Halford & Brough in the Morning - Does Petey Have His Flow Back?

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they chat the Micah Parsons trade as well as the latest around Elias Pettersson (3:00), plus they discuss what's next for Canada Soccer, as OneSoccer analyst Oliver Platt (27:24) joins the show. 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.

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You're listening to Halford and Brough. That one's drilled. Deep to right field. He has done it. Four home runs in a game. A three-run, home run. How about how that ball carried?

And not a smile on his face. The other thing that I would like to say is I firmly made a commitment to Michael this spring, Micah. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver, 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, sweet, sweet Friday. It is Alfred and his Broughtonet, 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. Adon, good morning. you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford in Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks.

Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are coming you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step. We have a lot to get into on our Friday show. We did it. We made it through our first week back on the air after vacation. And now we get a three-day weekend. Nice. We deserve it.

The guest list today begins at 6.30. It's Oliver Platt producer and broadcaster for one soccer. Busy times for Canadian soccer. We are now a week away from two very important friendlies against Romania and Wales. Two of the important

tune-ups for the 2026 World Cup. There was also some big news on the Canadian soccer front late last night regarding a potential transfer and And it's a Vancouver white cap in the news, Jason. Ooh. Well, that was going to be the tease.

I hope it's not Mueller. Yeah, it's Thomas Mueller. He's had enough. Yeah, he's like, you know what? I'm good. I went to the P&E. I saw what I needed to see. Anyway, we will talk to Oliver Platt at 630,

not the actor, by the way. For those of you, bear enthusiasts out there. Are we sure, though? Yeah, it's not Uncle Jimmy from the bear. It's Oliver Platt, the one soccer analyst who will be joining us to talk some Canadian soccer at 6.30. 7 o'clock. A.J. from AJ's pizza. He's going to make his return to the airwaves. A.minder. It is Ask us anything Friday. So there's a $100 gift card to AJ's pizza up for grabs. It goes to the best ask us anything. It's a contest. You have to earn it. You have to win it. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. Way in now. Hashtag it. A.U.A. Put a pizza emoji into the text. Ask us literally anything. Doesn't have to be about sports. $100 gift card to AJ's pizza. to the winner.

7.05, Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. Massive, massive blockbuster trade in the NFL yesterday. As the Dallas Cowboys, as you heard in the intro, traded Micah, don't call me Michael Parsons to the Green Bay Packers yesterday. How did it happen? Why did it happen? And what happens from here? We'll get answers to all those questions from Nick Shook from NFL.com at 705.

730. We're going to go to Calgary. Eric Francis is going to join the program. SportsNet Flames reporter. He is covering the Canadian Olympic camp currently underway in Calgary this week. He was there for that highly eventful Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Sam Reinhardt, Presser,

spoke with GM Doug Armstrong, spoke with head coach John Cooper. We've got some notes and some thoughts as well on the Canadian Olympic team as we inch closer and closer to the 2026 Olympics. Eric Francis is going to join us at 7.30. 8 o'clock, it's the moge. Yes, it's the Moge.

It's a buy week for the Lions, but it's not a buy week for their play-by-play guy. We'll look back on the Lions lost. 52 points in that loss to Toronto last weekend, what the team has been working on at practice and what they'll continue to work on through the buy. Working in reverse on the guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Moge, 7.30, Eric Francis, 7.05, Nick, shook. 7 o'clock, AJ, 630, Oliver Platt. That's what's happening on the program today.

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? Missed it? 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.com. You know, it was earlier in this week, Jason, Monday, as a matter of fact, when you openly asked a couple times, what's going to happen with Micah Parsons? and the Dallas Cowboys. And I said, don't worry about it.

They'll get a contract done. And then we had Mike Tannier on the show, and he said, yeah, he's going to play for the Cowboys, obviously. Just goes to show that everyone named Mike is stupid. Except Micah Parsons, because he's rich. Yeah, he's rich down. And not so stupid at all.

He doesn't have to deal with Jerry Jones anymore. Micah Parsons yesterday, the best pass rusher in the NFL. And according to Greg Rosenthal from NFL, formerly of NBC Sports, he called him the best pass. The NFL has seen in the last 20 years on his way to the Green Bay Packers. The Packers in exchange give Dallas first round picks in 2026 and 2027 along with a pro bowl defensive lineman, Kenny Clark.

So it is a massive, massive deal in terms of assets changing hands. It's massive because of the teams involved, two of the signature teams in the NFL with the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers. One of the most iconic and controversial owners in sports, Jerry, Jones, and it comes a handful of days before the start of the NFL season. So what is the spin from the Cowboys end of things? Because their fans cannot be happy with how this turned out. So Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones met with the media yesterday right after the trade. Like I'm thinking another Dallas team had a fairly controversial trade less than a year ago.

