Hi Bart, good morning. Yes, So John Herdman out in a news dump, in a fantastic news dump by Toronto FC back on Friday, and before you came on, I was discussing the alleged systematic ethical shortcoming attached to Canada soccer and to Bev Priestman, who is I guess in the soccer equivalent of time out and show cause she is Kelvin Sampson now I guess until further noted, and John Herdman in the news dump, at least in the American news dump sense, and then on a late Friday
afternoon which was a traditional news dump. Since John Herdman out at Toronto FC, personally, I think it's best that's what he says. I'm thinking that Toronto FC basically knows more than they think that the public knows. They know that Eli's common Hydra hart Girl and the hammer might be and they don't need to have anything attached to John Hrdman with him being under their employer. That's my gut.
Yeah, I think this was a conversation between Toronto and Hardman, who is obviously the focus, I mean, if not the sole focus of the investigation, the main focus of the investigation at this point, and there's an agreement between the two parties to just say let's cut ties before. Especially for Toronto, this is a cya because they don't want
to be stuck with any real surprises. They don't want to go any further into the offseason not having an idea if they're going to have a coach, so they'd rather just say, Hey, we're gonna to leave and we'll go find someone else.
And my gut thinks it might be Jim Curtin, who wants to be the g SLASH technical director SLASH and a coach and have both titles in a place that would be the tie Philadelphia where.
Yeah, I mean I think John I'm still not a fan of a coach being both GM.
Oh neither am I No, neither am I I mean I do.
Think well, yes, I do think Curtain would like more control over roster precisions, because that was obviously the reason why it didn't go as well as it maybe could have in Philadelphia, and especially this year, was the reason why they fell so short. But I think Toronto would be a better landing place for Curtin than you know, some other yep that may exist, particularly very locally, yes, but with the difference being that MLS will spend money and that is something that I know Curtin would like
to have. I mean, I don't think Curtin is expecting them to spend eighty million dollars a year for him or however much they spent whatever it was when they bought this, you know, half the Italian national team. That is still indicative of a club that is willing to spend some money to bring in actually good players up and down the roster. And that's something that Curtain hasn't had. And also, you know, I think if you're Jim Carton, you look at Toronto as a potential academy location where
you can continue to mold the younger generation. So I don't I don't think Toronto's academy has been particularly I don't robust product productive. Yeah, yeah, that might be an opportunity for him as well, just to kind of take some of the things that he's learned from the Philadelphia side and put that into Toronto. I mean, Toronto is the what the largest city in Canada and one of
the top five in North America. It's a large city and that would in theory mean that you have a great deal, talentable from on top of a great fan base that could you know, support you.
Yep. Uh and Rich once again making the point curtain to toront would hurt more than him going to Atlanta because it's unlimited budget one hundred Philadelphia. Absolutely true. Yeah, but within the salary cap purview, yes, yes, but you're gonna get three actual dps. Hmm, yeah you are, and you can. You can. You can drop plenty of you can drop plenty of dime on in Tim Horton's gift cards and Canadian tire bucks on bringing all of them in.
Uh.
You had you had you had requested time yees salary cap Uh since this was a rivalry weekend in American football.
Mm hmmm.
Uh, you had requested time at the beginning of your of your appearance here this week to discuss the situation I believe it West by God Virginia and uh I will, I will yield the floor. Uh see, we need to get you over on the the college football side of things.
Over you where I got my podcasting start, John.
We need to get you over on the college football side to discuss West by God Virginia. I yield the floor. For your opening statement on a reaction Monday to discuss American college football and the situation at West by God Virginia proceed.
