Speaker 1: The legend himself, and yes, Donnie, you are legend, Brian
Speaker 1: don Seth on a Tuesday afternoon, thank you for the time, Donny.
Speaker 2: How you doing, Bud. I'm doing great, Spence, except the
Speaker 2: fact I'm out here at Churchill Junior High sitting in
Speaker 2: the shade watching Micah train and the sprinklers just came on,
Speaker 2: Oh dear, and I went into a full panic mode
Speaker 2: of trying to figure out where my flip flops were
Speaker 2: still sprinting and understanding I was waiting just to come
Speaker 2: on air and trying to dodge these sprinklers that literally
Speaker 2: have the power to knock you off your feet. So
Speaker 2: slightly wet but safe. Nonetheless, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: You still have some quickness. Can you still move the
Speaker 1: way you did once upon a time?
Speaker 2: Well, I got a new hip a year ago, so
Speaker 2: I'm feeling great in the hip department. But I just
Speaker 2: had wrist surgery about a month ago, and so you
Speaker 2: kind of forget how necessary the wrist is when you
Speaker 2: don't have actual use of it. So when I'm trying
Speaker 2: to grab my cup, grab my phone, grab my flip flops,
Speaker 2: and grab the chair and not get doused in the
Speaker 2: same I used to get knocked off my feet. You
Speaker 2: realized when you just have one hand, it's a little
Speaker 2: bit more difficult in real life.
Speaker 1: I got to follow up when it comes to the
Speaker 1: new hip, what was the impetus? Because your boy over
Speaker 1: here might be considering it. Why did you decide to
Speaker 1: go through with that? And have you been pleased with
Speaker 1: the results.
Speaker 2: Well, you know me, I've had this back issue since
Speaker 2: I retired. It was one of the main reasons why
Speaker 2: I retired. Uh, And it ended up I was shifting
Speaker 2: all my weight to take the pinch off of my
Speaker 2: back and I just slide, I just literally adjust my
Speaker 2: weight standing and slide my hip out like slide to
Speaker 2: my left, and I burnt my hip out. And it
Speaker 2: was one day walking down in Manhattan Beach where I
Speaker 2: thought I had done my hip flexer, and it was
Speaker 2: just that last little fiber finally shredded pin and then
Speaker 2: it just became the most annoying, ruthless throbbing every single
Speaker 2: day and every single night. And then that's when I
Speaker 2: for me. I went to go see doctor Momberger a
Speaker 2: talk and he sent me, right, man, it was the
Speaker 2: best decision I could have possibly ever had.
Speaker 1: All right, good to hear I'm not there yet, but
Speaker 1: I don't know that I'm far off. But no, none
Speaker 1: of our listeners give a rip about our hip issues,
Speaker 1: so we can we can move on. Indeed, we are
Speaker 1: so duddy I am. I'm no expert, and I certainly
Speaker 1: am not a guy that blames the refs for very
Speaker 1: many things. But my soccer pee brain says, when the
Speaker 1: ball hits the defender's hand in the box, that's a
Speaker 1: handball and it's a PK. But apparently it wasn't for
Speaker 1: RSL against Charlotte with Tim Reem there, and of course
Speaker 1: a lot of people upset about the no call. You're
Speaker 1: always good to like make these complicated. It doesn't seem
Speaker 1: complicated to me, but you're always good to make it
Speaker 1: understandable the folks, and maybe don't fully get it, like myself,
Speaker 1: Why why wasn't that called? And can you help me
Speaker 1: understand what seems to me a very obvious handball in
Speaker 1: the box was not to the officials.
Speaker 2: The updated laws of the game includes the ditch sense
Speaker 2: and any type of motion made towards the ball, So
Speaker 2: for me, that was not a penalty worthy handling of
Speaker 2: the ball inside the penalty area and I'll tell you why, Bence.
Speaker 2: And this is where I think Tory pencil could have
Speaker 2: been a little bit clearer, because there was no attempt
Speaker 2: for Tim Reim to make any motion towards the ball,
Speaker 2: and what she suggested was natural position of his body,
Speaker 2: which I do agree. It was well what we wanted
Speaker 2: to see with situations like this, where it's a hopeful cross.
