Halford & Brough in the Morning - A Valiant Effort From Canada Against The Best Team On Earth

Episode Date: July 10, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk Canada's Copa semis loss to Argentina with ESPN soccer analyst Jon Arnold (27:00), plus the boys discuss the "ones that got away" in relation to Canucks players that left the team too soon. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

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It is Alfred and his brother, Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. But it's not Alfred and Brough this morning. It's not just me, lone by myself, old lonesome Alfred. Josh Elliott-Wolf is here for the remainder of the week. Good morning, Josh. Good morning. Good morning, A-Dog.

Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Alfred and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff. They can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program.

Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid. Visitstar Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

Sore feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec. That's what you're waiting for. Ooh, heat card. Read good. How you doing, Josh? I'm good.

It's so early. It's very early. Josh had a couple friendly reminders that he's on the halford and brough show this morning one me with my raspy voice having yelled at the television all last night during the canada argentina match and two there's a 4 30 in the morning yeah it's early i don't set alarms that early it is early i also want to point out i was going to save this for later in the show, but let's lead with it. Josh is currently driving a Sportsnet 650 branded vehicle. It has every logo.

And by every logo, I mean every logo on earth plastered all over the car. Every radio station, every business, every advertiser, you can barely see through the windshield. It's great watching you roll in in the morning. I'm a driving ad. And I have to park it in my apartment parking too. And I'm just like,

man, people have to think less of me. You look like a NASCAR driver, but more suburban and less racy. You get the coat too. I'm rolling in with all the ads on it. Okay, we got a big show ahead on a Wednesday. Guest list starts 6.30. First time guest on the program, John Arnold, CONCACAF writer.

We're doing soccer heavy today, folks, by the way. There's your early 603 warning. CONCACAF writer, you've seen his work at ESPN, MLS, and The Guardian. He's going to join us to talk about Canada's 2-0 loss in the Copa America semifinal to Argentina last night. At 7 o'clock, Nico Kenter is going to join the program. He, from CBS Sports, Galazo, he was on the call last night. At 7 o'clock, Nico Cantor is going to join the program. He, from CBS Sports, Galazo, he was on the call last night for one of the Spanish-language calls of the match,

so we'll get his thoughts as well. Maybe more of an Argentinian lean from Nico. Talk about this team that took care of Canada last night, 2-0. 7.30, it's the Drancer, Thomas Drance, from The Athletic Vancouver. We'll talk to him about his latest piece on the Canucks offseason's move, a sort of retrospective to what happened now nine days ago at the start of free agency. And then at 8 o'clock, he kind of boned us yesterday

by not answering his phone because he was asleep. He said, I'll make up for it today. Dave Softy Muller from KJR Sports Radio. How's your knee sleeping again? That would be bad. You bumped him a half hour later. It was a 7.30 hit yesterday. Yeah, it's going to be an 8 o'clock hit this morning with Softie.

Give him a little reprieve. It'd be a good move, though. He's like, hey, you know what? I'm not going to answer. I'll show you. Power move. The most unnecessary power move of all time. Like, no, we understand the hierarchy.

This is just rude. Yeah. Are you familiar with Softie? I don't think I've interviewed him before. Okay. He is an electric factory. He's got a lot of energy. He's very, very animated,

and he hates the annual invasion of Blue Jays fans in Seattle. He's anti-Toronto in general. Right. And then it really hits its fever pitch when the Blue Jays play in Seattle. Josh, I don't know if you remember a little while ago, but there was a campaign, I guess, in a sense, from Orioles fans to make felix batista his name was the king but then he softy was the one who got really angry

about it because there can only be one king i mean fair enough which of course is felix fernandez in his eyes so he was the guy that made all those headlines then okay but he's very passionate about seattle sports we'll put it that way so softyy at eight o'clock, Thomas Trance at seven 30, Nico Cantor at seven and six 30, John Arnold, as we get a lot of footy talking today without further ado, laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey,

did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was, we know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened?

What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance, making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. It was a valiant effort. It was a solid performance, but in the end, it was simply not enough against the best team in the world. Goals by Leonel Messi and Julian Alvarez lifted the best team in the world,

Argentina, past Canada, 2-0 in the semifinal of the Copa America last night in front of 80-plus thousand at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. I'm curious to get your thoughts right away, Josh Elliott-Wolfe, because you're a huge soccer guy. No, everyone says that about me. You're hearing it more and more. What did you think? You know what? I thought it was a valiant effort, and it was further than,

and to be clear, I'm a casual soccer viewer. I lock in for the tournaments, but outside of that, I don't have my finger on the pulse, so to say. But my expectations, they exceeded them. And it's, I don't know. I guess there are aspects of it where it's frustrating because you're like, man, you had some chances and you could have maybe done more throughout the tournament.

But that being said, it would have been much more surprising had they beaten Argentina. Yes. And it was about what everyone expected, if we're going to be brutally honest. A 2-0 loss, as much as I hate, hate, hate chalking up moral victories, I think we need to take a wide-length snapshot of what the Canadians were going up against. Yeah. That's an Argentinian team that has two, count them, two losses in their last 62 competitive matches. They are the World Cup champions.