So I just want to first off say that I've felt this season this year with a lot of people saying, well, this person is a really good person. This coach is just a really great guy, and he's respected and loved, but the results in the field don't match that. And that has been the frustrating part with my fandom for two of my favorite teams this year, and when it came to West Virginia specifically, it it was six years of not believing the team was going to actually do
something cool, for great or exciting. We had a decent season last year and I think that was really what
did it. And for Neil Brown, as you had a really good close the season in twenty twenty three, you get the win over North Carolina up in Charlotte and the bowl game, you finished with nine wins, and you go, what can you use how can you use this to continue to climb to take that message they've been pushing for the past six years, And when you finished six and six a conference that was severely depleted by the two biggest teams leaving and bringing in some teams that
are not at that level. By the way that you didn't have to play for the most part, we didn't play Colorado, we didn't play Utah, you know, we we didn't have to play any of the big boys this year. That came in. And the fact that you weren't able to get to even seven wins during the regular season, the fact that you lost both of your games to the local rivals, and one of those very badly at
home to open the season. After again, all this pipe was built, and the way that you know, the team continued to lose in the similar ways, with bad mistakes on individual parts, bad schemes both offensively and defensively. Being nice, being a good guy is great, but at the end of the day, it's a results based business and when you're not getting results, you know, there's no reason to
keep you around. And that's just kind of where and I'm sorry to bring it up, but that's just where I've always been with the Gonzale Paneda thing is, I know, he's a really great dude and he I'm sure people love playing for him. You got to win, and at the end of the day, if it doesn't matter if your your players, your guys love playing for you, but if you're not winning, what does it matter? You know?
I think probably could be said of Greg Berholter as well, where a lot of the guys playing for Greg but can't have results that don't match those expectations. And now you've got to find someone who for WU. Anyway, you have to find someone who can hopefully continue a decent culture that's been built, but get results on the field and figure out how to win in a place that you're not going to get the best recruiting classes. But you've got to maximize the talent and we'll see how that goes.
You've got to go into Pennsylvania and get kids there.
Yeah, you got. I mean, that's the thing for West Virginia is you've got Pittsburgh and Philly that are close by. You've got the Ohio area which is always talent. You got the DMV there. You know, You've got plenty of areas to just go get talent outside of your state, and you got to maximize it. I mean, West Virginia for a while, there is I mean piping amend from South Florida too, and we've lost that connection. But yeah,
it was disappointing. It was unsurprising. It was a relief when it finally happened.
Three ranked teams losses this year started to see at home against Penn State. You also lost to eleventh thranked Iowa State and seventeenth thrank Kansasate, all three of those at home. Then you lose backyard brawl thirty eight, thirty four, and then you lose two of your last three to Baylor at home, yeah, by fourteen. And then in Lubbock where Texas Tech put fifty two.
Oh yeah, wiped in Lubbock. I mean, those tortillas came and slapped across the face. You couldn't get up. And again, you have to get results. And I think most West Virginia fans would agree with me. We're not expecting you to win ten eleven games every year. But this particular season of the Big Twelve, John was wide open. As you clearly see, you've got Arizona State, who's the first timer in the conference in the conference has never made
a conference championship. We've been in this damn league for oh goodness. As the person who was there for the very first Big twelve game, seventy to sixty three against Baylor. That is the problem, right, and Dana, I think it's I think Dana's tenure kind of showed where we could be in the old Big twelve, which is maybe hopefully getting a shot. We were expecting Neil, especially in the new Big Twelve, to find a way to get us
to the actual championship game. And I think that's just where we are at is we need to be the expectation or the goal of making a conference championship game needs to be realistic every year, not just you know, yes, a state statement game.
All right, So, uh, now let's go back to now that the American football discussion has has gone away, at least temporarily until I sit there and vent my spleen about my program with a sixty three million dollar buyout. Uh. One of the reasons that we brought you in other than American football was to discuss bomb hops on parade
in in one day. And it felt at this time that was called it looked no. You had ninety eight bazillion people yeah, watching Veigman v. Hayes yeh, and it ended up a goalless draw.
Yeah. I think if that was if you were to evaluate this game as an entirety, that was probably the only negative is no goals, and at some point it looked like maybe the only goal was going to come from a penalty kick, which was very erroneously called. I understand why it was called on the field, I truly do. I'm glad that var was implemented to not have that as a penalty kick because that was that was not a penalty kick. Yes, that's not a handball, you know, John.
This is one of those where I saw someone tweet that they would or skeet. I forget which apple was on, but they they were like, you know, we should make this kind of a Thanksgiving tradition. Ooh, I like that, and back and forth, depending on you know where it is. Honestly, wouldn't mind a November window always being in Europe. I think the US men used to do this a lot, especially under Kleansman. I think they should get back to that. And it gives you something to just look forward to
for the Thanksgiving slate. Give you a little different taste on your palette other than the football you've been the American football you've been in.
