Speaker 1: Here we go, Here we go, Dave John Salo and
Speaker 1: Bruce Murray. It's another edition of First eleven. Yes, your
Speaker 1: connection with d C and I and old things soccer
Speaker 1: as always. You can connect with us at Dave J
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Speaker 1: including iHeart Spotify. You know the deal, You get the
Speaker 1: podcast and we appreciate the interaction on First eleven. And
Speaker 1: we'll do this in eleven minutes or less. Yes, it's
Speaker 1: an off week for d C and IED. I know
Speaker 1: you could say last week was an off week, the
Speaker 1: two nothing loss to Reale Solake. We will touch on
Speaker 1: DC United in a moment right now. A lot going on.
Speaker 2: Gold Cup, Club World Cup. Could Billy say that Club
Speaker 2: World Cup? Let me say that.
Speaker 1: Again, the Gold Cup the United States.
Speaker 2: So far, so good in terms of results.
Speaker 1: Bruce Murray, it's hard to get excited about this team
Speaker 1: with the qualification that you understand this is not going
Speaker 1: to be the team that will represent the Tree next
Speaker 1: year at the World Cup.
Speaker 2: Having said that, they need to get in gear.
Speaker 3: They do. Dave again, I won't apologize. Real quick up run.
Speaker 4: I think I've got some type of allergies today. But
Speaker 4: I sound a little bit like Daffy Duck, so I
Speaker 4: apologize for that. But uh, yeah, they they they didn't
Speaker 4: look good last night and and you know, they didn't
Speaker 4: look sharp. And and again part of that is there's
Speaker 4: a lot of substitutions and there's new different rules in
Speaker 4: this competition. But I'd like to see him, uh, put
Speaker 4: some guys together and just go with the go with
Speaker 4: that group. And don't you know, there's just too many
Speaker 4: people and you know, when you're it's almost like line
Speaker 4: changes in hockey. It just it just kills the game.
Speaker 4: And I'm not I'm not impressed with with what he's
Speaker 4: doing right now. I don't know what he's doing. You know,
Speaker 4: some some of the younger players have have shown me
Speaker 4: a little bit, but it's just not a team right now.
Speaker 3: Uh you know.
Speaker 4: And I'm not trying to go down the landa Donovan
Speaker 4: route and bash the team and everything. I'm just saying
Speaker 4: this team, and he does say the right thing that
Speaker 4: this team, particularly the way they're playing right now, they're
Speaker 4: not gonna They're not gonna be very successful unless they
Speaker 4: get in gear. And that's what you said, they got
Speaker 4: to get in gear.
Speaker 1: And when I say getting gear, I also think between
Speaker 1: now and again, I'm like you. I think it's you
Speaker 1: don't push the World Cup is what it's all about.
Speaker 1: It's with all due respect to the Gold Cup or
Speaker 1: anything else, and especially with it being in our country
Speaker 1: are in North America, obviously sharing with Canada and Mexico.
Speaker 1: But I think about the teams you played on, and
Speaker 1: there just seemed to be more personality or or something
Speaker 1: you could certainly argue successfully. Look, we've got players playing
Speaker 1: all over the world now, which was not the case
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety and ninety four.
Speaker 2: And you know, back when you were.
Speaker 1: At the US National TV, guys often met at the
Speaker 1: airport and almost was like you were. You were free
Speaker 1: wheeling and freelancing. Or maybe I'm overstating that. So I
Speaker 1: almost think we're overthinking soccer.
Speaker 3: I agree with you. I agree with you one hundred percent.
Speaker 4: Uh we actually, uh we did meet at airports and
Speaker 4: we we you know, we had training camps all all
Speaker 4: all the time, and the travel was insane because uh,
Speaker 4: players weren't playing on club teams in Europe. So uh,
Speaker 4: you know, you get coaches like Bob Gamzerbora when we
Speaker 4: were in Japan one day, we were at Spain the
Speaker 4: next and next, and then you know, you're you're looking
Speaker 4: at the Kremlin literally from your hotel room. I mean,
Speaker 4: you know, it was it was such a crazy schedule
Speaker 4: and we had to go places to get big games.
Speaker 3: What what?
Speaker 2: What?
Speaker 3: What I see? Uh, Dave?
Speaker 4: And I've I've told a lot of people this and
Speaker 4: some people agree, some don't.
Speaker 3: But I don't see I don't see a team.
Speaker 4: I watched Canada play and I feel like I feel
Speaker 4: like I watched some of those players and they are
Speaker 4: willing to die drop for their country right on the field.
Speaker 4: And I just feel that we're just kind of playing
Speaker 4: safe right now because you Polchaccino. You know, he's a
Speaker 4: new coach. You know, if I don't make mistakes, well, hell,
Speaker 4: I'm in good shape. Well that's not really how it works, man.
Speaker 4: You got to take risk in this game. If you
Speaker 4: want to be at the top, you have to take risk.
Speaker 4: And that is what I do not see out on
Speaker 4: the field right now.
Speaker 1: And it's funny you mentioned or interesting you mentioned Canada
Speaker 1: because the way they responded against Honduras it seemed like
Speaker 1: a team that remembered previous matches was going to be
Speaker 1: come with the conviction and no doubt about that result.
Speaker 1: It was, you know, over after the starting whistle. It
Speaker 1: seemed also I think the Canadian dynamic Jesse Marsh, you know,
Speaker 1: even though he will be going against his own country
Speaker 1: in the United States, I feel that's motivating him.
