Halford & Brough in the Morning - Can Canada Beat Morocco?

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they preview tomorrow's Round of 16 matchup between Canada and Morocco in the World Cup (3:00), plus the boys discuss if the MLS will see growth in North America after the World Cup is over, as well as the latest Canucks news (29:00). 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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. For these games, you don't really need to hack yourself up too much because the occasion kind of takes care of itself. Absolutely, there's an opportunity to shock the world here. I'm just so happy Ronaldo's still in. We're going to make it for Ronaldo. This is for Ronaldo. We're not saying we're doing everything right.

That's impossible to do. We're trying, but we're also human. I myself was once president of Algeria. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Brough. It is SportsNet 650.

We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adah, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. We forgot the weekend drop in there.

Ladies and gentlemen. The weekend. We'll get it later. Halper and Brub of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. All their clients say, I wish I'd called them sooner. If you're ready to be debt-free, why wait? Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com.

We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to 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. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Step Strong with Orthotics and Footwear from Kintech. If you want to text into the show, hey, it's Friday.

It's Ask Us Anything Friday. the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convenient locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. It was a holiday.

I forgot it was Friday. Yeah, I understand. It's okay, Greg. Too many holidays, you know? It's okay. I took two of them last week. Let's get into the Duick Morning Drive. It's our morning guest list

brought to by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 7 o'clock this morning, so that means the first hour, all uninterrupted Halbro. AJ's going to join us at 7. A.J.'s. It is Friday. Jason mentioned it's Ask us Anything Friday. We are giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East. Broadway for the best to ask us anything.

After AJ at 705, Gareth Wheeler's going to join the program. One soccer analyst. Canada kicks off the round of 16 at the World Cup tomorrow. 10 a.m. Our time. Massive match against Morocco. We'll set it up with Gareth at 705, as I mentioned. after AJ in the second hour of the program. At 7.30, Jack Lang is going to join the program.

He's a football writer from the athletic. He's got a feature piece up right now titled, Next Up for England, the Estadio Azteca, where Mexico look invincible. With all due respect to Canada and Morocco, England, Mexico is by far the match of the weekend, kicking off at 5 o'clock our time on Sunday night. It has got all the pomp and circumstance. you can get out of a round of 16 match. Jack is going to join us at 7.30 to preview it.

8 o'clock, Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver and Canucks talk. It's been a busy week for the Canucks on both the free agent and trade fronts. What's still left to do? We'll dive into all that with Drance at 8 o'clock. Finally, another reminder. It is Ask Us Anything Friday. We have lots of opportunities to get to them today. So get them in.

Hashtag AUA. Put a pizza emoji in your text to be entered into the Grand Prize contest. best Ask Us Anything wins a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Big show ahead. Lots to get into. Without further ado, Laddie, to 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? Missed it? You miss that? What happened is brought to you by ATS traffic. Start a career path in traffic safety.

Receive competitive wages and training at one of Canada's best. manage companies, visit them online at aTS traffic.ca. We're going all World Cup, the first half hour of this program. Where do you want to begin? With Canada, Morocco, and maybe I'll do a little interview of you and you can act like the soccer expert that you are. Let's start with what are Canada's chances realistically of winning this game. Well, they're slim, Jason.

Real slim. So we're 12, we're 13 matches through the round of 32, 16 matches in total, right? Of the 13, I'd say there's only been one true bona fide stunner of an upset, and that was Paraguay over Germany. The rest have gone according to form. I don't anticipate anything huge is going to happen today with all due respect to Cabo Verde. I do not see them getting through against Argentina. So statistically speaking, 12 of the 13 have pretty much gone according to the odds makers form.

You put Canada beating Morocco in the category of, a massive upset. So the odds are slim. But the odds aren't the same as Argentina, Capo Verde. No, but they might be the same or close to Paraguay beating Germany. I'd put it in that realm. What if Canada is the next Paraguay?

Well, that kind of leads me into the next question here, which is what's Canada's best hope of winning? And I went, I did a bit of a deep dive, if you will, on that Paraguay, Germany match. A couple things stood out. Now one, Paraguay plays a very defensive shape.

They play a four or five one. So that's four of the back with five midfielders. As opposed to what Marsh was talking about going to in the second half of the Switzerland match, which I guess would have been a 5-4-1 or a 5-3-2. Whatever the case, you basically got two blocks

equating nine players, a 5 and a 4, and a 5. Paraguays played it throughout qualifying and everything. They only played with a lone striker. And they made themselves very tough to break down with, they call it breaking lines. The passes that go from the top sort of vertically through. Okay.