Yes. And then they were just like, yeah, he's out of shape. the picture what are they doing with with micha parsons not a good teammate not a good teammate the picture of micha parsons and luca donchich doing the jersey swap was making the rounds on twitter yesterday with the single solitary tier so if you're asking all these questions about what the spin is and how the cowboys are playing it who better to hear from than jerry jones we've got about a minute minute and a half of audio here by the way jerry jones went 11 and a half minutes uninterrupted say what you will about the old man

He can still spit. He was talking and talking and talking. Is it a hot take to say that there's a bit of Jim Rutherford and Jerry Jones together? Like they've both been around for a long time and they both sometimes don't have a filter. No, no, no, no. Jerry Jones is 82. You might be honest. No, no, is Jim Rutherford the Jerry Jones of the NHL?

No. No. No. How many of those drops do we have? We have about 18. A lot of them. It's got its own folder. I'm just throwing it out there. Like, okay, they've both been around for, again, a long time. And how many times, even Jim will admit, like, sometimes I get myself in trouble with how much I talk. Now, Jerry is like, I'm going to talk. I don't care.

Okay. let's just get the most obvious point out of there. They're both old. By any stretch, Jim Brotherford is 76. Yeah. And Jerry Jones is 82. And they are the oldest individuals in their individual positions in their respective leagues.

Right? I mean, because Lou Lamarillo's gone. Yeah. Right. So now it's Jim Rutherford. Right. And with that,

I'm going to call it experience, with that life experience, one does tend to throw a little more. caution to the wind. Yeah. You know, just I'm going to say what I'm going to say.

What's the worst that could happen? And, you know, some people answer, that's a good point. Yeah. Right? I mean,

he's that. Sometimes you have to make a controversial trade. Yeah. In both cases. Under very questionable circumstances. Or any pictures of J.T. Miller and Mike Parsons

going around. Yeah. So, back to the audio, we go. This is Jerry Jones, about a minute and a half from yesterday,

trying to explain in part, Jason, the question you were asking, What's the spin? Why did they trade Micah Parsons? I did make Mike an offer. It wasn't acceptable. And I honored the fact that it wasn't done in the way that he wanted to do it through an agent. So he was made an offer. There's not an ounce of vindictiveness. There's no bad feelings on my part about the fact that we didn't come together on an agreement the facts are and we'll cover it I'm sure with many of your questions but the facts are specifically we need to stop the run and we haven't been able to stop the run at key times for several years and when you have the kind of extraordinary

rush that Michael had, then the way to mitigate that pass rush is to run at you. If the pass rush doesn't get you ahead pretty big time and you're playing even or behind, then you've really got a problem in stopping the run. So that was probably the most sound logical football explanation that, and even then you could poke holes in it because you're like, yeah, but you're still trading the premier pass rusher in the NFL, a position that outside of quarterback probably has the most value in the league right now. To wit, Micah Parsons signed a contract immediately with Green Bay, which made him the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL. Can they stop the run? Well, they're going to have a

harder time with it because they did have to trade one of their best interior defensive linemen in this deal. However, Jones... That is, that is some spin. So let's go, let's break down everything Jerry just said there. Did he make Michael slash Micah Parsons an offer? The answer is yes. He did this back in April. Now there was two issues with the offer. One, he made it directly to Parsons and didn't involve the agent. And that was obviously

going to be a contentious thinking point throughout this whole thing. Why did that happen? Why? Jerry being Jerry, probably wanted to go straight to the player and not necessarily, we don't need to deal with these lawyers, that sort of thing. But everyone's got an agent. I'm putting you on the spot I'm sorry here but that's just weird

That's exactly why he did it Okay The other reason that he did is I think he wanted to go straight to Parsons and tell him look We're not going to make you The highest paid player on the team Or the highest paid non-quarterback in the NFL

Because we don't like how that might play In our room and with our leadership group And everything like Dak's the guy And you know Which is a problem So there's another thing The Cowboys were never going to go as high as Micah Parsons

wanted to go. They wanted to go closer. I think it was the T.J. Watts contract, which was previously the high for the past rusher. Then you got to play in the Mikea Parsons side of things. And this is what you were talking about earlier in the week. He was very vocal and vehement on social media, about his behavior about not wanting to be there. That's where I think the spin comes in for Jones, where he says it wasn't personal, it wasn't vindictive. I can't, I can't buy that. I got a feeling that there was a certain element of, F me? No.