They are the odds-on favorite to be the Copa America champions. Even though Lionel Messi is in the twilight of his career, he is still the greatest player to ever play the game. They shouldn't have been asking him for autographs mid-play, though. That was uncalled for. Yeah, that really threw the game on him. But he signed his ball. Did you see them at the end?

Yeah. Ali Ahmed, actually, the Vancouver Whitecaps player, tried to get Messi's jersey in the post-match jersey swap, and Messi said, no, sorry, I've already promised it to another player, and that was Derek Cornelius. Does that happen during the game? Cornelius is like, oh, man, I've got to be quick. I'll talk to him now.

I don't know if there was a sort of tap on the shoulder nod with a few minutes left. Hopefully he didn't do it at the opening kickoff. He's like, good luck, by the way. He's like, the game's still on. We're playing right now. Yeah. I mean, is that a no? It's a practice that's there.

And I'm not going to go too far down the road on that one because at a certain point, and for all the texters texting in, we will address the unseemly part of the game because I know that there were a lot of casual observers last night. Maybe some people that tuned in not just to the tournament for the first time, but to soccer for the first time and watched a lot of what happened last night and either left very confused or very disappointed or in some people's cases, very disgusted. So we will discuss that later. But I do want to get into brass tacks with the match itself. What you saw last night was a Canadian team that, you know, a lot of people were saying, well, they probably deserved at least a goal out of that match.

And I would be inclined to agree. They had enough push and emphasis and desire to go forward, a few half chances. But the reality of it was they didn't have that little bit of class at the very end, that little bit of extra that the top teams in the world like Argentina had. Argentina managed to capitalize on, they didn't create a ton of chances through the first 60 minutes of the match, but when they got them

in the 22nd and then again late, taking advantage of a clearance right up the middle, they pounced, they converted, it was in the back of the net. I want to play some audio here from Jesse Marsh. We'll first talk about the good, why he's proud of this group, what they've accomplished. Tournament's not over yet for the Canadians. They will play in a third-place match

on Saturday in the soccer hotbed of Charlotte. They will be taking on the loser of the Uruguay-Columbia match. So here's Jesse Marsh talking about the tournament not quite over but how proud he is of his group to have gotten to this point in general what I said to the team afterwards is I know that they're very disappointed but I'm very proud of them you know we've put together some incredible performances you know just starting our process like I said we said, we need to find a way to expand

our player pool. We need to continue to challenge our group to come together and be able to perform in moments like this. But in general, we've had a wonderful five weeks together, six weeks together. And it's gone way better than any of us could have scripted so there's still a lot of work to do but we we've built a really good foundation and i'm really optimistic about what the future can look like so there were a couple interesting takeaways from his media availability i mean he actually said when he was talking about the depth

of player pool he felt that in the 18th minute of a 90 minute match he could see his guys starting to lag and get tired and that's why he's talking about the player pool because he mentioned that argentina the incredible depth that they had coming off the bench like latara martinez played with inter this year in italy they won the serie a title like they've got incredible depth that they can rotate through their squad and they can be fresher in these moments. Canada, meanwhile, continues to trot a guy like Liam Miller off the bench to try and change the energy and everything.

That is the big difference between the elite nations in the world. It's everything. It's that little bit of extra finish in front of goal. It's that little bit of class in the final third to finish things it's having players you know abcd starting and then efg and the rest of them being able to come on the bench and they don't really lose any quality so how do they i'm a soccer expert but maybe you can explain it to me sure how do they uh how do they expand the player pool like you said is it more of like hey these guys that can play for canada are playing for other countries or is it let's wait and see who develops and it's the latter

right so they're going to need more players to quite honestly play in higher profile leagues than mls this has meant is no disrespect to mls which is a very fine domestic league which has a lot of players playing in it which play internationally but uh if you look at the upper tier the upper crust teams in the world they have their players playing in it, which play internationally. But if you look at the upper tier, the upper crust teams in the world, they have their players playing in top five leagues. So that's England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, if you want to throw them in there.

And it's slowly starting to happen. So like Moise Bombido, the center back that was playing, he's getting calls from European clubs now. I would not be surprised if the Maritime Messi, Jacob Schaffelberg, starts getting some looks overseas as well. Bombido and Schaffelberg are great names, too. Yes. I got to say.

Yeah, you should sign them on their names alone, right? Bombido? That's amazing. So it was, but at the same time, like when Tayshaun Buchanan broke his leg, it was a huge loss, not just because the player's out for the remainder of the tournament, but all of a sudden, it's like

well, he's a valued member. Even if he's coming in off the bench as a final 30-minute change of pace energy guy, him gone, then it's like, well now we have to bring in Liam Miller, who plays in the championship in England, or it's Ali Ahmed. And then you saw at the end of that match, like Matthew Chouinard got his first look

of the entire tournament in the semifinals. So there's that to be considered. Marsh also acknowledged their work in the final third just wasn't good enough. It wasn't up to snuff. You need to be able to convert some of those chances. The header late was one that I think a lot of people were looking at. If that goes in, suddenly the final five minutes plus added injury time become really more compelling.