And they forced the Germans to the outside. The Germans launched 32 crosses in the match against Paraguay. One of them was successful, the Kaya Havert's goal. Outside of that, Paraguay did a great job of packing the middle, allowing possession. I think Germany ended with 78 possession. Yeah. The percent possession in it. And dealing with the crosses, kind of took a yeoman's effort to constantly clear and not have

clearances up the middle, you know, not have the keeper drop any of them, all that kind of stuff. Does Canada have the ability to do that? Yes. Short answer, yes. But it is incredibly taxing on the group to do it again and again and again. And do they want to play that way? Well, that's a great question. Because there's the want and then there's the sort of pragmatic side of it,

which is do you want to give yourself the best shot at advancing? Because normally we're used to, if Canada is overtaxing itself anywhere, it would be pressing. Yes, that's correct. Right? So which you can think of it. I don't know, for hockey people, forechecking. Forechecking is pretty accurate. So pressing, forechecking.

I was actually like, it's pretty funny when the boy was playing soccer. There was a couple coaches that were clearly Canadian coaches. It was like, you got a forecheck, guys. I'm like, we call it pressing. Please don't call it forecheck. And it's RIMS, yeah, it doesn't work. I mean, you can kind of

say like the low block in soccer or however you want to terminate or whatever. Well, it doesn't have to be that. It's just you have a sort of commitment to defending. Yes. And then when you get the ball, you're trying to possess for a little bit longer stretches as opposed to really trying to hit someone on the counter.

Right. You know, you're, or you don't want to just ice it. Don't ice it. I mean, if it's late in the match, ICE, if you're up one. But now it was interesting, I don't know how much of Portugal and Croatia you watched yesterday. Watch a bit of it.

So the first half, because it's funny, that match, we'll talk about it later, that match will go down is one of the most entertaining matches of the World Cup. Well, the second half at least. But the first half was very crafty. And there were oftentimes where Portugal would defend, or sorry, Croatia would defend, defend, defend, and then when they got the

ball and they possessed, they didn't go racing forward to try and counterattack with pay. They methodically moved forward, but we're content to relieve what pressure Portugal was having while an attack, if that makes any sense. It was like an attack to kind of take the, take Portugal's foot off the gasoline. Well, and let everyone get a breath too. Yeah, and it's an older. Sure. And it's an older side.

And so there was a caginess to it that I appreciated in the first half. So is there a chance that Morocco overlooks us? Is there a chance that Morocco is tired? after their match to get to this point. The overlooking thing I think is interesting because I think sometimes that can very much happen.

Sure. And what it might result in is an early goal. Like let's go back to, I don't know, what's the England Congo, right? Yep, yep, yep. I don't know if England was ready to play in that game. Like, I really don't.

No, that's fair. Congo scores. It's like all of a sudden, you know, you're like, oh. Now, I don't know what the odds maker said about the second half. Like when Morocco, when Congo went up 1-0, I would assume that England was still the favorite in the sports books. Yeah. But as the game wore on, it was kind of like, all right, you get to the 70th minute or whatever. You're like, now we're starting to get worried.

I wonder if Canada striking quays. first would be good. I don't even necessarily know if it needs to be quickly, but scoring first is such a big thing. Yeah, I just I'm trying to imagine a scenario where Canada wins this.

So the traditional scenario would be like they hold it nil-nil and get to penalties and win it. Right, like that would be... Well, it's what South Africa's plan was against Canada. Well, right. And like Germany lost on penalties. Right, but Paraguay scored early. Right. But

You know, the point is you get it to penalties. That's oftentimes what the underdogs want. And then it's a coin toss in penalties. And, but I do wonder if there's a way for Canada to just get on top of Morocco and just kind of punch them in the face. Okay, well, there's one. Or do you not do that? Okay, well, there's one thing that we have to be abundantly clear about. And I'll paraphrase what Jesse Marsh was saying during his pre-match day media availability.

he's like you don't play a match with one particular style. You change things up and there is, you know, an evolution of a match where sometimes you press in a 4-2-3-1 and then sometimes you lay off in a 4-4-2 and sometimes you revert to a low block. The tactics in the formations can change quite dramatically. When you're at this level and you've got this quality of player, you can really do a lot of different things within the match,

especially with the hydration breaks and everything. Oh, right. The hydration bricks are a huge factor in that. this, aren't they? So I don't know how many people have been paying attention to Switzerland, even though they basically called Vancouver home for the last 10 days. The Swiss, if you've watched their matches,

they've almost figured, like, unlocked the key to the four quarters thing because they come out of breaks with a real focus. And if you look, they scored out of the hydration break against Bosnia. They scored out of the second half against Canada.

And yesterday, they scored a minute out of the second half break against Algeria. And the manager Yaquine has said, I've really kind of re-evaluated what we do tactically, how we do our substitution patterns, to be

based around coming out of these breaks with a real what a freaking boost. But they either with subs or with the style that they're... What a freaking boost. Thank you. With the game plan they want to implement. It's very interesting in that regard. And the good, honestly, the good managers at this tournament have figured that part out. How

can you turn this into an advantage, basically playing four quarters. Who are you most worried about in this? Because for Canada, for Canada to win this game, they're almost going to have to play a perfect game. Okay. There's a,

like, you know, I mean, Canada beat South Africa because the South African defender made a mistake. Yep. Right?