F you. Yeah, yeah. And we're going to make this trade. Well, when he, when he, I don't know, when he was asleep on that, was that him, asleep on the, yeah, yeah, like when he was asleep on, on the sideline and his coach is like, yeah, we got to, I'll deal with that. Like, that seemed, that seemed, I wonder if that was the breaking point. I really do. Could be. I wonder if Jerry saw that and said, this is terrible for the team. Sure. To have a guy acting like this. Yep. And here's the thing. I mean, this is a franchise that has traded star players in their prime before you got to go all the way back to Herschel Walker when the Cowboys did it quite famously trading into Minnesota and then

had a trade that revitalized their franchise. This just isn't that though. This is not that. This is less of a return for sure. And also, a team that has its own aspirations of doing something trading away, I would say it's best player, not best defensive player, best player, period. talk to enough people that cover the NFL really close. They'll say like Micah Parsons isn't just the best player defensively of his generation. Like I said earlier, you go back two decades and they put him ahead of Vaughn Miller, Miles Garrett, in terms of raw potential and the ability to get after the quarterback. And to ship him off to Green Bay. By the way, we're not even talking about Green Bay, but maybe we'll save that from when we talk to Nick Shoe because this really

elevates them into potential title contender. It's a fascinating day in the NFL. If you look at the Super Bowl futures. Dallas is now plus 6,000 to win the Super Bowl, which is actually the same odds as the Seahawks. Oh. So they're in that territory. And I don't know, to be offended if I'm a Seahawks fan, but whatever, I'm realistic. Sure. Green Bay is plus 1,400. So there's only five teams ahead of Green Bay, and that's Philly, Baltimore, Buffalo, KC, Detroit. So what Green Bay is thinking, if we talk about the Herschel Walker trade historically, they're thinking that this could be the

2025 version of Reggie White joining them in free agency many moons ago and that just how that totally changed the franchise, they won the Super Bowl with Brett Farve and with Reggie White leading the charge. It's a great look, we talk all the

time about the lack of movement in the national hockey league. This is an amazing, amazing deal not just because of the state and the players and the franchises involved, but right before the start of the NFL season. And these two teams will meet just a handful of weeks into the NFL season. And the game is going to fall on the same Sunday, Jason,

as the final day of the Ryder Cup. Right. How great is that? And it's the Sunday nighter. So you can watch all the singles matches at the Ryder Cup. That day is already a write-off for so many dudes. Right into Dallas Green Bay on Sunday night football. It might be one of the most unproductive Sundays of all time.

It might be. It just might be. Okay, let's bang through some other stuff here because a lot did happen overnight. On the baseball front, no Jay's game last night, no Mariners game last night either. But also no good news from the ALE East because the Yankees continued to roll their fifth win in a row, taking care of the White Sox last night. The Red Sox also won. that's their fourth street

yeah so I've actually I've copied the notes from the Yankees game in both I'm like that's weird Coley Bellinger hit home runs for the Yankees and the Red Sox last night So that's not right good player Wow he's versatile so You know that race is going to remain

tight I still think that You know what we need to find out by the ways we need to find out By the way is we need to find out what the J's odds are to win the ALE East I know we keep looking at their playoff odds And those are at like 99.8% now But I'd be curious to know what their odds are to win the AAL East because it's been about a five-game, four-and-a-half-game cushion for a while now. And the J's have...

71.4% according to fan graphs. So to clinch the buy, it's 67.3%. So I guess they're giving the Astros a bit of a chance to clinch the buy. And then the Js, of course, have a big series which begins tonight against the best team in baseball to Milwaukee Brewers. Right. Okay. And who's on the mound for the Jays? Who is on the mound for the Jays?

Bebes? It's the Bebs. Bebs is going on it? Nice. Is that two Fridays? I think he's going to only start him on Friday. I got Bieber fever. I'm a believer.

Oh, John Schneider. He started last Friday too, right? I believe so. They should only start him on Friday night. It's like a party vibe. Friday night, Beber Night. Yeah, play a little Bieber music. Can I be good.

There is some news, and I teased this earlier in the intro. And I want to get to it out. This kind of happened weirdly, very late last night. According to TSN, I believe was Matthew Schenetti. specifically, there is some transfer rumblings around Vancouver whitecaps and Canadian international midfielder Ali Ahmed potentially going to Bundesliga two side, Shalka. Is that Shalka 04? Yeah, Shalka 04.

The 04 stands for how many dollars they have left in the bank because they're virtually, like, they're broke. They're having a tough time. Anyway, this came down late last night, and it's coming very late. in the international window because the Bundesliga, like several other big European leagues, slams the transfer window shut on Monday.

Now, Shalka, as I mentioned, has fallen on hard times. It used to be not just a top tier Bundesliga team, but a very good team in that league. But obviously, they fall on a hard time with finances and everything else, so they're currently playing in the second division. Now, this is very, very interesting from several perspectives.