Seriously, if you started your day, you started your day in in in Angland.
Yep.
With like a nine a m. Eastern time US kick, it's two o'clock in the afternoon.
Yep.
You're done by eleven, You get your pregame show done, then you can focus on American football for the rest of the day. We have programmed a solution for.
And for you know, a network like T and T and TBS. It doesn't really have college football, which is changing. I believe that they are getting college football for the playoff. Is that this.
Happens, Yeah, they're They're a part of it. Yes, you know that.
I think it's a great programming thing. And I think when you look at not just this being one versus two this year, because that's what it was, but just two programs that seem to value the women's teams very highly. That's the type of production you want to give to the rest of the world to force them to up their game when it comes to supporting with the women's side. And you know you're getting another one tomorrow with Netherlands.
And I think that that on itself, John is really the big takeaway from this game, because when you're looking at the US play this game specifically, you don't have triple espresso. You don't have Katerina Macario. So those are four of your those are your four best attacking players, you know that. And if you're not having Sophia Smith start in the center, it's going to be cat start in the center. And then after that, you didn't even have like, you know, a the official who's still coming
back from injury. You didn't really have a true striker, which needs to be something MHA figures out long term. You know, I'm a little surprised that Ashley Hatch hasn't come back into the fold a little bit. She had a decent season for Washington. But when you don't have that, okay, well, you don't score any goals, you still created some decent chances. You still had opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net. You know, Mary rp proved that
she's pretty darn good. John, I've heard this, so did at listen there, you know, And I think defensively you didn't really give up any true chances to England that were super scary. I thought Germa did a great job. I thought Krueger had a pretty decent game. And I think that is the takeaway is, well, you didn't give up any real chances to a very good England team. And although you didn't score any goals without your top talent, you still created a decent amount of chances.
Ten to four in the shots, three to one on target, fifty four percent possession. But once again, possession for me is like time of possession in American college football is what you do.
Says it earned from Friday Night, John means at least.
Squat Yes, once again Americans in our review. Once again, no attack in the midfield look disjointed, nothing hit the target. Second half. Now, let's go through the numbers. A listenaire gets five. It's like a listener gets a five.
And we do this.
Theodore Lloyd Hughes TLH was the one in response for the numbers, this time for my friends in soccer America. And we do this as a part of either agreeing, disagreeing, or refuting the numbers that are presented here, just to give everybody a baseline for what went down. So a
listen there gets a five. Reliable as ever, in all honesty, with such peerless performances from the defenders in front of her, she had very very little to do, only say she had was from Leah Williamson header cornerkick, second half ball trickled into the Americans gloves with the ease. So she gets a five because so TLH promotes the ever loven daylights out of her, she gets a five.
I guess, yeah, I understand what he's saying, but that's bruh.
Come on defenders once again. Naomi Germa Casey Krueger was also and Casey Krueger I needed to pull this. I needed to pull this highlight down. But Casey Kruger gives just as well as she received. Yeah, at ninety plus, there was a moment where it's a goalless draw and you're thinking, okay, both sides are thinking, yeah, okay, it's cool, we'll get out of here. Goals draw. So Casey Krueger gets knocked off her feet and gets sent basically into the coaches area, the coaches box, and she's down for
a little bit. But then when she gets back up, ball is sent forward and she is more than happy to dial up a receipt and it was an instant receipt. She wasted no time on the payback on this one.
I really did like that response from her. It was kind of funny because you know she got I mean, she did get a foul call for that instance on the sideline wow, as it should have been a foul, and she made sure that that wasn't just the only payback that England got for that. And that again, that's what this type of game, I mean, this game is not friendly. Both of these teams want to win. I mean again, England's number two in the world, they want
to be number one. And if you're talking, England is looking at this as the first real step toward preparing for Euros twenty twenty five. Well, you're not going to get a better team than the US at euro So this is the best possible way to look at this as to prepare for that tournament.
