00:00Paul, the games are finally here. I'm not asking you about ticket prices. I'm not asking you about stadium names.
00:05I'm just asking you about ball.
00:07What did we learn yesterday? First two matches, Mexico and South Korea won.
00:13Yeah, look, I think we learned, first of all, what home field advantage can do for a team, right?
00:18Mexico, the atmosphere at the Azteca was insane. It was crazy. Very difficult place to play.
00:24You could see South Africa struggling, both with the altitude and also just with keeping up with the emotion of
00:31the moment for a Mexico team that is not that good.
00:33That's what you want to see tonight for the U.S. national team. You want to see the atmosphere be
00:38something that impacts the game.
00:41Obviously, very interesting in that game to see the three red cards, you know, quick to the pocket with one
00:46of them.
00:46Is that going to be something that we have to deal with? And also the water breaks.
00:51That's another factor. We're going to have to keep talking about all tournaments.
00:55It's basketball timeouts. It's four quarters in soccer now.
00:59But, you know, no big surprises for me. Both teams I expected to win yesterday won.
01:04Can you explain the water break thing for us? Because it seems like the soccer heads are pissed.
01:10Yeah, I mean, look, there's no timeouts in soccer.
01:13And FIFA has mandated these three-minute timeouts, these three-minute hydration breaks.
01:18And basically what they've done is there are going to be games.
01:21It's the summertime in the U.S. There are going to be games in Kansas City, in Miami, maybe even
01:26in New York, where you need a water break.
01:30Because it's so hot, there's a measurement, the wet bulb measurement that they can do that determines it's hot enough
01:34or humid enough where you need a water break.
01:36In Mexico as well, it would probably be necessary.
01:39And FIFA says, in the name of fairness, if these games are going to be disrupted by these water breaks,
01:46all games must be disrupted by these water breaks.
01:49It basically is BS. It's a chance in a way to create a commercial break in the middle of the
01:55World Cup games by managing it.
01:57And so, for example, tonight in L.A. at SoFi, which is essentially an indoor stadium, it's going to be
02:0372 degrees.
02:05It's going to be beautiful and perfect.
02:06And we're going to stop for water breaks and disrupt the flow of the game.
02:10I hate it. I think it's ridiculous. I think it's stupid.
02:14Mauricio Potretino said yesterday in his press conference, he hates it.
02:18He thinks it's stupid, but he has to use it to his advantage.
02:21So, you know, he takes out a laptop. He shows the team some tactics like a basketball coach would to
02:26try to make in-game adjustments.
02:28But it is new and it's different. And it's and then yesterday, Fox cut away the commercial.
02:33Not every channel will. If you're watching at home on Telemundo instead of in English on Fox, you won't have
02:39a commercial break.
02:40Fox is taking full advantage of it and going to a full commercial break.
02:43And they came back late from the commercial break. The soccer had already started in Mexico.
02:47Oh, wow. So it's not it's not a definite. They have to stay on the field.
02:53They can go to the commercial break. And if you can, I don't see why they're not going to make
02:56that money.
02:58That's right. That's exactly how Fox is. It's like you created this commercial break for us.
03:02We're taking it in Telemundo. They won't basically what Telemundo decided was we want to try to keep it feeling
03:07like some level of traditional soccer.
03:09So they do the split screen commercial. They're not losing. I mean, maybe they're losing a little bit of money.
03:13They're still using the chance to get some commercials, but they have the kind of like what golf does show
03:18the action.
03:18Exactly. Exactly. You can watch that on Telemundo 44.
03:23Shout out to the duopoly. Let me ask you this, though.
03:25Like the red cars, you mentioned that earlier. And I heard some guys saying that they came too quick.
03:31You know, did you think that? And then listen, I understand it's World Cup.
03:37You got referees from everywhere. You got people playing from all over the country.
03:40You might have a shice in there somewhere. And I think people were concerned that that Brazilian guy was a
03:45little too quick.
03:47I think I think sometimes we have to remember that refs are human, too, and they get caught up in
03:51the moment.
03:52And I think, you know, they want to be a part of the story sometimes where they feel their adrenaline
03:57is flying and they're making decisions at the last second.
04:00I thought the first red card again for South Africa was justified.
04:04I could even see that, you know, the second one he does, he did swing his fist like he deserved
04:08a red card.
04:09But the third one on Mexico, there's no chance that's a red card. I'm sorry.
04:13I've played soccer my whole life. I've covered soccer for 20 years.
04:16That's a completely innocuous foul, a purposeful foul, a tactical foul.
04:21He knew he was beat. He made the foul. He knew it was a yellow card.
04:24And the ref pulled a red card. And in that moment, I think he's thinking, oh, I've given two red
04:28cards in South Africa.
04:29I need to look like I'm evenly refereeing this match. And he came with a quick red.
04:34And it just shows you hope that, you know, whatever the ref does, he has to be consistent.
04:39But that doesn't mean you have to be, quote unquote, even or fair with like, well, I've got you.