Okay. It was not a good clearance and Stacchio was able to get on it and hit it and score. Mm-hmm. we've seen some mistakes from this Canadian team. You mentioned that Switzerland game. I mean, the first goal conceded by Canada was a comedy of errors.

So who do you worry about? Who might Jesse Marsh worry about? Well, okay, just further to your point, too, on that. The goal that Canada scored the Eustacial goal, you mentioned it was a bad clearance. You know what happened there was it was a cross from Shaffelberg. It was fairly innocuous. and after 91 minutes of tremendous and stout defending,

there was that one cross that South Africa just dealt with poorly. That's the danger of playing this style where you're relying on clear, clear, clear, is that eventually something might slip up. You shank one or whatever. And you know what? Truth be told, the only thing you did wrong with the clearance was put it up the middle. Yeah. You know, if you had managed to clear it to the sides or wrap his foot through it and just clear it long,

but it just, that moment of, and I know it sounds really cliche, but you lose your focus for a second because you've been dealing with crosses all day. So in light of that, the centerback, whatever centerback pairing Marsh goes with, assuming he doesn't go with five at the back to start, and I don't think he will. But if it's good, I think it's going to be Bombito and Cornelius.

Okay. Those two for me. And Cornelius was part of the confusion in that Swiss gold. So you can't have mistakes like that. The Moroccan attack, especially they're attacking midfielders, they're going to have the pace, the technical ability and the savvy to pounce on those kind of opportunities

and finish. You can't, I mean, I know this is going to sound dumb, but you can't give Morocco any freebies in this match. And I'll be honest, the second goal against Swiss, which ended up being the backbreaker, that was a freebie. That was a mistake at the back by Cornelius, a poor cover afterwards by the two centerbacks.

And then if you want to talk about the one goal that Max Craypole wants back from this entire tournament, it was the second goal against the Swiss which ultimately stood as the match winner for them. It was not a good goal on him. It's a save that he has to make. That's two or three mistakes in one sequence of play that kept Canada from winning the match,

winning the group, and forced them on the road and through this path. So those are the stakes involved with one mistake. Against Morocco, you just can't afford to do it. Now, that's a tall order when you think about it. For a guy in Cornelius who's been up and down, I thought he was very good against South Africa, despite missing that wide open header to score.

his match rating was high. Bombito, I guess he's good to go. I guess he's healthy. I mean, I have my doubts that he's still 100% match fit in terms of shaking off all the rust given how long he's been out for. But this is probably the best

you're going to get him in this stage. You just got to hope that he's not all of the reflexes, the timing, the arials, all of it is sharp. Because one error at the back, and if it's in the back of the net, the worst thing Canada can do, do here is go behind early and have to chase a match against Morocco because they're also very stout

defenders. Okay. So we can continue the conversation on Canada with Gareth Wheeler at 705. A lot of people texting into the show right now talking about Portugal and Croatia and the decision to disallow

Croatia's late tying goal on an offside review of our decision that when it gets explained, you understand the explanation, some people just don't agree with how that decision was made. Right. I mean, it's going to be hard to break down on the radio without visuals because it's a little difficult to explain. But the Coles notes version are that on the Croatian equalizer, in the

103rd minute, by the way, and that was 13 minutes of added time. And that would have been a massive story had the goal stood, that 10 minutes were recorded on the electronic board is added, and the ref went all the way to 13. There was a touch from one of the Croatian attackers, a flick on with the head. The most narrow and slimmest of touches that, I will be honest, the naked eye of VAR didn't exist, would never have been picked up. It wouldn't have. But that header flick on changed the entire sequence of events that followed, because

after the Croatian flick on, the ball hit a Portuguese. he's defender's head. Now, the ruling on the field, and I think it's the right one, but I'm sure some Croatian listeners, our vast Croatian listenership will disagree. The ball that hit the Portugal defender's head was deemed to be accidental or unintentional. That he wasn't playing the ball. For the record, that necessarily wasn't the ruling on the field. It was the ruling with VAR. And added to this was a chip inside of the Trianda ball, which gauges touches. So that you know, properly confirmed that it did go off the head of the Croatian defender and then also went up the head, or sorry, the Croatian attacker and then the Portugal defender.

Whatever the case, it is, and it's funny that you asked this at the beginning of the tournament because we were talking about almost everything else in the preview except for VAR. And you said, are we going to get a World Cup moment where VAR plays this integral role? And we got it yesterday. That is. Because it had been relatively quiet. That was the biggest VAR decision in World Cup. Cup history.

Yeah. To this point. And I know you can stack some other ones up there, but the drama, the theater, what it took off the board and quite frankly what it took away from the neutrals, the football events who wanted to see that go to extra time. And here's a thing. If the goal stands, it is one of the most improbable and one of the most controversial equalizers in World Cup history.

