Halford & Brough in the Morning - How Does Canada Basketball Stack Up At The Olympics?

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

In hour two, Mike talks Canada Basketball with ProHoopsWriters Esfandiar Baraheni (3:00) ahead of the Summer Olympics (3:00), plus they look to Tuesday's Canada vs. Argentina matchup at Copa w/ CBS Sports soccer analyst Ian Paul Joy (27:00). 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.

701 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Jess Halford, no brough. Flying solo today and tomorrow. Josh Elliott-Wolf, by the way. Noted Sportsnet 650 personality. He's going to be joining the show on Wednesday.

And he'll be going all the way through to Friday. Young Josh. Poor Josh. Young Josh. No idea what he's getting himself into. I prefer the term young Josh as opposed to... Young Josh. Poor Josh. Young Josh joining the show. Halford and Brother of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's

premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts. So it will be Zoomer and Boomer, right? That's the name we're going with? I don't think we're going to do that. I like it. I don't want to be the Boomer.

Too bad. I don't want to. It's not a negative term. When Greg calls me that, when I don't know how to do things with my phone or my laptop, it cuts deeply into my Boomer heart. We are in hour two of the program. We're going to talk a little hoops coming up in a moment here with S.

Baharini. Hour two of this program is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer, meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. A reminder, we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios. Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.

If you have sore feet, what are you waiting for? You're waiting for Kintec. Very well done, A-Dog. Canada's group for the Olympics is set, and it is a group of death. It's Canada, Greece, Spain, and Australia. Very difficult competition. Joining us now to break it all down, you've seen his work in Forbes and Raptors Republic. S. Baharini joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Good morning, S. How are you? Good morning, good morning. How are you guys doing? We are well. Thanks for taking the time to do this. So let's get right into this group. That is a tall order that Canada has ahead of itself at Paris now. After the weekend European qualifiers, Greece and Yanis Antetokounmpo are in. Spain ranked second in the FIBA rankings are in. And of course, it was already determined that Australia, fifth in the world, are in that group as well.

Is this clearly the group of death that the Olympics s? Yeah, I think it is. But you know what? I think if there's anything you could argue that Canada is sort of making it the group of death just because of the overwhelming talent. I mean, you can talk about rankings and Giannis Antetokounmpo being there, obviously, but Canada not only has the top tier talent in Shea Gildas Alexander and Jamal Murray, they have the depth of NBA talent with, you know, over seven NBA players potentially on the roster.

They just, they have the ability to be the best team in this group, even despite it being the group of death. So while it is tough competition, you just expect that because it's the Olympics and there's 12 teams that are going to compete. So it's going to be the 12 best teams in the world. I couldn't help but notice there was a lot of mentions on my Twitter timeline yesterday, a lot of video clips of Giannis on the bench following the Greek victory, being very emotional after they clinched their spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics. I just wanted to ask what made this such an emotional moment for Giannis because obviously he's a pretty decorated player he's got a pretty healthy basketball resume but

this seemed like it really hit different for him. Yeah I completely agree look I think the thing with Giannis is that his nationality and being Greece was such an important part of his identity. You watch his documentary or you read his book about his life, you know, going back to when he kind of grew up in the streets of Greece and dealing with the racism and dealing with some of the situations that were happening poverty wise for him and his own life with his family. That country means a lot to him and he's adopted it essentially as his own and I think that's part of why this was so important for him especially with him losing his father you know four or five years ago understanding how important that was to to his family I think it just he was overwhelmed by emotions because he understood you know look this is Giannis's first time going to the Olympics and that in itself is is an impressive moment and an important feat,

but doing it for Greece was the main thing that made him so emotional. What does that team look like when it's out there actually playing non-Yannis division? I mean, because I think we all know what he brings to the table, but I'm pretty familiar with Spain, given the amount of guys that have played in the NBA. Rudy Fernandez, I think this is like a six Olympics, which is crazy. I, you know, I'm pretty familiar with the Australian roster and the guys that will be

