Halford & Brough in the Morning - England Is Going Back To The Euro Finals

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

In hour one, Mike & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they chat with The Athletic FC's Iain Macintosh live from London, as England gets set to take on Spain... in their second straight Euro Cup final (27:00), plus the boys discuss some more Canucks hypotheticals (45:00). 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.

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Starting point is 00:00:25 Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na- It's one to left field. He's tagged it pretty well. And he's done it again. Ernie Clement with his second three-run homer in as many games. It was unbelievably hot yesterday. I saw a dog chasing a cat yesterday, and they were both walking. It was really hot. I mean, we all wanted to be loved, right? Good morning, Vancouver. 6-0-1 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Starting point is 00:00:47 It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. It's not quite Halford and Brough. It's Halford and Elliot Wolfe. Josh Elliot Wolfe is here.
Starting point is 00:00:58 Good morning, Josh. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.
Starting point is 00:01:11 They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. And we are coming to you
Starting point is 00:01:31 live from the Kintec studio. Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet. What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Okay, to the guest list we go. It begins today at 6.30. Ian McIntosh from the Athletic FC.
Starting point is 00:01:48 Their football vertical at the Athletic. I thought you were going somewhere else with that. Ian McIntosh. Nope. McIntosh. It's been confusing me for the last 24-ish hours. Totally different iMac. This is another iMac.
Starting point is 00:01:59 This is the British iMac. Yeah, that's right. Ian spelled the same way. Spells the same way. Yeah, it is. Good insight, everybody. Should we just call him IMAC? We got to the bottom of this.
Starting point is 00:02:07 We did our research yesterday when we found out who were out on the show. We're going to ask Ian McIntosh from The Athletic about Jake DeBrusque's new number 74 with the Vancouver Canucks. Imagine if he's like incredibly knowledgeable about hockey. Which is his old number 74. No, we're going to talk to him about the Euro final now booked. It is England. It is Spain on Sunday after another dramatic late victory for the English yesterday. Ian McIntosh at 630.
Starting point is 00:02:32 7 o'clock, Adnan Virk is going to join the program from MLB Network. 730, Michael Grange is going to join us. I believe he's live on location down in Vegas for Canada and the U.S. last night in an international basketball exhibition, a star-studded affair in Vegas at T-Mobile. We'll talk to Michael Grange about that and preview Canada's Olympic men's basketball team. 8 o'clock, this is the big one. Peter Drury is going to join the program.
Starting point is 00:02:58 He, of course, one of the most iconic play-by-play voices in the world. Global football presence. He calls games for Sky Sports. He calls games for Sky Sports. He calls games for NBC Sports. He's also, for many of you, the definitive voice of the 2024 European Championships. He was on the call yesterday for England-Netherland. So we'll talk to Peter Drury from Berlin.
Starting point is 00:03:19 Right, Andy? He's joining us live from Berlin. Yeah, Dortmund or something. It's Berlin. Oh, it's Berlin. Yeah. Somewhere in Germany. Cool. Very good. So that'll be Berlin. Oh, it's Berlin. Yeah. Somewhere in Germany. Cool.
Starting point is 00:03:26 Very good. So that'll be good. Duncard. I don't think it's Duncard. Yeah, Duncard. Peter Drury at 8. Michael Grange at 7.30. Adnan Virk at 7.00.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Ian McIntosh at 6.30. 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.
Starting point is 00:03:49 What happened? You missed that? 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 josh how much are you loving this hot footy summer oh well i'm a big football guy yeah so it's been great
Starting point is 00:04:12 before we get into the england game in all honesty like you probably did you play growing up at all nope did you follow it at all sometimes yeah right so that's a no. Are you surprised at the vigor in which we have, and this collectively as a station, because it's hard even getting guests because all the other shows are aggressively chasing. Can I just say thank God for soccer? I mean. That's the first time anyone's ever uttered that on the air.
Starting point is 00:04:36 It warms my heart. I'm proud of us. What are we talking about right now if it wasn't for Copa and Euro? Blue Jays baseball. So part of it obviously is that the European Championships are on, but also the rise of Canadian soccer is forced, and I use the word forced a lot of people to pay attention
Starting point is 00:04:52 because Canada is now a major player, including going to the semifinals of the Copa America. But I'm curious, because I always love asking sort of like a neutral's perspective on this, because one, the sport can be incredibly difficult to watch aesthetically oftentimes there are goalless ties which everybody loves and then secondly there's the sense of you
Starting point is 00:05:11 got to get caught up right like you're pretty well versed in sports you're like i'm good on my sports knowledge it's what i do for a living professionally yet there's one that i know a lot about yeah so with soccer it's it's i do think it's think the main catalyst has been Canada men playing better and being in these major tournaments. But even the Euro, I'm fully tuned into the Euro and I've been following it the whole tournament. So it's definitely, I think, for casual fans that I would put myself into, it's taking people by storm a little bit. And the further Canada goes, I think the further people get invested into other teams and other tournaments as well. I will say this.
Starting point is 00:05:53 The ability to watch and the widespread coverage is like when I was growing up, as we go way back in the day, there was an hour-long program early on Saturday mornings on TSN, Soccer Saturday, hosted by Graham Leggett, that was like an hour long, and it would run through all of the English Premier League highlights from the week, and then you'd throw in some Scottish Premier League,
Starting point is 00:06:17 and that was your soccer coverage. There was nothing televised. You'd get the odd Canadian Soccer League game with the 86ers, and now we live in a world where two major tournaments, every single match is broadcast. And in the case of the Canada games at the Copa, we're talking like an hour pregame show and an hour postgame show, dedicated.