There was two hundred and forty eight years of history attached to those Also that also that I mean literally, but I like that. I like that laid in a man absolutely that A you're still dialed in, but B you're not gonna take any is ish from someone that wants to try to to You know, you can. You can give whatever degree of a hit you want. You can say it was cheap, you can say it was late, you can say it you know, it wasn't it wasn't square or anything like that. But yeah, someone plows you over.
Casey Kruger is like, okay, I'll remember that. Oh you know, it's not like the Red Wings in the Avalanche where they wait three hundred and seventy one ways Jaron McCarty to chase after clothing you. It literally was within thirty seconds. Casey Krueger adheres to the code and gives the payback.
I was saying, as she should. That's some also like some mom energy of like, uh, you're not getting this over on me, which I appreciate.
Emily Fox, Emily Sonnett got six's, No McGear Mccasey Krueger got seven's.
On the day, Yeah makes sense. Germa had a really good day. I think she again proved how how great she is at this sport.
Yes, and is always top of the ladder when it comes to the soccer for US pods MVPs, so you always it's Gnomi Girma and then it's like, yeah, we'll talk about everybody else. Yeah, all right, so forwards midfield, Roosevelt gets a five. Sam Coffee gets a six, Lindsay Horan got a four. T LH. Says a somewhat anonymous performance for captain Lindsay Horan, who continues to struggle to find the passing tempo needed, timing of late runs or
the box threat. Took more shots three than any other player, but they were all rather poor.
Yeah, that's a fair assessment of her. I thought Coffee was really darn good this game, though. I thought Rose had a really good game with a couple of good recoveries. Ball recoveries, especially higher up the field, which is kind of what I think Hayes realizes is going to be necessary for this team to truly generate a lot of chances, especially without tr Blispresso. But when you get those three in there, uh giving me the ball, you know, ball recoveries high up the field are going to be great
ways to get those players into attack. So I thought Rhodes had a pretty good game. I don't think Lindsay was a four, but I would also have rated all the midfielders a slightly higher rating.
So Lavelle quiet in the first half looked impressive After the break when Yasmine Ryan came off the bench. Ryan's pension for underlapping allowed Lavell to drive forward, get into the box just one shot off target for level on an outing where she passed better than she.
Attacked, and that well, I'm sure we'll get to her quickly, but Yasmin Ryan is the one player you should talk about after this game.
Forward's Emma Seares gets a four. Lynn Williams gets a five, Alissa Thompson gets a six. Let's see so.
She speech, I want to take a beat on Thompson. Sorry, go for This was a great game for Alyssa Thompson, not because she played great, but you know who she's going up against, John See Brons and I don't know if you know this, She's she's an elite I have heard player I have heard, and I think for Alyssa this was a great chance to see what it takes to be the best. I mean, Lucy Brown's's top ten player period, you know, as a right back, and that
battle all game. I think Bronze absolutely got the better of Thompson for the most part. But I think that is a great learning game for a very young Alyssa Thompson to again understand what it takes for her, which it's going to take for her to level up.
Could have had the opening goal after five minutes when she picked up a Sears pass, took a touch powerful shot the corner, IRPs pulls off a good save to keep it goalis. After the break, Thompson faded both her and Williams removed in the seventy third as it started to feel like the USA had stagnated going forward. Lynn Williams had almost twice as many caps coming in seventy three.
Then all the other US forwards on the squad, combined to her credit passage in the first half, stopped to counter attack and its tracks at the half remains an elite presser and counterpresser. Perhaps not the box threat needed in this game. Well correct, that was always gonna be.
The problem is Lynn Williams is not a true nine and she doesn't really have the skills to be a false nine. That's not her game and it kind of showed the whole time.
Yasmine Ryan, there were three paragraphs written by t lh a's Soccer America about Yasmine Ryan. Why were there three paragraphs written about the Gotham FC player.
