- 8 hours ago
Willard and Dibs continue to discuss the USMNT's loss to Belgium to end their World Cup experience and wonder why the US continues to find itself in the same spot over and over.
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00:00The only thing missing is what happened to the U.S. last night, which, as you know, is a elimination
00:06sensation.
00:07Very well played.
00:07Cha-ching!
00:09And I thought they'd win, but I wasn't like, oh, if they don't win, it's a choke job.
00:14But then you watch it, and it was, oh, like, that didn't, that kind of sat with me, like,
00:20when you forget those veggies in the bottom drawer, the crisper, for three weeks,
00:25and then you, something doesn't smell right in the fridge, and you open it up, and it's like,
00:28oh, my God, that zucchini is from, like, late May.
00:31I'm glad you brought up food.
00:33It's your happy place.
00:35It's our love language, food.
00:37It is where my analogies go.
00:40There's no question.
00:42The food analogy on this is, you ever go out, and I'm talking Michelin star now, okay?
00:48You go to one of these, and you just, you have a night, you say yes to everything.
00:53I'm going to eat it.
00:54Right?
00:54We're going to do, not a glass of wine, we're going to do a bottle of wine.
00:58Damn, corkage.
01:00Right?
01:00Am I right?
01:00That server comes over with that little tiny dessert menu at the end.
01:04Let's drink.
01:05And you always say no to that, no, thanks, we've had enough.
01:07Not tonight.
01:09The answer's yes tonight.
01:10Bring me some port, too.
01:11There you go.
01:11Whatever the hell that is.
01:13You say yes to everything, and you overdo it.
01:15Yeah.
01:16But on the way home, you're like, yeah, that felt good.
01:20That felt good.
01:22Like, that's that good kind of full.
01:24Or you can head to a fast food place and lose your bananas and have extra fries and do things
01:32like animal style and stuff like this.
01:35Oh.
01:35And you eat, and it's fun while you're eating, and then you get home, and you're like, oh, I feel
01:43gross.
01:44And that is how I would look at last night.
01:49I wanted last night to be Michelin star.
01:51It's okay if this goes a little awry, but I want to feel good about American soccer when I get
01:59home.
01:59Instead, I feel like animal fries.
02:02Somebody's spitting your food.
02:03Uh-huh.
02:03And in, like, what, the eighth minute?
02:05Is that when that first goal came?
02:07Bloated.
02:08Right.
02:09I feel bloated.
02:09And it's a shame because we've been looking forward to this meal for four years, and it's at home, and
02:16everything went according to plan up until then.
02:18And you know what?
02:19And I said this on the air, and it's definitely a take that I have to wear, but I use
02:24the phrase, Belgium is vulnerable.
02:30Belgium.
02:32Can I?
02:33Can't.
02:36Belgium is vulnerable.
02:42That didn't age well.
02:43Hop, hop.
02:44And, yeah, they might still be vulnerable.
02:48I don't think it's untrue.
02:49They're just not vulnerable to us.
02:51Right.
02:51And we were unable to take advantage of their vulnerability, and they flipped their lineup, and they got fast, and
02:59we looked slow, and just watching that here with you was like, oh, man.
03:03And even when they pull the one back, it's like, okay, I believe that, oh, wait, I believe we'll give
03:09up another goal.
03:09Yeah.
03:10Or three.
03:10And just.
03:11I believe we got a lucky goal.
03:13It's a deflection.
03:14Yeah.
03:14I mean, it was a great free kick taken by your great free kick kicker.
03:20I mean, he hit the ball real hard.
03:22That's great.
03:23Well, and the guy on the wall with the bald head kind of glanced at the other way, and Thibaut
03:27Courtois, who was like 47, couldn't double react.
03:30And so that's the way that went.
03:32Yep.
03:33But I look at the next World Cup, assuming we're able to qualify in four years, for this generation, this
03:40is going to pretty much be it.
03:42Like, you've got Pulisic will be 31, and Balogun a little bit younger.
03:47Tim Ream will be 70, and I think that he'll be gone.
03:50I had said that just for Mark Grandy.
03:51I think Grandy's upset.
03:52He better be gone.
03:53He didn't think he should have been playing now.
03:55How you doing, Grandy?
03:56You all right?
03:56Yeah, I'm all right.
03:57I thought it would be competitive if, you know, gun to my head, I would have picked Belgium to win.
04:01Yeah.
04:02But I just, I'm upset.
