Halford & Brough in the Morning - Hold Your Head High, Canada

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

In hour one, Halford & guest host Greg "Laddie" Balloch look back at a busy weekend in sports (3:00), plus they talk Canada bowing out of the World Cup as well as a wild England win at Mexico, as OneSoccer lead commentator Adam Jenkins (28:31) 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.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. World of sports is going on here. Well, I'm off to destroy Canada. They've had it too good for too long. I believe Freddie Quimby should walk out of here. A free hotel. Brendan Bachelor is doing the wave or some sort of weird dance now. It's coming home.

Good morning, man. We're 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Mount Pleasant in Vancouver. Now I say, Halford and Brough from the morning.

But today, very special day. Greg Ballack, better known as Laddie in the co-host chair. Good morning, Laddie. Hello, hello. This is going to be a weird way to do it. Good morning, A-Dog. Good morning. And regular Zach.

Good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Brub in the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Their clients often say, I feel like a huge weight has been lift it off of me. Don't say it. If a jet is weighing you down, visit sands dash trustee.com for more. We are in hour one of the program. Hour

1 is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Banker's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We're broadcasting live from the Kintech studio steps strong with orthotics and footwear from

Kintech. And guests on SportsNet 650 call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline email sales at ABLE Auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. Good job, buddy. What the hell is going on? What is happening here? Greg will be with us in the co-host chair for a couple days while Jason is away.

We got a big show ahead. We got a big guest list ahead. It is the Dewick Morning Drive brought to by the Duick Auto Group. It begins at 6.30 this morning. Adam Jenkins, analyst from one soccer is going to join the program. As you may have inferred from Zach's intro, Canada's run at the World Cup is sadly over. The Canadians fell 3-0-0 to Morocco. on Saturday to bow out of the round of 16.

We'll talk to Adam about that and everything else from the World Cup at 6.30. 7 o'clock, Felix Sikard is going to join the program. What a name. Felix Sikard. He is from the Crash the Pond podcast, an Anaheim Ducks podcast, Dan McKean's Hockey, crazy weekend in Anaheim for the Ducks, Leo Carlson, Pavl Minchikoff, all sorts of big contract, wheelings and dealings.

Felix Sikard is going to join us at seven to walk through what's going on. 730, Zach Worden, Blue Jays writer from Sportsnet. Tough, tough weekend for the Jays in Seattle. No rest for the Jays. Of course, they get back into action tonight in San Fran as their West Coast swing continues. Zach Worden for some Blue Jays talk at 7.30. Finally at 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and Ingoal magazine.

Canucks talk, goalie talk. We'll go around the biggest stories of the NHL weekend. Our goalie guru, Kevin Woodley, is going to join us at 8. Won't work in reverse on the guest list. We got a lot to get into. So without further ado, Zach, to tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

No. What happened? I missed all the action because I'm moving. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by our good friends at ATS traffic.

Safety is not a shortcut you want to take. From design to execution, ATS traffic is your full service traffic safety provider. Visit them online at atshtstraffic.ca. we are going to begin with everything that happened in the World Cup over the weekend, but first and foremost, Canada, bowing out in the round of 16 after a 3-0 loss to Morocco on Saturday. It was a valiant effort from the Canadians, especially through the first 45 minutes,

but ultimately their lack of finish and, quite frankly, a lack of quality. And we'll get to the Alfonso Davies stories as well. It ended Canada's very successful World Cup in the round of 16 with a 3-0 loss to Morocco. Your thoughts on the match, Liddy. I want you to dive deep into soft. soccer here. Well, you're the soccer expert, so I'm going to defer to you mostly. But I do have a lot of questions, as do a lot of Canadians after what happened. First and foremost, I think you mentioned the Davies conversation.

And we've had a lot of texts coming in the inbox already about that. And do you think Jesse Marsh's hands were tied? I know you have a unique perspective on this, but there's got to be a reason he didn't come in to that final game. All right. Let's unpack this. It's Alfonso Davies. Let's unpack this.

We'll start with the. decision to not put him in that match, as Adog likes to say in a vacuum. So let's just focus on the Morocco match. Davies told the gaffer, he wasn't ready to go. Now, after the match,

Marsh did say that Davies had a clean MRI during the week, believe it was on Friday, and that there was a hamstring injue, the injury that crept up, I believe it was on Thursday, that had Fonzie worried about his availability for the match. So that's the backdrop.

to this. During the match became pretty apparent that Davies tested it out in a little bit of a warm-up. He had the Theragun going to try and loosen things up. It wasn't going to happen. It became more and more evident as that match went on. For those that were saying

can't he suck it up and give his country 10 or 15 minutes in the biggest match in Canadian soccer history? From a purely technical and tactical standpoint, it's bananas throwing a guy on and a substitute to troll that's hurt.