Well, I think first off, we didn't see a whole lot from her in the October camps. Part of that is just because she that was her first time playing for the national team. But she came in and changed the game. I mean you talked about a little bit of a lull happening midway through that second half. She came in and provided not just a spark, but an actual outlet for attack. She was making runs in behind, she was getting the ball at her feet and trying
to take on players. It was a really good game for me, Ryan to the point where you go, oh, this is a woman who after one camp, got her confidence. Because sometimes that first national team camp you come in and you're just brimming with confidence. You're overflowing with it because you're like, oh, I got a call up, you know, finally, and that's great. But sometimes it can also be the opposite where you're like, oh, man, it's my first camp. I gotta be perfect. I gotta do this, I gotta
do that. So, for example, Emma Sears, I think her first camp was great because she just kind of played the way she always has. I think he has me and Ryan now figured out how do I play within the system, how do I use my skill set to play within this system? Because she's very good on the ball. She's basically a midfielder who plays out on the wing, and I think she was able to do that a lot when she came into this game.
Third ever cap. Multiple slip passes across face goal should have been finished off cross forced irp's off for line you need to be punched away. Also had the shot that almost won the penalty, but then it was reversed by var Balance made it very hard for England defend to guess which way she would go.
He said.
Her switching wings during the match to in Frint level brought out the best in Levell hoped to make and helped make the field feel bigger if I could speak English goodly on a Monday.
Yeah. I think the point about Levell is very important because I think rosevelas best, but she has some wingers that she can combine with. Both Rose and Lindsay aren't exactly positionally sound, which is a fine thing. They're very good at what they do and so Leavell being able to play off yasmin Ryan on either side was really fun to watch. It really important for this team going forward because that is the most similar to what we're going to see from be it Swanson or Rodman or
even Smith. I mean they're going to interchange a lot because they're all good on it wherever they happen to be on the field. So yasmin Ryan being able to do that is a good plug in for those players when they're gone.
Jayden Shaw got a five Corbra and Albert got a five Alley Centiner. Because it comes the eighth different player twenty one years old or younger to appear for the USA in twenty four, the most in a calendar year since what year, sir?
Well? Can I can I get a hint? Sure? Two thousands?
It ain't recent?
Probably ninety eighty nine or ninety.
Well, well, okay, I should have said twenty first century, but it aw Oh, twenty first century, twenty first century, but it ain't real.
Two thousand and nine, two thousand and two tally include the twenty twenty three World Cup.
Including Heather O'Reilly, Hope, Solo, Ali Wagner, I'll be wombat.
Yeah, I guess so that makes sense.
Yeah, eight different player twenty one years old or younger to appear for the USA in twenty Yeah.
I always feel I forget that that that was the start of the Hope Solo Abby Womback transition because I always still think that the ninety nine ers are still all part of that team and they weren't part of the twenty two thousand and three World Cup. It's correct.
Yeah, still undefeated record with the national team now fourteen to oh to two. Second time the USA's failed to win since ma Hayes became head coaching June. The other was a goalless draw against coach.
Ric Yeah, did they really that?
Uh so you had you had the subs yellow cards, Coffee got one, Kelly got one at ninety plus four. It was a finish crew f I n n I s h le Tavada was the ref in the middle. Hayan and Paavolainen were your ars, Satuminen was your fourth Anti Munuka was your VR and your aba R was you can hunkn it. I just like I just like
saying finish last names as we go through here. Shots on the day us A ten to four shots on target, three to one air go more saves for England three to one, six six corners compared to three twelve fouls called in the match, seven on England, three off sides, two for England position possession fifty four to forty six blank and do USA was off to the Hague and they're going to face off against the Netherlands and their last match at twenty twenty four tomorrow at two forty five Eastern time.
Yeah, I thought if I thought the referee had an interesting game.
Okay, okay, so please proceed sir with your There were a couple of times that well, first off, in like the first ten minutes, Lindsey Horand gets absolutely stomped on and no foul called.
And I thought Haran had a couple of times where she got fouled and Reugh didn't do anything about it. But the penalty kick was probably the most controversial and most important part of the match. I think when it first happened, we all were like, that didn't look like in a handball, you know, And the fact that she gave it was a little I understand why she pointed to the spot, but it was very clear upon review that it was not have been given at all for
multiple reasons. Mainly, it didn't hit the non playable part of the body and also you know, it hit her thigh and then bounced up, So that was probably a bad decision to begin with.
Okay. Two instances of refing down here that I wanted to get into both from the Premier League this week.
All right, Yeah, we never have refing issues in the Premier League, Johnny.