04:04I thought this was the opportunity where the soccer world would maybe have to finally begin to take the U
04:11.S. semi-seriously.
04:12It's a respect thing.
04:14Exactly.
04:14Not like we're on the level of France and Spain and those countries, but like the top 10-ish area
04:19is where we could be.
04:20And I thought this was the opportunity to do that.
04:22And it's very clear we're still pretty far away from that.
04:26Banker Brian in Foster City.
04:28What up, FC?
04:30What up, Banker Brian?
04:31How we doing?
04:33Hello, hello.
04:34Thank you guys for having me.
04:36I'm taking my call.
04:37Yeah.
04:37Man, there's a lot.
04:38There's a lot to talk about.
04:40A lot of points you guys are mentioning and bringing it up.
04:43One thing I would say, let's be real with this Belgian team.
04:47When we played against them March 28th, they lost, the U.S. lost 5-2.
04:52Yep.
04:52Almost the exact same starting lineup.
04:55So to think that we were just going to have all this momentum and be able to beat Belgium in
05:02the World Cup at the world stage is a little laughable.
05:07Only for the fact that we have not beat, the U.S. has not beaten a top 20 team this
05:15year.
05:16Every team that they played against this year, whether it's friendlies or in the World Cup, as ranked top 20
05:22or higher, the U.S. has lost again.
05:25So even though the U.S. has come a long way ever since they did not qualify in the 2018
05:32World Cup, and they made it a mission to basically scrap everything, scrap all the players they had at that
05:38time, and make it a project to bring in a new golden generation.
05:44And they've come a long way.
05:46It's only been, what, eight years since that happened.
05:49And now, you know, they've made a lot of noise in this tournament.
05:53You know, it was great that in the group stage they did all this, you know, they scored all these
05:59goals, so on and so forth.
06:00And what really, you know, really, I guess, messed up that flow, that energy, that hype was what happened with
06:08the red card situation.
06:09I think that, I think a lot like what you guys said about respect, that respect for these top teams,
06:15a lot like what Belgium said, they made a post saying overturn this right after they beat the U.S.,
06:21you know.
06:21So, like, the respect still needs to be earned, but the U.S. needs to do it on their own.
06:26All these players on the wrong side of 30, like you guys said, there's still a lot of hope.
06:31The project's not over.
06:32There's a lot of new academy players.
06:34There's a lot of players that are very young, very talented, ultra-talented.
06:37Kay Sullivan, he's like 16, 17.
06:40The U.S. is going to be fine.
06:41But this is just an evolving project.
06:45And for what it's worth right now, the U.S. should at least be hyped and proud and just follow
06:50that momentum going on in the future.
06:53Do not stop supporting the U.S.
06:54Just keep, you know, keep following these players, keep following the growth, and that alone will continue the growth of
07:01soccer in the U.S.
07:02Baker Bryan, thanks.
07:04I just find it to be such a fascinating conversation because you'll hear a lot of things, and a lot
07:11of them surround money.
07:12Whether it is how youth soccer and the club program is done, or even like we have a text that
07:21just came through.
07:21Thank you, 415.
07:22The real reason is simple.
07:24The money, if they paid soccer players like they pay NFL and NBA players.
07:29Now, I stop there because it's like they do.
07:31You just have to go to a different country in order to do it.
07:34I mean, they do, but they don't.
07:36I mean, they do.
07:38The top European soccer players.
07:40Mbappe is, I feel like he's doing okay.
07:43Right, but the top American soccer player playing in Europe, and I'm looking at a list right now, it's Christian
07:48Pulisic who makes $6 million a year.
07:50Yeah, but he's not top of the sport.
07:52Right, but I think that that speaks to one of my core problems with the U.S. is that if
07:57you had LeBron James, if he was 18-year-old LeBron right now, and he watched his tournament, he's like,
08:02man, I'm good at everything.
08:04I could be a pro basketball player, football player, baseball player, soccer player, whatever I can be.
08:10Let me take a look at my future, and you look at soccer, and you think, okay, I could be
08:13the best American in the world and make $6 million, or I could be LeBron James and make a guaranteed
08:19$48 as a rookie.
08:21But the NBA is a global sport.
08:24LeBron isn't looking at it as I'm the best American player.
08:27He was the best player in the world.
08:28Right.
08:29And if you're the best soccer player in the world, what are you making?
08:32You're making a lot of money, but you don't.