One, locally, it would not be great for the white caps if they were to lose Ahmed at this stage of the game. They've been without Ryan Gould, who is an attacking midfielder in a similar vein. They play different positions, but they're still those sort of like get up and go type guys, creative players. The white caps

did leave open an international spot. They monkeyed around with some gam, if I'm not mistaken, to make sure that they had one available. It's a good idea. Always want to do that, right? For the Canadian men's national team, I'm not going to lie, this could be a real boon because I think if Ahmed's going to

take the next step as a player might need to be elsewhere. I'm not sure if he's accomplished everything he's going to, but I think he kind of needs to... Is the second division of the German League better than MLS? No. It's one of the better second division. Probably Reagan alongside the championship, right? But they have aspirations

of going back up. It would be a nod to the future. Like, if they go back up and he's playing Bundes League of Minutes ahead of the World Cup. Okay. It's Ask Us Anything Friday. So let's bring a little hockey in here. And a reminder, text in your Ask Us Anything. into the Dunbar Lumber

text line 650, 650, Metro Vancouver's trusted choice for contractors and renter warriors for over 50 years visit them

at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com this comes from Wan from Comox I want

ask us anything with rumors going around that Petey got married this summer if you got invited to the wedding hint I wouldn't be

what would you give him as a gift? Wow. By the way, I don't think it's... Bread maker. Toaster? Did you see... Yeah, I don't know.

Gift certificate? What's the most useless thing ever on a wedding registry? Everyone fills them out, and then they just kind of take anything. No one will ever get me this. For like kitchen stuff? Yeah, chocolate fondue. The cascading one where you...

you just stick the fruit underneath or like the grapefruit knife yeah melon baller melon baller yeah melin baller something like that those are kind of small yeah you could probably i'm not getting i'm not getting i'm not getting well i'm not getting he just signed a not too long ago i don't i don't know if you heard he signed a pretty big contract so who peterson yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah for him yeah here's a question if you're in that tax bracket when you get married do you fill out a registry do you do you do you i don't think you fill out a registry it's unbecoming We could really use that. Well, unless you only have rich friends.

And then you're like, I better get some great gifts here. Okay. So the register, you know what? The registry would probably be like an elevated one. Like you wouldn't be like Tiffany's or something. Stan mixer. Like you'd be getting like better things. Yeah.

You're like, is this kitchen aid? Is this used? Was this returned? You're like, sorry, we tried to tape the box together. Did you see what Pedersen's trainer had to say? Yeah, he's getting yoked. He's got his jamback.

No, he's got his flowback. Flow back. Yeah, yeah. This was making the rounds on social media yesterday. I can't remember Petterson's trainer in Sweden, but he wrote a big long Instagram post

and there was some video of Peterson skating up and down the ice and people were like, wow, look, look at that. Skating, skating around pylons and everything. I hope the Canucks play a bunch of pylons. Listen, I'm going to take any positive news about Pedersen right now. And like we all hoped that Pedersen goes back to Sweden and just, you know, works on his game and finds something.

It wasn't an interesting post by that trainer, though, because he was saying that Pedersen is just like a challenging guy to work with. Just because he sees the game differently. and he's just, you know, he's a bit of a different dude. And anyway, I don't have it in front of me, but I'm sure you can find it. It is, so Juan from Comox also has another Ask Us Anything. Two Ask Us Anythings? And he said, what would it mean for the franchise

if we get a repeat of last year with the Canucks, PD being MIA, Demko or Hughes, getting injured long-term, team not producing? It could totally be a possibility, where does the team go from there. Juan, let's cross that bridge when we get to it. I don't even want to imagine it. Juan, I just told you that I'm excited to hear the good news

about Elias Pedersen and I'm trying to be positive. Let's bring some positivity to at least training camp, you know, and at least the preseason in the first few games. It is funny, though. If it doesn't look good right off the bat, there's going to be a lot. of like, oh boy, this isn't good. It is funny, though, because a lot of people... It's probably Adam Foote's fault, though.

I blame that. I blame the new guy. That's... He probably screwed up. Too much dump and chase. I'll say this. There, you know, everyone will say, well, any team that would suffer

injuries to their star goalie and defensemen and, you know, a no show from its number one center would struggle. My counter to that would be like, there are certain teams, when you talk about a foundation, like the ground that a team exists on and is built on.

Some are more stable and some are more fragile. The Kinex is very, very fragile. Yeah, that's the only way to describe it is. The Ben Rock is already kind of crumbling and any major crack Quinn Hughes could fall right through and then land in New Jersey.

Yeah. That's the scary part of the whole thing. That's very poetic. Yeah. I like that. Thanks. I was thinking about it. You're going to use that like a hundred times now.

Wait till you see how often I use this house analogy. But, you know, I think as it So back to your point, any news about Pedersen coming, any news about Pedersen coming back in good shape is important. Because if you want to do the sort of chronological graph of how things went pear-shaped last year, you can very much make the argument that everything started with him showing up in poor shape. That's what irritated J.T. Miller. And that's not a justification for the way that Miller behaved.

No, but looking at it just in terms of, like, Like A led to B and then B led to C and so on. For sure. Not showing up in great shape into camp, which I think everyone is pretty much identified as that happened. Yep. It led to, you know, the team's alpha being upset, then the Rift,

then the President of Hockey Ops acknowledgement that the Rift was, you know, it wasn't just the Rift, the relationship was broken. Yeah. Then they had to go fix that. And then in the aftermath, countless, countless executives from the team saying that that was the reason that that season went off the rails. So, you know, coming back in better shape is step one to not repeating last year, which is vitally important.