If he goes in and let's see he blows out his hamstring in the first four minutes, now you've basically wasted one of your substitutions and you only get the five. And you've wasted essentially two changes. Let's say, for example, the Davies went on for, I don't know, Richie Larea in that match. And you have to take Davies off.

Well, now you've wasted two substitutions filling one position on the pitch. When you might have been able to leave Richie out there for the full 90. And now your hands are tied in a match where you're chasing goals and chasing results. So from that perspective, totally understand why he wasn't used in that match. And Alfonso Davies, his special power is his speed, is it not? So enhancing injury, I feel like, would play a big part in affecting his speed, which is his

main factor anyway. Sure. Now, people will say, but he appeared against South Africa in the round of 32. And when he came on, you could tell that the lift that he provided to his teammates, even though he clearly, invisibly wasn't at 100%, was impactful. I do not argue this point. I think that his presence in the South Africa match gave that team a lift in terms of spirit, fighting ability. I will probably have to ask around

even more than I have to eventually get to the bottom of this, but here's what I think. I think that physically and mentally, he wasn't there and pushing him to get into that South Africa, and him pushing himself, let's make no mistake about that, to get into that South Africa match. was a lot.

I think mentally he's grappling with and it's not just an injury that he suffered once and needs to get over. It's the recurrence of the hamstring injury. I also think that his manager grew more and more frustrated with the situation throughout the tournament

and I think that's why Marsh said in his post-match scrum on Saturday, all that stuff about the clean MRI and it was Fonzie's decision not to play. I think Mars, to a certain degree, one, wash his hands in the situation. And two, have an

explainer at the ready for why he didn't come on as a sub against Morocco. Do you think the fact that he came into that game against South, South Africa, he sort of realized that he didn't have anything in the tank. Worth World Cup quality to play in that game against Morocco? I don't think that was necessarily it.

I just think the fear of re-injury was that high. I think it was probably just as high as it was in the South Africa match. You could just tell when he came in that he was at 65, 70%, such a tease, though. It was such a tease. Very labored in

the South Africa match and couldn't go at the speeds, like you said, his superpower. And here's a thing that this is probably the most bothersome of it all. Alfonso Davies really shouldn't be the biggest story coming from Saturday's

match, because there's lots of other more intriguing, more compelling, quite frankly, more useful conversations to have. But I noticed it right away in the aftermath and it really took off on Saturday afternoon and evening following the match. It was the story that everyone glommed onto, and rightfully so.

It's your best player. It's the biggest match in your country's history. He's not there for it. It's the most easy and obvious conversation to have. But I think what a lot of people are left with in the aftermath is not a lot of really great answers to their question. like right now I'm sure some people have listened to the first nine minutes of this show and have said I'm still not getting a full sense of why he couldn't just go out there and play it is super layered and super

multifaceted for sure I think there's about eight or ten different things going on including the Byron influence in all of this which I think played a role I'm not saying Byron came in and specifically said do not play against Morocco on Saturday but Byron did just sign a shiny new young left back who could be a Davies replacement Bayern did have one of their staff doctors with Davies throat the duration of Canada's camp at the World Cup. And he's done this injury. And he mentioned it as well. Davies did in his post-match media availability that he's done his hamstring three times in the last 12 months.

That every time he thinks he's getting back and he's ready to go, he does it again. I think that mental hurdle ultimately was the one that he just couldn't jump over, possibly because it was hamstring. Well, it's not an injury you can really hide in the game of soccer. I forget the player you mentioned last week, but he said he ran 14 kilometers. during the World Cup game. Andres, Cubas. Like, if you have a hamstring injury, you're not coming close to running 14 kilometers. Like, I'm sorry.

You can't reasonably expect somebody with a hamstring injury in the game of soccer to just jump in there. Yeah. Like, it's just not hockey. You're not, you can't battle through it. It's just not something you could do and expect to compete against the team like Morocco. Okay. Now, let's turn our attention to the other major talking point following Canada's lost to Morocco on Saturday. and those were Jesse Marsh's remarks afterwards

that he felt that Canada was a better team and that he would rather have been after a 3-0 loss still us rather than them. Now, Brough really hated this comment. So if I'm in Brough's chair, do I have to take his stance and just dig in about how much I hated that Jesse Marsh comment? Did you hate the Jesse Marsh comments?

I kind of did. I kind of agree with Brough. I think you don't come out and say, even if you believe that Canada was the better team in that game, you don't come out in the media and say it. How do they really think that? How did he actually think there's a better game? It's just fodder, right?

Okay. So ridiculous. Fair. Okay. I think obviously we're not. I think first off, Jesse Marsh should not be doing media immediately following a match. There should be some sort of cooling off period,

and especially for him, I believe the one great line from a guy that wrote from the telegraph this weekend is that he overdoses on emotions. And he really does. He would be wise to just take a beat and not talk so passionately like he does to his players. Like the media of the first half.