08:34You're making LeBron James money.
08:36But no American has done that.
08:38Yeah, but that's just because they don't choose soccer.
08:41At least that's the point that people are making.
08:43And the other point about them choosing soccer is, for example, like Christian Pulisic.
08:48I was doing the homework earlier today on the entire roster.
08:50Like, where do these guys come from?
08:52And a lot of them are like Christian Pulisic, where his mom gets a job in England when he's seven,
08:58and he goes and plays a year over there.
09:00And then he comes back and plays in Michigan, where his dad has a job, and he's really good.
09:04And so he's kind of a global traveler.
09:06And some of these other Americans are guys who have never played in America before.
09:10So if you are like, I don't know, and we'll just use Grandy's unborn child as an example, do here
09:18maybe in 2034.
09:20If he is a soccer prodigy, he probably can't stay here.
09:25You're going to have to go somewhere else and play in the top levels.
09:28That's a fair point.
09:28Yeah, you don't get to stay here.
09:30I don't know if that's worse than Cleveland, but whatever.
09:33Yeah.
09:34That was an unnecessary shot.
09:35I mean, Windsor, Cleveland, Windsor's considered the Cleveland of the North Bay.
09:40What the hell?
09:41I don't know.
09:42I'm trying to see if you're listening.
09:44It's nice.
09:45By the way.
09:45It's lovely.
09:46It's slow, but it's nice.
09:47Since you are listening, I want to run a little test.
09:50Okay.
09:50Okay.
09:52Team USA's disappointment is less than 24 hours old.
09:56I want you to compare that to your disappointment with the 49ers losing the Super Bowl two and a half
10:04years ago.
10:04And what burns more?
10:07Niners in the Super Bowl.
10:08Okay.
10:08That was an easy answer for him.
10:10And that's my answer.
10:13That's my answer.
10:15Okay.
10:15I'm not calling any of your answers wrong, but the money and the youth soccer and the program and how
10:24it's all sort of conducted.
10:27My answer as to why we are always no better than a B-plus in global soccer is because we
10:35don't care the same.
10:37And I know that bothers a lot of you because you do care increasingly.
10:43Dibs and I have been around for a minute.
10:44There's no question that soccer's popularity in the United States has doubled, tripled, quadrupled and beyond since we first became
10:55sports fans.
10:56So I know a lot of you air quotes care and you do care, but you don't care care.
11:06You don't care the same way we care about other disappointments in sports.
11:12When we grow up with a team that's right down the street and you can go see them play and
11:19buy a ticket and all of those things.
11:21And if you look around at the way countries conduct themselves, the way fans react, the way players even react,
11:29hell, did it even sound like Christian Pulisic cared?
11:33His quote last night was, now I can rest.
11:37I'm sorry, were we bothering you?
11:40A little bit like Anthony Edwards, like I don't want to be the face of the league.
11:44And I know what he meant.
11:46Dude's in pain.
11:47I'm not coming down Pulisic's road, but there's also no escaping that that's going to be a bad quote.
11:53Now I can rest.
11:54Do you think if Argentina hadn't done that?
11:57Is he exhausted?
11:58Can you imagine if Messi was like, it's OK, I'm almost 40 and now I can rest.
12:03Are you kidding me?
12:05The nation would have made him move to a new country.
12:08No doubt.
12:08So I don't think it's about care or not care.
12:11I just don't think that we in this country, from a U.S. soccer standpoint, all the way through our
12:17youth leagues, I don't think that we understand what it would take to actually be great.
12:22And that's where this one's extra frustrating, because you had all these international Americans come together, more talent than we've
12:30ever had on the team.
12:31And yet the result is the same.
12:32And so think about basketball, for example, you've got you got a young kid and they play a couple of
12:38years, a youth CYO.
12:39And it's like, man, this kid is good.
12:41OK, you travel ball, college, boom, G League pros.
12:46We have a construct.
12:47And here in soccer, we don't really have that.
12:49MLS is better than ever.
12:51Our youth movement, our youth groups are not as good as in Europe.
12:55And so the best way we can cultivate young talent is by having them play elsewhere and then throw them
13:01all together at the last minute for a month, every four years.
13:05I feel like the point you just made and the point I just made are related.
13:08They are.
13:09I think they're at least cousins.
13:10But I don't think it's about it's about caring.
13:12I do think that like the U.S. soccer, like the powers that be, they really care.
13:16For sure.