Can we talk just for a second about how the referee makes the decision? to call full-time because, you know, it's tough for a lot of fans because they see, you know, 10 minutes has been added or whatever. And then you're like, okay, get to 10. And sometimes things happen within that 10 minutes, and you're kind of like, all right, and we'll add a little bit more. Yep. How did that referee allow that match to go on so long that Croatia was able to score?

and I thought that was pretty criminal. And how do we accept? How do we accept that? It's just like, yeah, he's got it in his head or whatever, how much time he wants. Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of people see 10 and they're like, okay, so at 100 minutes, 90 plus 10, this thing should be over. Done and dust it, blow your whistle. There are moments within the extra time where you've added extra time onto the extra time.

It sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud. But he's got to be just doing calculations in his head. like he's not going to a notebook or anything like that. He's talking to the fourth official. I mean, you've seen the headsets and they have and everything. So there is communication going back and forth. He's like, should we just let this go? I was like, I'd kind of like to see if Croatia can do this.

Should we give him a more look at it? Just one quick one? And so there's a conversation happening. This isn't a lone wolf scenario. But I mean, look, FIFA has gone and bent over backwards to pick up the pace of play and to limit the amount of, I call it another word, but crapphausery. that prevents the game from being played, right?

Guys taking too long to get throw-ins, guys taking too long to get goal kicks, guys going down to tie their boots, when there's a free kick, guys feigning injury. Get subbed off or whatever, although they've cracked down on that. Well, that's what I'm saying.

In FIFA's defense, they've acknowledged that the casual fan hates this, and they're trying to make amends for it at the end. And here's the thing. No one's complaining about the theater of yesterday. Everyone's complaining about the outcomes, but no one is saying, I wish that we didn't get to experience,

all of it. Now, the Croatian fans are saying I wish we did, the goal stood without question. But you understand what I'm saying here, right? Dear listeners, well, I think the theater and drama of it, you're never going to replicate that. And a lot of that has to do with the human element of a singular referee seemingly deciding whenever the game

ends on his, you know, decision. And the agony and ecstasy of a goal being scored, everyone with bated breath waiting for a review, and then it being chalked off. Tony Texan, in an era of pitch clocks and var, how are we still dealing with an arbitrary timing in a World Cup match?

Is it great, Tony? Isn't it great? It doesn't make any sense. And it's almost like, and people, people will say, well, that's soccer. Like, we don't do that in North America. I don't know, man. First downs in NFL are still pretty random sometimes. But they've made a lot of adjustments to try and correct it for sure. They have. They have. I think that there is some nod here. But they need to have chip technology in the ball eventually. But just my opinion with this, I think that it's almost as if the game wants to have some human element left in it.

And that is what the extra time is. Now, I'm added time. Sorry. Keith the Water guy points out, though. There was no reason to add three minutes to the tent. That is 100% spot on. I was. Well, Sean texted in. He said Portugal scored in the 94th minute.

and their celebration was over 140 seconds, there is your extra three minutes. Yeah, I saw this argument made as well. I didn't buy it as such. I saw the goal being scored. I thought the celebration was well within the realm of what I've seen in other World Cups. And I thought that,

no, I know exactly what you're talking about. Like, don't get me wrong. The referee had reasons for adding the three. I thought that 10 was more than adequate. and I thought that maybe, maybe an extra minute on top of the 10 would have sufficed. But to add three, it felt like an awfully long time. Anyway, there's another text that came in. How does a microchip sensing the most minute of touches qualify as the ref making a clear and obvious error?

When even in super slow motion, you can't see the trajectory of the ball changing due to the Croatian header. Has clear and obvious error just been thrown out the window now? well no because it touched his head like that touch by the Croatian attacker was what made it offside but the rules are okay so we're going to go way down the road here

because they have changed what clear and obvious specifically like refers to here so it's goals penalties direct red cards and mistaken identity okay right so in instances like that I think they defer to chip technology yeah Yeah. I think that's how it's working. I've seen that before in cricket when they're trying to determine whether

the ball hit the bat and I think they have sensors in the cricket bat and it was very reminiscent of what I saw last night because I thought when I originally saw it, I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Yeah, this is great. You know, people are actually asking legitimate questions. Tony writes back so you can't stop the clock.

That's correct, Tony. The clock never technically stops. Unstoppable. As soon as the referee blows for the start the half, the clock runs. Yeah. That's, that's just one of the unique natures of the sport. Have they ever, ever seriously considered going to, uh,

just a clock like we use in, I don't know, every game now. Have you ever seen NCAA soccer? I have, actually. Yes. They do that. NCAA soccer runs from four, starts at 45 and runs down. Okay. And there's, it's all on the referee to decide when the ball

goes out of bounds, what considers a stoppage and then when it lets the clock run. So if you, if the ball goes out and you pick up a throw in right away and you whip it in, they don't stop the clock. Okay. If a guy boots the ball 10,000 feet into the stands, the referee will there's a hand gesture, and he'll signal it and he'll stop the clock. What else is crazy is that at the end

of NCAA soccer matches, they do a countdown for the final 10 seconds. So you go, 10, 9, so there's no added time. The moment that it hits zero and there's like a horn or the buzzer that goes off, the match is over. And it is wild to watch because you're like, this is not right at all.