Starting point is 00:06:38 And that's how you get the casual viewer in. If someone was sitting around on Friday night and just wanted to watch some sports, that was front and center. Canada-Vuela the on last friday was front and center primetime viewing it's held in north america so it's a really interesting dynamic that's at play because more casual people are just seeing it readily available for the first time ever on sorry go ahead sorry and i i think that's kind of been my hold up with soccer in general is how difficult it's been to watch. You used to have to go seek it out.
Starting point is 00:07:08 I know. And now it's easy. Now it's right there. Except for like EPL. Yeah, right. But that's fine. So yesterday's match, Olly Watkins, another dramatic goal for England. This time, Olly Watkins, the hero.
Starting point is 00:07:20 This time in the first minute of stoppage time, England 2-1 victors over the Netherlands on Wednesday. With that, England books a place in Sunday's Euro 2024 final. They also advance to their second consecutive European final and the opportunity to win a major title for the first time since the 1966 World Cup. When people compare England to the Toronto Maple Leafs and their supporters to Leafs fans, part of the reason is that the Leafs have not won anything of significance since 67 and England since 66.
Starting point is 00:07:53 It's been an awfully long time. Really? That long? Yes. Wow. Yes. It's been a long time. They should try to win more.
Starting point is 00:07:59 They should try and win more. I thought they were supposed to be good at soccer. You'd think with the amount of time and effort dedicated to it, the amount of coverage, the amount of pundits. So what's the deal? They just choke a lot? They do choke a lot. Okay. They get to major tournaments and they fall flat,
Starting point is 00:08:13 although that narrative has reversed course under Gareth Southgate, the new manager, who has come under incredible scrutiny this tournament. And we'll get into this more with Peter Drury and Ian McIntosh at 8 o'clock and 6.30. But I want to get this interview out there. So following the win over the Netherlands, Gareth Southgate, who has been heavily, heavily criticized this tournament. A very weird juxtaposition where his team keeps winning and advancing,
Starting point is 00:08:40 yet the calls for his head were loud throughout. They're starting to get a little bit less now because you know they're in the final but Southgate had a very emotional presser talking about the gift that he gave to these English fans yesterday by getting his team to the Euro final the same fan base that has been you know cleavers out knives out for Southgate for large chunks of this tournament Southgate says at the end of the day, we all just want to be loved. Here's what the England manager had to say following a 2-1 win over the Netherlands
Starting point is 00:09:10 on Wednesday, booking a place in Sunday's Euro 2024 final. Yeah, I mean, we all want to be loved, right? So, when you're doing something for your country and you're a proud Englishman,
Starting point is 00:09:28 when you don't feel that back and when all you read is criticism, it's hard. So, yeah, to be able to celebrate a second final is very, very special. And, you know, especially with fans that travel, you know, our travelling support is amazing, the amount of money they spend to travel, the commitment to do that, to be able to give them nights like this and I think we have given them a few over the last six years from Russia onwards.
Starting point is 00:10:00 It means a lot. If I hadn't been on the grass, I'd have been watching, celebrating like they were. So we're kindred spirits in many ways. But of course, I'm the one that has to pick a team. And yeah, so to be able to give them a night like tonight, very, very special. He's a far more gracious man than I would have been.
Starting point is 00:10:27 I would have been like, to all of you that are cheering me on, remember when you hated me? I hate you all. Goodbye. And then I would have walked off and the press conference would have been over. And that's why you don't manage England.
Starting point is 00:10:37 That's why I don't manage England. One of the main reasons. One of the main reasons. Again, we'll talk to Peter Drury and Ian McIntosh more about that narrative and then everything going in to Sunday's final, including the fact that Spain have been the best team in this tournament by a large margin, and England's going to have its work cut out for it on Sunday. Let's go down to Vegas here.
Starting point is 00:10:59 From a Canadian perspective, we've all been very excited about the Canadian men's national soccer team. But the Canadian men's national basketball team got its pre-Olympic games underway yesterday by taking on a star-studded American team down in Vegas in an international friendly, as evident by the fact that Canada played every single guy on the roster and significant minutes. 86 to 72, the Canadians lose to the U.S. A lot of people in attendance, including Barack Obama, who was in the house yesterday for that one. Star-studded affair, as I mentioned. Josh watched it.
Starting point is 00:11:34 What was your big takeaway from yesterday's game? The U.S. is scary was kind of the first one. And also, in terms of takeaways from what Canada can do in this tournament, in the Olympics, moving forward is there wasn't really a big takeaway. Because it was a friendly. But I saw the minutes distribution from Canada. Yeah. And like I mentioned earlier, like, I don't think anyone played more than 17.