playing this Greek team. Giannis is really the only NBA presence and they had to fight, like, you know, claw their way through this qualifying round just to get to the Olympics. So what can be expected from this Greek team led by Giannis going into the Olympics? Yeah, they have a couple of the other Antetokounmpo brothers, Thanasis and Alex Antetokounmpo will be on the roster. A couple of guys that have played in the Greek league, the EuroLeague, excuse me, out there. So, you know, I think they have some experience. They have guys, but ultimately, like you said, it starts and ends with Giannis and his

ability to dominate. I mean, especially in the international game, a guy with that much size, a guy who can kind of just brutalize you on the interior, is always going to have some sort of advantage. And, you know, you look at the rest of the Olympics, you look at Jokic, you look at Embiid, you look at even some of the other teams, size is going to be a big thing for this Olympic run. And so when you have a guy like Giannis and his stature, it's likely that all things will run through him.

Well, you segued nicely into the next thing I wanted to talk about, and that is who's in and out for Canada. And the biggest out so far as camp has been underway and cuts have slowly been made is that Zach Eadie, the giant from Purdue, pulls himself out of contention because he wants to prep for his first NBA season. How big a loss is that going to be, really? I know literally it's going to be big because he's one of the biggest players

that would have been in the tournament, but how big a role was he actually going to play for Canada if he was going to be on the team? Yeah, it's interesting because last year in their 23 FIBA World Cup, they went on to the bronze medal. Zach barely played. Like, he didn't play much, but he did get good experience. He was a completely different player in Purdue this season. So he improved vastly.

He became a better defender, better interior scorer, probably one of the most, if not the most, dominant college player last season. And so I think the hope was that he would get more opportunity and more shine this summer with Canada and the Olympics. But unfortunately it just seems like he wants to focus on the Grizzlies and kind of get ready for his rookie year, which is, you know, no fault to him.

He has to do what he has to do with that. What's best for his own career. That being said, I think the main thing that you lose out with with a guy like Edie is the ability to have a guy eat minutes for about 10 to 15 minutes of you know aggression of fouling of being just a big body to throw out there against an imbeed against the yokich and he might not do well right he might not succeed all the time but just having that optionality uh is now removed for canada because now they have to lean on kelly olenek who's you know 30 plus years old dwight powell who's 30 plus years old they might just having that optionality is now removed for Canada because now they have to lean on Kelly

Olenek, who's, you know, 30 plus years old, Dwight Powell, who's 30 plus years old. They might bring in Ken Birch, who's, you know, near the end of his career. Mafondu Kevangelli is another big man who's kind of been roaming around in Europe, playing internationally. These are the kind of guys that they're looking for, but nobody has the size advantage of Zach Eadie standing at 7'5". That was clearly going to be one of their main presences, I guess, if you want to call it, on the defensive end, and now they don't have that. We are speaking to S. Barahini here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, talking a little Canada basketball

as we prep for the Paris Olympics later this month. I think a lot of people are obviously excited at the prospect of Jamal Murray and Shea Gilgis-Alexander sharing a backcourt, which would stack them up against anybody in the world in terms of talent. Has Jordy Fernandez kind of tipped his cap into how often they'll be playing together, what the rotation might look like, what the starting five might look like, given all the talent that Canada has at its disposal? Yeah, it's funny.

You mentioned that we talked to them at camp and SGA was pretty much like, I drive, he shoots in terms of how they mesh well together. So I think they'll have a seamless synergy and chemistry going early just because they play so differently. Jamal is incredible off of the ball. He can score. He can shoot. He's able to kind of create his opportunities off of the ball. He can score. He can shoot. He's able to kind of create his opportunities off of the catch.