Speaker 2: It's not a cross with purpose. It's not trying to
Speaker 2: pick out an open man and a defender who has
Speaker 2: no other options. He's not making himself unnaturally bigger. That
Speaker 2: is a natural defending position. The ball comes off his arm.
Speaker 2: What they have adjusted for was the distance in which
Speaker 2: the ball is struck and then hits the defender's hand
Speaker 2: inside the box or his arm inside the box, and
Speaker 2: that's usually a me you know, a yard or so.
Speaker 2: And that's been kind of the struggle of the consistency
Speaker 2: of a call like that continuously being made. I had
Speaker 2: the same call or sorry, in the exact same situation
Speaker 2: up in Portland last Saturday later that evening, and I
Speaker 2: didn't think that was a penalty worthy ball coming off
Speaker 2: the arm. Maybe Spence. This is because I'm an old
Speaker 2: center back and I don't like the law being updated
Speaker 2: that every and what we were seeing is just these
Speaker 2: attacking players whipping balls into the box to try to
Speaker 2: purposely hit defender's arms, so then the referee w'd be like, well,
Speaker 2: hit ron penalty. They've tried to adjust the laws to
Speaker 2: understand for a defender, unnatural is putting his arms behind
Speaker 2: his back. There's nothing natural about that, so they've tried
Speaker 2: to allow defenders to have a more natural position. And
Speaker 2: for Tim Reim, he's not making any attempt to make
Speaker 2: himself bigger, he's not making any attempt to play the ball.
Speaker 2: And I listen, I just think the the verbide should
Speaker 2: have been from that distance, there was nothing he could
Speaker 2: do about it. He wasn't trying to knock the ball
Speaker 2: down and take away a goal scoring opportunity. I would
Speaker 2: hate for that to be called, and I wouldn't want
Speaker 2: real Salt Lake fans to want if that came off
Speaker 2: justin Glack, because we've seen them punished for something similar
Speaker 2: that they were up in arms and saying well, there's
Speaker 2: no way that's a handble, So yeah, for me, it wasn't.
Speaker 2: It wasn't a penalty worthy handling situation inside the box.
Speaker 2: But these are a part of the updated laws of
Speaker 2: the game. The problem is, Spence. You go back to
Speaker 2: bodeh Adalgo's second yellow and where was it San Diego.
Speaker 2: You go to the Nashville game where the outside bats
Speaker 2: should have been sent off not once, but twice. You
Speaker 2: go to New York Red Bulls where Diego Luna was
Speaker 2: shown his second yellow. He got his first for verbally
Speaker 2: saying the magic words the referee. He's shown a second yellow.
Speaker 2: Then they start playing, Then they go over to the
Speaker 2: monitor and pause the game, and then send off Kyle Duncan,
Speaker 2: who gets a red card, but he's the one that
Speaker 2: actually committed the foul, but they don't rescind the yellow card.
Speaker 2: It's like four or five moments where you know the
Speaker 2: purists and they'll say, well, hold on a second, Doney,
Speaker 2: it all equals at the end of the season. It's
Speaker 2: it's all levels out. It just doesn't. That's one of
Speaker 2: the biggest bs things I've ever heard for analogy or arguments.
Speaker 2: So RSL feels as though they've been done dirty for
Speaker 2: the better part of i'd say probably five or six
Speaker 2: results now where they felt as though calls should have
Speaker 2: gone their way. Calls could have gone their way. Calls
Speaker 2: ultimately didn't go their way. And even the handball and
Speaker 2: the wolf Zaha throwing a Mecha and Nelly down, I
Speaker 2: mean that's hands to the nuts or face that's supposed
Speaker 2: to be by letter of the law, red card and
Speaker 2: again an unpunishable action where we all saw like saying,
Speaker 2: hold on a second, when can we have catch or
Speaker 2: break this season?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I was going to ask you about the Zaha foul,
Speaker 1: but the answer there and a Mecca. He's a he's
Speaker 1: a big, sturdy kid and he doesn't dive. So when
Speaker 1: he went down like that, I went, Okay, something's got
Speaker 1: to give. And then they showed the replay and it
Speaker 1: felt like that should have been a straight red. And
Speaker 1: to your point, you know when and I've said it before, like, Okay,
Speaker 1: the calls will even out over the course of a year.