First half was pretty good. What he was trying to do was he was trying to say that he was proud of his guys, but he went about it in a way that was super hyperbolic. I think we can all agree on that. And kind of dismissive of the opponent. I was going to say insulting to Morocco.

Which didn't give them any credit for what they were able to do in the second half. That being said, first half of that match, Canada outplayed Morocco. They were the better side. I don't think they were a significantly better side. I don't think they had enough quality chances on target to say that they should have been up more than one, but they should have been up one.

And if there's any lesson that Canadians watching that match should have taken away, sit at the highest levels to be a top 10 ranked team in the world like Morocco is, you need that extra little bit of quality in the few fleeting moments of a 90-minute match where impact needs. to be made. Tanyola O'Shea in the first half did not capitalize on his chance. Now, a few things went into that. One,

incredibly good stop from Bonham. Montreal-born, by the way, who's a very high-end keeper, quality keeper. Those differences in a match where you've got a world-class keeper, he makes a save, you don't have a world-class finisher, he doesn't put it in behind.

Match takes on a totally different vibe. If Canada goes one in the first half. And we talked about this last week as it related to the big upset in the round of 32 when Paraguay beat Germany. They were able to score first. They were able to capitalize on a chance and it tilted that match on its head. The other one, the near upset in the round of 32, the biggest one, was England Congo, where Congo was able to score early, was able to capitalize on their early chance. And it threw that match into arrears and almost caused the second biggest upset of the round of 32.

So from that perspective, Canada didn't follow the script. Canada also didn't follow the script because there were too many mistakes made in the second half. A lot of self-inflicted wounds. Well, not scoring first is the big one that stands out and they only did that in the one game. And it's hard to win when you don't score first. And you get scored on as Canada likes to, apparently in the World Cup.

But I saw a lot of comments after the first half in that Morocco game. People saying, what a great first half. as good as you can expect from Canada against Morocco. And I just had this pit in my stomach saying they didn't get one on the board. And that is going to come back to haunt them because we know Morocco is going to come out on fire after the break. So what happened exactly that? Morocco comes out and scores the first goal. So the fact that they didn't get one, even though they had a decent amount of run of the play in that first half, just crush them, I feel like.

It's going to bury their chances. like they just couldn't finish. It was very similar to the World Cup match against Belgium in Qatar in 2022, where they were raving about how great they played in the first half and they were down 1-0. And if you want to look at this tournament now, and you talk about the two highest ranked teams that they played, and that was Morocco who were in the top 10 in Switzerland,

who's in the top 20. Canada was outscored 5-1 on aggregate and we're only able to find the back of the net once in the second half of the Swiss match. They went 180 minutes and were only able to find the back of the second half of the Swiss match. and then it's back of the net once against the quality opponents that they had. They filled it against Qatar as they were expected to. By the way, Qatar match also the only match in which Jonathan David found the back of the net in this tournament.

That was a major problem. They had issues in their attack. Tania O'Shea played a lot this tournament. No goals to show for it. Promise David left on the bench until very late in that match against Morocco was probably their most consistent finisher across all of the matches. Kyle Laron,

very erratic tournament for him in terms of finishing. Scored the huge goal against Bosnia and the opener, off the bench, got a handful of starts, didn't really feature all that prominently in others. They don't have that last little bit of quality yet, which is fine because it's an emerging footballing nation still Canada is very much. But when you're talking about it at the highest level in the fine line,

and all those cliches, you do need someone who's going to be able to execute when those moments come along, because you can't just keep relying on gusto and vigor and grit to carry the day.

It'll get you and win you the battle of expected goals, which is what I think Marsh was kind of alluding to in the aftermath, but it's not going to actually win you the match. And it's a big point that Canada, even when they were healthy, probably didn't have the quality

that you're speaking of. It's a very good point, Greg. I forget the stat that I saw, but I saw that, I think it was just high-priced players past a certain threshold. Morocco had 11 of them. Canada had three.

And that just tells you that they just don't have the, and the two of those three were players that were injured for Team Canada. Okay. You are bringing up a good point here. Like, they definitely didn't have the depth of squad to,

the Davies loss for sure. The Kone injury was killer. Although I thought Nikosiger was terrific in that last match. But that would have to kill your expectations, would it not? If we're speaking honestly here? It should. But despite all those injuries in the first half across any metric, I test, expected goals, fancy stats, basic stats, whatever.

No one's arguing that Canada wasn't the best team in the first half of that match. So even with Kone now doffing his crutches and able to hobble around. And Marcella Flores still with the torn ACL and Davies out. despite all that, they were still able to put forth the first half where they were the better team and they should have found the back of the net. Now, the problem is that they didn't. And when you started to go down the line and it came time to bring in quote unquote impact subs to try and chase goals in the second half, now you're looking at, well, can we squeeze 15 minutes out of Jacob Schaffelberg? Are we going to bring Liam Miller in? How many strikers can we throw at them?