Meanwhile, SGA is sort of this hub, this offensive hub that can create for himself, like he said, drive to the basket and create. And Jordy Fernandez, knowing this, understanding this, I assume those two are going to start. I think the other three would likely be probably Dylan Brooks and R.J. Barrett on the wings, just to give them a little bit more size. And then Kelly Olenek will start, depending on the matchup. I think if Kelly is still not the greatest defender in the world,

so maybe there's an opportunity for Dwight Powell to step in to guard a Joel Embiid, if that ever happens, or a Nikola Jokic. But I think they'll start with Kelly just because of his shooting and his passing ability and leaning in on that offensive philosophy that Canada was so good at last year with the 2023 World Cup the U.S. team gathered this past weekend in Vegas for its camp do you ever just look at the roster and just marvel at the collection of talent that I mean I know Canada's is impressive as well, but you've got maybe the greatest shooter of all time in Steph Curry, NBA's all-time leading scorer in LeBron James, USA basketball leading scorer of all time in Kevin Durant,

11 All-Stars, two NBA champions currently in Tatum and Drew Holiday. It is a staggering amount of talent that's gathered in Vegas here. Yeah, you said arguably. There's no argument about it. I just like to keep things open for debate, but you're right. No, fair, fair, fair. But look, I mean, the U.S. is the gold standard, right? They are what every other international program looks to as a way to create this consistency.

And I think Canada looks at that in a very similar way. They have a similar pipeline in terms of AAU and grassroots models that help create these players. They have the second most amount of NBA talent internationally other than the United States. Canada looks at the U.S. as this sort of mold, the blueprint to how to get to a point where you have sustained excellence on the international level. And look, I mean, like you said, with all those accomplishments and decorations, the U.S. just constantly churns out incredible international teams. Hopefully,

Canada will eventually get to that point too. Steve Kerr, who's got a major task on his hand here coaching this team, said he's got 12 Hall of Famers on his roster probably by the end of this how big a challenge is this going to be for Kerr to identify who does what who plays what minutes who gets the burn who doesn't get the burn on a team that as he says has 12 guys that are probably going to go to the hall of fame that's always going to be the case with the U.S. uh you know Anthony Edwards the other day said despite all this talent I'm still the number one option. And I think you could ask any of the 12 guys on there and they would think the exact same thing. I think those guys just have the alpha personality, the dog sort of mentality, whatever you want to call it, to call their own number all the time. And so the process for the U.S. is always

finding out how to play like a team and how to assemble units that play like a team well. You think of LeBron James, one of the more unselfish players in NBA history. You think of Kawhi Leonard, this great scorer. Steph Curry can work off of the ball. You know, Embiid and Anthony Davis are these big, big interior presences. Bam Adebayo, also a great playmaker. I think what the U.S. has done this year has emphasized on guys who are able to share the ball.

Drew Holiday, NBA champion, also another guy who's like this role-player type. And then you have the assassins, right, the scores in Anthony Edwards and Devin Booker who can sort of take over games. So I think they've constructed this roster really well. It's just about what units they look out and do. And who starts, right? Is it going to be LeBron and Anthony Edwards or are they going to lean into the older group and start KD, Steph, and all those guys all together?

That's the balance that Steve Kerr has to strike. One more Olympic question before we turn to the news of the Raptors for the day. Is there a chance that this is going to be the greatest Olympic basketball tournament ever? I know it's a big question. I know it's loaded. I know that there's a lot of memories and a lot of drama from past,

including what the dream team did in 92, but the dream team did in 92, it was a one team show and no one was even remotely close. I feel like this could be the one where this could have more tight games among the elite basketball nations than we've ever seen at an Olympics. 100%. You look at Serbia, the way they have, you know, they arguably have the best player in the world, but they have the depth of talent to be able to compete with Jokic and Bogdan Bogdanovich and all that. You look at the U.S., we talked about Canada, we talked about Canada's group and how difficult it might be. There's France with Victor Wimbinyama and Rudy Gobert.