Speaker 4: Some I agree with you. Jesse Marsh got looked over
Speaker 4: on this job, and I personally thought he would have
Speaker 4: been a good pick because I saw a video a
Speaker 4: couple of years back where Salisburg played or I think
Speaker 4: it was Salzburg with the team he was with in
Speaker 4: Austria and it was halftime against Liverpool and they're getting
Speaker 4: spanked and he's like, he went off on the team.
Speaker 4: I watched him go off and he got those guys motivated.
Speaker 4: He talked about like they put their pants on just
Speaker 4: like you do, right, you know, go out there and
Speaker 4: stop showing so much respect. And when I heard that speech,
Speaker 4: I said to myself, I could play for this guy.
Speaker 4: I could really play for Jesse Marsh.
Speaker 2: Well, I tell you, I remember when he was still playing.
Speaker 1: I spent I believe it or not, a morning with
Speaker 1: him in a bar in Milwaukee watching English Premier League games.
Speaker 1: His brother had an arsenal bar probably still does in Milwaukee,
Speaker 1: and at the time he was talking with Peter Wilt,
Speaker 1: a great soccer executive. Even though he was playing, you
Speaker 1: could tell his past was coaching and he's certainly lived
Speaker 1: up to that passion club World Cup.
Speaker 2: You have fan mixed reviews. Do you know what to
Speaker 2: make of it.
Speaker 4: I'm a fan in the sense that that I like
Speaker 4: the fact that they do this now and it kind
Speaker 4: of but the way it's the way the teams that
Speaker 4: are involved, the way they picked the teams, and or
Speaker 4: Miami that was a very suspicious entry, you know, I
Speaker 4: don't know. It's one of these things, Dave, where there's
Speaker 4: so many competitions going on right now. The attendance is terrible,
Speaker 4: you know, and the ticket sales are poor. You know,
Speaker 4: people in the Gold Cup you watched the stadium last night,
Speaker 4: they're not going to pay you know, three figure, not
Speaker 4: gonna pay over one hundred dollars for tickets. You know,
Speaker 4: It's it's gotten to the point where US Soccer are
Speaker 4: they pricing themselves out of I mean, I cannot believe
Speaker 4: what I saw last night. I mean, for a Gold
Speaker 4: Cup game, even though it was an invited guest Saudi Arabia.
Speaker 4: I just couldn't believe that the stadium was half empty.
Speaker 4: And that's never been the case. When I played, we
Speaker 4: always played man and every national team was a big deal.
Speaker 4: If we were in Chicago playing Poland, there'd be sixty
Speaker 4: thousand people, you know, if we're in New York City
Speaker 4: we're playing Italy, there'd be eighty two thousand people. I
Speaker 4: just don't I think this is the pricing or whatever's
Speaker 4: going on and US soccer. It's got to change. You know,
Speaker 4: the economics of it don't work well.
Speaker 1: And you know, frankly, I don't think the market dictates things.
Speaker 1: And you know, this is where this team needs to
Speaker 1: It can't just show up and where the US colors.
Speaker 1: This team has not captured the attention of the now
Speaker 1: more discerning American soccer public. And I think that's reflected
Speaker 1: in attendance now in the Club World Cup. It should
Speaker 1: be noted some of the attendancies are great. It's where
Speaker 1: it's been poor is places. You know, they had a
Speaker 1: South Korean Tina, a South African team taking you know,
Speaker 1: going against each other in Orlando. To me, that you know,
Speaker 1: you put a South Korean team in a market like
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, she would probably do better because there's more
Speaker 1: of a Korean population. But that I think that's just
Speaker 1: reflection that the big clubs are like they do always
Speaker 1: attract the fans, the clubs people don't know about. It's
Speaker 1: not to the point where you're going to show up
Speaker 1: just because they're in the Club World Cup. Let's get
Speaker 1: to DC United. You know, I don't think in eleven
Speaker 1: minutes or last week we can correct things. One thing though,
Speaker 1: this team did need this break to reboot.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, uh, you know Christian bent tech A. You know,
Speaker 4: no matter what we said about how we wanted to
Speaker 4: play this year, it's always going.
Speaker 3: To go through Christian min Techy.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm not saying it's going to go up
Speaker 4: in the air and he's going to be heading the
Speaker 4: ball all the time.
Speaker 3: He he everything's going to go through Christian min tech A. Uh.
Speaker 3: You know we've been playing with Jacob murle top.
Speaker 4: He's not getting the help necessary and he's playing out
Speaker 4: of position. We both know that, and all the fans
Speaker 4: that hear this know that. But I did a little math,
Speaker 4: and there's forty five points to play for and twenty
Speaker 4: three Dave would have gotten this in the playoffs last year.
Speaker 4: So can we get twenty three points out of forty five?
Speaker 4: And that's going to take a real you know, get
Speaker 4: revitalization of the squad because that game against Salt Lake
Speaker 4: was a terrible game. I mean, we did not play well.
Speaker 4: There was no impetus of the game, there was no
Speaker 4: desperation in the way we played.
Speaker 3: And that's what we have to.
Speaker 4: Have right now because again, like I said, twenty three
Speaker 4: points should see us through, and there's forty five to
Speaker 4: play for.
Speaker 1: All right, the points are out there, but they have
Speaker 1: to play with purpose to get him First eleven. As always,
Speaker 1: we appreciate time. We will be with you June twenty eighth.
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