What else do we have to try and get a spark? and you saw it, they didn't have it. They just simply did not have it. Gary, the atheist, brings up another point that I wanted to make. I got it. The set pieces, absolutely terrible. How many corners did they have? I think it ended with 11.

11 corners? I think it was finished with 11 corners. And was a single one of them even remotely dangerous? No, it was very poor. It was very poor. And I did think that there was an opportunity to bring Promise David, who's just an absolute Goliath, a specimen of a man, to bring him in earlier to try and cause more chaos on

set pieces. It didn't happen. The set pieces, all tournament were they were lacking. You know, especially in the second half of the Swiss match, I thought with all the chances that they had from corners and from long throws. I feel like there's been a problem for a while. Has it not?

Yeah, nothing really materialized from them. I know a lot of people were giving Eustacio grief for his service and I didn't think it was ideal, but it didn't seem like they had the way the modern game has gone with how much pressure you can get offset pieces, particularly corners, and you see in the Premier League all the time. You see the other teams doing it

this World Cup? Yeah. It just didn't feel like they ever had the right kind of setup, the right service, the right guys crashing at the right times to try and make life difficult. It was very disappointing. And Morocco seemed more than content to concede those corners

because it felt like they were never going to have a hard time defending it. And that was a problem as well. Okay. We'll put a bow on the Canada talk. There's a couple other massive stories. from the World Cup right now. The one that is taken the world by storm, and we're still getting updates on this right now,

is U.S. President Donald Trump's role in FIFA's stunning decision to allow U.S. striker, Pilaran Bagan, to be eligible to play tonight against Belgium in their round of 16 match. Now, Baligan, in case you missed it, was red carded in their round of 32 win over Bosnia. With that red card comes an automatic minimum one match. suspension. Only yesterday, FIFA announced that the suspension had been suspended through Article 27 of the FIFA bylaws and guidelines for this tournament. There is a, I would call it

an obscure ruling, which they have used in the past to be fair, which allows the disciplinary committee not to overturn a red card, but to suspend the suspension. I think that's the important thing here is nobody is saying that we have rescinded the red. What they're saying is they're going to kick the can down the road on the automatic suspension. It may be served at a later day. We don't know, but it won't hold Balligan out of tonight's match.

Now, as you can imagine, there's a lot of backstory to this. Belgians are upset. UEFA's upset. Former FIFA president, Seth Blatter, took to Twitter this morning to express his dismay in the decision. There are multiple reports

from various outlets in the U.S. with sources who claim that Donald Trump did make a call to Johnny and Fantino. Now, the nature of those calls, it seems very ambiguous at this point. There are some reports that on the advisement of his lawyers, he made the call to inquire more about what could be done and how the ruling works. There are others that, of course, are suggesting that it played an influential role in Infantino, then making the call to the disciplinary committee to get the red card overturned. I do not think that this saga is done by a long shot. FIFA gave Belgium until 5 and this morning the opportunity to wait for it,

appeal the suspension of the suspension. We all got that in listener land. Belgium gets an opportunity to appeal the suspension of the suspension. So if it's successful, they'll suspend the suspension of the suspension. Yes, that's right. That's correct. Very well done. I don't know what happens to that suspension then.

Then that gets suspended. or it just gets deferred. I don't know. There are reports from the athletic. Adam Crafton, who we've had on this show before, by the way, has been all over the story

for the athletic. He has reported that according to his sources that Belgium has filed that appeal. Again, this is all happening right now. Belgium had until 5 a.m. this morning to file their appeal. This is, of course, 12 hours before,

you know, the match gets played tonight. Belgium, U.S., round of 16, 5 o'clock tonight from Seattle. again now if you're if you've got questions about this or you would like us to dive into it more text in dunbar lemmer text message in basket is 650 650 man i just hope the u.s gets absolutely smoked that would be awesome so that's you bring up a really interesting wrinkled all this is that the match still needs to be played now balligan has been the u.s.'s best player in this tournament by far shocking that they would overturn his suspension like that it's crazy right didn't see it coming he is vitally important to what they do but this is still a Belgian squad with a lot of quality and we'll still give the U.S. a test

whether Belegan was in the lineup or not. The fact that he's there if U.S. is to go on and win this, there's going to be a massive asterisk beside it and I don't know how the rest of the term in plays out with that hanging in the backdrop. If they don't win, it is going to be

one of the more intriguing sub- plots moving forward. Because now they've opened up a can of worms. For example, there was a red card in the match yesterday for Gerald Quanson in England in a match we haven't even talked about yet, but was fantastic at Azteca. Every red card now

comes under scrutiny and has opened up this Pandora's box about whether or not you're able to rescind because here's the crux of this whole thing. They've never said and FIFA doesn't have to open up the black box as to why the reasoning behind overturning this particular red in a tournament

that I believe has had 13 red cards now. They're not used to having reasons for their decision. Or having giving reasons for their decision. Because they're not overturning the actual decision. They're just suspending the suspension. And part of this is yes, absolutely. They're making it up as it goes along. I mean, there are some people that are saying this appeals process

that the Belgians have been granted is just kind of been drawn up out of thinner. They're like, yeah, sure. Here's an appeals process. We made it up overnight. Yeah. Sure. But it is, it is one of those things where you kind of knew at some point a tournament hosted in the U.S. was going to have political overtones beyond we got this because of who we are.