Starting point is 00:11:59 And I don't think anyone played less than seven. It was very elementary school basketball where like, well, you joined the team, you get to play. Yeah, you got to play some minutes. Everyone played yesterday. And Jordy Fernandez said he wants the team to be physical and that he wasn't going to run players
Starting point is 00:12:14 into the ground in the game. So it was expected. None of the starters played in the fourth quarter as well. The difficulties, I think, and the one thing maybe you can take away from last night that started to be evident, especially when Bam Andabayo and Anthony Davis
Starting point is 00:12:33 are on the other team, is Canada does not have a lot of size. And especially when Zach Eadie also isn't playing for the team, they lack some height. Some of the people into the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket, the hoopie heads that listen to the Halford and Brough show, have made mention on a number of occasions that the one Achilles heel for Canada
Starting point is 00:12:53 might end up being their bigs or their lack thereof. Because they started Powell yesterday. They put Olenek on the bench. And those are the two guys. That's it. That's it. And again, you mentioned the guys that the U.S. can roll out. And not even just the bigs for the U.S.
Starting point is 00:13:08 Every time I'd flip over the game, there would be moments where I'd look at who was on the floor for the Americans. And it is kind of overwhelming. It's scary. Yeah. At one point, I flipped over and they had a four-man unit. I can't remember who was playing in the post, but the four guys on the perimeter were LeBron, Steph Curry,
Starting point is 00:13:26 Devin Booker, and Ant Edwards. That is four bonafide first-team, all-NBA, all-star type guys. All they really need to do is to figure out the chemistry part of it. Yeah, and maybe they won't, but it won't matter because they're all five amazing players. But the thing that I always think of with with canada basketball is like there's some similarities i guess between them and canada soccer where it's like man you've been so underwhelming for so long and now you you kind of have this moment where there are now expectations on you and we'll see see how they do. I mean, they have the second best odds.
Starting point is 00:14:06 So theoretically, they should be competing for a medal. By the way, they haven't won a medal at the Olympics since 1936. That's right. I mean, they haven't been at the Olympics in over 20 years. It's been a minute. Yeah. And they're in the group of death. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:21 So they've got Spain, Australia, Greece, and Canada, of course. So Spain's ranked second in the world. The FIBA rankings are a little skewed, though. Australia's fifth. The Australians are going to be a very difficult team, by the way. They've got a lot of NBA talent as well. And then Greece, I'm still not entirely sure what to make of them because they've obviously got Giannis Antetokounmpo,
Starting point is 00:14:40 but he's the only NBA representative. I know his brother has played in the NBA. He's been there watching, clapping, occasionally taking off his tearaways. He wants to trade, though. Yeah, right. He wants to bloom somewhere else. So I'll be very curious to see how that plays
Starting point is 00:14:55 out when the teams get to Paris for the Olympics at the end of the month. We did have some NHL news yesterday, everybody. Yeah, we had some NHL news. Two stories of note that I want to pass along. Didn't need the rap horns, but that's fine. Big news! Is Ryan Suter signing with the St. Louis Blues
Starting point is 00:15:11 big news? Yeah, because another central team has agreed to pay him money. It is to one listener in particular that keeps trying to get me to book a blues guy to specifically talk about this. The Ratic Foxa trade? Yeah, I'm really, really stoked about this. So, this is more of a
Starting point is 00:15:28 comical note than an actual news story. Ryan Suter now... Living the dream. He loves the Central Division. Josh and I were talking about this earlier, and Josh pointed out, Ryan Suter hates coasts, east and or west. He's afraid of water. Not a big water guy.
Starting point is 00:15:43 Just wants to stay landlocked. Imagine if that was the reason why he has a big fear of water. He played in Minnesota, some land of lakes, I guess. But coasts. Ocean specific. Saltwater, he is not a fan of. That's the headline here. Ryan Suter hates saltwater. Yeah, he doesn't like sharks. There's no sharks in Minnesota.
Starting point is 00:16:00 He's played for now four, there's eight teams in the NHL Central Division, and he's played for four of them. Nashville, Minnesota in the, in the NHL central division. And he's played for four of them, Nashville, Minnesota, Dallas, and now the St. Louis blues.
Starting point is 00:16:09 What's more, he's going to be paid by three of them at the same time. His buyout from the Minnesota wild is still going on. His buyout from the Dallas stars is still going on. And now he's going to be, get a base salary of $775,000 with the St. Louis Blues, but could get up to $2.25 million with performance bonuses.
Starting point is 00:16:32 Is 39-year-old Ryan Suter living the dream right now? Yes. That is wildly impressive. It's the OEL move. But OEL kind of wasn't in control. Yeah. But it's... I wasn't in control. But
Starting point is 00:16:45 it's... I don't even know. Is he going to make an impact in St. Louis? No. He's just going to get paid. He can go. He can hang out. He can stay in shape. He's 39 years old. He gets some good exercise. And then he gets paid. Even if it doesn't work out, he can sit there and collect his royalty checks from the wild
Starting point is 00:17:01 and from the stars. There was another bit of news from the National Hockey League yesterday as well. The Alex Morello era is officially over. What an era it was. Good work by PHNX Sports' Craig Morgan, who reached out to NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley yesterday and said, hey, can I get an update on what's going on with Morello and the inactive NHL franchise.