Japan is going to be interesting. Germany was the World Cup champions last year with Dennis Schroeder and their depth as well. So I completely agree. This is setting up to be one of the best, if not the best, international basketball tournament ever, just in terms of competition level. Absolutely.

Okay, and before we let you go, Raptors just announced two pretty significant deals, for emmanuel quickly and for scotty barnes so two very very key pieces of the core moving forward raptors coming up a pretty down year 25 wins just 25 wins last year uh but obviously that things are going to be built around barnes in particular uh what do these two extensions signify for the Raptors moving forward? It signifies a commitment to finding out what they can do with this core. I mean, Scotty Barnes, especially after the trades of Pascal Siakam

and OG Ananobi, it was clear that he was going to be the main guy they were building around. They traded Ananobi in order to get quickly an R.J. Barrett, and now they've linked up essentially quickly to be the partner next to Scottie Barnes.

He pairs really, really well next to a guy like Scottie as this off-ball guard who is a lethal shooter, who can play well defensively in a team atmosphere. And obviously they have Barrett in this equation as well, the Canadian. So we'll see what happens in terms of how they grow this team out. But at this stage, they're in the development cycle of what they're trying to do. They're just trying to help these players grow and get to the potential that they have. We'll see what that means. In a couple of years, if Scottie Barnes turns into an all-NBA player, then that contract,

that extension seems all the worth it. If Emmanuel quickly becomes a full-time starter and becomes an all-star level player in the Eastern Conference, then that contract looks much more worth it. So I think ultimately with these extensions, they're banking on the future ceilings of these players, and hopefully it pans out. We'll see. S, this was awesome, man. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it.

I'd love to do this again as we get closer to the start of the Olympics in Paris. Of course. Of course. Yeah. Don't worry. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Thanks for coming out.

We'll do this again. That is our man. S. Barahini? You okay over there? Huh? My computer froze up on me. I'm having computer issues today. You are.

You're having brain issues today. You can't remember the name of the guest. No, it wasn't that. It was, I was, my computer just locked in front of me. S. Barahany here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I have a, I have a charger problem with my work-issued laptop. So to fix it, to remedy it, I have put my car key to prop up the charging port because it has to go in at an angle.

And it just completely froze my computer in the middle of speaking to ask. So that was really nice. And I freaked out in the moment. Okay, we've got a lot more to get into on the show today. Ian Joy is going to join us at 7.30. He's CBS Sports Soccer Analyst here on the Halvard and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We're going to go on two fronts with Ian.

We're going to talk to him about Canada, what they did at the Copa America on Friday night, beating Venezuela and moving into the semifinals against Argentina. We're also going to speak to him about the Euros. We've got our semifinals set. It's going

to be Spain versus France. It's going to be the English national team, the penalty-taking heroics of England beating Switzerland on weekend. They booked their ticket to the semifinals. They will be taking on the Dutch, who got past the sort of uneven group stage to get through and advance to the semifinals. So four pretty compelling teams and pretty compelling stories going in to that i did

want to circle back on a couple things with the canadian men's national team because it was um it was really interesting to watch it play out on friday night not just from the perspective of oh my god canada won but the amount of people that were paying attention. And this is the type of moment that this program and the sport, I think, kind of needed after the World Cup. I think what happened is when the team qualified for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it got a lot of people's attention, the fact that they qualified. And I'm not sure a ton of people were locked into the qualification, but when they went to Qatar, there were a lot of eyeballs on this program.

And what happened was Canada went to Qatar and lost all three matches, managed to only score the one goal. Yes, it was a famous goal and a historic goal, but there was a sentiment of same old Canada and same old Canadian soccer when they got there because they were unable to get a result. They were unable to turn that very good performance against Belgium into something tangible in terms of points. They got picked apart by Croatia in the second match after getting out to that dream 1-0 start. And then they kind of finished with a whimper against Morocco. And they went home without a victory.