And look, flexing your muscle politically in the footballing realm is a timeless thing, right? There are countless countries that have done this before. Corruption has been widespread. It was long before in the World Cup, right? FIFA is no stranger to corruption, no stranger to political influence. so to suggest that this is the first time this has ever happened, it's kind of laughable. People will point to Cristiano Ronaldo being available for the start of this tournament

when he should have had a three-match ban for what he did in qualifying, yet somehow that also got Article 27 away. Right? This falls at the feet of Johnny Infantino in FIFA. And if I know anything about FIFA, it's that in the face of controversy, like me trying to get through a read, they'll just power through. That's right. Just go right through it.

The mic power right through it. Speaking of reeds, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. Not satisfied with your current cleaning service. Jan Pro delivers consistent results and responsive customer service. Start clean, stay clean. Visit them online at Janpro.com. That was tremendous segue. Witnessing that segue in person.

That's why they pay me the medium size box, laddie. Let me tell you. We got a lot more to get into on the program. We are going to keep it on the soccer tip here. Adam Jenkins, our analyst from one soccer, is going to join us. So we'll talk about Canada bowing out to Morocco. We'll talk about the Balagan Red Card overturn. We can also talk about what happened at Stadio Esteka yesterday in Mexico,

where England thrilling three-two victory over Mexico in what has been the match of this World Cup. It's all coming up in the second half hour of the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central on SportsNet 650. From exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns, we've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 633 on a Monday.

Bo from Burnaby writes in, loving the music. Me too, Bo. Me too. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show. Greg Ballack, better known as Laddie, filling in for Jason Brough for the next couple days here. How's it going so far? It's super weird. I kind of like it on this side of the glass.

It's good. A-Dog, regular Zach, producing. I feared change. Addox would be me this weird look the whole show. He's just looking at it, staring at me over the... I can just see his eyes over the monitor, and he's just glaring it. Every now and again, he's like, but why are you over there?

rude hand gestures coming from Adog consistently throughout the show today. So you are listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Their clients often say there is no judgment you feel cared for and understood. Get debt free at Sands dash trustee.com. Still an hour one of the program, Adam Jenkins from one.

Soccer is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Banker's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle you get paid. Visit the Middle 1770 Powell Street in Vancouver. Let's go now to the Able Auctions Hotline. As mentioned, our next guest is from one soccer. Adam Jenkins here on the Halford & Bruff Show on Sports 10650.

Morning, Adam. How are you? Gentlemen, very good. I'm with your text or your caller who's all about the music. I'm fired up for this segment now, so thank you for that. Yeah, thanks for joining us. We appreciate you taking the time. Glad you like the music. Let's just start with your overall thoughts of Saturday's game, not necessarily the tournament in its entirety for Canada, but Saturday's match to Morocco. Good first half, less than good, second half.

Your thoughts on what happened is Canada bowed out in the round of 16? I have to say to start, I am really a fan of the suggestion of the cooling off period for Jesse Marsh because I think I've needed that as well from Saturday. It's no doubt an emotional, no matter, no matter part of me, how much you tried to take the fan out of the analysis and the broadcaster when Canada's playing, when the stage is that large,

it's a moment where you are entirely consumed by the match. And everyone at the studio that was watching it along with us at one soccer, you would think for more than a moment that this was a group of supporters as much as it was a group of broadcasters. And you were riding that emotional roller coaster with everybody. And I'm sure that that transcends across the country and all the watch parties. With that said, when things don't go well, I think you feel the downs even harder. You feel the ups even harder.

And Canada just didn't have that one moment to sort of always reference back to in the match against Morocco. And when you outplay a team like they had done in all the metrics, but goals, you feel like there's almost this, you deserve something more than a defeat, but as a tale is old as time, if you're not going to take advantage of your opportunities that you're created, and I can only imagine Tanya Loshay has hardly slept

since he had that brilliant opportunity to make it one-nill for Canada. You asked the question, is it different? Can Canada hang on to the lead? Obviously, they take three goals. I don't know that that's necessarily reflective of the performance they put in as they were chasing it towards the end of the

match. And if you are an XG lover, the expected goals, then you're probably feeling a bit better about it. But I think it symbolizes deeper rooted problems for this program in terms of the finishing. I think Jonathan David, obviously he did not have nearly the performance. He was hoping for. Canada was hoping for. And I felt especially bad for him knowing that if he wasn't going to get a goal, which he ultimately doesn't do, the first that Canada takes reflects poorly on him as well on the deadball. Where is he in the right position? Does he do enough to try to break up the initial path?