He has to show himself and show his teammates that he's committed. And, you know, and hopefully there are, you know, there's still a bunch of people that will blame everything last year on injuries. And frankly, it doesn't really matter. Like, he just needs to come back and be the dominant player that we've seen him be before. Okay, before we go to break, I need to tell you about Jan Pro from the boardroom to the break room and everywhere in between. JanPro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected. For a free quote, visit them online at Janpro.com. You're listening to The Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650.

632 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. It's a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough show on Sports Night 6. Oh, it sure is. Adog's really getting into it. It kind of sounds like Mario. Let's a goal.

Yeah, I can hear it. That's from a video game reference. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. Super Mario Brothers. Yeah, there we go. Duck hunt. They don't have cards, though.

Halford and Brub of the morning is bratsy by Sands and Associations. Let's learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee.com. So a week from today, Canada is going to embark on a pair of very important friendlies ahead of the 2026 World Cup. Friendlies is all we have left now before the World Cup gets underway next summer. The following ones will be in Romania and then in Wales. There's a handful of other ones on the books as well. very busy times for Canadian football though

with a lot of international transfers either underway or being rumored so we wanted to check in on all of it joining us now from One Soccer, very happy to have them on the program Oliver Platt here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Warren Oliver, how are you? Well, thanks guys, good morning, how are you?

We're good, thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So I did want to look ahead to the friendlies that are upcoming in the squad that Jesse Marsh selected for these friendly. So it's a little bit of a unique mix. There's some veteran guys that were brought back into the squad, some veteran guys omitted from the squad, new faces, as always. When the roster was announced and you saw the guys that were going to be on the plane to Romania and Wales, what were your initial thoughts in, you know, with a week to let it marinate, your thoughts on the

squad that Marsh has selected for these friendlies? Yeah, pretty much as expected. I think for the most part, I think probably the biggest thing that stood out to me was no Jonathan the Zorio, who probably hasn't had a great season, to be honest, in MLS, and it's been a struggle with Toronto FC, obviously, for a few years now, but this is a player who I believe is, from remembering correctly, fourth in caps for Canada. He's been in every squad for a number of years, unless he's been injured, and he's played a pretty integral role, even as a player who's never made that jump to Europe in some pretty big games over the years, World Cup qualifiers and matches like that. So to see him out as someone who Jesse Marsh has talked up quite a bit over the past year or two,

I think it makes sense based on kind of form and where he's at in his career, age 33 right now. I don't think he's completely ruled out going forwards. But it was still a surprise to see that kind of senior player exit the squad for the time being. And then another one come back in a junior hoiler who maybe people had forgotten about a little bit and, you know, playing in Scottish football and 35 years old now. What did you make of Jesse Marsh's comments about leadership and needing more, quote-unquote, big leaders that understand what the best games are about? That's an interesting one because he keeps saying it.

So it is clearly something that is very much of the forefront of his mind, I think, coming off the Gold Cup. Clearly there were issues at the Gold Cup in terms of just kind of in-game management. And I think when it happened in the group stage in the Curisal game, I think a lot of, people put it down to the bench because Marsh was still suspended. He was up in the stands, couldn't properly communicate, and maybe felt that his presence was missed. But then it happened again, obviously, in that disastrous quarter final against Guatemala, where you have a red card from Jacob Shackleberg that puts you in a really difficult spot. But then still, even with 10 men, with Canada's quality, they should have done better than they did in that second half, didn't

manage it very well, looked naive at times in their approach. Again, I think the coach came in for some criticism on that front and maybe justifiably, but I think he's also looking for the leaders on the pitch. You could manage those situations. Maybe keep the team a bit calmer and a bit more under control. So I think that'll be interesting to see how we kind of acts on

that in terms of his team selection. I think particularly the goalkeeper situation is interesting in that regard because he's talked to Maxine Cropos is maybe having a bit more of that in Bain Sinclair. So we'll see what the kind of implications are in terms of his selections, but it's certainly something

he's mentioned a few times in the past couple of weeks. What about Marsh himself though? Sometimes he lacks a bit of composure and he'll say things that kind of bring heat onto his own team and Mike and I were talking earlier in the week and we were wondering if like the book on Canada is you can get under their skin. Yeah, it's a good point and definitely something that I think will be interesting to watch going forward is that as much as, you know, we can talk about that being a clear deficiency for Canada. It's kind of in some ways baked into Jesse Marsh's approach, right? It's baked into

his approach to the media where, as you said, he's made some big statements. He tries to get his team quite fired up and, you know, kind of Dem against the World mentality. And I think it's baked into his style of play as well. He wants the team to play fast. He wants to produce kind of a pretty chaotic style of football that gets in the opponent's face and really throws everything at them and does that have some negative side effects in terms of composure in the big moments