I want to play, sorry, I just want to play one more thing. This is Marsh's lone remarks about the refereeing and then sort of a more critical look at what his team didn't do. And this will jump off into what was another very tragic display of refereeing and also the theatrics that played out between Argentina and Canada last night. So here's Jesse Marsh. He gets this question in Spanish. He answers very quickly in English about the refereeing

and then goes on to talk about his Canadian side. Yeah, I'm not going to speak about the referee. And then, yeah, one of the things that we lacked, this, you called it a killer instinct. You could say this. But I think we just lacked efficiency in the final third every match we created big chances and if we could have been a little bit cleaner in some of these moments then then maybe we'd have a few more leads in the tournament and then even

even then you know if we can get a lead earlier and uh against peru against chile we could you know we could put a few chances away then maybe we we can also save legs. But that part we'll have to continue to build. But there's so many positives about the last weeks. So the refereeing was, if you watch the entirety of the tournament, last night's officiating was no worse than everything else that we saw through the other Canadian matches at the tournament. It's all been bad. Yeah.

As a matter of fact, I actually, and I know I'm probably going to get skewered for this, I actually thought the officiating last night was fine compared to some of the egregious, egregious refereeing that Canada had, particularly in the Venezuela match, which I thought was the worst of the bunch, and they managed to get through it. Chile and Peru were kind of different animals

because it was very difficult for the referee to officiate because there was fouls like every two and a half, three minutes. It's very tough to call. But I thought last night there was a foul that was clearly missed in the lead up to the first, the Alvarez goal.

I believe it was a foul in the back on Bombito and it's clear as day and you could see Marsh freaking out on the sidelines. But to not speak about the officiating, but to jump off an attention. Now I'll ask you

as a casual soccer observer what do you what goes through your head when you see the theatrics that dive in rodrigo depaul getting a ball tapped into his back and rolling around rolling around like he was shot a lot of people are texting in and saying how can you take this sport seriously when things like that happen with a regular occurrence i don't know for me i've never been one of the like i don't i don't watch soccer not because i'm like against all these theatrics and everything so i've always just been accustomed to this happening in soccer that being said it is frustrating i guess um and especially because it feels like and maybe it's biased but it feels like canada doesn't necessarily go as far

with their theatrics. Because they don't. As some of the other countries. And when you see a guy get a ball to the back like we did yesterday, I thought it was fun more than anything, but it is frustrating. I can see why people are frustrated.

It was an enjoyable romp, as Laddy calls it. An enjoyable romp through the grass for him. Okay, so I mentioned this yesterday and I'll mention it again today. There's a manager by the name of Marcelo Bielsi, manages the Uruguayan team. He had this very passionate rant the other day. He went on a five-minute uninterrupted rant on the current state of the game.

And in it, he actually said that the game is becoming, and I don't think it's now. I think it's evolved i think this is a like i think it's evolved over the last few years that the game has become less enjoyable to watch because there's the constant search for the controversy the accusation and the determination of who is guilty and oftentimes there's such a emphasis on it that the players spend an inordinate amount of time trying to draw that out of a match so do you get what i'm saying like they almost focus too much on trying to draw a yellow or red card out of the referee's pocket there's too much attention paid to

trying to simulate in order to get a penalty or diving in order to have the referee make the rectangular uh shape with his fingers and go to var and i under and if one of the greatest managers or diving in order to have the referee make the rectangular shape with his fingers and go to VAR. And if one of the greatest managers in the sport is saying this about the sport, I have time for the casual observer that is saying it's hard to watch. And it is hard to watch at times. I don't try and defend it. I don't try and put a spin on it.

I love the sport and I love the theater and I love the way that the game is played the interesting thing to me is that it's played so many different ways in so many different places that was South American football last night the good, bad and otherwise, all of it and I appreciate parts of it and I don't appreciate other parts of it, but I can see why

someone that maybe had never watched a match before turned that on and for example, hockey guys are looking at that and like this is a joke, that maybe had never watched a match before turned that on. And for example, hockey guys are looking at that and like, this is a joke. That guy had a ball tapped into his back and he's rolling around like he shot. I get that complaint and I won't fight back against it. I do hope that Canada emerges from this tournament, kind of what you were saying. Like they're the team that gets knocked down and quickly pops back up. Actually, Schaffelberg against Venezuela.

That was him. Yeah. Like chopped in the legs, down, pops right back up, and he's running at 1,000 miles an hour again. Hammered in the back, down, pops back up and goes. If that becomes your identity, I think it's a really good thing, and I think it'll be really positive for the team moving forward. Not positive for teams moving forward, the Toronto Blue Jays. We'll turn our attention to

them now. Here is the audio from last night's loss and I'm sitting here between you're a relatively good Jays fan, are you not? And Laddie as well. They came in this morning and both Josh Elliott-Wolf and Laddie were looking kind of sad and it probably had to do with the fact that it was a new low maybe

maybe for the Blue Jays last night and their loss to the San Francisco Giants. The rare walk-off wild pitch. Here's what it sounded like. Bottom of the night, Dan Shulman on the call for Sportsnet. Jays lose to the Giants 4-3 on a walk-off wild pitch.