Speaker 1: It feels like the thing to say to just avoid
Speaker 1: talking about the bad calls all the time. So what
Speaker 1: is what's fair to say about what feels like a
Speaker 1: very frustrating season so far with the officials when it
Speaker 1: comes to, as you said, the bottom line results for RSL.
Speaker 1: Because the problem I've always had with officials missing calls
Speaker 1: is they're not, it's not as punitive for them as
Speaker 1: it is for coaches and players. There are jobs on
Speaker 1: the line here. If you miss the playoffs, an owner
Speaker 1: might be inclined to move you to a different club
Speaker 1: or maybe fire the coach. So if you're Pablo, how
Speaker 1: are you feeling? What's fair to say about these rough
Speaker 1: whistles RSLs received this year.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of curse words. I would assume there's
Speaker 2: a lot of requests to speak to officials for clarity.
Speaker 2: In those requests for clarity, once they do get on
Speaker 2: the phone or zoom calls, there's probably some more curse
Speaker 2: words being said and ultimately nothing will come of it.
Speaker 2: I think what we you know, and this is a
Speaker 2: bigger part of the conversation between the letter of the
Speaker 2: law the application of the law. Ultimately, when when you
Speaker 2: feel as though you're aggrieved and you're not getting calls
Speaker 2: looking for the explanation at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: when we're talking about var Ultimately, the idea was to
Speaker 2: minimize impactful moments, similar to what we saw with Gierry
Speaker 2: Henrie this handball against Ireland and effectively tossed Ireland an
Speaker 2: opportunity to go to the World Cup. That's what it's
Speaker 2: really about. But you know, for all of us that
Speaker 2: maybe hoped that there would still be those Monday morning
Speaker 2: quarterback conversations at the water cooler, well we're certainly getting them.
Speaker 2: But we're we're talking about layers of conversations of referees, decisions,
Speaker 2: intervention of technology, and ultimately some of the it's the
Speaker 2: right way to say this, some of the gosh, some
Speaker 2: of the human error, I guess. I mean the tech,
Speaker 2: the tech itself is fantastic, but where do we find
Speaker 2: fallible moments? It's it's going to be the application of
Speaker 2: the laws of the game and the technology. It's not
Speaker 2: the tech that's the issue, it's the application. But again, Spence,
Speaker 2: you know, we do this thing where we talk about
Speaker 2: calls that are similar. There's never like the like. They're
Speaker 2: very rarely like the like situation. So again, I know,
Speaker 2: these referees, a lot of them, a lot of them
Speaker 2: are great guys. They're under tremendous amounts of pressure. I
Speaker 2: know they want to get it right. And in the
Speaker 2: midst of trying to push for all these younger referees
Speaker 2: and to get new blood into the system, there's going
Speaker 2: to be some learning curve errors. But to your point,
Speaker 2: I mean, I think that's always been the biggest gripe
Speaker 2: of you know, when mistakes are happening and it's costing
Speaker 2: points that ultimately at the end of the season result
Speaker 2: in playoff spots or home field advantage. That's where you're
Speaker 2: looking for accountability and across the board in sports, very
Speaker 2: rarely do you see the accountability from the referees perspective,
Speaker 2: at least publicly.
Speaker 1: So I believe coming up on Saturday, Diego is still suspended,
Speaker 1: Gozo's out yellow card accumulation, and Williegata is out as well.
Speaker 1: So tell me about Minnesota because it feels like they've
Speaker 1: got to get this one. Doney. There's eight left, five
Speaker 1: of them are at home. There are two points I
Speaker 1: think below the playoff line if I remember correctly. So
Speaker 1: coming up this weekend without really three of your main
Speaker 1: pieces up front, of course, we have seen Ron Cruz,
Speaker 1: we finally saw the Yo Latunji kid a little bit.
Speaker 1: But talk to me about Saturday. Do you feel like
Speaker 1: it's a must win? Can they get it done with
Speaker 1: all these players on the sidelines.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I gotta at this stage is not a player
Speaker 2: that Pablo is going to lean on from the opening whistle.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be Olatunji and it's going to be role
Speaker 2: on Cruz. They spent too much money to bring them in.