Right. It's got like the very North American like here, the buzzer beater, you got to score before the big horn. It was a judgment call from the ref here. What are we doing? Listen, I have, there's a little bit of a traditionalist in me.

And I, and I'm certainly not the one that's going to be able to talk the most about soccer. But like, to me, that is the whole, the whole notion of nobody in the stadium knowing when this game is over.

Like when we were at, uh, Was it the L-A-F-C game where the white caps were desperately trying to hold on? Maybe it was another game. Yeah, it was L-A-C. I was like, blow the whistle. Like, the game is over. The game is clearly over.

And that's actually, that's why I lost my voice. The following day, it wasn't cheering on the caps. It was yelling at the referee to blow the whistle. And it just seems like, it seems wrong. Like everyone in the stadium should know when the game is over. But here's the thing. Including the players. Counterpoint.

I feel like that's very important. But you were so emotionally involved and not knowing that you blew your voice out at a game that you probably wouldn't have otherwise. Okay, I understand. But like, hey, I'm just saying. You can make people emotional

in all sorts of situations. They're not all moral. It also gave us 26 minutes of content at the start of a show where people are genuinely interested in that. And look, although Andrew and Victoria is like, blow the whistle on the segment, I hate soccer.

He's definitely not listening right now. be tuned out right away. Okay. First half hour of the programs in the books, we got a lot more to get into on the show. A lot of NHL news. We can get back into some of the World Cup stuff. We can look at today's matches. We can look back on whatever else happened yesterday. We can also look ahead to the weekend. At 7 o'clock, we've got A.J. and then Gareth Wheeler's going to join us for a Canada Maraca preview. 7.30, Jack Lang is going to join us from the athletic to talk about the challenge that awaits England at Esteka in Mexico on Sunday. This is going to be a very soccer-heavy show,

but we are right in the best part of the tournament right now. I know the finals and semifinals are going to be great, but this round of 32, the first knockout stages where you get three matches every day and some of these great matchups on the horizon. What a wonderful time for the World Cup. Is the round of 32 like the initial playoffs where the first round is always the best round?

Well, this is the first time they've ever had a round of 32. Oh, that's a good point. Yeah, so we're finding it out in real time. You know what, though, A dog? I will say, not as many upsets so far as I kind of kind of hoped for. There's only been the real big one Paraguay beating Germany, but, you know, I'm

hopeful that maybe we'll see something today. Maybe tiny Cape Verde will be able to do it against Argentina. Spoiler, they will not be able to do it against Argentina. Okay, we've got to go to a break. We'll come back on the other side. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews

to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 634 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford and Brough of the morning is brought you by Sands and Associates. Don't spend summer sweating over your debt. Sands and Associates is ready to help you get debt free. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. Still in hour one of the program, Hour 1 is brought to 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. get paid visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We had a text in to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Lee from White Rock, first time text her.

Lee writes, you guys don't need to apologize for having good coverage of the biggest sport on the planet. You're doing a great job. Thank you. Just tell those Canucks fans to get a life. Oh, I shouldn't have read that part. Hey,

Lee, one, thank you for texting. That's a great first text, by the way. I do think sometimes, especially me, my de facto response after going 26 minutes off the dome uninterrupted on Portugal, Croatia, or whatever else, is to apologize to those who are like, I cannot stand this. But I'm not going to do it today.

I will let everybody know, though. We're not even close to being done with the footy talk on the show. Get a life, will you, people? It is incredible. how over the last two years, our soccer talk on this show is up 400%. Possibly 500. It is, we talk about it a lot more and get way fewer complaints.

Now, part of this is there have been some very interesting soccer stories, including the white caps, not only off the field, but on the field that when they go to the MLS Cup, we're going to talk about that. When Messi comes to town, we're going to talk about. that when they have that win over L-AFC obviously we're going to talk about it and in the combination with the Canucks not playing many big games um everything was off the ice for the connects over the last little while sure um that's a reason but you know we we had an ask us anything

into the show and um i don't have it in front of me right now but it was essentially um do you think this World Cup will lead to better things for the white caps. Oh, here it is. This is from Matt. Do you think this World Cup has done enough to make MLS popular where we can also attract more top players? I don't know about the attracting top players because I think that was happening anyway.

Like I honestly, I think MLS is on the grow anyway and far more European players are going to be considering MLS. Just to jump in, did you see one of the transfers that's happened during this World Cup? No. Robert Levindovsky. Okay. From Barcelona.

