08:10and you, uh, you tried to get the 1994 world cup, but you think back to 1994, you didn't
08:17have a place for them to play. You had what was Grant field at the time. And it was the
08:22old artificial turf and had the big crown down the middle of the stadium. So you couldn't
08:27play world cup games there. Atlanta Fulton County stadium was being used by the Braves.
08:31You didn't have the Olympic stadium yet. That wasn't a possibility anyway. So you missed
08:36out on that. And now you have a stadium that is world-class is the best of the American
08:43stadiums that are hosting this. You have a stadium that's going to wow every single person
08:48who comes into it, every single team. And Atlanta has become in our lifetime, one of the great
08:54soccer cities of this hemisphere. So it's earned its spot into this. And for me, it's like what
09:02I tell people when they ask me if I have a dream job, like, no, because I couldn't have
09:06dreamed it. It didn't exist. Like it literally wasn't there when I was a kid. And now we're
09:11going to get who I think is going to win the world cup, Spain. We're going to get them for
09:16their first two games in the tournament starting next week. We're going to get a world cup semifinal
09:20that on paper, according to the seating would be England and Argentina, which is one of the
09:26most amazing sports rivalries in the world. We could see England and Argentina in knockout
09:32games before that. If again, if things go to the, according to the seeds, we would get
09:36the Lionel Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo elimination game in the round of 16. Wow. Two of the all
09:43time greats playing against each other in what could be their last world cup match. It's unbelievable
09:49what we have coming up over this next month. Plus I'm here for it. Yeah. We're here for
09:54it and enjoy yourself by the way, if I hadn't already made that clear. Yes. Yes. I will definitely
10:00be doing that along with trying to grab sleep here and there and doing Atlanta soccer tonight
10:05every single night. Yeah. What do you have coming up on the show tonight? I know it's nightly
10:09at this point. Yeah. Tonight it's six to eight. We're up at Mazzy's in Duluth, getting ready
10:14for the U S match. So a lot of world cup preview. We're going to hear from Madison Cruz, who
10:20is
10:20over at the mill at Etowah in Cherokee County. There are watch parties everywhere tonight. You can
10:27go to the fan festival downtown. You can go to all of these different events to cater watch fest
10:33anywhere. You want to be part of this tonight, get out there and do it. Like this is going to
10:38be
10:39a special game tonight. And what we're going to try to do on AST is give you some of the,
10:44uh,
10:44the things to expect some of the players to watch some of the things to be excited about with this
10:48U S team as they get their world cup journey started against Paraguay. Jason got 20 seconds.
10:53Who's the group of death this year? I think honestly, it's the U S group because there's
10:58four teams in it and all of them should get to the knockout rounds, but one of them definitely
11:04won't. And I think because the group's so tight, whoever finishes in third place might not get
11:10enough points to get out of the group stage either. So I think it's the U S group. That's
11:15the group of death. Wow. Good stuff. Thank you. Well, make sure to check out Jason Longshore
11:19at Mazzie's tonight in Duluth, six to eight U S takes on Paraguay tonight at nine. We're
11:24looking forward to it. Jason, we appreciate the time this morning. Thanks y'all. Anytime.
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