It gets away from Jansen and the Giants win it. A wild pitch thrown by Richards that caromed off of Jansen. And San Francisco scores two in the bottom of the ninth to win it. Let me just get this out of the way first. Those are some of the ugliest uniforms I think I've ever seen an MLB team wear. Yeah, I didn't know who they were at first. I forgot that they were in San Francisco. And I was like, oh, they're playing the... I didn't even know. Those are their of the ugliest uniforms I think I've ever seen an MLB team wear. Yeah, I didn't know who they were at first. I forgot that they were in San Francisco.

And I was like, oh, they're playing the... I didn't even know. Those are their City Connect jerseys? Yeah. Yeah, they're not great. The numbers are like half visible. Yeah. It's a weird gradient thing going on. But anyway, yeah. Terrible finish. I... Terrible jerseys. I watched the last four innings of it, and it was great for the first few of it when Clement got

them the lead and then yeah they didn't have green available who was the closer right now because he threw 50 pitches in seattle over the weekend they had a day off in the middle so i don't understand exactly why but hey they went with richards and he's never had a safe before and it sure looked like it yeah he didn't get one last night he almost had it though because there was a 1-2 count with the runner on first. It looked like he got strike three. It was right at the low part of the zone, but Jansen didn't really catch

it cleanly. Didn't get the call. Then they drew a walk and then there was the hit up the middle that he just touched with his glove. It was painful. It was the most excruciating way to lose a baseball game and it's nothing that we haven't seen before from this Blue Jays group. And I think that's the thing is they find ways, new ways to lose,

fun and creative ways to lose. And it's even more frustrating because, like, you say Kikuchi, 13 strikeouts last night. Career high. He was amazing. And the offense, again, just can't get it going. Bullpen hasn't been great. 13 strikeouts and zero walks. Zero walks. Which was amazing. And the offense, again, just can't get it going. Bullpen hasn't been great. 13 strikeouts and zero walks.

Zero walks. Which was the other big note. He was dialed. Even though I'm going to be off, not that I'm counting down the days, but there's only 16 left before I'm off. I am acutely aware of where this is going. We've talked to about three different Blue Jays insiders over the last week and all say the same thing.'s kind of shaping towards well let's just pack it up and

start fresh in 2025 uh maybe schneider survives the year even though you played the dead man walking clip earlier maybe they don't make any fundamentally huge changes if that's the case this is going to be a very painful summer from a coverage perspective because it is july 10th and i'm talking to Josh and to Laddie. Two guys that follow the Jays pretty closely and you guys, it just looks like mental fatigue with this team. Yeah, I'm just so honestly, like I'm pretty checked

out at this point. It's July 10th. Yeah, but they're 41 and 50. They like, they're no signs of life. Yeah, no signs of life. The thing is, they're not even like fun to watch either. They're not scoring a lot lot these aren't back and forth games that's a good point because oh they found a way to win like that's how they've been getting wins uh expand on that because shulman and buck calling the mariners series over the weekend were very complimentary of how good

the entertainment was but i was sitting there with jamie dodd watching and i was like i don't know if either of these teams are actually really good ball teams. They don't play great baseball. They were close games. It was entertaining because the games were close, and Sundays went to 10. But I was looking at them like, it doesn't just seem like great baseball. It's not too powerhouses trading blows. Yeah, and both the Mariners and the Jays are both pitching heavy teams, and they don't

score a lot of runs. So naturally, you're going to have close games between them. And I do think there's a level of semi-excitement just every time the Jays are in Seattle. But I don't know. The Mariners do play, I don't even want to say differently, but they just get better results, so it ends up being more fun, whereas the Jays just don't get the results.

Okay, and before we go to break uh a rest in peace to an invaluable website for hockey nerds and summer radio hosts across north america especially those that follow hockey tuesday evening the very popular website cap friendly went dark rest in peace cap. For those that are completely unaware, because I realize not all of you are that interested in what third and fourth liners are making annually for their salary, CapFriendly was, I repeat, was a website that specialized in the business

of the National Hockey League. Contract information on players, coaches, salary cap database. It was great. It was an invaluable resource. There are others that are out there. We had the founder of Puckpedia, Hart Levine, on the show a couple weeks ago.

That'll sort of be the next iteration of it. But CapFriendly was the go-to. I'm sure you've used it countless times. Yeah, it was my go-to. Yeah, during your broadcasting career. And it is now no longer, for those that missed it, it had been sold to the Washington Capitals, who left it up for a while

before ultimately going dark and turning it off entirely. It's no longer cap friendly. It's cap sad, unfriendly, cap unfriendly. There it is. Cap angry. The,

the operators of cap friendly posted a message yesterday. So if we are ever airing now in our AAVs and term on contracts, know that it's because a very, very good tool was ripped away from us on July 9th. Rest in peace, Cap Friendly. We got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Josh Elliott-Wolfe. Coming up, we are going to talk a little more footy. John Arnold is going to join the program. Conca Calf writer. He's written for ESPN, MLS, and The Guardian.