Speaker 2: And even going back to the Cincinnati game a couple
Speaker 2: of weeks ago, where it's very evident a Gotta needed
Speaker 2: six or seven opportunities to score, which is just isn't
Speaker 2: a good enough strike rate in consistency, you know. Part
Speaker 2: of the part of this was also listen, Gozo has
Speaker 2: been fantastic this year, but there was never a plan
Speaker 2: for Gozo to play the amount of minutes he's playing.
Speaker 2: And I and and I don't know if that's more
Speaker 2: credit to Gozo or a more serious concern about Dominic
Speaker 2: Marshuk because it's been a disaster him trying to replace
Speaker 2: you know, uh, you know, in any in any way,
Speaker 2: shape or form, what we've seen on that right hand
Speaker 2: inside since last summer. So Luna is a huge loss Gozo,
Speaker 2: with his athleticism and what he's done this season, huge
Speaker 2: loss and a big challenge against the Minnesota United team
Speaker 2: that quite frankly is extremely difficult to deal with, both
Speaker 2: with the ball without the ball. They just beat Seattle
Speaker 2: Founders at home. They've swept them this season. It's the
Speaker 2: same team that knocked Oblo and Realit Salt Lake out
Speaker 2: after losing in penalties back to back in the playoff
Speaker 2: formatt last season. They are a team where, and I
Speaker 2: say this with the utmost respect Eric Ramsey and everything
Speaker 2: they've done, they are a team that is not really
Speaker 2: that much fun to watch. They know who they aren't,
Speaker 2: so they play more towards who they are. They sit deep,
Speaker 2: they absorb, they hit and transition moments. They've got, you know,
Speaker 2: fantastic power and pace and intelligence at top. Specific to
Speaker 2: Kelvin Yeboa and Tanny Oliva Sahi who they turned down
Speaker 2: a four and a half million dollar did for coming
Speaker 2: in during the summer transfer window, and it sounds like
Speaker 2: they might be bringing in another attacking player, but that's
Speaker 2: only after last week. Eric Ramsey, their head coach, kind
Speaker 2: of publicly in the nicest way possible, throttled the decision
Speaker 2: makers at Minnesota United for not bringing in new players,
Speaker 2: fresh blood and competition to the roster. So really interesting team,
Speaker 2: whether at home or on the road. They have figured
Speaker 2: out how to win games. They win the ugly games
Speaker 2: they can turn on every once in a while the
Speaker 2: style which makes you kind of sit back and ask
Speaker 2: bigger questions as to why philosophically they don't play that
Speaker 2: way more consistently. But a tough test because they as
Speaker 2: much as I try to understand how San Diego and
Speaker 2: Vancouver have been so consistent this year in the Western
Speaker 2: Conference the hierarchy of the Western Conference, Minnesota is the
Speaker 2: head scratcher because I think a lot of analysts in
Speaker 2: my kind of realm look at them and say, man,
Speaker 2: they know what they're good at, but they are just
Speaker 2: not fun to watch. And yet they are one of
Speaker 2: the most consistent teams in the West in terms of results.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're a pain in the ass, you know, Like
Speaker 1: they're just you know, yeah, Like every time I watch
Speaker 1: RSL plan like, man, it doesn't look like a lot
Speaker 1: of fun to play against Minnesota, but it feels like
Speaker 1: it's kind of a must win. As I said, tell
Speaker 1: me what you've seen. So we saw Victor Olatunji and
Speaker 1: Rwan Cruz startup top against Charlotte, and of course there
Speaker 1: were a few opportunities, but it wasn't all that bright.
Speaker 1: RSL is second to last in the West in goals score,
Speaker 1: they're tied for third and goals allowed. It's actually a
Speaker 1: good defensive group. Roth has been so good in goal.
Speaker 1: But what have you seen from these two players brought
Speaker 1: in by Kurt and his staff during the summer window,
Speaker 1: and what should we be hoping to see moving forward
Speaker 1: based off maybe some things you've heard in training and such.
