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