- 1 day ago
Seth and Luke discuss the red card on Balogun being suspended until next year after President Trump put a call into FIFA about it.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Should we feel happy or are we feeling a little embarrassed
00:04based off of the news yesterday with the World Cup
00:07where they have suspended the suspension
00:11for that run out to Flo Balgan?
00:14Hey, it's Payton Pendergast.
00:16I'm Luke Morrow in for Sean alongside Seth Payton, of course.
00:18And you can always join the conversation.
00:20I should have mentioned this earlier,
00:21but 713-572-4610 to text the show at any time.
00:27Oh, yeah, so the big news over the weekend
00:29is that he'll be able to play in the match tonight
00:32with Belgium, 7 p.m. start here Central Time, big match.
00:36And, Seth, I don't know how you feel,
00:38but I was surprised by the reaction of a lot of the...
00:41Obviously, it's a lot of fans happy.
00:43Yeah.
00:44And I'm not even getting political here.
00:45We're not even talking about the political side of this
00:47because, you know, as the stories go,
00:49that's what led to the suspension of this quote-unquote suspension.
00:52The U.S. and Donald Trump himself reached out to FIFA
00:56and had conversations with the FIFA president
00:58and this ends up getting revoked,
01:02which suspended the automatic one-game ban.
01:04Didn't revoke the red card, they suspended the one-game ban.
01:07Yeah, it's pushed off a year,
01:08so he will, like, serve a suspension, but not for a year.
01:10This is one of those all-too-easy situations.
01:13You know, what we've gotten really good at America doing, Luke,
01:17is saying, hey, let's separate politics from this.
01:20Nobody's better at it than us as of late,
01:22but especially when it involves the president especially.
01:27I do feel like you can...
01:29I am really...
01:30I'm ambivalent about this to an extreme degree.
01:32So I would say whoever the president is,
01:34whether it was Trump or Obama or Clinton or Bush or Bush,
01:38I feel a little bit uneasy about the president reaching out to FIFA
01:43and putting it in a position where FIFA doesn't have the best reputation
01:48for running things on the up-and-up.
01:51America is a bully,
01:53and I feel like it's the perfect storm of a whole bunch of crap
01:57that I had gotten myself all geared up for,
02:00okay, man, if the U.S. wins this game without their best player
02:04because of an unjust red card,
02:06that'll be the story of all stories.
02:08And now I feel like it's tainted any potential victory
02:15regardless of where you stand politically.
02:18And at the same time also,
02:21it was an unjust red card,
02:23or at least the suspension feels excessive after the red card.
02:27I'm cool with that.
02:28I understand the red card part of it,
02:29but the fact that you do get suspended for the next game
02:33feels extreme and heavy-handed.
02:35Yeah, it does.
02:36You know, we were talking about it in the group chat yesterday,
02:39and I feel like there should be a sliding scale.
02:42And same thing in college football with targeting,
02:44where, like, let's have a yellow card, a red card,
02:47and then in soccer, in between, like, add an orange card
02:50where that's the end, the rest of that current match.
02:53Yeah.
02:54But you don't have to miss any other time afterwards,
02:56which is similar in college football with targeting,
02:58where I think we need a little more judgment involved
03:00instead of, like, once you get a targeting penalty,
03:03you're out for the next game as well,
03:05if it happens in the second half,
03:06where it might just be incidental.
03:08I think similar with some of these red cards, too,
03:10where I haven't found anybody who has agreed that,
03:13like, oh, yeah, that was a good red card.
03:14That was the right call.
03:15It was a bad call.
03:16I don't think it should mean you automatically miss the next match,
03:19but I also don't think it should mean that we bend the rules,
03:22which, for those that are unfamiliar and curious
03:25why this is such a big story,
03:26it's because, like, this never happens.
03:27They don't ever reverse this to allow a player to...
03:30to play.
03:32It appears to be the first time since 1962
03:36that a red card during a World Cup didn't result in a suspension.
03:40That's the...
03:42So it's...
03:43And this is...
03:45This is one of those things where it's impossible now
03:48that because Trump called the FIFA president,
03:50it's impossible to not connect dots,
03:52and yet I just...
03:54Is there any world in which FIFA would have come by this decision
03:59without the U.S. exerting pressure, intervening somehow or some way?
04:04It's...
04:05I guess it's hard for...
04:06It's hard to imagine that that would be the case,
04:08given this is the first time it's happened since 1962.
04:10Yeah.
04:11Yeah, it wasn't expected.
04:12And that's why I was saying, like, the embarrassing part
04:14is because it just feels like classic us
04:17of, like, forcing, you know, forcing him back on the pitch.
04:20And it's reminiscent, again, like you said,
04:22regardless, like, who the president is
04:23or even whoever made the call,
04:25it feels like you didn't make the baseball team growing up
04:28and your parent calls the coach and is like,
04:30hey, you got to put him back on the team.
04:32What are you doing?
04:32And, you know, and then that's how you get your spot on the roster.