Speaker 2: Right now, I've only seen potential. I've only seen glimpses. Obviously, Kurt,
Speaker 2: Jason Pablo will have scouted intently on the positions and
Speaker 2: the player profiles that they think fit this group. When
Speaker 2: you bring two players like this in it also, I'll
Speaker 2: generally remind people that you have to change the system
Speaker 2: and effectively go to a four to two to two
Speaker 2: two to allow those two players to shine, which then
Speaker 2: begs the question of Gozo, Diego Gonzalveez and Diego Luna.
Speaker 2: What does that look like from two out of those
Speaker 2: three specific then the trickle down effect is Ojeda Ameca
Speaker 2: and then maybe Paulo Ruiz fits better than one of
Speaker 2: those other two because the other two are so similar
Speaker 2: in the four to two three one built up. So
Speaker 2: there's expense, there's a lot of questions, and with eight
Speaker 2: is eightish games left not a lot of time for adoption.
Speaker 2: So again potential and glimpses of what I've seen, and
Speaker 2: at some point you know you're you're you're looking for
Speaker 2: got it a bigger, a bigger litmus test that includes
Speaker 2: goals and assists or at least generating some really dangerous
Speaker 2: full staring opportunities, because I can see the potential and
Speaker 2: I can see the skill for these guys, but they've
Speaker 2: got to put it. They got to put it together
Speaker 2: sooner rather later.
Speaker 1: One more RSL question that I've got one additional question
Speaker 1: that I'll set you loose.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: The secondary transfer window closes on Thursday. A little birdie,
Speaker 1: cute little Bertie, very little birdie UH informs me that
Speaker 1: Pablo was called uh to participate in a potential player
Speaker 1: zoom call today, which is why you couldn't join us.
Speaker 1: Are you hearing any other additions in the pipeline for
Speaker 1: RSL prior to the window closing on Thursday night?
Speaker 2: You know, I would say that the two outside back
Speaker 2: to the position in need of competition. And my concern
Speaker 2: is Kalaskin I feel like is being used like a
Speaker 2: Mecca was a couple of years ago because he was
Speaker 2: good enough to get on the field, but he's not
Speaker 2: good enough to beat out the two central midfielders right now.
Speaker 2: I think Real Salt Lake has been a week at
Speaker 2: the right back position basically since Brooks Lennon and Aaron
Speaker 2: Herrera left, and I think that's a position of need.
Speaker 2: I think they need some experience to know how inside
Speaker 2: of our locker room from MS know how inside of
Speaker 2: that locker room, because the times they seem young and naive.
Speaker 2: But the windows still open trail Thursday evening, so hopefully
Speaker 2: they can, you know, get some work done. They've spent
Speaker 2: new ownership as shown. You know, you bring the right
Speaker 2: you bring the right product to the table for a
Speaker 2: conversation that they're willing to invest. And it seems like
Speaker 2: the new infrastructure has changed significantly with ownership, which I
Speaker 2: would suggest as probably a good thing, you know, based
Speaker 2: on how light the team was in the first half
Speaker 2: of the field.
Speaker 1: All right, Donny, before I said you loose, I wanted
Speaker 1: you to chime in on this odd dynamic between former
Speaker 1: US men's national team players. And you're included in that.
Speaker 1: You were the captain of an Olympic team once upon
Speaker 1: a time. Yeah, yeah, And these current the current the
Speaker 1: irony of the current players, namely Christian Polisik and Timothy Wea.
Speaker 1: Uh it was it was in a documentary on Paramount
Speaker 1: Plus that they're trying to get people to watch and
Speaker 1: they're accusing these former US men's national team players of
Speaker 1: looking for clicks while they're doing the same thing. But
Speaker 1: it really re reeked of a lot of entitlement, and
Speaker 1: they came across as babies. Timothy Waya went out went
Speaker 1: as far as to call Landon and Clinton whoever else
Speaker 1: evil for the criticism that they're you know, levying on
Speaker 1: these young players that are currently playing for the US
Speaker 1: men's nation team. You know this. I know this because
Speaker 1: we have microphones in front of our face all the time.
Speaker 1: It is simply part of the job. And it's disingenuous
Speaker 1: to compliment players when the results aren't what we're all
Speaker 1: looking for. So, as somebody who's in this ecosystem, what
Speaker 1: do you make of this back and forth?