And a lot of people saying, where are we now is this just a team that is going to be a flash in the pan and qualified and now we're going to go back to sort of soccer irrelevance in terms of the Canadian men's national team or is this the start of something new then they followed up all the good that they might have had from qualifying for the world cup with the sort of meh performance at the World Cup. And then a series of bad results internationally sort of flamed out in Champions League. Didn't do especially well, didn't qualify very far at the Gold Cup. Uneven results left and right. There was the sort of infamous loss to Jamaica that forced them to get into that backdoor qualification against Trinidad just to get to Copa America.

But ever since they brought aboard Jesse Marsh as the manager, and ever since he instilled certain things into this team, they've been very compelling. And a lot of people, because of the time of year, because of the fact that this was a nationally televised game, because of the stakes, because of the realization that a win against Venezuela would set up a massive match Copa America semi final against a South American powerhouse in Argentina and Lionel Messi people realized that

Friday's match meant something and that's where you start to get the Sidney Crosby showing up wearing a team Canada jersey and going into the room to celebrate the sydney crosby showing up wearing a team canada jersey and going into the room to celebrate the guys afterwards and you see on your social media timelines references and tweets from people that would normally never watch a match and i was getting a lot of responses on twitter as well people saying like this is the first time i've checked out canada soccer i don't i'm not a soccer guy i never watched. The other part of it is rooting for your country, which I think is sort of inherent in all of us wanting to see them do well. A nice appetizer for the Olympics as well, because there's going to be a lot of nationalistic

pride on the menu, which is why we just did the Canada basketball talk with us, just talking about what we're doing in terms of rooting for Canada, cheering for Canada, wanting to see the national teams do well. For a large time, the men's hockey team was the gold standard. And we are going to get that back beginning with the Four Nations face-off next year. But to have this sort of summer where eyeballs are on a highly successful Canadian men's national team and soon to be a highly successful men's basketball team. It extends that national pride and it lets you get interested and get

involved with a lot of sports that you probably otherwise wouldn't. And I think it's an interesting thing. How many people texted you going, Oh my God, why are they going right to penalty kicks? Yeah. So that I'm surprised that they've done this. There are some reasons, logistically,

and a lot of it has to do with burnout and the condensed schedule that a lot of these players are going under, that instead of playing the extra time, they'll go straight to penalties after the 90. That being said, traditionally, big tournaments of importance, significant tournaments,

major tournaments wouldn't do this. It just would be, dare I say, beneath them because it's understood historically the major tournaments have the 30 minutes of added time to try and decide a winner before you go to penalties. It's like making sure that penalties were a last-ditch thing. I can't claim that I watched a lot of the Euros, but a lot of people saying that the extra time,

the added time in those games have been a slog, and they actually kind of preferred the going straight to penalty kicks that they saw in the Canada game. The extra time in the Euros largely has been, okay, let's just hold our own here and we'll play for penalties. The Swiss-England match, there were some pretty good chances from Switzerland, especially in the second half of extra time. England didn't do anything in the extra period.

They were just trying to get the penalties. Why don't they just save everyone the half hour and go right to... Germany and Spain, actually, there was a winner in extra time. It didn't go to penalties and it was a very entertaining match throughout. But that was more about the quality

of the two teams involved. They seemed to really want to go for it and not go to penalties because they both were playing so well. I think they felt that they deserved to win it within the confines of regular time. With a real goal? Yeah, right.

That's the thing. You don't want to have it come down to kicks. I will say this. The penalties that England put forth were phenomenal. I don't recall an English team ever hitting them so clinically. They've had a little bit of trauma in that regard, I think. Full marks to Gareth Southgate because he picked guys like Ivan Tony to shoot, who's a terrific penalty taker.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, who got dumped from the starting 11 and was brought on late just for the purpose of penalties. Good on him for doing that. And Southgate, as you mentioned, obviously has his history with penalties. Okay, moving along as we jump around from basketball to soccer and now to Canadian football. The Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance

partner of the CFL. I'm already looking ahead to this coming weekend. Saturday at BC Place, it is a big tilt between the 4-1 BC Lions and the 4-0 Riders. I spent a lot of time talking about what the Lions did on Sunday

against the Hamilton Tigercats in a 44-28 victory where Vernon Adams Jr. was fantastic. Yet again, he's now the leading passer in the CFL by almost every significant metric. But you've got to pay attention to this Riders team who are coming in 4-0 after an impressive 33-20 win over Toronto on Thursday night. What the Riders do is win in a lot of different ways.