13:17And again, there is care.
13:18It's just not at the same level.
13:21I don't see it as being at the same level.
13:23And I mean that in terms of other countries.
13:25And I mean that in terms of the sports that we have here.
13:29Like if you are going to be a big, fancy American athlete, what are you going to choose?
13:35What's going to bring you more celebrity?
13:38I mean, the Warriors probably have, I don't know, five players who are more famous than Christian Pulisic.
13:47Like, am I right?
13:49Are you throwing in Guy Santos?
13:50I mean, pods for sure.
13:52Anyway.
13:53I was wondering where you put it.
13:54You know what I'm saying?
13:55Totally.
13:55Like there's at least three or four.
13:57Hell, their head coach is more famous than Christian Pulisic.
14:00Right.
14:00So it's like there is a je ne sais quoi to it all.
14:04There is, there's that thing that if you're a great athlete coming up in America, this is still as much
14:12as the soccer fans.
14:14And there are great soccer fans, great, great soccer fans in America for sure.
14:18But as much as they love it and as much as it's come around and growing and growing and growing,
14:25it's just, it's not there yet.
14:27And I actually don't even think it's that close.
14:29It's closer than it used to be.
14:31Right.
14:31But it's just not what we think of first.
14:34I like your analogy about basketball, for example, because if you think about Yaxel Lendenborg, and I've been singing his
14:41praises since February, I've been watching him since December.
14:44And I didn't watch him last year or his three years in junior college, but in America, there is a
14:50construct where we all know Darius Acuff and we all know Kingston Flemings and we know Brayden Burry's and Coa
14:59Pete and all the fellas Cooper flagged a couple of years ago because the system is built to where it's
15:05March.
15:05Let's get crazy.
15:07Let's do our brackets and let's watch all these people.
15:10And Christian Pulisic, like he plays, I think he's at AC Milan now, and he was over in England and
15:17now he's in Italy.
15:18And so you don't watch, I don't watch.
15:21Grandy probably watches more than anybody of like, oh, AC Milan's playing.
15:25Let's check in on Christian Pulisic.
15:26I've mentioned this just as not that I feel like I need to answer for anything.
15:30I love the sport, but I don't have a team.
15:33So that makes it very preventative for me to really get overly emotional.
15:41Like, I like soccer as the same that I like baseball.
15:46But in baseball, I have a team.
15:48Yeah.
15:48Ask me, you used to.
15:49No, that's a great point.
15:51But if you put AC Milan on TV and you put the Texas Rangers on TV, I'm like, that's the
15:57same.
15:57I actually think I'd probably rather watch AC Milan, but there's no emotional attachment to this.
16:04Baseball, basketball, and football, I got a team.
16:06Even hockey, I got a team.
16:08But soccer, I don't have a team.
16:10And I apologize to San Jose Earthquakes.
16:13It just, I don't, yeah.
16:15MLS hasn't connected with us at that level, at least.
16:19And it's a little tougher.
16:20Like, you're North Bay and San Jose is down there.
16:23And I do love the fact that the Bay Area now with the Bay FC and the Oakland Roots and
16:28the Town FC,
16:29and there's a lot of other more accessible professional soccer outlets.
16:34But to your point, like, if you want to watch Balogun play in his European team,
16:39like, you got to figure out where he's playing.
16:41And then you got to, like, figure out.
16:42Set an alarm for 3 a.m.
16:44Exactly.
16:45So there are a lot of hurdles that you don't have where, like, oh, boy, you know, I'm really.
16:49I went to Cal Poly and they had a couple of years where, I mean,
16:52they were threatening the tourney.
16:53And so you could be a Cal Poly guy because the games are at 730 and you could even drive
16:58down and see it.
16:58So that's another one of the hurdles that makes the popularity a little bit more tamped down.
17:03The ratings for this World Cup, and part of it, yes, is because it's here.
17:06But the ratings are a story.
17:10This is a, and I, you know, we were talking about this even when we sat down to kind of
17:14go over
17:14what we all wanted to do on the show today.
17:17I don't know anyone in my whole world that's not at least at a peripheral level interested in this tournament.
17:26I don't know anyone.
17:28Anyone.
17:29It's funny you said that because I got a call from Pop Pop this morning, 82 years old, my father
17:33-in-law,
17:33and he wanted to see if I was in for bocce tonight.
17:36They don't need me, but they could slot me into game three if I'm available.
17:39And he said, you can't make it.