Right. To the Chicago fire. Right. And that had been talked about, though. Yeah. Right. But, okay. So I think,

um, yeah, Dob bears. Yeah. Um, I think there's, there's, the question with the,

with the players coming to MLS is when any of these guys come over in their primes. when there are teams like Real Madrid or Man City or Arsenal or whoever that are interested in them because they want to go win Champions League or whatever domestic titles, I do think it will get to that point at some time. It may take 20 years, but there is so much money behind MLS. And I think what this World Cup has showed, if anything, is that the United States Gates obviously has great facilities.

Yeah. And there is an appetite for top-level soccer in North America. The issue MLS has is not unlike the issue, frankly, the CFL has, in that we are now able to watch top-level anything. Yep. Halford, and I always tell the story, and people are probably getting tired of it. When we were growing up, there was like, one soccer show that we would watch.

Soccer Saturday and we get highlights. But there weren't games on. If you wanted to follow the sport, you had to either have like a satellite or know someone who had a satellite. Live in Europe. And you had, you ordered magazines. Like there was like,

soccer magazines. You must have, you must have had a ton of soccer magazines. 442 magazine? Right. Like you would read that sort of stuff. Now you don't have, you don't have to do that.

a lot of people, and I know this bothers MLS fans, a lot of people are like, yeah, I'm really into soccer now. I'm going to start watching the Premier League. Do you know what I mean? And MLS is kind of like, oh yeah, I'll go support my local team once in a while, but I'm not going to get super, super into it compared to watching the top players in the world. When you have access to watch the top players in the world, you do it. And I say that with the CFL because, you know, a lot of kids now, they, they just want to watch the best players and the best players are in the NFL.

Yeah. And frankly, when, I mean, when we were growing up, there were really good players that came to the CFL. It had started to widen the gap in quality between the NFL and the CFL in terms of the individual players. but you know for a while back in back in the donnie and dolly days you know there it wasn't all that different the quality of the teams wasn't all that different now it very much is sure and people are like well like i want to watch patrick mahomes play yeah i want to watch these guys make amazing plays on the regular well it's why i want to even though i'm not part of it i want to watch the spectacle of the NFL.

And the spectacle of the sport is a massive part of things that people don't pay enough attention to. You know, I mean, this England, Mexico game, that's going to be a spectacle. A lot of these games, it was a spectacle at BC place. Sure. When Canada played Switzerland and it's a spectacle in the NFL when you've got these massive stadiums and they're sold out. And, you know, when you watch a CFF.

game on TV or an MLS game on TV kind of like it does it just doesn't feel as special you're watching it for the sport and you know remember COVID when there were no fans in the stands for hockey games sucked yeah I sucked I have a hard time

drawing a real straight line between the 2026 World Cup and all of the the juice behind it here and it having a tangible impact on MLS I think there are two different things the one thing I will say and the biggest sea change for MLS. And again, this is pretty obvious, but it's Leon O'Messie,

is that you talked about, you know, where do you go to see the best players? Well, MLS can boast that if you want to see the best player. And in a lot of people's minds, I know he's not, but for a lot of people he is because of the iconic nature and the World Cup, you know, coming off the World Cup victory and, of course, potentially winning one again here. It's you have to watch MLS to watch me.

We have to watch Inter Miami to watch him. That's where Leonel Messi resides. And it's done so many dramatic things for the league from a global perspective that I don't, I mean, I almost equate that to something entirely different than this World Cup. The one thing I'll say about this World Cup is very reminiscent to 94 in that the casuals got hooked. And it'll be very interesting to see what happens afterwards. Because in 94, that was the launching pad for MLS. That was the idea that we're going to start this league now.

And it's taken 20, 25 years to get it to where it's at. It takes a long time. It has grown. Sure. Talk about the MLS when it first started. Compare it to now. Well, it was a, it was very much a startup. There was hokey rules and weird markets and they had, instead of having games go to

shootouts, they had a 35-yard breakaway in the shootout. that where you dribbled in and went one-on-one against the key break it was very Americanized I don't think they really knew what they were doing exactly to be honest I think that they were they knew they wanted to have a professional league in America I think they knew that there was they had some

popularity coming off the 94 World Cup I don't think anyone knew exactly what it was going to be and how long it was going to take it's taken 20 years to get to this point where you've got I mean it's crazy to me now that in the when we resume MLS play

Mueller, Messi, Levindowski, Son, go down the road. There are some prominent, prominent players that are going to be playing in MLS when we come back from the World Cup break. And nobody is suggesting that when the World Cup is over, everyone's going to get into MLS. It's naive to think of that.

