World Cup Countdown

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Transcript

World Cup Arrival And Host Cities

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Let me ask you one question The North Florida sport north Florida sports net sports sports net Yep Let's go Florida sports World Cup aficionado here, Mr. Jason.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Two days out, 9 p.m. Friday night. I can't believe it's actually here. Yeah, we waited four years for this.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

World Cup is coming to the United States, Mexico, and Canada. Although mostly the U.S. 78 of the 104 games will be in the U.S. And it starts Thursday with Mexico playing South Africa. Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

South Africa has not made it since they hosted, I believe. Mexico always gets out of the first round. They're dangerous.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

The U.S. will be playing in Los Angeles and then Seattle and then back in LA.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

So fi.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

Yeah, and you know, if I was gonna go, I would probably rather just go to a city and see some other countries take, you know, take over. That'd be fun. Miami or Atlanta. Miami is an amazing host city for the World Cup. Yeah, that's gonna be crazy. Well, um

U.S. Expectations And Group Outlook

SPEAKER_00 1:34

the U.S. is hosting, we got uh World Cup aficionado Jason here. We haven't had him on in a while. Mr. Jason. I have to ask him, Mr. I'm sorry. I have to ask him a few questions as I get prepared for this World Cup. Let's start it with the U.S. team. A lot of excitement. You know, they're hosting, but the US hasn't done really anything ever in a World Cup.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

2002. We made it to the round of eight. That's as far as the quarters. And 1930, I believe we were third place. Okay. But there is only the first round and then the semi.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

So this is but you're looking to make a statement here. Where do you see this team? Where where do you expect?

SPEAKER_01 2:28

I expect the round of eight.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Anything short of the round of sixteen is a major disappointment. Major disappointment. We need three wins in group play. And that group consists of Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Okay. And of the those are the all solid. Turkey.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

No cupcake in there. Yeah. But you Paraguay's coming in ranked 40th, but they're better in that. Turkey's 22. Australia's 27, and we're 16th, I believe.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

On paper, then you would expect U.S. should be favored to win this group.

SPEAKER_01 3:08

Absolutely, with the home field advantage as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

And that plays a big difference on who you'll see in the knockout rounds. Huge. So you want to get you want to get that top seed in this group.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Yeah, you don't want to play Brazil in the round of 32.

SPEAKER_00 3:24

This is the biggest World Cup that's ever taken place. Literally. 48 teams in three countries. In three different countries. First time they've done that. So you're going to have 32 of the 48 make it to the knockout round. So to not make it to the knockout round, it's going to be the biggest disappointment. Yeah, would be a huge disappointment. Huge. You would pretty much have to finish last in your group. Because most of the third place teams will end up going.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah, the majority of third place teams still make it out of group play, which seems crazy. Three out of four.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah, so there's going to be interesting. It's going to be a lot of positioning in the last maybe matches in group play. A lot of teams are going to know that they're in the knockout round, but based on goals, based on who wins this game, you got to think some teams with veteran players like a Messi for Argentina, like are they going to you know not play certain guys? No. No, not in the World Cup. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

Just for those of you who don't know, there's 48 teams in countries this year in the World Cup. And lately there were 32. So 16 new teams added. And normally just the top two teams get out of group play, but now the majority you get three.

SPEAKER_00 4:56

Right. 32 out of the 48 will make it to the knockout round. So those last few games in the match, you're probably going to see a lot of strategy.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Well, you want to try to score goals too because it's going to come down the goal differential in a lot of cases.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Because everyone's going to have the same record. You just got a ten pedal to the medal. Right. Let's

Why This U.S. Team Feels Different

SPEAKER_00 5:20

go back to the U.S. Now, in terms of confidence before a World Cup, how's this how do you feel about this team compared to any other World Cup previously?

SPEAKER_01 5:34

The best I've ever felt. This is by far the best team on paper. We've never had guys playing all over Europe like this before. Italy, Germany, England. I mean, it's it's pretty cool to see. That's why I think the round of eight is um what is it's it's a reasonable what's the strength of this team? Oh, possession. Okay. Like we are so good with the ball. Yeah, it's cool to see.

SPEAKER_00 6:04

Yeah, that's different.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

We I'm just gonna say we were better than Germany when it came to possession last Saturday. I mean, we lost, they got some good goals. You know, some mistakes we made, but as far as possession goes, I mean, we we we did better than them. And that's Germany.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah. Um, what about the goaltender?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Free. So I I don't want to say weak link, but he does not play in Europe. It's actually the first time ever USA has taken three goalies and they all play in MLS, not one plays in Europe. But I think uh I think he's got a chance to really become a household name this cup. You know, there's gonna be millions of Americans behind him supporting home turf. Like I really think he could come out of this.