Starting point is 00:17:25 It is the Arizona coyotes. And then, uh, daily confirmed that after that latest land bid auction went kaput and Morello had no new place to build a friend, uh, build a, uh,
Starting point is 00:17:38 an arena, he relinquished his rights to the Arizona coyotes franchise. Um, he made the decision for stop looking for another arena, apparently, shortly after the bid fell through. He didn't even try and pick up the pieces and go find another one. Shocking. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:17:58 And so as for the future of hockey in Arizona, Bettman said at the NHL Board of Governors meetings that it's not something that the league has on the front burner or that it's focused on. So if they do ever end up going back to Arizona, one, it's not going to be with Alex Morello involved in any capacity. And two, it might not be for an awfully long
Starting point is 00:18:16 time. So the Arizona Coyotes doggone acid logo might just be sitting in cobwebs for a while. Nuts. And it didn't even move to Utah with them, all the franchise rights. Would you not want to wash that stink off your franchise? Right, I do wonder if the new owner, Ryan Smith,
Starting point is 00:18:35 kind of had that as part of it. When Gary Bettman proposed this entire thing, which was, we're going to do this very unique step of making a franchise inactive, meaning that they still exist. They're just currently on pause. Like we hit the pause button on the VCR. Oh, also you can take all of their players.
Starting point is 00:18:50 You can take their players and you can take some stuff. But if you don't want to take some stuff, Ryan Smith, what do you think about that? And he'd be like, well, great. You're right because it is the stink of the organization. Yeah. It was definitely if you're taking an organization, you don't want to take the history of the Arizona Coyotes. And I guess that's fair.
Starting point is 00:19:11 But it is just it's weird, I guess, more than anything. I don't know. I kind of just always thought the Arizona thing would just work out eventually. Well, it might still. They will. I would not be surprised if they will go back, but we're talking decades down the road. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:27 And I think that it's a market that almost needed the reset to alleviate itself of Morello first and foremost. And then I think a lot of people are going to want to just rid themselves of the Coyotes' existence entirely and say, there's hockey fans in Arizona. They would like a team to come back, but not that team because the stain of Glendale and Moyes
Starting point is 00:19:53 and everything else that they had to deal with over the course of three decades there. It just was more bad times than good. And then I think that there was a love for the sport in certain pockets, but maybe, and this works on two levels the franchise and i think there was some angst with the nhl as well as to how the whole thing was handled and i do think that yeah just having a break from it and and taking your time if you're going to go back and making sure everything is perfectly set up to have potential success when they or if they eventually
Starting point is 00:20:26 go back is is crucial because it kind of feels like everything for the last two decades almost has kind of been like i guess this is gonna happen next and then it's not really gonna work out and then we'll try to do something else and oh man that didn't work either for 20 years um so we'll move we'll finish here with the blue jays josh is wearing his Blue Jays hat today and Laddie is also wearing his Blue Jays hat but he's got a cool backwards hat. I have my headset on. I don't want it to I can't do a backwards hat. I look
Starting point is 00:20:54 like a dweeb. I always clank it off the microphone. Just do it for a second. Just turn your hat back right now. Okay. Let me see. This is good live radio here folks. Oh he looks instantly cooler. Yeah. Yeah look at that. We rastified him by 10%. There's nowhere.
Starting point is 00:21:08 It's not so bad. Watch.sportsnet.ca. Hey, look. He looks like Fred Durst. He looks so rad. Yeah, you're right. Man. Just wants to break something.
Starting point is 00:21:17 Speaking of the Blue Jays, Ernie Clement, as heard in our intro, hit a three-run homer for the second straight night. Ernie Clement's on fire right now. Jays get back on track. I'm using air quotes. You can't see that because I'm on the radio. But the Jays get back on track after a walk-off wild pitch loss in the opener to the Giants.
Starting point is 00:21:35 They win 10-6. Real quick, Laddie, Josh, Laddie, start. Thoughts on the game last night? You were very excited when you came in this morning. I didn't get to see a lot of it. I got to see the end. See how excited you are? We're on the West Coast, though, so
Starting point is 00:21:45 I can do stuff, come home, and the Jays are still playing, which is pretty exciting. It was nice to see the offense rolling. When the Jays have a six-run inning, that's like a 12-run inning for most normal MLB teams. I like how you described it as a normal, as if they are a not normal. They are a not normal team. I think
Starting point is 00:22:01 Josh will agree with me on that one. But yesterday they looked kind of normal. The thing is, they scored 10 runs. They win, but also everyone got injured in every part of the organization. So Bo Bichette left with a calf injury. Dalton Varshow left
Starting point is 00:22:17 with a knee injury. I do like that. That wasn't it. Oh, I missed another one? There was also Jimmy Garcia, supposed to pitch in AAA. He had a stiff neck, so he did not do that. Top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, he started, left to start with forearm tightness in his start. And third base coach, Carlos Feebles, also left the game.
Starting point is 00:22:40 He had a stiff knee. Not Feebles. He felt a pop in his knee. Yeah, felt a pop in his knee. So even the coaches weren't. Not a banner day health-wise for the Jays yesterday. But they did beat the Giants 10-6. But they beat the Giants.
Starting point is 00:22:51 Okay. After that horrible game one in that series, it was. The walk-off wild pitch and Dan Shulman's dejected call. There were two real big highlights for me. You don't see a lot of walk-off wild pitches. No. It was a good one. And just the lead-up to the walk-off wild.
Starting point is 00:23:04 The walk-off wild pitch was bad enough. Yeah. Blowing a two-run lead in the ninth inning, that was bad, too. That's also bad. Okay, so coming up on the show, Ian McIntosh from the Athletic FC. That's the shorthand for the Athletics Football Vertical. He's going to join us to talk about the Euro 2024 final between England and Spain, what happened yesterday.