No, we never do. And one has to do with a VAR check of four minutes and twenty seven seconds Brighton in Southampton and the VR eventual decision.
Four minutes it ended like twenty seven to two. Why did we have that lung of a v VR.
Check, big check to see if the goal that.
Was the wrong one I was watching that was Switch Southampton.
So this and once again what we do for references, We go to our buddy Dale Johnson, who is a fantastic job of looking at the moments from the weekend in the prem that we look at here on Mondays and we just pull a couple of them unless there's something else from another match that really just raises our hair on our collective neck. So now Brighton Southampton Southampton thought they had a two to one lead and Saints players go off to celebrate a delay of about thirty
seconds before ref's allow. The onfield officials allowed to disallow the goal for an offside VAR checked to see if the goal could be awarded. They eventually wipe the goal off the board. Now Dale Johnson says it's a decision which can be explained in law, but it took far too long, makes the decision seem worse than it otherwise might have ref and his ar deemed that by flicking at the ball, Armstrong makes an obvious action which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play the ball.
And then that case the opponent was the keeper for Brighton Bart ver Brugen. For Brugen's on his line didn't move, so how can he be impacted. The law intends to prevent an offside player doing something which affects an opponent. It could be, you know, kicking the ball dummy. We'll think of it this way, an act which, if not present, might result in the opponent taking a different decision. For Brugen cannot move from his position at the near post
as the cross from Ryan Fraser goes close. No possible offense from Armstrong until he flicked his leg out. The law also says you don't have to think that Armstrong can score or even get a shot on target, only that the obvious action has an impact. So could ver Brugen could have moved over to the center of goal to archer sooner. The law does not demand that the keeper has been stopped for making a save, only that his ability to do so has been impacted.
Yeah, I think yeah, I mean, I think they got this right. I do think that these types of offside ruling should take a little bit longer because you want to make sure you are interpreting all that you just said correctly. Of interfering with active play, that's the rule, right If you are involved or interfere with active play,
you're going to be considered offside. And in this particular moment, the lead striker where a ball literally runs right through his legs and like it kind of basically looks like it just goes right through his legs and he's in an offside position, or at least goes slightly behind him, but he does make an action that to me is absolutely enough to call him off side because he's he's trying to get he is trying to involve himself an
active play. It's not about touching. He made a play on a ball from an offside position that has definitely interfered with the goalkeeper's ability to make a play on the ball. Period. I think again, as the writer out got it correct. I do think that the time it took to get this correct is a problem, and that's where I do wish that from what I remember, the referee never went to the monitor for this.
I don't think so.
I think this is the type of play where the referee should go to the monitor. It should be a very quick like, hey, he's in an offside position. We want you to make sure that you think that he's not interfering with play, or if he is interfering with play,
let the on field official make that decision. Again, I think the problem with the Premier League is the center referee very rarely does go to the monitor, and I think they should empower them to do that, but they keep giving someone else who's not involved in the game at all more power than they should.
Three minutes and twenty three seconds to determine if the action was interrupted, and then another minute and four seconds to check on the off side.
Which the off side was pretty to me, the offside was pretty clear the player was offside, and so that's where I would be looking at it. And this is why, again I don't understand why when you watch it originally you should be checking for an offside The goal scorer was not offside, Okay, fine, but when you looked at it immediately that patch, you go, oh, that dude is offside, like he is in an off side position, very clearly, and in fact, the goal scorer was darn close to
being offside in his own right. So that's where I'm going. Okay, is very clear that there's an offside question. Yeah, the goal scorer may have been on side. Okay, fine, check that off Fine, but then you have to go, well, this player was in an offside position. Roll the tape. Oh, that looks like it could be a problem. Hey, I forget who the center referee was, but hey, John, go go to the monitor. See if you think that this was interfering with active play the goalkeeper's ability to make
a play on the ball. And good job that. I'm not saying it would have taken less time. But I think the problem is when you're just have the center referee standing there almost twiddling his thumbs waiting for you know, putting his hand up to his ear, going oh I'm checking, they're checking. It just seems so passive versus a referee going to a monitor to go look at it. To say, okay, what do I think happened here, especially when in this
case it was very clear the player was offside. This is not about MLS telling them to go to a monitor to maybe determine if they're offside or on side. We know they are because the primary league has that technology. So then for me, the next step should be on field official needs to look at the play to determine if this was offside or not.