04:34You're the rich kid on the team.
04:36Like, you're the starting pitcher
04:37and you're self-aware that you're not the best...
04:40Or you're, like, you're the best...
04:43The number one pitcher on the team
04:46despite being, like, the fifth or sixth best pitcher on the team.
04:49Yeah, when you know, like, it's embarrassing
04:51when you're like, I shouldn't be here.
04:53I'm not supposed to be here.
04:54This is where I am with it.
04:56I think I'm going to go based on the fact
04:59that the U.S. players themselves,
05:00I think from everything I saw,
05:03I thought they handled it all with grace.
05:05I, you know, I think they did, like,
05:07they weren't happy about it, obviously,
05:09but there wasn't a whole bunch of...
05:12And everything kind of put their heads down
05:14and gone about their business.
05:15And the other thing, too, is you have to remember,
05:17U.S. is an underdog when it comes to soccer.
05:20That, listen, this isn't like the Yankees
05:24outspending everybody every year
05:25or the Dodgers or somebody like that.
05:28It's, this is a little bit different, you know?
05:30We're the lovable underdogs.
05:32That's how I choose to look at it.
05:34Yeah, that's true.
05:34We're fixing an injustice to the underdogs.
05:37The part of it...
05:38Okay, so there's two things.
05:41First, there's the jingoistic side of me
05:43that says,
05:43screw what anybody else thinks around the world.
05:46USA, USA, damn it.
05:48And we believe that we will win and such.
05:51There is the other part of it.
05:52Man, it's been so nice the last few weeks
05:54getting all this love heaped on us
05:57from all of these countries
05:58saying, no, America's,
06:00America's different than what we were led to believe.
06:02These people are so friendly
06:03and they're so awesome and they're so nice.
06:05And now, bam,
06:06we got this, this potential for huge divisiveness
06:09and all the goodwill from the last few weeks.
06:12Feels like it's just going to dry up
06:13and blow out the window
06:14as people are driving at breakneck speeds
06:17on our open rural highways
06:18and amazed at how big our cars are
06:20and how cheap the gas is
06:21compared to a lot of European nations.
06:23Yeah, yeah.
06:24Yeah, it's true.
06:25It's true.
06:26And if you're looking at the odds, by the way,
06:28U.S., we were, I think,
06:31a slight underdog previously.
06:32And then once this news came out,
06:34became a favorite.
06:35And then actually overnight for whatever,
06:37it's not a good sign,
06:38but we've been bet back to even.
06:40So money's been coming in on Belgium
06:41the last 24 hours.
06:43And now we're about even.
06:44Both teams have about minus 110 odds,
06:46so it's like a 50-50 toss-up for the match tonight.
06:48But from a betting perspective,
06:50that did have an...
06:51At least in initials,
06:52certainly helps the U.S. in this match tonight.
06:55I have a few friends that are really...
06:57Like, they played college soccer.
06:59One of my buddies, coaches now.
07:02In fact, I can be a name dropper.
07:04And so to name drop,
07:05and I'll put his business out there.
07:07But one of my best friends is Nick DiCicco,
07:10whose father, Tony DiCicco,
07:11was the coach of the women's national team
07:13when Brandi Chastain did the sliding.
07:16You know, she had the winning goal,
07:17slid on her knees,
07:17took her top off back in 99.
07:19He was the coach of that national team.
07:22And we were texting over the weekend.
07:24I was surprised that my soccer buddies,
07:25they all hated the red card.
07:27But it's, you know, it's soccer.
07:28They call it like the beautiful game.
07:30And I mean, they hated breaking this tradition
07:32of like, even though it helps us as U.S.,
07:34you never put a guy back out there
07:36after getting the red card.
07:37And it feels a little tainted already.
07:39Yeah.
07:39I didn't see if it was,
07:41like they said since 1962.
07:43I don't know if there was a rule change before then
07:45or after, in 1962 or something.
07:49The article I had seen didn't paint it out
07:52any more than just saying,
07:53first time since 1962.
07:56I don't know.
07:57I think this is the kind of thing that,
07:59because I'm the most casual of casual soccer fans,
08:02I'm just going to shove it to the back of my brain
08:04and pretend that it never existed.
08:05Yeah.
08:06That this is just the way,
08:07this is the way it goes.
08:08That's, them's the breaks, man.
08:09Yeah.
08:10Yeah, it's true.
08:10My grandfather was once a commissioner
08:12of a soccer league.
08:14And so, in his honor,
08:15I'm going to start this push,
08:16like I said.
08:17Let's create orange cards
08:18where you can get,
08:20you can get kicked out of that match,
08:21but you don't have to get suspended
08:23for the next one.
08:24Yeah.
08:24Because of this whole situation.
08:26Is there no,
08:27is there no getting suspended
08:28for the first half or anything in soccer?
08:31Yeah.
08:32Yeah.
08:33I don't know.
08:34I honestly,
08:34I don't know soccer.