Starting point is 00:23:23 England's dramatic, another dramatic victory late in match for the English as they advanced to play Spain. So we'll talk to Ian about that. Seven o'clock, Adnan Virk, 730 Michael Grange, eight o'clock. Very excited to talk to Peter Drury,
Starting point is 00:23:35 who I would consider the voice of the Euros right now. I know that they have multiple play-by-play people working, but there's something special about Peter Drury's voice as he narrates everything, including Sunday's final between England Peter Drury's voice as he narrates everything, including Sunday's final between England and Spain. That's all coming up. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 6.30 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody.
Starting point is 00:24:35 Halford Brough. But no Brough. Josh Elliott-Wolf in the chair today. Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda. Pacific Honda is North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts.
Starting point is 00:24:56 We are in hour one of the program. We are efforting Ian McIntosh from The Athletic to talk about the European Championships. England-Spain Sunday. England advancing in a dramatic fashion yet again yesterday. 2-1 victory over the Netherlands. Late Ollie Watkins winner to get that one. Do we have Ian on the line yet? We're still working on that one.
Starting point is 00:25:17 Ian will be joining us shortly, hopefully. When he does, he will be the highlight of Hour 1. Hour 1 of this show is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. While we're waiting for Ian, oh, he's got him on the line now. So we'll recap very quickly what happened yesterday.
Starting point is 00:25:42 England advances. Day prior, Spain advances. Spain has been the best team in this tournament. It pretty much goes without saying. It is going. So they've won all their matches, and they've scored 13 times. One more goal, and they will set the European Championship record set by France in 1984. Spain has been a buzzsaw.
Starting point is 00:26:08 They have done it with flair right from the start of the tournament, highlighted by a pair of youngsters and 16-year-old. 16 years old, Josh. I thought you were young. Yeah, he's younger. He's 10 years younger than you. And more talented. Probably makes more money than me.
Starting point is 00:26:23 Lamin Yamal at 16 and Nico Williams at 21. It's going to be a tall order for England on Sunday. Joining us now to break that final down further, Ian McIntosh joins from The Athletic here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ian. How are you? Good morning, gentlemen. I am very good indeed after what happened last night. How are you? We're good. I can very good indeed after what happened last night. How are you?
Starting point is 00:26:45 We're good. I can sense the mood in your voice. So it might be an obvious question, but how are you and the rest of the nation feeling following another thrilling, late, late, dramatic victory for England as they beat the Netherlands 2-1 in advance to the final against Spain? I think as a nation, no one's entirely sure how this has happened, but we're not going to question it too much. You know, we've had our fair share of bad luck through tournaments over the years, and it just seems like we're being recompensed all at once for everything. And I'm fine with that. I don't have a problem. I'd imagine the Dutch will feel a little less enthusiastic about this, given the nature of the critical penalty, but we'll find a way to move on together, I guess. Can you explain to our listenership how truly unprecedented this is for an English squad
Starting point is 00:27:33 that finds joy in crucial moments, is able to stage late comebacks as opposed to falling victim to them, and not just winning on penalties, but winning with some of the most clinical penalties that I've seen in an awfully long time. This is not our father or grandfather's England. This is a whole new breed.
Starting point is 00:27:56 Yeah, I mean, this isn't normal in my lifetime. I mean, in the 80s, England kind of worked hard, drank hard, and didn't really threaten to go very far. In the 90s, they were quite a likable team, particularly in 96. They all seemed like people you'd like to be in the pub with and occasionally didn't really come close. I mean, the semifinals in 1996, an unfortunate exit in 98 and then we move into the noughties where england despite having some of the best club players are absolutely wretched in almost every tournament at which point obviously a lot of people just kind of fell out of love with the national team and didn't get back into
Starting point is 00:28:37 it until gareth southgate arrived and then we've had a run of tournaments where we've been quite likable and played quite good football and gone quite far and then we had this one and it was like the noughties all over again our whole host of the continent's best footballers you know we've got the player of the year from the premier league and the player of the year from la liga um so watching those performances in the group stages and against slovakia it felt like a harrowing kind of return to the way it used to be. And then last night something clicked and it all came back together. And it's, yeah, there's a lot of people just walking around asking if everyone else watched the football
Starting point is 00:29:17 so they can make sure it was the same match and it wasn't a weird dream. The Gareth Southgate experience over this particular tournament. It's tough to try and encapsulate it. I've been trying to do it for the last half hour, but there's so much to unpack with his history as a player and then how that might have forged him to be able to take this job
Starting point is 00:29:36 and the scrutiny that comes with it. And there has been so much scrutiny in this tournament, despite the fact that England is in the final. Have you been able to sort of contextualize what Southgate has had to go through these last few weeks it must have been absolutely awful and i think whenever you know you're in our line of work and you pass comment on football you are aware that there are humans at the bottom of it and i think in some ways the level of
Starting point is 00:30:02 discourse seems to have dropped and there's a a rush to label people as frauds or failures when all evidence stands to the contrary of that. In terms of England men's managers, Gareth Southgate has got us to as many semifinals on his own as every other manager combined. He's now got us to twice as many finals as every other men's manager combined. The man is not a fraud or a failure. I think there's a tightrope that you have to walk when you're in this job, when you're passing comment. Journalists aren't supposed to be cheerleaders. And those performances in the group stage were bad.