and being able to keep your calls. So that again is somewhere where you'd maybe like to see okay, can we take some of the good stuff that we saw the Copper America last summer where Canada really used their athleticism and just outrun and outpowered teams at times and balance it with a bit more. maturity, a bit more quality and possession and ability to maybe calm and slow games down

when the time is right as well. So who are the leaders on Canada? Who will be their leaders that he's looking for? Because some of them aren't eligible to play or won't play in these friendlies. What names can you throw out there? Like, who do you think is going to be the captain at the World Cup? I think it will still be Alfonso Davies. I just think it would be too much of a story to reverse that decision but I think it's been acknowledged that Alfonso is not a kind of natural

spokesperson or leader in that regard he's more of a figurehead and the best player type of captain right so Stefan Estacchio is the guy and obviously he was absent at the Gold Cup this summer so that that was a loss he's the one who I think organizes them and is the most vocal player in the center of midfields

other than that I think there are probably leadership rolls up for grabs Alistair Johnston I think would be one who is growing into it he's obviously got a pretty serious injury now so I don't think he's going to play to Canada until March which is a real problem as that back four continues to take some pretty big knocks

you hope that again another absent player someone like Moise Bombito can grow into it given his importance to the team and then Jonathan David kind of not quite the same to Alfonso but similar in some ways a quieter presence but someone who I think leads in terms of his conduct and the way he kind of goes about his business. So it's not a team that I would say is necessarily full of kind of natural leaders.

But you're hoping to see, I think, over the next 12 months, some of the more kind of prominent players maybe step into that role and embrace it. I do wonder how much more the dynamic will change where Alfonso Davies was at one point, clearly in heads and tails above everyone else in terms of being the best player in quality. because if you look specifically at Jonathan David now playing in Sariaa and being a leader for Juventus, at least in terms of leading the attack, and then you see what Tejohn Buchanan's doing at Villarreal.

There are other contenders for that crown in the Canadian squad now. Yeah, absolutely. Like Tejad, I think, looks a different player since he joined Villareal. That's completely rebuilt his confidence. We saw it in the summer. We saw it obviously this past weekend. If Jonathan David succeeds at Juventus, I know that club's maybe not on the pinnacle of where it has.

has been right now, but it's still a massive club, so it puts him, you know, somewhat on a level with Alfonso. And it's also just the nature of the sport, right? That if Alfonso continues to play less back, it's difficult to get the shine that a winger and a striker are going to get in terms of the prominence in the team. So that I think is going to be a debate that opens back up when he gets healthy, is do you keep him in that back line, which has been a real strength under Jesse Marsh when they've been able to get Davies, Cornelius, Bobito, and Johnston on the field together? Or do you give him? Alfonso a bit more freedom to play, you know, on the opposite side to Buchanan and join

the attack a little bit more. So I think that's, that's a debate that we've had for years that's coming back as soon as he gets healthy as well. But yeah, you can see in the way in which in particular this team is built around Jonathan David's, you know, has been really kind of a feature of the way Jesse Marsh has played. There's been a big difference to the way John Hurdman set the team up. We're speaking to one soccer's Oliver Platt here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Oliver, in hearing Jesse Mark Marsh speak this week,

ever the optimist, he did point to a couple positives that may have come from an otherwise disappointing summer and Gold Cup. And one of them was that they expanded the player pool and had some new guys

coming to maybe push the likes of Jonathan Osorio out, you know, having a turnover in squad and bringing some younger players in. The other one was this continued stream of Canadian internationals

that are landing overseas and signing with your European clubs. It looks like Taniolo O'Shea is going to join Tejan-Bucanan at Villa Raal. Have you heard anything more, and I know this happened late last night, so I'm sorry for throwing you on the spot, but there are rumors that Vancouver Whitecaps midfield and Canadian International Ali Ahmed is receiving interest from Shalkin, Germany. Do you have you heard about

that so far? I had not heard a specific club on that, but I did hear a few days ago that someone's in for Ahmed. So that is a really interesting one because there's already been so many moves and then you look at the list of players that could still move and it's still five or six long of you know important Canadian international so it's been a crazy summer in that regard in the amount of change and I think that's going to be an interesting dynamic to kind of watch for this team with so many players in new environments but yeah we did get a bit of a heads up a few days ago that Ahmed was attracting some attention I didn't know where it was specifically but that would obviously be a massive move for him as well. I know your co-worker at One Soccer, Gareth Wheeler was talking about this the other day, but I wanted to ask you, is it sort of imperative that players move

on from MLS to further strengthen, especially with their national teams? Or can they still do that while playing in North America? Yeah, it's an interesting one. I think a lot of them are going to feel pressure to do that because so many of their international teammates are doing it, and so you think,

like, can I compete for a place in the lineup with a team that could pick a lineup of European-based players now if I'm still playing in MLS. I think in most cases particularly with younger players like Ali Ahmed you're going to see them want to give that a try and to

push themselves to go to Europe and I think that's still the right thing just personally as well as professionally it's a challenging set for them and I think a good one. I also think that there are players who are going to come back and that's okay and that's not going to rule them out of national team consideration

like you look at someone like Jaden Nelson who spent a few years over there worked out in Norway, didn't work out in Germany very well. But he's come back a better player, and he's absolutely in the national team picture for how he's played with the white caps this season. Richie Larea, same thing, like went over, gave it a try. In that particular situation, it didn't work out, but he's clearly still a top MLS player who has a part to play for the national team.