So when you see Jonathan David, who's one of the guys that's plastered across the television sets and the billboards and he's huffing and puffing to get over and he's late, Canada, go down, it felt like all of the air was let out in that moment. And I think it's obviously unfair to say that they lost on the first goal, but it felt that way in terms of what Canada might have been able to produce on the afternoon. highlighted and magnified a lot of the issues that they had with their finishing, which is probably the biggest non-Alfonso Davies talking point of the tournament. Adam, you mentioned that the finishing is a big problem with Canada,

but it's hard to finish when the set pieces are so bad. We talked a little bit before you came on about 11 corner kicks, and none of them, none of them seem to be really dangerous at all, and it's hard to finish when the setup really isn't even there for Canada. Yeah, and I think it's beyond just the corner kicks as well. It's the long throwings that they had with Alistair Johnson. How many of those did you see whipped in? And Canada was second to just about all of them.

Another, not to continue to junk on the Canadian star, but the Jonathan David free kick from just outside the box. He's trying to go up and over the wall from 19, maybe 20 yards out. That's an impossible angle for anyone that close to goal, no matter who you play for, type of form here. And when you're not in good form, it seems pretty audacious to think the best scoring chance Canada was going to have from the match. You hope for more. And look, like, a defeat in sports is never on one person or one coach. But I think part of

the frustrations for the Canadian supporters that are really glued in, last May, Jesse Marsh hired a set piece specialist. His name is Nicholas Gagnon. He came over. He had an experience with Southampton, amongst other different English and European destinations. And the set pieces were abysmal. I think I counted 44 corner kicks, and I don't take that number as gospel, but there wasn't a single one where I thought Canada looks threatening to score. And Sileba has that brilliant free kick and one of the best moments for Canada at the World Cup coming into the match after the Kone injury, scoring the goal around the wall. That was probably the only time through their matches from the start of the tournament to where they bowed out that they did anything

relatively dangerous from the set plays. And on top of the open play, that's got to be the biggest question mark. And it's probably one of the reasons that we're having the conversation that we are today. Who knows how much these issues get masked if Canada finds a way through and they're getting ready for all of a sudden a quarterfinal. But unfortunately, like their fellow co-host Mexico, they're going to be analyzing and debriefing and starting their post-mortems. I can't even say a little earlier than they expected because this is still an incredible run for

Canada. But like I mentioned to start the interview, when you're in. when you're in it and on the roller coaster, you kind of get all consumed by it. And I think as time goes on, there's going to be a lot more positive memories and negative memories of this 2026 World Cup. But right now,

I don't blame anybody who's feeling a little bit sore about it still even a couple of days later. We're speaking to Adam Jenkins from one soccer here on the Halford & Breff Show on SportsNet 650. Okay, now that we've had the cooling off period that we alluded to earlier in the hit, would you like to now weigh in on the Alfonso Davies situation?

I think it's the Alfonso Davies and Jesse Marsh situation. I've been unable to separate the two from this entire saga. My first takeaway is it's very clear that the Canadian Soccer Association has a type of coach. There's one sort of figure that they constantly go back to the well for. Jesse Marsh is John Hurdman in a lot of ways. And I think it's a discredit to the players at times when the coach takes up so much of the airtime, and that's on us as the media as well. But 2022, Qatar, you think of everything that happened, but one of the moments that you're always going to remember is the bleep

Croatia comment and what Croatia then did to Canada. Fast forward to 2026, Alfonso Davies, is he going to play? Yes, he's going to play. Oh, he's a decoy. Oh, the MRI he had yesterday was clear, but Alfonso didn't feel right. It just felt like throughout the tournament, I can understand the thought process a little bit of having a little bit of a competitive or sporting advantage by not having the other team know what type of impact a player like Alfonso Davies can have. But the fans are rightfully frustrated to feel like they were played,

they were lied to in some ways, and it just felt completely avoidable to me. If you start the tournament and say, Alfonso Davies has a recovering hamstring injury, we don't know how many minutes we're going to be able to get of him. He's being evaluated every single day and ultimately the choice comes down to him and how he's feeling. And you stay on that message through the entire tournament, a lot of people can accept when Alfonso Davies is looking despondent, cutting off his kin tape in the 70th minute of Canada's

most important match ever as a men's national team program. And I also think that there are colleagues of mine and fans that are wondering, why did we see Alfonso Davies doing so many keepy upies on the BMO commercials, but we never really saw him speak to the media outside of when he had the match day minus one in LA. So you bring the captain and the Canadian men's soccer team's face of the program. He's put Canada on the map, that clip of, my name's Alfonso Davies and my dream is to play for Canada at a World Cup. And you just kind of dangle him in front of the supporters

and in front of the media throughout the tournament. You're setting him up for failure. And I believe Alfonso Davies fully when he says, I wanted to play in that match. And there's obviously some questions about how much Bayern Munich really had their thumb on the scale about how he was allowed to play, when he was allowed to play. And if it was more than maybe the Canadian staff is comfortable with,

that's a separate conversation. But until we hear about that, then we just have to assume it was managed in a certain way, and I don't think it was managed well. There's some understandable confusion as well. Alfonso Davies has seen sprinting at halftime. He looks like he's coming into the game. At some point, the camera cuts to him and Jesse Marsh.