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, listen, I had my say on Turner and
Speaker 2: all in T and T, and I'll be a part
Speaker 2: of the coverage coming up against South Korea and Japan
Speaker 2: to the US national team out in New York, and
Speaker 2: thin Columbus. I'll actually be on the next six games
Speaker 2: of the US men's national team at the desk, fork
Speaker 2: and t so I will I will have all the
Speaker 2: inside information that's about to happen and kick down here
Speaker 2: in the next week or so. Yeah, listen, I'll repeat
Speaker 2: what I said at the desk. I think everyone there's
Speaker 2: a lot that can be true and a lot to
Speaker 2: be false. And I think a lot of these guys
Speaker 2: can be right, and I think at the same time
Speaker 2: they can all be wrong. You know, I come from
Speaker 2: a genera of you know, playing with Tony Meola and
Speaker 2: Alexi Wallas and Marcello Balboa and Casey Keller and Eric
Speaker 2: win Alda and John Harts and Tab Bramos, you know,
Speaker 2: all the outspoken guys. They were critical of the Tim
Speaker 2: Howards and the Gucci and ye Wus and you know,
Speaker 2: the the Carlos Spokeneggers and the Michael Bradley's and the
Speaker 2: Jermaine Jones and the Clint Dempseeason, the Landon Donovals. It
Speaker 2: was just a different time. We didn't have the accessibility
Speaker 2: of TikTok and Instagram and podcasts and video formats, and
Speaker 2: you know, usually this stuff was in USA today, or
Speaker 2: it was on ESPN, or it was in Soccer America.
Speaker 2: But the criticism has always been there. Now everything else
Speaker 2: is different, right, It's it's platforms, it's products, it's vanity projects,
Speaker 2: it's people making money, and at the same time, you know,
Speaker 2: people get sensitive. I really do enjoy Tim Lea. I
Speaker 2: like him a lot. I was actually really surprised at
Speaker 2: the determination that he came out with, you know, when
Speaker 2: when this project for Paramo Plus, when the boss announced
Speaker 2: that they were they were doing this polistic documentary. It
Speaker 2: was everything that I always wanted to see because I
Speaker 2: wanted to see more Christian's personality. You know, he seems
Speaker 2: like an introvert and then extroverted on the field, and
Speaker 2: there's nothing wrong with that. And this is why I
Speaker 2: think what's interesting in all of this is, you know,
Speaker 2: Landon and Christian are very very similar in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways, very very similar in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: So to see them going back and forth with one
Speaker 2: another is odd. I love hearing the perspective of Clint
Speaker 2: Dempsey each and every time I get an opportunity. But
Speaker 2: here here's the reality, Spence. I did the numbers, you know,
Speaker 2: Christian at ac Milan in the last two seasons, was
Speaker 2: played one hundred and one games. In the four years
Speaker 2: he was at Chelsea, he played one hundred and forty
Speaker 2: six games. One of the reasons why he's at a
Speaker 2: CI Milan playing all these games is very simple. She's
Speaker 2: starting every single game and he's playing as many minutes,
Speaker 2: you know, seventy five to ninety minutes per match. And
Speaker 2: he's healthy because he's starting every single game. And I
Speaker 2: asked him personally, I said, what's the difference. He said,
Speaker 2: I'm not warming up on the sidewink and coming in
Speaker 2: and exploding for fifteen minutes. I'm warming up properly and
Speaker 2: I'm having the opportunity to start the game. And he's like,
Speaker 2: I think one of the reasons why is because I
Speaker 2: was primarily used as a spot starter in the substitute
Speaker 2: and that was part of the reasons why I was
Speaker 2: breaking down, so listen he needed to and spence. The
Speaker 2: reality is I never expected him to take part in
Speaker 2: the Gold Cup. I didn't expect a lot of the boys,
Speaker 2: a lot of the big dogs to play in the
Speaker 2: Gold Cup. But what I found out was when I
Speaker 2: asked Pochettino why tim Weya and why Western McKinney, who
Speaker 2: were playing with the UVA at the fieft Club wows Up,
Speaker 2: weren't playing when three of their teammates were in the
Speaker 2: Turkish team and in the Swiss team against the United States.