So you'd like to see them, you know, as many of them as possible, try to push themselves and give it a go, but I don't think it's the end of your national team career if it doesn't happen to you over there. Oliver, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do it today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the friendlies next weekend. Should be a lot of fun.

Thank you, guys. Likewise. All the best. Thank you. That's Oliver Platte from One Soccer here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Let's pivot from the Canadian men's national soccer team to the Canadian men's national hockey team. Because Canada's Olympic camp is underway in Calgary right now. We're going to have Eric Francis on the show at 730.

He's been doing the rounds at camp. He was there for the Crosby McDavid-Rinehart Presser. Talk to Doug Armstrong, talk to Coupe. But there's a lot to chew on just from the remarks. And I think the more interesting ones are from the coach and the general manager. Because there's some real decisions to be made there. I mean, I think it boils down to how much turnover is there going to be from the Four Nations roster. I mean, you can start with which old guys are going to make it.

I think Sidney Crosby's a lock. But what about Marchand, Mark Stone, Drew Dowdy. I think a lot of that will depend how they look to start this season. And the same goes for, you know, for example, the young guys that might replace them. Badard and Celebrini are both at this camp. And John Cooper said of those two, there's 43 players here and there's going to be 25 going to the Olympics. Some guys are not going to make it. Those two might. But this is the 2006 Olympics. There's going to be a 2030 Olympics. There's going to be a 2034. So he's basically saying, look, they're here because they're in the

running to make this team. But there's a long runway for their careers. And Doug Armstrong said those two, Celebrini and Bedard and Doug Armstrong is a GM by the way. They've been told that October 7th to January 1st, is massive for them like it is for everyone else. I think it would be like I think a team needs some turnover. Like I really do. Running a back is dangerous. Running back is totally dangerous.

And I'm in some ways like I'm glad. I'm glad that Canada won the Four Nations. Man, that was fun hockey and what a way to win it too. but I also think it just gives more motivation to the Americans and I just hope that Canada isn't too overconfident going into this tournament because they've won the four nations. Now, I don't think they will be,

but the Olympics really is what matters. So, and Canada, because they have players like Sidney Crosby is always the favorite at these Olympics just because they've done it before. They've won it. They've owned the big moments. And until the Americans own those big moments,

you know, they haven't done it yet. So there's going to be that insecurity with them. So here's my thought. When Armstrong said those dates from, what was it, October to January are going to be really important. I hope that's not just lip service. And I hope that the brass genuinely means it. Because last year, I don't think that anyone was playing

their way onto that team through the first half of the NHL season. I think that team was picked in October. Yeah. You know? And we talked about it with the goaltending ad nauseum. Like going into the four nations, we were all saying, like, the three goalies that they picked are not the three best

goalies in the NHL right now. Right? I think it was Thompson. Who are the, Lattie, do you remember off the top of your head who the three goalies were that were on the outside looking in? Blackwood, Thompson. Kemper? Kempter. Flurry was in the

mix. Logan Thompson, Darcy, Kemper, McKenzie Blackwood, I think were the three. They were the three best active goalies. Now, in the end, the decision to go with Bennington, it worked, right? But a lot of people tied that to Doug Armstrong, right? Just like they tie a guy like Sorrelli being on the team through Coop. Right. And I don't, you know, I know, wasn't what I'm trying to remember.

Laddie hates Sorrelli. Lattie was frustrated. I don't hate the usage of Sorelly at all moment. He got used a lot. You got used a lot. I hate that they used them on the national team. Yeah. There are some interesting players that didn't make the team,

the Four Nations team. They're at our camp that I'm curious about. Suzuki and Shifley. Yeah. The next one's the one that is the most interesting by far. Tom Wilson. Tom is the most interesting by far. Do they need to have that type of player?

Let's say that Marshawn starts this season and he's kind of like, oh, he's looking like he's slowing down. a little bit. I know he has before and then he's looked that way and then you can see how valuable he is to have on the team. I mean, he had a pretty good year last year, won the Four Nations and then the Stanley Cup. Mark Stone is at this camp. I don't know what his health is, but I thought he looked slow in the Four Nations. He's never been a beautiful skater. Far from it and he's such a good player. One of my favorite, one of my favorite players. But like this hockey is going to be so go so fast. So like, is Pareko going to be on this team or does a guy like Noah Dobson get a look? Horvats at this camp.