They can win comfortably. They can pull out games in the fourth quarter. It's largely been on the strength of the defense that they've gotten out to this perfect 4-0 mark. So going into Saturday's game, you've got the great juxtaposition of this high-flying BC Lions offense led by the CFL's leading passer in Vernon Adams and this Rough Riders defense that has gotten them to 4-0 on the season. Very much

looking forward to it. Kickoff is 4.30 at BC Plays. It's an early one out west for the Lions and the Rough Riders. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Coming up on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, we're going to talk Canada at the Copa. We're going to talk Euros with CBS soccer analyst Ian Joy. He's going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on Sportsnet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 7.32 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Bruffs, Sportsnet 650. Just Halford today, though. Many people in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket.

Loving when I glitched out last segment. Your controller just connected. One guy likened it to Garth when he had to host the show by himself when Wayne left the set. I am having a good time. That's exactly what it was.

I didn't want to... I didn't have what I needed to say in front of me and I didn't want to screw it up so I just didn't say anything. Yeah. Oh, no, you were like, that was our guy. Our guy. It's like you just gave me this look,

and it was like somebody pressed the pause button on a TV remote and pointed it at you, and it somehow worked. It didn't move for all of like eight seconds. I do this professionally, folks. They pay me to do this for some reason or another. Thanks, Andy. I thought they pay you to do this. Yeah, I know.

That's true. Yeah, man. All right. You are listening to the Halford some reason or another. Thanks, Andy. I thought they pay you to do this. Yeah, I know. That's true. Alright, you are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales,

financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are now officially a footy show. I am heartened, heartened by the fact that precious few of you are hurling insults at

me at the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. So we press on. I'm very excited to have our next guest on the program, CBS soccer analyst Ian Joy here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ian. How are you? Good morning, everybody. Hope you're doing well.

Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. We are doing well. Most of us up here in the Great White North basking in the glow of what Canada was able to do at Copa America on Friday night, defeating Venezuela in the shootout,

moving on to face Lionel Messi in Argentina for the second time in this tournament and this time for his birth in the finals. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what you've seen, your thoughts on this Canadian team on the whole from the start of this tournament to what you've seen now, how much you knew about them going into this tournament and what you think about them now as they are improbably

one win away from a Copa America finals appearance. Yeah, well said. I mean, first and foremost, obviously with an American in charge of the team, there's a lot more attention in the United States of America towards Team Canada than I think I've ever seen before and we've heard a lot more from Jesse Marsh talking about Team Canada

Canadian soccer and the US national team as well a lot more now he's got this job and doing so well I mean I think I'm really impressed first and foremost getting out of the group after losing your opening game is impressive regardless of the fact that you get defeated by the world champions. And then all of a sudden, you've got to try and pick yourself up. And a lot of people will talk about the fact that you've played against, very difficult to play against a team that's sitting back with 10 players behind the ball. It's almost impossible at times to break that down.

So I'm really impressed with the way Jesse and the team has handled both of those occasions. It is really interesting to me that they did only score that one goal getting through. Obviously, David got the goal against Peru, which was really impressive. You've also come through some controversy with Tejan Buchanan having his freakish injury. But there's some really outstanding players stepped up. Sheffield-Berg being one of them who's really impressed me.