They look like they're smiling or sharing a lot. last and then 20 minutes later, Davies is, again, to use the word despondent, that he's not going to come into the match. So I don't blame Alfonso nearly as much as I think the backlash he's facing on social media. I actually think it's a fair conversation to have about whether he should remain the captain of this team. I think that's an entirely fair question to ask, and my answer would probably be no, because he's only played 16 minutes since May of 2025. And that's not Alfonso Davies fault. But in this role, you need to be able to face the media, pardon me.

You need to be available for your teammates. And it's such an unfortunate distraction from what has been a really positive World Cup so far. And the other thing, Alfonso Davies is struggling, obviously, to get fit and onto the pitch. But he's watching Byron Munich sign his potential replacement. So he's probably thinking to himself, if I go in and have one more setback, I could, I might be done at Bayern Munich. and it's one of those clubs, as you guys well know, there's not many more next steps after Bayern Munich. Like, you look at the Levantoskys of the world,

and other people who have played for Byron and been club legends. Like, that could have been his club forever. He still might want that to be the case, but he's one more setback or one more serious injury away from drastically changing his lifestyle. And I think he's got a million things on his shoulders, and you could see him wearing those emotions towards the end of that Morocco match.

The captaincy conversation is an interesting one, because in addition to Davy's inability to be on the pitch, the guy that was Stefan Ustakio, I mean, he's got, for my money, Canada's best player throughout the duration of the tournament. I know that he didn't start one of the matches, but I thought as we try and turn this into a glass half full, hit here we're speaking to Adam Jenkins of one soccer,

I do think that we need to praise Eustakio for what he did over the course of this term because I thought that was a phenomenal performance. Stephanie Stachio is Canada's most important player. team. I don't think he's most Canada's most talented player. That's a conversation I'm not interested in having at the moment unless Alfonso Davies never gets back to the peak

of his powers. But in terms of leadership and the story of him, I'm always a bit uncomfortable as a broadcaster, as a storyteller to sort of focus too much on these players' personal lives. But the amount of tragedy that Stefan and his brother Morrow, who coaches in the Canadian Premier League, have

gone through losing both of their parents, I think it was within 14 months of each other. And Morrow wrote a piece for the athletic where he said after the loss of their father, Stefan had texted him saying, I guess it's just us now and how he's able to take that on and become a dad and everything going on. He is the heart and soul. He's such a wonderful human being, Stefan Schachio, and he brings it to Canada all the time. And I don't want to again sort of have a direct contrast to Alfonso Davies because a lot of people are having a debate of,

are you feeling like you can't play or you don't want to play? and Stefan Schachio doesn't play the first half. He's clearly not 100% fit, but then he plays every minute for the rest of the tournament, and he leads Canada the rest of the way. I think another guy that deserves a ton of credit for his leadership is Alistair Johnston. I think Alfonso Davis is probably very fortunate to have Alistair Johnson on a team because he loves the camera, he loves the microphone,

and he's very good at it. And he brings that sort of blue-collar mentality. He's not the flashiest right back in the world, but you know exactly what you're going to get out of him. So Stephanie Stachio, Alastair Johnson, they deserve a ton of credit. Moisbombito for how he got himself fit and available. I know he had his shortcomings recovering from that fracture to be available. He led with his heart and soul in his sleeve as well.

So Canada does not lack for leaders. And that's why I think it's a fair conversation to ask about the captaincy. And in Stephanie Schenckier, just the talent too that he has. He had an opportunity to stay in the Portuguese system. He chose Canada. He chose to represent this country where he was born. even though a lot of his footballing education has been in Portugal and his career

might continue to be there. That is a player that said, nope, Canada's where I was born, Canada's where I want to represent, or who I want to represent on the international stage, and he does so with class, and he does so with a ton of hard work and soul. Adam, we're getting a lot of text, people saying that we're being too negative in this hit.

So I'm going to throw it around to you and say, what's your biggest positive takeaway out of this entire World Cup experience for Canada? that it was potentially the one time in our lifetimes we will see Canada co-hosting the tournament from the men's national team perspective and the memories along the way the Jackpool Plaza and all the TSN hits

where you're seeing thousands upon thousands of football supporters gathered to celebrate this game and BMO Field in Toronto that we can call it that again the same atmosphere Christiano Ronaldo and Croatia the memories of

Canada welcoming the world to its backyard to play some pretty unbelievable football matches. And not to mention the fact that Canada ticked off a lot on their list of milestones and objectives, getting the win, the big performances, having a lot of these players become household names, even if it was only for a couple of weeks, they took strides in this tournament. They are in a much better position now than they were when they left Qatar. and everything that Canada hopes to build from a footballing perspective, the facilities, the culture, the marches to the match, the scenes from the Voyagers walking into Houston Stadium.