Speaker 2: I was told that Marisio Pochettino only wanted guys that
Speaker 2: were going to be there for those first two games
Speaker 2: and the entire of the tournament. They didn't want them
Speaker 2: to just for those first two games. They wanted to
Speaker 2: try to build something. So if you don't fail at Cocamtica,
Speaker 2: if you don't fail at Nations League and then for
Speaker 2: the first time not win after three consecutive trophy lifts,
Speaker 2: we're not having this conversation. Nobody would have had a
Speaker 2: problem with Christian going out of the Gold Cup, so
Speaker 2: you got a lot of holier than now movements. I
Speaker 2: don't have a problem with it whatsoever. You know, Christian
Speaker 2: decided he wanted to go on Paramount Plus who's doing
Speaker 2: his documentary, and have his say, his dad gets involved,
Speaker 2: his friends are involved, Tim Way is involved. It's not
Speaker 2: a good look and at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: everyone comes off as super sensitive. Here's the bottom line,
Speaker 2: Spence you know, I and a lot of other people
Speaker 2: were questioning the build up to the twenty twenty two
Speaker 2: World Cup and tuitar and those final Cup games, they
Speaker 2: were terrible against Japan and Saudi Arabia. I was wondering
Speaker 2: publicly about Christian's ability to lead the group, and I
Speaker 2: was dead wrong because when they got into the when
Speaker 2: they got into guitar at the World Cup, he was
Speaker 2: easily the best player, the most valuable player, the most
Speaker 2: important player. And he doesn't lead by words. He leads
Speaker 2: by example. He leads by his play. So at the
Speaker 2: end of the day, my hope is that we can
Speaker 2: get done with all this BS and whatever happens between
Speaker 2: Pochattino and the accountability that he has that he said,
Speaker 2: she said, combination of all of this and again everyone
Speaker 2: to be right and everyone could be wrong, and that's fine.
Speaker 2: The reality, Spence is having Christian Polific in the starting
Speaker 2: eleven is better for the United States because he is
Speaker 2: easily the most consistent producer of results in big moments
Speaker 2: that we've had since the retirement of Clinton Landon. And
Speaker 2: I'll throw Michael Bradley and Josie Oltador and you know,
Speaker 2: Guccianielu and DeMarcus Beasley Steeps Kim Howard. He's the next generation.
Speaker 2: He's the only holdover of that last generation. So hopefully
Speaker 2: we can all think of this both be almost cursed.
Speaker 2: He as childish antics that we're seeing, and we can
Speaker 2: move on. But what I am really intrigued, Spence, is
Speaker 2: to see if Mauricio Pochettino, who has shown a malicious
Speaker 2: side at your Tottenham Hotspur, when it's come to a
Speaker 2: couple of different players. He can't treat this like Tottenham.
Speaker 2: He can't get rid of players, he can't you know,
Speaker 2: buy players from other clubs. So how he manages this relationship,
Speaker 2: He's going to be a really, really fascinating one to
Speaker 2: see in real times heading into those September friendlies right
Speaker 2: around the corner.
Speaker 1: Donny, you're the man. I appreciate the time on short notice.
Speaker 1: Have a great week, Bud, We'll chat soon.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, sorry, I know that was long, but a
Speaker 2: complicated question.
Speaker 1: Good, Thank you all. Good there is Brian dun Seth
Speaker 1: RSL originalbls Vett was the captain of the Olympic team
Speaker 1: once upon a time and has become one of the
Speaker 1: best analysts in the game. Appreciate Donnie's time on this
Speaker 1: Tuesday afternoon. Want to remind you, guys, if you're looking
Speaker 1: for a place to watch our sl or quite frankly,
Speaker 1: any game, NBA, Jazz, NFL utes, college football BYU. Beer
Speaker 1: Bar is the spot here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah.
Speaker 1: It's one sixty twenties, two hundred South. We were on
Speaker 1: remote there a couple of weeks ago. They've redone their
Speaker 1: entire menu, a bunch of great beers. If you're not
Speaker 1: a drinker, they've got options for you as well. Check
Speaker 1: them out at Beerbar SLC dot com or just stop
Speaker 1: buy one sixty onies two hundred south here in downtown
Speaker 1: Salt Lake. Appreciate Donnie's time,