But I think the team in general has this unity, this chemistry, and Jesse Marsh seems to be the right guy to lead them forward. And when you've got a goalkeeper like Kripo, who's performing like he is doing, you always have an opportunity of springing a surprise or two. I didn't expect them to get to the semifinal,

but the fact that they've got to the semifinal is a real credit to all Canadian fans out there who are craving and deserving some success with this national team, because this is a real good group of players. I want to circle back on what you mentioned at the beginning of your answer there about the Canadian-U.S. dynamic. So for the listeners that don't know, the U.S. is hosting this tournament. The U.S. crashed out in the group stage.

They had to watch their neighbors to the north get through the group stage with an American in charge, but not just any American. Jesse Marsh is a guy that has very openly campaigned and tried to get that U.S. Men's National gig. And of course, the U.S. Men's National current coach, Greg Berhalter, is under fire for the performance or lack thereof that the U.S. had at this tournament. As someone that's covering the sport in the U.S., Ian, can you describe to our listeners what that dynamic has been like

and how angry and irate supporters are at what's gone on over the last couple of weeks at Copa America? Yeah, I think you put it perfectly. I don't think I've ever seen the supporters of U.S. soccer, male or female, ever so irate towards the national team, towards the federation. Greg Berhalter, decision-making. I don't think Jesse helped when he came out and said that he interviewed for the job and was clearly not treated as well as he thought

he was deserved of being treated. And he was open about that, which was really interesting to me. But I think the fact that the U.S. national team is just not playing well right now, they're not getting results. And regardless of the fact that they can maybe turn up for 15, 20 minutes of a game,

they're not playing well for 90 minutes. And now US soccer fans, and I'm sure it's the same in Canada, they're more knowledgeable about the sport than ever before. There's so many more eyeballs on soccer. There's so many more people who know every single player, whether they're in the roster or not in the roster. So there's much more opinions out there than there's ever been towards Greg Berhalter and U.S. soccer and the way U.S. soccer is run right now. It's absolutely

insane. Social media is blown up. We're talking about it every single day on CBS Sports Galazzo Network. And of course, you can't escape the fact that Team Canada has gone further than the US men's national team which nobody expected but at the same time it is humbling right now to try and figure out a way forward for US soccer and I can't even begin to imagine what's going through Jesse's mind and I'd like to see him focus on what he's got at hand. It's a big game coming up against Argentina. I think maybe the focus should be about the players he's got at his disposal, trying to get some sort of a result, if it's even possible, against Argentina.

And maybe the less chat about U.S. soccer and show a little bit more respect towards what Canadian fans have done to support him. And even the Federation, who's taken a lot of criticism they've really managed to come up with the money somehow some way to get Jesse there and look at the results. I mean this is

an incredible achievement but as you pointed out it's laughing stock time for US Soccer Federation right now and what we're hearing is that there will be a big discussion within the next three days. And we should know one way or another if Greg Berhalter will lead this team going forward, which is crazy.

Less than two years away from a World Cup. We are speaking to Ian Joy here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, CBS Soccer Analyst here on the program. Okay, so let's focus on the task at hand for Jesse Marsh in Canada. It's a tall order on Tuesday. There is a little bit of confidence from the Canadian team that they've already seen Argentina once, so a little bit, as Marsh said, the fear of the unknown is less going into this.

But you've also got an Argentina team that is now, quite frankly, going to be way more motivated than they were in the group stage because this is a chance to get to the final. What does Canada need to do to find success in this match on Tuesday? They need to really study what happened in the game against Ecuador. And albeit Ecuador are a very good side and such a dangerous team, they should have beaten Argentina within the 90 minutes. They shouldn't have had that gone to penalty kicks.

And missing a penalty kick in regulation time, missing two massive opportunities before 90 minutes. They shouldn't have had that gone to penalty kicks. And missing a penalty kick in regulation time, missing two massive opportunities before 90 minutes, they really should have knocked Argentina out. So if you can learn anything from that game, it is to play your own game, to play the offensive game, to defend with your life, and try to create whatever opportunities you can against, obviously, the world champions.