We'll talk to him about Canada soccer, where it's at right now, not just in terms of the region, but how big an impact they've made globally after this very impressive run at the Copa America,

which isn't over yet as they play in the third place match on Saturday. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah,

your destination for everything Canucks. Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.31 on a Eurodance Wednesday here on the Alfred and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's great that Joss's first show with me is also Eurodance Wednesday. Is that a thing?

It's a thing. Oh my goodness. There's also Fiesta Friday. I know about that one. You know about that one? I think I've been here for that one. Is it Eurodance New? Yeah, it's been a couple weeks.

Oh, okay. No, longer than that. A couple months? I can't really tell. I'm just too busy vibing. Alfred's already up against you. Way to keep things fresh. Too many drugs. Can you bring it up a little bit? It also brings the energy on it. Yeah. I'm so pumped up right now. It feels like 6.30pm. It's Wednesday.

It's early. People just want to get going, you know. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in our one of the program.

John Arnold, CONCACAF writer, also for ESPN, MLS, and The Guardian is going to join us in just a moment here. The highlight of Hour One. Hour One is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler. Pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling. They recycle, you get paid.

Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. John Arnold joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. They recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. John Arnold joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, John. How are you? Hey, good, guys. How are you doing? We're good.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So Canada's run at Copa America, not over. They will still play in the third-place match on Saturday from the soccer hotbed of Charlotte. I just wanted to get your thoughts, though, on the end of this run for Canada. They fall short of the final, 2-0 loss to Argentina. A game effort by the Canadians, but in the end, just not enough to take on

what is admittedly the best team in the world. Yeah, I think that's an important thing to highlight. You know, the margins in this tournament are already pretty small, and the teams that are good are really, really good. Argentina won the Copa America, then they won the World Cup. I think whoever wins this tournament, be it Argentina again, Uruguay and Colombia and the other semifinal, they'll be in the conversation to be favorites at 2026 when this whole World Cup comes to North America. So when you look at Canada's performance, the fact that they got to this stage is really important. I think the other important thing is

to actually use it as a building block. We've seen teams have kind of runs that didn't turn into anything. I'm thinking of the United States in 2016 when the Copa America Centenario was conducted in the U.S. The Americans made a run to the semifinal, lost pretty handily in the semifinal to Argentina, sounding familiar, I assume, and then didn't make the 2018 World Cup. So it's easy to sort of say, oh, we did it. Oh, we made it. Oh, but if you don't learn the lessons

that you actually had in this tournament, then it can be something that's wasted. And I think that's happened to teams in the past. And it's not just teams in CONCACAF. Teams in CONNOR BOWL have made deep runs. They think, oh, we're among the class of South America and, you know, a World Cup qualification campaign where you have to be consistently good is a lot different than tournament soccer, where you can just be good for a month and then kind of fade away. So, you know, I think that Jesse Marsh starting this

project, building from the very beginning, being a new manager when it comes to Canada. I don't think those lessons will fall by the wayside as they're already in sort of this building moment, but you really do have to take the lessons. Speaking of Marsh, how high is his coaching stock right now? Well, listen, I mean, the United States Federation told him basically they didn't want him. You know, they brought back Greg Berhalter after the 2022 World Cup when it would have been possible to move on. And now it seems like they're going to move on again.

But the big question in the U.S. is, well, then who? And the obvious answer for a long time was Jesse Marsh. Jesse's got a contract with Canada. I think he's got a pretty big chip on his shoulder from the fact that the U.S. didn't want to bring him in. And I think he, you know, listen, obviously, priority one is putting Canada's name on high, flying the flag for Canada, growing what is happening there.

But I don't think he minds at all that sort of a latent benefit of this is this sort of, ha-ha, we're the best team in CONCACAF right now. We've advanced to the semifinal, and you were stuck in the group stage. So his stock is definitely high. Listen, it's so recent. And the deal with the MLS Canada teams coming together to help bring Marsh on board because of the finance issues that Canada soccer has had. It would be a real surprise to me to see him, you know, not only take the U.S. job, but to take any other job right now before the 2026 World Cup. I think he's he's pretty locked in.

You know, we've seen weirder things happen in international soccer, but his stock's high. He's done a great job with his team, and I think you're already seeing his fingerprints on this Canada team, even though he hasn't had very long with them at all. So it's not right to say that Canada came out of nowhere this term, even though it was their first Copa America. They had

established themselves as a nation to watch in the run-up to the 2022 World Cup and winning CONCACAF en route to qualifying for Qatar but as someone that covers the region as closely as you do how has the tone and narrative and like vibe around conversations about Canadian soccer changed in light of these the run up to Qatar and now coming back with this very impressive performance at Copa? I think in CONCACAF, when Canada had that great run World Cup qualification, it was sort of a wake-up call, and I think everyone was sort of awake. But then more globally, when you go from Panama up,

I think everyone knew, yeah, Canada's going to be a player here. I think in South America, which this is the South American Continental Championship, even though six teams from CONCACAF got invited, I think that's where a lot of eyes have been opened. It's been interesting to watch what people say about Canada. You know, a lot of these managers in the first couple games said, oh my gosh, they're really physical. Oh my gosh, they're really strong.