I think they're going to stick with me for a long time. And it was one of those pinch me moments that Canada is on its way to becoming a proper footballing country. And I do understand that perspective that there is a lot of negative right now and some people just don't want to hear it and I understand that. but I always kind of look back to if we want the conversation about Canada where they belong as a football country or on the footballing world stage, if a similar situation happened in England or Portugal or Spain with its star player and its coach,

the negative comes with it. So maybe the sentiment is we don't want to hear it right now, and I totally understand and respect that. There were a lot of positives, but this is part of the evolution, and the metamorphosis of going from a plucky underdog to someone who wants to hang out on the big stage and the pressure that comes with it, when you put yourself in a position to do something special

and you come up short, there's going to be negatives. But I think it's also fair to say, look, some players really emerged from this tournament. Nathan Saliv is probably on his way to a big move from Anderlecht to the next stage. Moise Bombito, if he can get fit again, he could move. Alistair Johnson might be ready for a club bigger than Celtic, and Celtic's a pretty big club.

So these positive stories are certainly in the conversation and they deserve to be spotlighted. It's just that, it's again, to go back to that same cliche, the emotional roller coaster being a sports fan and coming down from a World Cup high. Adam, it was great getting you on throughout the tournament. Excellent insight every time.

Thank you very much for taking the time to do this today. Enjoy the rest of the World Cup. We'll try and catch up again before it ends. Okay, gentlemen. The World Cup might be over, but football isn't. So continue to support your local. clubs. It's really important as we grow this sport. Great message. Thank you, Adam. Appreciate it.

That's Adam Jenkins from one soccer here on the Halford & Brough Show featuring Greg Ballick on SportsNet 650. Okay, so the text, it was a singular text that you were referring to. I'll read it in full. I thought I saw a couple. No. Did I make up a second text? I don't, I think there was

just one that just thought that the entire tone and tenor around our conversation about Canada soccer was too negative. So, unsigned text or writes. this is way too negative. The team went out, captured the imagination of the country, got to the round of 16, didn't have two of their best players available,

and arguably one of their best defenders shouldn't have been playing and somehow miraculously made it onto the field. I can't stand this negativity. We should be celebrating this team, and then future generations will continue to push. Not handing out participation ribbons anymore for soccer. Not. You can't have the conversation about Canada.

and look at the match against Morocco and be taken seriously and have the team taken seriously and say, hey, good job, guys, nice try. Thanks for doing what you did. Are we proud of you? Yes. Was it a thrill ride to watch you get five matches at a World Cup and get to the round of 16? Yes. But it would almost be a disservice to all those players and everybody involved

if you just told them good job at the end of it, pat him on the back. to be taken seriously and at the same level as how the Canucks are taken so passionately in the market and the height of expectation for our Canadian men's national hockey team at the Olympics, which came under intense scrutiny despite winning a game in which they largely outplayed their opponent in the final. To have that level of scrutiny and yes, sometimes negativity means you're being taken seriously and people are passionate about the results and what you're, you do. Not just happy that you're there. Not just patting you on the back because you made it this far. It's not a participation ribbon thing. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry to the unsigned

texter that our recap in the first half hour might have skewed a little too negative for you. But there were some flaws in that match on Saturday against Morocco in a match where they were the better team in the first 45 minutes that need to be explored. And you can't just say, hey, tough luck in the second 45 guys, but we love that first. And I don't think that everyone should just necessarily agree with Jesse Marsh and his post-match comments that rubbed a lot of people the wrong way in for good reason. We got to go to break. Before we go to break, I need to tell you that the Duick Auto Group is the official automotive sponsor of Halford & Brough. Get into the all-electric 2027

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Coming up on the other side, we're going to dive into the hockey talk. We're going to go to Anaheim. Felix Sicard is going to join the program from the Crash the Pond podcast. That's an Anaheim Ducks podcast. He also works for McKean's Hockey wild weekend for the Ducks as it pertains to the Leo Carlson offer sheet.

They also kind of got strong-armed into signing Pavl-Mitchik yesterday. What is going on in Anaheim? What's going on with Verbeek? Freed said that after that Leo Carlson offer sheet was signed, the entire landscape of the National Hockey League was changed. Offerbieg is not having. They're just the best. Pat Verbeek is having the worst week.

He is having the worst week. I love offers sheets. I wish there were so many more. Yeah. It's just such chaos. It's great. So we'll talk to Felix Saccard about that coming up next on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.