Starting point is 00:30:42 I think those of us who ensured that the criticism was about the football and not about the person are feeling quite good today because I think if you're one of the people who's dragged Southgate around the streets for three weeks and online and in print, you'll be feeling quite bad about yourself. Now, he has conducted himself magnificently
Starting point is 00:31:02 throughout all of this. He's never lashed out. He's never done anything else other than just accept that this kind of comes with the territory and create a bit of a siege mentality. And you can see with the way the players have reacted, the comments that they've made after the game, how tight this group is.
Starting point is 00:31:20 Now, I don't want anyone to think that this is revisionism and I'm suddenly coming out and saying Gareth Southgate's the best manager of all time, but I do think whatever happens now, if we go out and lose 6-0 to Spain, no one can doubt that man's integrity. I'm glad you brought up the
Starting point is 00:31:36 way that he's conducted himself. We played his interview from the post-match yesterday where the sort of famous now quote, like, everyone just wants to be loved and talked about how he was giving the fans many of whom were had the cleavers out for him at certain points of this term and giving them something to cheer about and he would have been right along there with them had he not been managing the team I do wonder I mentioned this earlier his experiences as a player and
Starting point is 00:31:59 going through the intense scrutiny after missing the penalty at Euro 96, if maybe it uniquely forged him to take this kind of role and act the way that he has that other managers just wouldn't have because they didn't have that experience of going through the fire before. Yeah, he is clearly a very, very skilled communicator. And you don't always get this. What you often find with managers is that they connect to the generation immediately before them because they've been the senior player in the dressing room and the junior players have looked up to
Starting point is 00:32:29 them so managers tend to do quite well in the sort of five to seven years after they retire um southgate is obviously you know he retired far longer ago than that um but you can see from the way he is with the players the way the players are with him, particularly after that penalty shootout and him with Saka, that, yeah, he has been able to counsel them and console them in a way that not everyone else can because there was a time through the back end of the 90s where, yeah, the word Southgate
Starting point is 00:33:01 was just directly connotated, the direct connotation was with failure. If you heard kids playing in the playground and someone missed a penalty, it'd be, oh, Southgate. Yeah, he was a synonym for it. So yeah, he will have been very, very important. And there's a reason that this is quite a likable team.
Starting point is 00:33:24 He's clearly worked on the culture so hard over the last, God, how many years is it now? Eight years. It looks and sounds like a club team. We are speaking to Ian McIntosh from The Athletic here on the Halford & Brush Show on Sportsnet 650. Ian, speaking of penalties, your thoughts on the controversial call
Starting point is 00:33:42 that led to the Harry Kane penalty against the Netherlands yesterday. I mean, it wasn't a penalty. That's a penalty. It was, you know, you're sitting there watching it on TV and we were surprised that it even went as far as VAR and laughing and saying, my God, this is going to be the one time the referee goes to the screen and doesn't give a penalty. I don't understand how that could be a penalty. It's actually Kane who gets the follow-through contact as he goes for the shot. As far as I can see it,
Starting point is 00:34:12 that's just a thing that happens in football. When you start giving penalties for that, we're going to have a lot of penalties. And looking forward to Sunday's final, it's hard not to look at the Spanish side with all the bright young talent, especially on the flanks,
Starting point is 00:34:27 and then the way that they've conducted themselves in this tournament. They've won all of their matches. They're scoring goals at a pretty healthy clip. How big a challenge is this Spanish team going to be for the English on Sunday? They're so good. Yes, very good.
Starting point is 00:34:42 They're the best team in the tournament, and tournaments don't always go like that. Often the best team in the tournament. And tournaments don't always go like that. Often the best team in the tournament will burn itself out early. They are the best team in the tournament by some distance. The pace of their attack is extraordinary. Nico Williams has just been magnificent. Laminia Mel's a child. He's an actual child for, I think, two more days.
Starting point is 00:35:04 And he plays like a guy in his mid-thirties. He's the tactical foul in the semi-final in injury time. That is the act of a cynical, grizzled professional in his thirties. How's he doing that when he's 16? I was in my bedroom listening to Iron Maiden when I was 16.
Starting point is 00:35:20 The kids are an absolute phenomenon. They are a fantastic team and would absolutely be the rightful winners. But the reason this sport is so magnificent and the reason it soars above other sports, like rugby is a very good sport, but generally the favourite team always wins. That doesn't happen here. England have got a bit of team spirit and a bit of momentum. And again, some very very very good footballers
Starting point is 00:35:45 they're not the favourites at all but there's just a couple of weaknesses on the Spanish side, I think they're looking a bit leggy, I thought in the last 15-20 minutes against France all that dynamism started to drain out of them I think England have got a
Starting point is 00:36:02 puncher's chance definitely but I think also if Spain win it, you won't find many people in England who begrudge them that. They are a fantastic football team. Well, pushing this a little bit further before we let you go, would you care to make a prediction or would you rather leave that one be? Well, my record of predictions is spectacularly bad over the years. So I will therefore confidently tell you that Spain will win 3-1. They will
Starting point is 00:36:26 win 3-1. It is written so it will be done. Spain will be the European champions. And if you want to use that quote on Monday morning when it turns out England have won 2-0, I'd be more than happy for that to be the price I pay. I've already written it down. Ian, thank you very much for doing this today. This was great. Enjoy the match
Starting point is 00:36:42 on Sunday. It should be a lot of fun. Will do, gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, great. Enjoy the match on Sunday. It should be a lot of fun. Will do, gentlemen. Thank you so much for having me on. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate that. That's Ian McIntosh from The Athletic here
Starting point is 00:36:50 on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Andy's got a big grin on his face. I love that entire interview. It was so good. It was pretty good. We need more English
Starting point is 00:36:56 soccer commentators on this show. Well, as a matter of fact, Andy, guess what's happening. You won't believe this, but... So at 8 o'clock today, we're going to have Peter Drury on the program.