We didn't really see that coming. And it's like, well, they're not that physical compared to you guys. I think it's just a shock to see Canada being good, to be honest. I really think that the sort of top level players that Canada has, has come as a surprise to a lot of people in South America and beyond. As far as kind of where they stand when people are having these conversations, are people surprised? Are people not? I think it kind of depends on how much stock you put into what happened in 2022 and how much you were paying attention to the fall off after with

the disappointing world cup and then sort of i don't know chaos might be strong but a lot of reshuffling john herdman leaving to go take over toronto fc and various officials and going and players being frustrated and the fact that now it seems seems like the Canada men have been able to put that all aside and prove that that 2022 cycle wasn't a fluke, that the talent's still there, that they're one of the best four teams in this competition. I think it says a lot about the players themselves, Jesse Martian, and even the Federation, you know,

CEO Kevin Blue is so front facing and so eager to sort of kind of convince fans, I think, that this is a new chapter for Canadian soccer. And listen, you know, you and I, radio journalists, you know, we're used to seeing these guys and being a little cynical. Hi, yeah, we've seen it before. Listen, so far he's delivered. So I think Canada fans have to be happy. And I think that, you know, the results will continue to earn respect in the region.

Definitely. And one thing Jesseesse marsh said post game yesterday he said he was proud of the team but that to take the next step they need to expand the player pool and and move forward how do you how do you think they get to that level and how do they find that depth moving forward yeah i mean i think so much of what we're talking about in North America in general, the US, Mexico, and certainly Canada is about player development. And the problem with that is that it's not fast. It's not fun. It takes investment in coaches at the youth level. It takes figuring out some of these squabbles between youth clubs that can so often happen. It just takes so many small steps. And I think that, you know,

that's a long-term thing, obviously. Marsh and his staff be able to sort of try and polish players who are already in MLS academies, recruit players because of the Canadian ancestry, you know, Canada, so welcoming to immigrants and refugees. You guys don't need me to tell you, but you know, that's been a huge part of this team. And I think there are other Canadian eligible players who maybe will be convinced by the success that Marsh is having, that the team is having, who might sign up to play.

But ultimately, at the international game, you can't go out and buy another forward. If you say, man, we really could use some forward depth at this tournament, you better figure out where it's coming from. And a lot of times it's coming from a player who right now may not be ready, but in five years or two years when the next World Cup comes, you got to get them ready. So, I mean, I think that's the big challenge is developing. The other thing I would say is that while this generation of Canadians is so talented with Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David, Sethan Ustakio at the top, I thought they could have done more. And I'm surprised to kind of come to that conclusion

to see Canada go as far as they have and still be potential third place winners at this tournament without amazing production from forward Jonathan David, without sort of dominant games from Alphonso Davies. They had a couple of good games here and there, but if those top players can be performing even more consistently, I think that helps that bottom level of development that I think is so critical for Canada taking the next step.

You bring up a good point, specifically with David, I think, because he's relied upon so heavily to find the back of the net. And when you look at his form in France, he does it with regularity, and it leaves a lot of people wondering, why can't he replicate the kind of goal scoring prowess he has at club with his country yeah it's so funny to see players do this all the time there's guys who are vice versa as well guys who do at the international level who then they go to their clubs everyone's ready for them to have a big game and a big season and then it just doesn't seem to come Giovanni Del Santos the Mexico international for so many years, was amazing with 0-3, and he'd go to a club, and nothing,

just absolutely nothing. I don't think Jonathan David is that player. I think that he can do it for club and country. We've seen him do it for club. With country, I feel like it's a little bit more about finding his role, and I'm not sure. It's hard to know without being inside, but it feels like the confidence he has of being the man at club level maybe isn't there in the country, even though he is the man.

He should be the man scoring the goals for Canada. I think you want Kyle Aaron on the field, but maybe working with a second forward is something that he still kind of needs to get under his feet a little bit. But I do think he's such a good player. You see him do it so often at club level that you have the impression the goals will come. But when you really do look at the margins of this tournament and you say, man, one goal here would have made a huge difference. I do sort of look and say that David could have done just a little more, I think, and kind of is a player to circle as Canada says, well, what's going to take to be successful at the 2026 World Cup? You're going to need your best attacking player scoring goals. How much fun was it to watch cover and write about Jacob Schaffelberg during

this tournament? Oh man, he's just such a ball of energy. I never really had a chance to chat with him, even though he's an MLS and I do a fair amount of MLS coverage. I talked to him after that quarterfinal game against Venezuela and sort of what you see is what you get. He's just a passionate guy who very polite sort of, you know, in a funny. He's just a passionate guy who, uh, very polite sort of, you know, in a funny way, I know he's from Nova Scotia, but he's got this Southern

way about him having lived in Nashville and played there. And, uh, you know, just the energy he, he sort of jolts in, you know, similar to what I'm saying about Canada being the surprise team, I think because people just haven't really watched or just have the stereotypes about Canada. I feel like even defenders who watch film on Schaffelberg, see him on the field and he's not going to be faster than me. He's not going to be able to put a skill move on me and get by me. And then next thing you know, they're, they're turning around chasing as he bears down on the net.