But what I'm saying is that with the ongoing growth in MLS, in 20 years, in 30 years, and you know what's going to, going to start taking it's going to be like oh these guys are going to set up a game a regular game of like miami versus i don't know rail majority or something like that you know and that'll turn into something right and then you know hopefully for mLS's sake the mLS side can actually compete and it just i i think it's going to be one of the most interesting stories to watch is how

MLS grows just because you've got people that know what they're doing behind the league. And you've got people that own NFL teams behind the league. There is a lot of money and knowledge and ego behind MLS right now. And I think if you were to ask those guys, they were saying, what's your goal for the league? Our goal is to be a top five league in the world. Yeah. Okay. We should turn our attention now some of this connect stuff that happened following

all of the frenzy from July 1 with the trades and free agent signings and everything else. Sort of left with asking the question, what's next for the Vancouver Canucks? Obviously, development camp is the thing. We've got some audio from Mikhail Samuelson from development camp. We're going to assume that they're going to

fill out the rest of the coaching stuff. We're going to assume that they will at least try to consummate a Jake DeBrus trade. I have heard a couple people theorize and I've got time for it that in keeping in lockstep,

with the patience, patience, patience approach from the front office, that waiting on the first couple of days of free agency to see who gets what, and more importantly, who doesn't get what, that might be the time to strike or circle back on a Dubrosk trade, maybe call up some of those teams that thought they were going to land a middle six forward and free agency and then say, hey, we've got this top five power play goal score in the national hockey league from last year that we'd be willing to trade you.

Are you interested in Jay, Debrosek? Yeah, there's a couple of UFAs still out there. that can score goals like Anthony Mantha didn't get signed Patrick Kane is still out there Teresenko,

Clod Giroux, so not exactly apples to apples with Jake Debrusk, but I do think I find it very hard to believe that Jake Debrusk will be a Canuck

come training camp. I want to play some Michael Samuelson audio from development camp and he's of course part of the player development staff with the Vancouver Canucks. And I want to play two clips and then we're going to talk about them. Okay. The first one is on Caleb Malhotra and what he's seen,

a little bit of what he's seen from the third overall pick at this development cap. No, I think like you can see his skills. You can also see he wants a lot. Maybe he wants to show off. Like, I'm not saying he, that's his, yeah, that was the case. But you can see his skills and you can see how much he tries. We have, like, and the whole week he's been asking questions and he's been engaged. And you can, once you have a presentation, you can see whose eyes you have, if you know what I mean.

And he's listening and learning. And that's the first step. first you're quiet and then you grow and then you can start to talk and like that so he's yeah he's he's a great student for now so so now i'm going to play another clip and this one this was a question asked by kevin woodley based on something that michael samuelson had mentioned earlier in the scrum about teaching the kids that when you're with the vancouver canucks you treat people well and here's Michael Samuelson expanding on that. Without common in the past, I would say yes to that.

Like I know what Dan and Hank is about and all this RJ Mani and a lot of the management as well. And it starts with us. If we just can do like normal, like, yeah, like do normal decisions and just laugh with them, we said the whole week, like we're in this together. And we really are. Like we're older now. We wish we were in the players' shoes, but and hopefully we have a little more experience and we want to share that experience with them. We're not saying we're doing everything right. That's impossible to do. But we're trying and we're, but we're also human. And they, we want them to feel that. Like it's like you don't, that's why this game out here, they don't feel like they have to show off like here. Like, you know what? It takes such a long time and maybe we'll come. become an NHL player, but maybe not. And that's okay too.

We make them better people and hopefully a little bit better players as well. Can I just say one thing here? Sure. I would pay a billion dollars to have gotten either one of the Siddins or Ryan Johnson off the record speaking entirely honestly and

candidly about what they thought of the last let's call it 18 months of Canucks hockey. And I'm talking about go all the way from the top down. Tell me what you thought of Rutherford's work. Tell me what you thought Alvin's work. Tell me what you thought of the group that they assembled, the character that they had

and the culture that they developed. Because it seems like... I don't even think you'd like... No, no, no. Like I'm saying like... You know. No, no, no. I want to hear it candidly. I know. Like I hate it. I hate it blank. So we didn't play the question that Michael Samnison got asked on the second clip, but Woodley

basically asked is, you know, is it based on what's happened? and over the last two seasons. Is this now a focus? And Michael Samuelson kind of paused and he said, I'm not going to bring up the past. But there's actually a lot to unpack from those two clips because when Samuelson was talking about Caleb being quiet at first

and just listening, taking it all in, that's exactly what the Siddines did. and he has clearly been told that when you're a young player, you go there, you observe, listen, you act respectfully, and you're in learning mode. And then eventually one day, if everything goes well, that then you will have an opportunity to be a leader. And I know this isn't necessarily the case.

Although maybe it is, honestly. But it does sometimes feel like almost everything that said is an indictment of what's happened over the past few seasons. Whether it's the message to treat people the right way, that could be a shot at J.T. Miller. It could be a shot at management. Or praising players for, you know, wanting to learn and being hungry for wisdom and advice. and wanting to get better. It's a shot at Petey. Or the need to stay patient and let the young players develop

and everyone develops at their own speed and everyone's got their own journey. Maybe that's a message for management or ownership that you can't rush these things. It is, I don't want to act like I'm, I don't want to make, like I might be projecting in some ways, right? But I don't think so. I think a lot of this stuff,

that you're hearing is part of the vision, part of the plan, and these guys have their talking points. And they're not just talking points. They actually believe these things, but everything I hear seems to be like a quasi-indictment

of what's happened in the past. Yeah, I think it is. It's just kind of why I said. I'd love to get them off the record to hear exactly what they thought in really finite detail, about this move or that move, this decision or that decision because you got to remember the erosion of an organization

doesn't happen with one move it doesn't there are flashpoints that maybe you know have bigger cracks in the foundation but the erosion of culture happens over time it's death by a thousand paper cuts it's a lot of bad decisions that you make it's investing in the wrong people and a series and patterns of behavior done over and over and over again that drops the standard slowly over time. There are a few big moments for sure.