17:42Tell me about what we saw last night.
17:44What the hell is going on with this?
17:46And I'm like, Pop Pop's 82.
17:48I don't know if he's ever struck a soccer ball with his foot.
17:51I'm pretty sure he didn't play as a lad in Highland Park, Illinois.
17:55But yet, to your point, like, we're all in.
17:58Did you tell him that Frisbee Guy is in town?
18:01No.
18:01Yeah, Frisbee Guy got a video last night on the big board.
18:04A tribute.
18:05Yep.
18:06Okay.
18:06And Logan Webb gave him a big, yeah.
18:08Of course he did.
18:09For those of you who don't speak, Willie and Dibby, Frisbee Guy is Tyler Rogers.
18:13He plays for the Blue Jays.
18:14He's in town tonight.
18:14Go say hi.
18:15So glad they got rid of him because he's Penn.
18:17Am I right?
18:18Yeah, they're crushing it.
18:21John, let's get to this.
18:22A lot of people want to talk soccer.
18:24Let's do this.
18:24John in Oakland.
18:25Hi, John.
18:25Thanks for calling us.
18:26What's up?
18:28Hey, guys.
18:29How's it going?
18:29Good, ma'am.
18:30Thanks for taking my call.
18:31Yeah, yeah.
18:33So I wanted to jump in here.
18:36A couple of things.
18:37The reason that soccer is not going to take off in the U.S.
18:41The way that baseball, football, basketball have taken off is purely because our country
18:49is not really set up for soccer to succeed the way that those other sports are set up
18:55to succeed.
18:56Baseball is the national pastime.
18:59It is written in the American law that baseball is the official sport of the United States
19:05of America.
19:06Football owns a day of the week.
19:09It's one of the biggest companies in the entire world, the National Football League.
19:13Owns all the days now, but yeah, go ahead.
19:16Yeah, exactly.
19:18Like, it is highly commercialized.
19:22There are plenty of opportunities to do commercials in a football game.
19:25Here's the big difference with soccer.
19:27Soccer in the United States and globally is governed by a non-profit.
19:34The U.S. Soccer Federation has a say in the way that some things happen in the MLS, and
19:40that is deteriorating a little bit because it is corporate America, but it is a thing.
19:47So they don't have a monopoly on the competition the way that the National Basketball Association
19:53doesn't have any repercussions for failing, you know, and that's why we have tanking, and
19:58you know, the teams can't go down and all that stuff.
20:03And globally, this is the case too with soccer, is they, all these other countries, they care
20:10more about the sport itself than the money-making aspect of it.
20:14I think the best example of that is how Europe and all these, you know, these countries in
20:20Europe were able to shoot down the Super League for love of the game and for how it could ruin
20:25soccer.
20:26And they successfully made it so that the teams could not create the Super League.
20:33That type of movement would never happen in America because it's a highly, sports are highly
20:40commercialized.
20:42John, it's a great call.
20:44Thank you very much, John.
20:46Yeah, like that's sort of how I view it.
20:49I think the quicker way to say that, and we've said this many times before, the rest of the
20:54world has had kind of what you would call a huge head start on this.
20:58And I think that we like to think that we want to catch up.
21:04But do we, like, are you willing to do the work to catch up?
21:09Well, they've done some of the work.
21:11Some.
21:11Expansion's been great.
21:12Yes.
21:12And like Lionel Messi actually plays here now.
21:16And it turns out he's not in the twilight of his career.
21:18He still, it turns out to be a pretty good little player.
21:21So when David Beckham came over and exploded the L.A. market and, you know, that led to
21:26more expansion.
21:27So, yes, we're trying to, but we're not going as far as maybe we should to actually align
21:33our leagues with Europe.
21:34I don't know if we should.
21:35I don't know.
21:36I don't think we're doing anything wrong.
21:38Well, what we're not doing is.
21:40Like we love what we love.
21:41Right.
21:42But we're not a real soccer league because we don't have relegation and we don't play
21:46at the same time as the other leagues.
21:47So to your point, we're trying, but we're not going to try to the extent to where we're
21:52going to sacrifice our own model.
21:55Raise your hand if when they lost last night, you went training camps open in three weeks.
22:02We're okay.
22:04I, a lot of you did that.
22:06I did that.
22:07A lot of people did that.
22:08The actual football is almost here.
22:12That's still King.
22:13And it always will be.
22:15It always will be.
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