04:44It's not, you know, basketball. Sometimes coaches will say, oh, there's too many fouls on, you know, you're not calling
04:49it both ways.
04:50Like in this case, you have to recognize what is a red card and what's not a red card.
04:55And I think he just got caught up in the moment. I hope we don't see so quick a whistle
04:59in most games.
05:00Let these guys play. It's a very physical sport. The game is better usually when you let the kind of
05:06ticky tack stuff go
05:08and you just make sure things don't get out of hand. We'll see how the refereeing progresses over the course
05:13of the tournament.
05:13But that is an anomaly to have three red cards in the opening game of the World Cup. It was
05:18it was weird.
05:18Yeah. All right. Let Paul Tenorio join in a senior reporter for The Athletic.
05:24Paul, U.S. plays tonight. Paraguay kind of feels like that might be the toughest.
05:29I don't know, the toughest matchup in their group play. What should we be looking for?
05:34What what are the strengths? What are the weaknesses for the Americans tonight?
05:39Yeah, I mean, look, the first thing we need to look for is, are you ready?
05:42Is this U.S. team ready to punch Paraguay in the mouth?
05:45Because Paraguay is going to be ready to punch them in the mouth.
05:47Mm hmm. This is a team that has an elite mentality.
05:51They have played. They won games in qualifying over Argentina, over Brazil, over Colombia.
05:57When they left the country, their coach, Gustavo Alfaro, said it's been a long time since Paraguay has been in
06:03the World Cup.
06:03And he said to the fans, I don't want you to be rational. I want you to be crazy.
06:08I want you to feel passionately. We're going to be giving every inch of our skin,
06:12every bit of our soul to win these games.
06:15Like, that's the mentality Paraguay is going into this game with.
06:18You better be ready to match it.
06:20And it's going to start.
06:22You'll see. It's going to start early on.
06:23There's going to be some hard fouls.
06:25There's going to be some moments where Paraguay tests the U.S.
06:28because they need to find a way to counter the energy of the home crowd.
06:31So they're going to try to break up the game with some fouls early on.
06:35The U.S. has to keep their head, and they have to be on the front foot.
06:38They have to be the aggressor and push Paraguay into a more defensive posture.
06:42So that's what I'm looking for right away is, is the U.S. holding more of the ball early on?
06:47Are they able to kind of get control of the emotion of the game
06:50and be ready for how physical Paraguay is going to be?
06:53Are they going to be ready to defend that physicality, defend their stars?
06:57Because I would imagine we'll see Christian Pulisic get fouled three or four times
07:00in the first 20 minutes of this game.
07:02Yeah, man, those South American teams are rough.
07:05Hey, imagine.
07:06Yeah, I mean, and look, this is what they do.
07:08This is how they play, and the mentality is important.
07:12And the U.S., that's what they've been working on this whole,
07:14the last two years is being ready for these types of moments.
07:18The U.S. is a good attacking team, man.
07:20When they're on, you'll see the connections in the final third,
07:24the attacking third of the field between Christian Pulisic
07:26and Flo Balligan, Malik Tillman, Weston McKinney.
07:30They can look dangerous.
07:31Serginio Des is one of my favorite players.
07:33You'll see his creativity on the right side of the field,
07:35but then they have to be solid defensively.
07:38That's the weak spot of this U.S. team, especially in transition.
07:42Paraguay is going to be sitting in a more defensive posture
07:44and looking to break out on the counterattacks.
07:47The U.S. has to be ready for those transition moments.
07:50Got to match the intensity.
07:51Let's go USA.
07:52Now, don't you forget, all eyes on Haiti versus Scotland Saturday night.
07:56I know some may think the big matchup on Saturday is Brazil versus Morocco,
08:00but it's actually Haiti versus Scotland, right, Paul?
08:04Don't hate on those types of games, man.
08:06Let me tell you what.
08:07The Haitians are going to be coming, too.
08:09First World Cup since 1970s.
08:12A huge amount of Haitian fans in this country are going to be traveling.
08:16That Haiti team, by the way, qualified for this tournament
08:18without being able to play one game at home because of what's going on
08:22back in Haiti and Port-au-Prince with the gangs taking control of the stadium
08:26and the city.
08:26That's crazy.
08:27Resilience in that team.
08:29Scotland obviously has its own reputation of being physical
08:32and playing kind of a rugged style.
08:35So I am actually looking forward to that game,
08:37as much as I do think the fans are probably going to prefer Brazil-Morocco.
08:41It's my grandfather versus B's grandfather.
08:44It's going to be interesting.
08:45Paul, thank you for the time, dude.
08:46We'll check in next week.
08:48Appreciate it, guys.
08:49All right.
08:50Paul Tenorio, senior soccer reporter for The Athletic.
08:53I'm excited to watch U.S. tonight.
08:55That's going to be a lot of fun.
08:56And I don't know how it's going to work out with Haiti versus Scotland
08:59because there is an NBA Finals game on.
09:00We might need multiple TVs set up.
09:02We'll figure that out.
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