SPEAKER_00 6:58

Well the opportunity, yes, and that's that's all you can ask for. Uh in terms of a name to watch out for give me some Chris Richards, my man from Alabama.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

All right, he's a defender, but he's pretty nasty when it comes to those headers from uh set pieces. So I really, I really think he's gonna be be a superstar after this cup.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And how like you watched the last two friendlies against two top teams in the world.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Yeah, I caught the Belgian one in person too.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

Yeah, so has you have you seen what have you seen in terms in those games progressively?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

We're deep. We uh we got a lot of studs coming off the bench, which is pretty rare for us. Normally we got a few guys and we kind of build the team around them, but I really like our depth.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

What when do they usually have they when have they been bringing those subs subs in?

SPEAKER_01 8:04

Well, friendlies are different because you get like 10 subs and it's been kind of hectic. But I think we'll see some guys about three-quarters of the way through the game, depending on the score. You know, we might bring in some can be such a huge momentum change. Gio or Brendan Aronson, you know, depending on if we're up or down. Yeah you know, do we need a goal or do we need to play some defense? Right. But I'll tell you a guy who can do it all. Weston McKinney. Yeah, he plays in Italy right now, and Turin is the town. But man, he is uh he's a he's a Swiss Army knife. He can do it all.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

That's what you need.

Favorites Long Shots And Upset Talk

SPEAKER_00 8:44

In terms of odds to win the World Cup, the U.S. is plus 6,000.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Ooh, I like those odds.

SPEAKER_00 8:51

You do?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah, we should put a hundred down.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Um the favorites are France and Spain. Those are your top two.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, I just hope England doesn't win. As long as England doesn't win, I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

England has never beat the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

Not in a World Cup.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 9:12

One win and two draws. Well, you know, it's our 250th anniversary of signing the declaration. So we can't have them win on our soil. No, that would be a if we can't win it, I would like to see another team win that's never won. You know, there's only been eight countries to win the World Cup Cup in about a hundred years. So it'd be cool to see like the Netherlands or somebody like that. Portugal. Yeah, I guess.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah, Portugal's cool. They haven't won it. That's it's it's incredible. But I think it's gonna come down to you know the the matchups that you'll get in the in the rounds. And will anybody get upset?

SPEAKER_01 9:59

I think so. Yeah, we're gonna see some upsets. Maybe not so much in group play, but once we get to that round of 32, you know, it's one game.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Yeah, I think that's that's gonna be hopefully. I think that what they're thinking with the expanded that you're gonna have more drama in the knockout rounds. But in terms of the group play, it's gonna bring it's gonna water that down a little bit. Just, you know, based on having 32 out of the 48 making it. But still the World Cup.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

But it's still nice to have all that extra soccer to watch.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

Oh, yeah. 104 games.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Definitely watered down group play, but I'm excited for it. I'm gonna drink that water.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

A team that's under the radar that could make a deep run is Japan. I like that pick.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

The way of the warrior.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yeah. I mean, you get a I like because you're right, it's just one game, and then you get a team that's hot or is playing like cohesive defense, and they, you know, they get on a a run.

SPEAKER_01 11:02

Yeah, get one leg. You get a little luck on your side.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

You get a you get a header or you get hit off somebody's, you get a free kick.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

We're talking miracle on ice type game. You know, that's what we need. Anything can happen in one game. That's the best thing about March Madness in the World Cup and tournaments like that. You know, it's it's one game.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

That's right. Any other uh fun facts to look forward

MLS Growth And The 1994 Effect

SPEAKER_00 11:31

to?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Uh well, we recently moved uh our U.S. soccer headquarters to Fayetteville, Georgia, which is about 30 miles south of Atlanta. And I highly recommend everyone go look it up and take a look at some picks and just read a little bit about it. There are 20 locker rooms at this facility and 27 different national teams. USA national teams call it home.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

You say, you know, you're excited for this one, the best chance. Still comparatively, you know, to other sports, the U.S. is light years behind.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Oh. What MLS, what is it gonna take?

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Or do you see it ever happening?

SPEAKER_01 12:19

I think the 1994 World Cup changed soccer forever in this country. You know, it wasn't really even a youth sport before that, and now it's arguably the most popular youth sport. Yeah, it is. And we got the MLS afterwards. You know, I think we have a chance here to really take soccer to the next level. You know, you have to start with the development of the kids, yeah. That's what that and at the end of the day, it's money. Uh, you gotta pay some guys to come to MLS. Right. And we got Messi.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

Yes. I know you know, you get the guys on their back end, you know, when they get the last contract, but let next step maybe get the guys in their prime. Yeah, yeah. But you know, you're making those steps, but they seem right now it's like Messi's league. Yeah. Kind of. It's pretty cool though.

SPEAKER_01 13:11

He's in Miami.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

It is.

SPEAKER_01 13:13

Goes to Publix. Uh there's a great documentary out right now called The Summer of 94. It's free on Tubi. It's just about those guys and that entire tournament and what it did, the impact. It's it's really cool. I highly recommend it. Summer of 94.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

I mean, just come here and you imagine every sport and you're talking about football, basketball, and baseball, like combine that into one. And that's what like every other country is with soccer. Yes. You know, so we have three or four sports that we kind of as we you know grow up, we tend to watch. But like you're saying, in the youth, it's growing. That's that's where you gotta see it grow and develop, and maybe see what what happens overseas with those players when they get what, 12, 13? What are they doing?