So, okay, I want to go back to Wilson because I've said this a few times, I'll reiterate. I think he should be on the plane, on the roster, on the 25 man. Because the line of thinking for me is have that club in your bag, have that bullet in your chamber. You don't need to use it. Yeah, it's a bigger roster than... It's 25. It's 25. So the Four Nations was the 23-man roster. Coup joked, actually. He's like, we could just bring the 23-man roster from the Four Nations, add two guys to it.

We're done, right? Let's go home. Let's go play some golf. We don't even need to be in Calgary anymore. I think with this, you look at it and you say, if something happens during the tournament and you need a different look or you need a different wrinkle. Yeah. Is it not more advantageous to have Tom Wilson all 6'4 and 200,

30 pounds of him. He scored 33 goals last year and he provides an element that other guys just quite frankly can't for a multitude of reasons. Do you not just bring them along and say if things go a certain way, we would rather have you in our mix than out of it. Is it too risky though in some ways? Like it's double IHF rules. Yep. It's risky. On an NHL rank. Correct me if I'm wrong on that because these things are so confusing sometimes. What rules are we playing here? It's I it's actually of the I double HF, the International Hockey Hockey Federation. So it's their rules on NHL ice.

I would almost say that you park, and I know the international rules are very, very punitive when it comes to things that Tom Wilson loves, like headshots. So I get the fear. I'm just saying, if something goes in a direction

where you need a really significant game to, or you need to mix it up, right? Yeah. And we've seen it. international competitions before. Sometimes things aren't working. I think having him on the plane and having him on the roster,

like he's, hockey Canada and the Canadian national have identified, you know, check your ego at the door as like a primary thing. So it's not going to be like Wilson's going to upset

the apple curve. He's not playing. Yeah. You may not use him. But if you need to, I think he would be more valuable than honestly, no disrespect than guys like,

you know, Suzuki, I know, it's a center and a winger. So maybe that's not the most apropos. comparison but I don't pick a winger that's in the Suzuki might be a winger on that team

yeah like I personally think at this stage of the game given what you don't know about Mark Stone's health and what you do know about what Tom Wilson brings to the table I could see that being a flip totally yeah no I agree with you the one thing I keep coming back to I know everyone likes to argue about the goaltending is in worry about the goaltending

like I don't worry about the forward group at all whatever they pick I'm pretty confident that Canada is going to have an amazing forward group. I don't love this defense. No. Just compared to previous Canadian Olympic blue lines, which have been so stacked,

and I think at the end of the day, have been the difference makers compared to the other countries. Quinn Hughes is going to play for the Americans unless he gets hurt again, which would be really unfortunate. Yes, they've got kale McCar. How many other future Hall of Famers are going to be on that blue line?

Because Canada has taken like five or six future Hall of Famers on their blue line to previous Olympics. I would take, currently, I would take the U.S. Blue Line over the Canadian Blue Line, right? If you got me sitting down and, you know, you're holding people that I care about hostage and you're like, you got to make a decision one way or another. May you have to answer the question. No, but seriously, okay, so Dowdy's going to be a future Hall of Famer for sure, but he's not, he might not even make this statement. He's old. He might not even make this team. Who else?

Who else? Who else is a future Hall of Famer in this blue line besides Kail McCar? Like, I don't think Evan Bouchard is going to make the team. I hope he doesn't. I think he's going to run the power play. I think he's going to be on, and I don't love it. Why would they put him on there? Because I think that...

McCar is going to be their power play guy. Yeah, I think that they might, if they care, well, they won, they got a 25 roster. if they're going to, that would be Macar insurance and he would, I think he's going to be on the roster. I do. Like is Shea Theodore, a future Hall of Famer? He's Hall of Very Good. Yeah.

Like who, who else? Like I, I, anyway. Well, Petro's not. We got, we got, we got lots of time to talk about this team. But for me, I want to see some of these young guys or younger guys really step up and add to their game in the regular season on that blue line because I got to be honest with it. like we were watching Four Nations.

I'm like Travis Sannheim's out there a lot, isn't he? That was a mistake. That pick was a mistake. No, no, no, I don't think it was. It was because they played Harley over him. Yeah, that's true. I guess. Thomas Harley played well, but wow, that was such a surprise when he came in there.

I actually really like him. I do too. Yeah. I do too. Future Hall of Famer Thomas Harley. There's, you got two on the team now. Okay, we got to go to break. Hour one is in the books.

Hour two on the horizon. AJ from AJ's pizza. A.J. anything Friday, $100 gift card to AJ's pizzas on the horizon. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us at 705 to talk about the Micah Parsons trade. Eric Francis is going to join us at 730 to talk about Olympic camp in Calgary. It's a big second hour. Don't go anywhere.

You're listening to The Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.