Starting point is 00:37:06 For many of you that don't know exactly who Peter Drury is, the moment that you hear his voice, you'll be like, oh, the soccer guy. Yeah. The voice, really, of a lot of these Euro matches. And you've heard him on Sky Sports and NBA does some games for NBC as well. One of the definitive voices of the sport and this summer because we've been paying so much attention to Euro. Now, for those of you that would like us to dive back into some Canucks talk,
Starting point is 00:37:29 give me some hockey talk. My home of the Canucks, Sportsnet 650. We are doing an exercise throughout the week. We have asked listeners, hey, we know it's slow. We know Daily Hive wrote a 2,000-word think piece on the new Canucks and the new numbers they're going to wear. We get how slow it is right now. But there's
Starting point is 00:37:47 still an opportunity for some entertaining and intriguing thought-provoking conversation on your beloved hockey team. So I asked earlier before Josh took over for the back half of the week here, send in your Mount Rushmore ideas, hypotheticals,
Starting point is 00:38:04 what-ifs, what ifs, bar room debates, anything that you want us to sink our teeth into. It can be alternate universe and reality stuff, whatever. We'll try and attack it with our wealth of Canucks knowledge. Cause I don't know if the listeners are aware of this now, but we were probably a little bit more versed in Canucks knowledge than the
Starting point is 00:38:23 history of the English national team. A little bit. Yeah. Me personally, definitely. So what do you got for us? I like this one. So which of the Stanley Cup finals would have had the biggest impact
Starting point is 00:38:35 had they gone the other way? Oh, that's a great one. Okay, so we got to set the table here. 82-94-2011. We should probably make the case for each before we start breaking down which one it is. So really quickly, the obvious, 82 is obvious
Starting point is 00:38:52 because it eliminates this cursed franchise narrative, right? You win one. You win it early. You get it out of the way. You're not a loser franchise. Not that I'm calling the franchise a loser franchise. They're a loser franchise. I just did call them a loser franchise. You don't'm calling the franchise a loser franchise. They're a loser franchise. I just did call them a loser franchise.
Starting point is 00:39:05 You don't have the 50-plus years of angst. You don't have the mounting pressure for 94 in 2011 because you've already got the cup in 82. 94, that's an interesting one because that would have been the butterfly effect one for me. And by that, I mean the NHL was in such a unique place at that time. There's that infamous Sports Illustrated cover, why the NHL is hot and the NBA is not.
Starting point is 00:39:32 The NHL was hot back then, Josh. I know you weren't born yet. It was hot in the States. I was not born yet. You weren't born yet. No, but I remember. The Rangers were everyone's sort of preordained choice to win because it was a big market team and they had their own lengthy cup drought.
Starting point is 00:39:49 That one would have been super intriguing because of what it would have meant for the league. I'm not sure necessarily for the franchise. I actually probably would be number three on my power. 2011, plain and simple. That's the best regular season team to never win a Stanley Cup I will fight anyone aggressively
Starting point is 00:40:08 and with a knife if they try and tell me otherwise I'll take a knife fight there was a good Tampa team that didn't win but then they eventually won my bad and it would have been the coronation of the best Canucks team
Starting point is 00:40:24 would go on to have won a Stanley Cup. The best regular season team to never won a Stanley Cup. They would have righted that wrong. And also, it would have ended the angst that had been building for a long time. So take it away. Where are you going with this? I look, maybe I'm biased because I have only been alive for one of these. I'm going to say 2011.
Starting point is 00:40:45 It's totally valid the way i interpreted this is what would have the biggest impact afterwards okay so in the next like decade after the cup and i i kind of wanted to make a case for 94 because hey maybe you don't sign mark messier and maybe that whole thing doesn't happen and but also it kind of went into a nicer period of canucks time quicker than it did after the 2011 loss like you got to the west coast express quicker than the canucks got to their current era. 13 years. 13 years. 13 years. And so the thing about 2011, I think if they win, like does that give Mike Gillis some time to maybe do a rebuild if he wanted to do a rebuild, whatever it is.
Starting point is 00:41:37 And hey, maybe that would have gone worse. Would have been hard for it to go worse, but maybe it would have gone worse. Sure. And then maybe you don't have this whole Jim Benning era as well. So that's why I'm going 2011. The butterfly effect for 2011 is huge. Yes.
Starting point is 00:41:50 Because it does alter. It alters a lot of things because you've got to remember how profoundly broken that team was after 2011. They were like chasing ghosts for a decade. Yeah, it was a dysfunctional franchise. I think mentally they were shook for at least one calendar year after that, They were like chasing ghosts for a decade. Yeah, it was a dysfunctional franchise. I think mentally they were shook for at least one calendar year after that, if not two. And that would be the great one where you're looking at it saying, what if?