SPEAKER_01 14:16

You're saying if we got our best athletes to play soccer from a young age.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So they need what? They need little prep schools or prep organ like organizations.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

And you know, we gotta we gotta make it cool. You know, it's for some guys, football and basketball are you know, that's what's cool growing up. Yeah, you know, we we gotta make it cool.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

Yeah, I mean it's a it's a beautiful game. And it's it's a hard game.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

World World Cup is my favorite sporting event of all time.

SPEAKER_00 14:46

I I can't argue that. You know, I I I know you've always told me that's their number one. Like, we always had these questions as sports fans. Like, if you could wish for one thing, what would it be? And um soccer aficionado Mr. Jason here has always said, winning the World Cup, and I can't argue with that. That's a pretty good choice.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

That gold medal we got in hockey recently. That was pretty awesome, man.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

Pretty special, wasn't it? It it's good to see, you know, people like that care about first one since uh the miracle. In this age of NIL and and you know, you you want to see the best compete, and this tournament right here is the epitome of that. I mean, you have guys like what is Cristiano Ronaldo, he doesn't have a World Cup. Nope. Got everything else, most famous person in the world. Crazy. Yeah, it's hard to do.

Betting France And Scoreboard Scenarios

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Messi will see if Argentina can defend their title as Paris and Spain are your favorites. If you had to make a bet, is that who who you would go with?

SPEAKER_01 16:04

Uh, France.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

They're just loaded. Right. They've been the two straight finals and one in Russia in 2018, lost to Argentina in the last one. Yeah. Yeah, that's why it's so important to, you know, win your group.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

You don't want to see one of those guys in the round of 32. Very important because if you come out and that last game is going to be all about what if this happens, who's going to match up with this? How many goals does this team need? Yeah. Will there be some games that get out of hand because the team needs to stretch it? Let's do it. You know, uh, it's good that's gonna be exciting.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Like a 6-0 against Australia. I'm down for that.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

So first game against Uruguay, what's the Paraguay?

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Paraguay, I'm sorry, and then Seattle to play uh Australia, Soccer Roos, and then back at SoFi for uh Turkey. Which in my day was just Turkey. I don't know why that's gonna be better in the end. That should be for the group, probably. So realistically, if we got two wins and then a draw, seven, then it'll come down if if Turkey does the same thing, then it will come down the goal differential. So let's run up the score, baby.

SPEAKER_00 17:24

Yeah, yeah. I wonder if it'll all be ranked like that. Like based on the groups. So you'll have some groups that are ranked higher, maybe that are in third. Based on goal differential.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, the heavyweights are getting out of their group with three wins. Yeah. Almost all of them, I'd be willing to bet that.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Yeah. Well, it's gonna be fun, man. I am looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

I already told my kids they can stay at way past their bedtime Friday night, because it doesn't start till nine. 9 p.m. Friday night. Tune in.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 18:05

Well we had to go. All right, is here. We gotta uh shuttle.

SPEAKER_00 18:12

Well, it's shuttle time. We gotta get on there. Hey, thanks for having me on. Hey man, thanks for coming, man. I needed this. Get me ready for this huge sporting event. Soccer is something that I've started to watch a lot lately, being that my son's starting to play a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Have you ever looked at the TV numbers from the World Cup compared to the Super Bowl? It's in the World Cup final. Almost, I want to say 11 times more people watch the World Cup final than the Super Bowl. We're literally talking billions.

SPEAKER_00 18:50

Yeah. Like it's nuts. It's the world's game, man. It really is. It's to it's almost I've never when you always said that, I just in the back of my mind, I just don't think it's possible. And I know anything's possible. Man, this would be the ultimate miracle, right?

SPEAKER_01 19:15

A miracle analyzed type scenario. Oh my goodness. I mean, let's face it.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

Yeah, that's that's I think that this is way more because you're looking at a team 20 years prior that almost won that gold medal in hockey. In soccer, man, it's like you said, they've only been into the quarters once.

SPEAKER_01 19:39

Round of eight yeah, 2002.

SPEAKER_00 19:42

And to get, I'm just saying, in my lifetime, if it happens, I'll be shot. But I'm look- I'm rooting for it. That's what that's what's gonna make it glorious if it ever does happen.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Think about how mad the world would be, too.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

The world would be pissed. It would never, they'll never let that happen. Uh so how many teams you've only had Brazil in this on this hemisphere. It's only been Brazil and Argentina. And the other way.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

The original hallucination.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

That's true, yep. Alright, well, first North American team to do it. Could this be the year? We'll see.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Either way, I'd like to keep it in the Americas either way.

Final Thoughts And What’s Next

SPEAKER_00 20:33

Well, we got 104 soccer games to watch. We'll watch them. NBA finals as well. College World Series coming up. We got all that. We'll watch it. We'll react to it. And we'll talk to you next time, right here on the North Florida Sports Hill.