But there's also a lot of smaller ones that lead the Canucks to where they were last year. Right. And then there was an air of desperation to try and salvage the whole thing. Without question.

There was maybe hubris. Maybe it was in part because the outgoing president of hockey ops was closer to the age of 90 than he was to 60 and he wanted to get one more solid notch on the belt and on the resume. But it was like the erosion of the organization

followed up by the desperation to get some semblance of competitiveness. And forcing something to happen that was never going to happen. I imagine there was three guys in particular that were already working within the organization that were like, This is never going to happen. This thing is so far off the rails.

This thing is so far off the rails. Yes. Yeah. It did happen. And now what you're hearing, and I don't think it's intentional. I just want to make that abundantly clear. I don't think that they're sending subliminal messages every time they talk. I think it's just unavoidable.

I think every time that you talk about what you want to do right as an organization, it's always in the backdrop of because we had done so many things wrong in the past. Because they're forced to talk around it. Yeah. because you can't address it head on. That's why it's so awkward. These are the things we want to do. These are the things that we hold dear is a continuation of.

And these weren't things we were doing with the past regime. Andy, the park ranger texts in. The Siddins were front and center when McCann and Vertanin were rushed into the league and lineup. I have a feeling we are going to see the pendulum swing the opposite direction. Malchalchir will go back to BU. Kooten Lacker-Macki will start in Abbey. Let players cook at an appropriate level. do this thing slowly. I don't know about Lecromacki, but I agree with you on

Mahalcher's going to go to college and Coots is probably going to be earmarked for the HL, which will be perfect for him. It's a step up from junior and it would allow him to still go to the world juniors and play a big role for Canada there. Lechermacki is a bit of a wild card. We'll see if he's been able to get stronger and faster in the offseason. The tough thing is he had that shoulder surgery so that, I don't know, that might might not help. But so does everyone, does everyone believe me now when I say that the Siddines and Pedersen didn't really have a relationship? Like, does everyone, does everyone understand it now?

I didn't not believe you, though. A lot of people didn't. A lot of people said, Proth is just making this up. I didn't not believe you, but I didn't not, not. And you make up a lot of stuff, so in fairness. but like this is in a way i think and not just for me but i think a lot of our listeners it's kind of validating all this we talked about this yesterday right yeah right it's i mean when you're that emotionally invested as a fan and you want things to go right and you can kind

of see why it's not going right yep when someone comes in and doesn't necessarily say hey you Joe fan. You were right, but their actions and their words suggest as much, it is validating to a certain... The former Mariners reporter? And you get the... Seahawks. All right. You get the... You get the people who are just fans of the team no matter what. They support, like, blindly loyal, right? And whatever. If you want to be that sort of fan, that's fine. But, you know, they'll text and be like, you guys are so negative, classic Vancouver media. I was like,

I honestly felt like I was going crazy a couple times over the last few years. Like I was thinking, I was like, am I being, am I wrong about this? Am I, am I too deep in this? Like, I, but I was watching the way these guys operate and the decisions that they're making and how they acted. I'm like, this sucks. These guys suck. Mm-hmm. I don't like these guys. We talked about the, you know, likeability of the team on a number of occasions while it was happening. And, you know, a lot of people would agree, but, but you still do wonder, you know, when you get enough people who are like, no, you're wrong, like, you know, P, he's fine, whatever, he's, you know, like, no, he's got a great, there's one guy on social

media that maintains that the Seneens and Pedersen have a great relationship because they're from the same part of Sweden. And I'm like, and he was like obsessively on it. And I'm like, wait a minute, maybe he's right. And I'm the obsessive one, right? But I, I just, I, I really, really, like the direction of the team. And I think a lot of the things they are saying and doing is an indictment of the previous regime. Now, that being said, it doesn't mean that just because we correctly identified some issues, these guys know how to solve them.

What it's going to depend on mainly is them getting the right players in the draft. Some they've already drafted and some that they're going to draft in the next few years because yes, character is important. You have to have it. But you also need talent. And that's what the Siddins were. They were high character guys who were immensely talented and worked hard. And that's what the Canucks need to find.

Before we go to break, I need to tell you that the Duick Auto Group is the official automotive sponsor of Halford & Brough. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit online. at the duikato group.com. You're listening to the Halford & Breath Show on Sportsnet 650.