So it's, it's a really interesting player and a depth option that I think has kind of emerged for Canada, not just in this tournament, but had a big goal to get them to this point in that playoff against Trinidad and Tobago. Just a fun player, a nice guy, and someone who I think is a real good personification of kind of the jaw-dropping ability that Canada has, even when you might not expect it previously.

Now, I think people need to get used to it. John, before we let you go, the summer of football continues today with another semifinal at the Euros. It will be the England and the Netherlands for a spot in Sunday's final. Who do you like in the match today? Just like the soccer, the Netherlands have been playing better. You know, I sort of everyone said, oh, England's so boring.

And for the first game or two, I was like, no, I don't know. Maybe they're not that bad. And then I started watching them a little more deeply. And I thought, nah, you know what? I'm done. So just from a romantic soccer loving perspective, give me the Netherlands. I think that'd be a really, really interesting final with the way they play with the way Spain plays. I think it'd be a lot of fun. So again, maybe more with my heart than with my head, but give me the Dutch. John, this was great. Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. Hopefully we can

do it again. Yeah, absolutely. Talk soon, guys. Bye. Thanks. That's John Arnold, CONCACAF writer, ESPN, MLS, and The Guardian here on the Halford & Brough Show with Josh Elliott-Wolf on Sportsnet 650. Hello. Hi. So England-Netherlands, do you know, like, are you a big... I know Brough's a big England guy. Are you a big England guy?

We both are, yes. Okay, I thought so. And I have been bitterly, bitterly disappointed in the way that they played this tournament. Like every other England supporter on the planet. Save the guys in the room and maybe Garrett Southgate. Aren't they in the final four? They are in the final four, Greg. They very much are.

It does feel like every day. You hate the way they played? Every game I watch them, I'm like, man, they should be better than they are. Yeah. It's been very very cynical football is the phrase that people are it is winning football but it's just baby it's it's too it's too much of a on a razor's edge between like the the margins are too narrow because they don't have enough of a comfortable lead seemingly ever to just move past they don't put away inferior

opponents at all and the most distressing thing is that the starting 11 has the kind of players that other countries would dream for the talent level is off the charts jude bellingham is widely considered the heir apparent to the the greatest player living player like when he gets to his peak which he's not at yet because he's still in his early next we're in all those hype deal maybe not to that level because those might be the two best players of all time but you know he'll be in that you know challenging Mbappe potentially for the best active player that's the kind of hype that Bellingham has around him and it just you watch him play in this tournament and it's not there it's also at a time where and I don't know if you watch Spain play in this tournament, and it's not there. It's also at a time where, and I don't know if you watched Spain play yesterday,

but there's other very good, young, talented, incredibly dramatic and flair-filled players that are out there performing and putting on a show, like Lamin Yamal, who's 16, scores a wonder goal yesterday for Spain in a semifinal match winner against France. That is high stakes, high high profile and then high results in terms of entertainment and winning which is unfortunately what a lot of modern fans want they don't just want you to be entertaining and not advance and they don't want you to be boring and advance they want everything there and in this tournament Spain is doing it Spain's been by far the best team in the tournament.

So there's another dynamic there as well that a lot of English fans are looking to be like, be more like them. Be more like them. Be picky, though. When you're in England, you haven't won really a major thing in a long time. How can you be that picky? Like if the Canucks won the Cup and it was like a slog, they gritted out every win. Just to twist that narrative on its head. In 2018

they went to the World Cup semifinal. They went to the Euro final in 2021. So they have had deep runs under Southgate. This one is another deep run, but it has been on the heels of some very, very, very boring play. There's just not a lot of confidence going

forward? I think they'll win today. After that whole discussion. Yeah, I think they'll win today. But they won't beat Spain. They might. But they might also do it sitting back and having a completely

eventless match, like low event football. And England supporters are against this. If they win the whole thing, it'll be a totally different narrative. All of a sudden, it'll be that Southgate was a attackable genius the entire time. I could see them winning today in penalties after the same sort of thing against Switzerland. Sitting back.

It's the fear of taking the risk in order to keep things at nil. And that's what drives a lot of people nuts, especially from a stylistic standpoint. So I would like to thank all of our listeners for that's 47 minutes, 48 now, almost have uninterrupted soccer talk. Go team.

We got some Jays in there a little bit. Should we do another one of these Canucks hypotheticals? Brighten things up with our Jays talk. So earlier in the week, I threw out on Twitter, hey, Josh is going to start doing the show on Wednesday. It's a slow time of the year. There's nothing coming out of the Canucks, let alone the rest of the NHL.

Why don't we throw out some of these Mount Rushmores and hypotheticals and superlatives and what-ifs and say, let's just have one of those barroom debates that people have, and we'll have it live on the air. Ask the listeners for their feedback.

We got some great ones yesterday. We actually put like a five-and-a-half-minute video up. So here's an interesting one. A couple people threw this out there, and I took some time last night to think about it. Put together a Mount Rushmore of the Canucks that got away. Guys that were at one point Canucks early in their careers that either never got started here or got started and left

or were traded away. And I think we all know who number one on this list is going to be. But the Canucks Mount Rushmore of players that got away. The ones, plural, that got away. So list starts with Cam Neely. I think that pretty much goes without saying. And I don't really think it needs any further explanation. It's the easy, it's the layup of all of these picks.