All right, and so if you go, if you work backwards, let's just say you work backwards, even if you don't go to the monitor. The off side decision was a minute four That should have been the easiest one. To sit there and go yes, no, it's like ding ding ding boom, and then you move on and then working backwards. It would not have taken four minutes and twenty seven seconds to come up with a decision A. If you go to the monitor and take a peek with me.
B maybe if you work backwards and go okay offside not offside? Okay, ding ding ding, We got that taken care of. It takes with fifteen twenty seconds and then you go when you focus on the other three and a half minutes, it's get something done with two acts.
I think to have that action take three and a half minutes to review his crazy Honestly, go.
To the monitor, people, it ain't it's just look, you're not gonna hurt my feelings if you go to the monitor. I'm not going to think less of you, of an individual.
If you go to the monitor and again, then it puts that hand the decision making in the hands of the on field official, which is I think what most people would be more comfortable with.
Yep. Item number two comes from Liverpool Manchester City and it's the Ortega penalty call. As he goes and he chases after this one, and this is an important point that needs to be made in these kinds of situation waits where I know that there was hue and cry, and there was quite a hue and quite a cry about it being nothing there because Ortega was making a play for the ball and it looked like Diaz just basically fell over Ortega and you get the penalty call.
So Luis Diaz chasing after a loose ball Stephan Ortega is first to get to the ball, but then Luis Diaz, who is second, ends up making contact with Ortega as Ortega is stretching to make contact. Luis Diaz goes over the top of Ortega and it is called a penalty. It is then reviewed, the penalty stands. So was there a case for offside? Was there a case for a red on Ortega? And was this even a penalty or was Luis Diaz kind of sitting there and fishing for a car? So this is what we're staring at in
this particular instance. Yeah, so a lot. There's a lot to unpack here. And if you want to go through it in real time or instance to instance to instance instead of staring at it from thirty thousand feet and you want to walk through the play, go ahead and walk through the play as you see it.
Well, so this is this is where I understand it's tough because most people are going to say or take a oh, well he gets the ball, or some level of that type of commentary. Right, I just want to reiterate that winning the ball as a defender does not mean that you are excused from making a foul. And I think that's the problem here is you can argue that in this case the goalkeeper is they are first. Yeah, I think you can, But did they get the ball first.
And that's the question. I I don't know, John, This is the tough one because I get the point, but because there's very minimal contact. But the reality is the goalkeeper doesn't touch the ball, right, he doesn't. He may get to the place first, but he doesn't touch the ball. So the attacker having to jump over them.
He doesn't. The attacker is the attacker does not have to take evasive action.
He doesn't have to. He could have just ran over or ran through him, you know. And then we're talking about having a fight because someone's mad about that him running into the goalkeeper, and so to me is like, well, he at least tried to avoid him. Yeah, do I think he was probably I don't even know, you know, I don't think he was looking for a foul that bad thing. Anyway, Again, he didn't really drag his feet. He tried to chip the goalkeeper and go over m
because he knew he could probably score from there. And again I think the goalkeeper gets the spot first. I don't know if he gets any of the ball, but he doesn't intentionally get the player. But he's in the path of the player to get to the ball, and he's not in a position to play it at that point in time. And that is the problem with the goalkeeper when they go to the ground like that specifically,
or any defender when they go to the ground. Once you have committed to the ground to winning that ball, well you're no longer in consideration for playing that ball once it goes past you. You know what I'm saying. So it's hard for me to say like, oh, they're within playable distance now, It's like, well, the ball is behind them and they're laying on the ground, so what is playing? What is a playable distance at that point? I think eventually the I think this is probably the
correct call. But this goes to one of those like, yeah, it's a foul, but it should it.
Be a penalty kick as it is class Yeah, that's the problem a trauma seeing attack on a penalty rather than dogs no yellow cards.
Okay, so yeah, this is not dog so because there's a legitimate play on the ball, right, I mean, as as simple as that, right, I mean, he is absolutely the last of vendor is absolutely a dog so thing. But because I mean, I think it's fair to say this goalkeeper was making he wasn't trying to file the player. He was trying to the ball. He just didn't, right, I mean I I don't even think he like reached out and tried to grab him.