08:35Does the league even do that,
08:35or is that just what coaches do sometimes?
08:38I feel like sometimes there's,
08:40like, you know,
08:41I always admire the coaches
08:43that bench their star player
08:44for one series.
08:46Yeah.
08:46Like, that is,
08:47that is just giving token acknowledgement
08:50of something right there.
08:51Yeah.
08:51Especially when it's in college
08:52and it's like Michigan doing it
08:54when they play, you know,
08:55whatever,
08:56Howard or somebody,
08:56you know,
08:57like some,
08:57some FCS school.
08:58And we're going to send them
08:59for the first series.
09:01Yeah.
09:01Listen, Buster,
09:02if you thought you were going to get
09:03more than 350 yards rushing today,
09:05good luck.
09:06That's your punishment.
09:08I'm going to show you.
09:09Hey, by the way,
09:09speaking of officiating and whatnot,
09:11I do love that.
09:12Maybe it's just a coincidence,
09:14but we've had seven umpires
09:16over the weekend,
09:17except buyouts from Major League Baseball
09:19to retire at the end of the year.
09:21Oh, I missed that.
09:23Oh, okay.
09:24Yeah.
09:24I should drop it in the rundown.
09:25I don't have the list in front of me.
09:26I can go find it,
09:27but they were all ranked.
09:28They've all been ranked
09:29towards the bottom of the league
09:31in terms of like,
09:33you know,
09:33a proper strike zone this year.
09:35And so finally,
09:37after all this time
09:38where we had Angel Hernandez
09:40forced upon us,
09:41like finally,
09:41there is some accountability here
09:44where seven of the worst umpires
09:46are quote unquote retiring
09:47at the end of the year.
09:48Essentially,
09:49I guess being forced out.
09:50I'm going to credit
09:50this whole challenging system
09:52for that.
09:53Is CB Buckner one of them?
09:54He is.
09:55Yeah,
09:56because remember CB Buckner
09:58had that horrendous series
10:00of events early in the season
10:02and then remember he got hit
10:03by,
10:04he got,
10:05I can't even remember
10:06the circumstance.
10:06It was ugly though,
10:07right?
10:07He got hit by,
10:08did the ball carry him
10:09off the glove
10:10into his face or something?
10:12He missed time.
10:13Yeah.
10:14I don't know if he's,
10:15and I don't think he's been back
10:16because he's on the,
10:18yeah,
10:18he must not,
10:19I'm looking at the ABS tracker
10:21right now
10:21and I don't think he's been back
10:23since he got injured
10:24because he's only had nine,
10:26the success rate against him
10:28was a 77.8% success rate
10:31in nine challenges,
10:32seven of nine challenges
10:33were successful.
10:35The Astros,
10:36the Astros in facing the ABS
10:38have been awesome as batters.
10:40They're number one,
10:41even with Cam Smith dragging them down,
10:43they're number one amongst batters,
10:44but then they're 27th
10:46when it comes to catchers
10:47and pitchers
10:47and that matches the eyeball test.
10:50We dread the Astros catchers
10:52challenging a pitch
10:53or not,
10:54or not.
10:54I feel like Vasquez,
10:56I get more frustrated
10:57with the pitches
10:58he doesn't challenge
10:59more so than some of the ones
11:00that he challenges.
11:01He lets a lot of,
11:03and I think he does an awesome job
11:05calling the game
11:06and I think that's obvious.
11:07Pitchers love him.
11:08But that part of it,
11:09he just lags in that.
11:11I saw over the weekend
11:12Randy Orozarena
11:13used both of the team's challenges
11:15like unsuccessfully.
11:16I think it was the first inning
11:17as well for the Mariners.
11:18He just burned through them.
11:19Yeah, some guys,
11:20I know you guys have talked
11:21about it all year,
11:22like Cam Smith.
11:22Some guys just,
11:24you know,
11:24take it away from them
11:25to be able to challenge.
11:27By the way,
11:27real quick,
11:27the list of umpires,
11:28C.B. Buckner's on that list.
11:30He's ranked,
11:30now as Seth mentioned,
11:32he hasn't umped in a while
11:32because he suffered a concussion
11:33from a foul ball,
11:34but he's ranked 91st
11:36out of 91 this year.
11:37He's the worst of the umpires.
11:38He accepted the buyout.
11:40So did Laz Diaz,
11:41that's a big name,
11:42Brian Onora,
11:43that's another big name,
11:44Lance Barksdale,
11:45Marvin Hudson,
11:46Tony Randazzo,
11:46and Andy Fletcher
11:48are all quote-unquote
11:49retiring at the end
11:50of the year.
11:52So...
11:52...golach on their way out.
11:54Yeah.
11:54It's just,
11:55like you get somebody,
11:56they go down
11:56and buy him down
11:57on the street
11:58in New York City
11:59or something.
12:00That's right.
12:00See you guys later.
12:02Baseball will probably
12:03be better for it.
Comments