Starting point is 00:42:16 What if? I mean, for me, it would be more the coronation. Someone just brought up a very good point to move the 1994 team maybe to the top of this is that if, if they win in 94, do we avoid not one, but two riots in the aftermath? That's I D you know what? I will admit,
Starting point is 00:42:38 I thought about this one for a long time and I never thought about the riot angle, but that's something to seriously consider is that if they win in 94 and there's no first riot, there's probably no second riot. Because you're just content. And all of a sudden, Vancouver internationally isn't even known as a riot city. You guys are the ones that riot after the Stanley Cup. Ruff always tells that story. When we used to work at NBC and we'd go on the road and they'd be like, where are you guys from? Vancouver.
Starting point is 00:43:03 And you're like, ah, you're the guys that burned down your city after you lose hockey. The Riot Place. Yeah. And then we'd have to make a joke and then go quietly sob in the corner. But it's... As one does.
Starting point is 00:43:13 I didn't think about that. You know, that's really interesting. Because again, the 94 team for me was sort of, it's physically sandwiched in the middle of these two. And then for me, it was like, well, it's always the one you kind of like, they overachieved to get there. Not like they didn't in 82, but, you know,
Starting point is 00:43:30 it was a bit of a Cinderella run and it provided so many good memories. That's actually the one where it's like, yeah, like that team got so close and it was disheartening to lose, but there were so many good vibes in the aftermath. Linden cemented himself as a folk hero. Bure became this electrifying presence if he wasn't already. And I think the table was set that, oh, they're going to be good for a few years here. It didn't end up exactly working that way.
Starting point is 00:43:53 The other thing, too, with 2011 is I talk about it being the greatest regular season team. And if you go back and look at it, statistically, they tick all the boxes. They were amazing. Best penalty kill, best power play. Every single major award that year had a Canuck in it, right? It was either they were going to be nominated for it
Starting point is 00:44:13 or they were going to win it. So there's that part of it. I also would have liked, if they had won, maybe you would have gotten to see what that group would have been like at its quote-unquote powers for a couple more years this is kind of what you're talking about yeah it gillis would have more
Starting point is 00:44:28 leash unquestionably av probably too he's not fired two years after um and it was the way that they lost right is they broke a lot of people mentally on that team because that entire post season was such a roller coaster book ended with the crazy series against chicago and then the crazy one against boston and then yeah 2012 like it's you you kind of mentioned it but then for that next calendar year it was like oh man they're just completely in their heads and hey look 2012 it also had the daniel sadin injury too and that plays a part but maybe they do have more confidence as a team moving forward for the next couple of years to potentially make it more than just a one time thing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:45:10 A couple of people and understandably are pushing back on my notion that the 2011 team is the greatest regular season team to never win a Stanley Cup. I think, I mean, that was dominance. Dominance, dominance, dominance. Just pick any facet of that team that wasn't at the top of the NHL and point it out to me. They had everything that you possibly wanted and from a managerial perspective, they had Lawrence Gilman at his peak powers
Starting point is 00:45:39 stashing guys on LTIR and adding at the deadline to put together just a very thorough and competent and loaded lineup, right? Up until the Stanley Cup final operating where everyone was healthy and ready to go. Dispatch. And then I thought that the dominance
Starting point is 00:45:58 in the Western Conference semifinal against a good Sharks team where they won it in five, I thought that was where I was like, okay, they're cooking and they're going to have the coronation be fitting of a team that that's good in the regular season. That's a good choice there, Josh. Well done. Is that your choice too?
Starting point is 00:46:14 My choice is going to be 82 just logically. Because, I mean, sometimes the most obvious answer is the most simple one. Yeah. It's the least fun, though. It's the least fun. And it's the one that one yeah which is it's the least fun though the least fun and it's the it's the one that you're going to talk about the least in part because it was so long ago and uh everyone does remember that that was also a miracle storybook run as well but when you talk about the ultimate butterfly effect if they had just won the cup way back when and
Starting point is 00:46:43 gotten it i hate saying it like it's a to-do list, but gotten it out of the way. But if they had gotten it out of the way, the mounting pressure wouldn't have been like what it was. I don't know if it would have been the ultimate alternate path for the organization. And there also would have been like that would have affected how the 94 team was constructed, I assume, as well.
Starting point is 00:47:04 And there would have been different butterfly effects, too. Or just in terms of, like, things change if you win a cup, right? Sure. But, yeah, it's just kind of like the most boring one. Okay, before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com. I will remind you that this Saturday, 4 o'clock from BC Place,
Starting point is 00:47:32 it is the biggest game of the season for the Lions so far. They will host the undefeated Saskatchewan Rough Riders. There's a big party on the plaza beforehand. It's the Watermelon Smash. There's a watermelon-eating contest. A lot of watermelon content on Saturday. So be sure to go get your tickets now. They're opening the upper bowl.
Starting point is 00:47:50 They're expecting a huge crowd. Go to bclions.com and get your tickets now for Saturday's game. 4 o'clock kickoff at BC Place. It's the Lions and the Rough Riders. Coming up on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, we still have two hours to go.
Starting point is 00:48:04 I know. All the content we've given you so far, and still two more hours. It's quite impressive. Adan Virk's going to join us at 7 for some baseball talk and some movie talk. And then at 7.30, we're going to go down to Vegas. Michael Grange, NBA writer for Sportsnet, who was at the Canada-USA Friendly yesterday from T-Mobile.
Starting point is 00:48:23 Star-studded event for an exhibition basketball game. We'll talk to Grange about what he saw from the star-studded American team and what he saw from Team Canada as they prep for the Olympics in Paris later this month. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

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