From what I can tell, you know, he's thinking ball first, and whatever happens happened.
And so when we when we classify this as dogs, it's probably dogs, so yellow is maybe what they called it, versus stopping a promising attack. But regardless, this outcome is because we this is not a red card because there was a legitimate play on the ball in the penalty area. We don't want to give teams both a red card and a penalty kick aka a goal down. You know, that's where we are now. At the same time, you know, I know it's it's unfair to call any penalties against
Manchester City. That's somehow so sure you know those checks stopped clearing all of a sudden, I think is what happened. But yeah, that is just not a dog so red because there is a legit this is a legitimate play to win the ball. He just doesn't. And again even if he had gotten a piece of it, he still comes through and clears out the attacker. Again, winning the ball does not preclude you from fouling someone.
All right, So what's going on with the soccer for US PO D Are you waiting for the next match?
The match tomorrow which is as you mentioned in Didn't Hug against Netherlands And we will be recording for the episode after that later this week, maybe trying to get some different voices on here. Hopefully they respond and say they can do it and kind of the it for actual matches. This The final US Soccer match of the season is tomorrow, and then we'll be having some kind of year in review and twenty twenty five look forwards always like to do those like resolutions for US Soccer
will come up in the new year. But we'll also have some of our our our favorite moments of twenty twenty four coming out right before Christmas, and I'm sure doing some other things for the festive not festive fixtures, the festive what's the word we want to the festive foolishness that does during the holiday weeks and all that absolutely what do you want to call it? Well, it's just holiday hullabaloo.
Yeah, there you go. Yeah, So the yeah, the the shenanigans that we have during December as.
We get ready Shenanigans.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Holida Hullabaloo and the seasonal Shenanigans where we where we try to pronounce finish, uh yeah, finish referee cruise as best we can. Uh. Yes. We're looking forward to episode CV where you do not where you do not have to put up your resume, but you'll be looking at the US May after a full
season of twenty twenty four. We will be catching up with you obviously again next week and whenever the hell you wanna come drop by and vent about West By God, Virginia and anything else going on in Bowl season.
Well, you know, don we do have a Minimalist Cup final coming up this Saturday, so I must I will, I will say I will not be able to watch it live. I'll be at a Casey Musk Graves concert and so I'm doing two nights in a row with her. But I'll be watching it on Sunday on my drive home.
I assume someone else will be driving while you're watching.
On my ride home, I should say checking and we'll be ready. I'm sure, John, we will have to talk about referee wise on my whole Yes, of course, I do have to say, John, Ricky Puig whatever with the strained, torn, torn, house severed, acl torn, insane. That he's still able to play that and play as I mean, that is for him, but that is a huge loss for Galaxy going to this match. I don't know if it changes like that. I still think they're the favorite, but man, that's cool.
Also shout out to some women's soccer history. This will be the first MLS Cup Final, another MLS Cup Final, as you say, hosted in a World Cup final stadium. That's pretty cool.
There you go, But no, definitely going to be looking at it all week long and trying to figure out what's going on. Jay Intlick, head coach for Columbus State, it's going to be joining us on the women, for the women as they continue to advance. He's going to be joining us tomorrow morning at nine thirty to break down what happened on the weekend and talk from some Division two women's soccer as well.
Division one soccer up the Seaton this weekend.
So yeah, so we're going to be taking dives into college se and going through all that stuff. So we will be enjoying episode CV. My friend coming out later on this week and once again whenever you want to drop in, drop in.
Yeah, cheers y'all.
There, he goes, So what's the mug by the way? I forgot to ask?
So happy as it? Just as happy holidays, because today is the first Yeah, it's the first day that I've seen you of the Christmas season.
So okay, And so this is when everybody starts hanging up all of their stuff.
Nice. Well I can't see, but my stuff is starting to go up. Okay.
So yeah, we got we got the tree yesterday and we're waiting for the tree to flu before we add all of the appropriate to My tree will.
Be going up today and tomorrow probably.
Yes, all right, be good, my friend. We'll see you soon.