Like, you know that Neely is the, when you think of a guy that got away, it's Cam Neely. Now, I'm not going to go in chronological order. I'm just going to throw them out at random. Let's go to a more recent one. A guy that really came to prominence this year. That's, uh, Gustav Forsling. Is he Mount Rushmore worthy?

I don't know. But when I see the rest of the names on this, I think maybe, um, that one stings in a major way because he was given away for peanuts. The peanuts at this point known as Adam Clendenning. Some of this thing taken away because he passed through two other NHL franchises before landing in Florida. So it's not like the Canucks were the only one that missed,

but you're talking about a guy that is being described as the best defensive defenseman currently in the NHL. Yeah, it's annoying that they lost him, but that's kind of what I was going to say, is you weren't the only team that missed this. And that's why when we talk about the Canucks missing on players or players that got away, especially during the Jim Benning era, Forsling, for me, Adam Klandening turned out to be nothing.

But also, it's not like he immediately turned into this guy. He went through a few teams, he had to take time to develop, and then he was this guy. But he immediately turned into this guy. Sure. He went through a few teams. He had to take time to develop. And then he was this guy. But he got put on waivers. Yeah. Yeah. It would also be great to have him.

Another one for the old heads out there, Igor Larionov. For those that don't remember the story of Larionov's departure from the Knesset, I think everyone remembers that he came along with Krutov when the late 80s, early 90s, when a bunch of Russians defected and came over. Larionov left, played a year in Switzerland due to a contractual issue with the Russian Federation, and then was left unprotected for the San Jose Sharks expansion draft.

And depending on who you talk to and depending on which historian you believe, it was either the Canucks didn't think they needed to protect him because he was playing overseas, or it was that they thought that they were good, like he was going to come back, or there was no chance of him playing for another NHL team. What ended up happening, he went to San Jose and then ended up having a very lengthy

I'll also remind you, career post-Vancouver culminating with the Russian Five, multiple Stanley Cups in Detroit, and then of course the Hockey Hall of Fame. That's one that doesn't get talked about a lot because we don't have the same level of

coverage in 92, 93 that we do now. If that would have happened now, it would have set Canucks Twitter on fire. The station would have been talking about it incessantly. We would never stop talking about it. Adog? Mike Pekka. Yeah. He stole mine.

37 games for the Canucks total, and then obviously gets traded to Buffalo for Alex McGilney. It was a good trade at the time. And Alex McGilney, of course, 55 goals in his, I want to say his first season with the Canucks. Should be Hall of Famer. Yeah, so Pekka goes on and has a storied career with, well, story is maybe a strong word,

but a very good career with Buffalo, and then of course goes on to the Islanders. One of the best defensive players. Sort of floats around at the end of his career, but really good career with the Sabres. Does it change things, though, when you get a good player? Yeah, a little bit. Because, yeah, the trade was. Does it change things, though, when you get a good player? A little bit. Because, yeah, the trade was obviously very good for the Canucks,

at least initially. McGill only had one very good year for the Canucks. After that, it kind of petered off a little. But it's still a guy that, you know, they gave up on a little bit, I guess, in order to get a really good player. So that's the tough thing I had to calibrate and relitigate over and over. The one that got away means it was good. For nothing?

Yeah. It's like you got nothing in return. You were left sort of just sitting there with an empty bag. You're like, well, we had something in the bag, and now the bag is empty. I mean, you could argue Pekka had more good seasons for his team than McGillney did for his. For sure.

They got McGillney for one. They got one good year out of McGillney, maybe two. And Pekka went on to have six or seven really good seasons. Because the really old heads will bring up the Rick Vive trade, which was two Toronto, and he went and scored 50 goals three consecutive years for the Leafs. But they got back Tiger Williams in that trade, and it was one of those things where it's like, yes,

Vive was the better of the two players statistically, but you still got something back. Like another one that hurts is Jared McCann. That's a more recent one. Do we all want to relitigate the Jared McCann? Because they did get something back there, but the trade ended up being a total bust for the Canucks. Yeah.

And he had a Forsling-esque sort of journey before he hit his stride. Yeah, and he still like, it felt like he was going to be something really good for a bit there, and he's still good, but he's not maybe reached the heights that people might have thought he would have had. I feel worse if I was the Leafs with the McCann situation. The Leafs thing where they traded for him and then just left him exposed

was kind of silly. Because they actually wanted him. They didn't want to lose him in the expansion draft, but they did. But it's still one that got away for the Canucks, for sure. Okay, 7 o'clock hour is coming up. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Nico Cantor is going to join us next from CBS Sports. Golazo,

he was on the call. Spanish language broadcast last night for Canada and Argentina. We'll talk a little bit about this Argentinian team, which I think we need to focus a little bit more on. It is becoming a dynasty, if not already. Just two losses in their last 62 competitive matches. Valiant effort from Canada yesterday,

but the Argentinian class really shone through. So we'll talk to Nico at 7, Thomas Drance at 7.30. Keep texting in your Canucks hypotheticals and your What We Learned's Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.