Ecuador had more shots than Argentina had in the 90 minutes of that game, which is incredible. And I think what we've noticed from Jesse's team so far and the Canadian team, how dangerous they are, they're not taking their opportunities, certainly not taking as much of the opportunities that they're creating. They're a very good team.

We know how offensive-minded they are and they want to be and how dangerous they can be. And I think it's more now turning down to the fact that you've got to get those shots to shots on target and then those shots on target and try to turn them into goal.

I mean, the stats don't lie for Canada either. I mean, 16 shots against Venezuela who won every single game in their group, that's impressive right there. Seven shots on target from 16, that's okay. But then you've got the one goal to show for it and that's what the problem I'm seeing with

the Canadian team right now is they've got to take their opportunities. Against Argentina you simply don't get many opportunities so you have to beat your best defensively, no mistakes. Take your opportunities when they arise, and maybe you get lucky that Argentina are not on their day. Because I think we can safely say that if Argentina turn up

and Argentina are at their best, there's not many teams in world football, including Canada, will be able to compete with them. So you've got to hope that everything falls in your favor. We're speaking to Ian Joy from CBS Sports here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Euros, Ian. And I almost had to pinch myself on the weekend.

We now live in a world where England is not just competent, but dare I say clinical at penalties, advancing in a shootout over the Swiss. After, I'll say it, it was a pretty dour affair through the 90 minutes and then the added 30 but England gets the job done under Southgate yet again they advance to the semi-final of a major tournament which is a feather in his cap I think Everett's been well established that they haven't been stylistically great it hasn't been an oil painting from the English but there they are in the semi semifinals on a strength of a penalty shootout.

This is not the England that I'm used to seeing here, Ian. No, it's not. I don't think any of us expected this. I mean, these were the favourites going into it, and rightfully so with the group of players that England have. They should be turning up. They should be performing better than they are doing. I mean, they had to go to a tactical switch, a three-man backline against Switzerland. They played

much better football. Clearly, we could all see they were playing well, but yet still went a goal down in that game, which was absolutely crazy. Listen, I think that the performance last time out in the tactical formation change going to Walker Stones in concert was a

back three, allowing Saka to have more freedom to advance against Abisher who was the left back at Switzerland. He abused Abisher for 40 minutes of that game and England should have just kept going to him. But then somehow, some way the opposition managed to get back into the game and

score the first goal and I think that's what's disappointed us with England. They've let themselves down by clearly not creating enough chances in games for Harry Kane or even a Phil Foden to be as effective as we know that they can do but at the end of the day when it comes to major tournaments I mean you can say the same about Canada in this major competition as well sometimes all that really matters is just getting through to the next game and then hoping that your team really turns up on the day, performs to the best of their abilities and can actually

knock out a top opponent. But England now going up against the Netherlands, they know that they're coming up against a team who have performed great football, who have a great record against England, especially when it comes to head-to-head. But I just, I can't take it past my mind that we're all sitting waiting for England to perform. I can't get it past my mind that this might be the game that they actually turn up, that they're going to leave it late and play their best football in the semi-final and the final and go on and win it. They can do that. They've got the players to do that, but do they have the mentality and do they have also the physicality as well?

Because a lot of the players out there in an England jersey are starting to look really tired. So it's Spain and France in one semifinal. It is England and the Netherlands in the other. Ian, who do you like to advance from both of the semifinals and who do you like to win it all on Sunday? Well, Spain have been the best team as far as I'm concerned when it comes to the tournament so far,

the way they've played football. 11 goals in the process and five games has been impressive. They conceded their second goal against Germany and still managed to react and knock Germany out in the 119th minute. And what that does is boost confidence to you. So for me, Spain should be too much for France. But again, similar to England, France have not really turned up in this tournament. Not scoring goals from open play is a big concern. They could still turn it on and beat Spain.

So that one's very up there. But Spain are my favourite to go through against them. I actually fancy the English against the Netherlands, even though the English do not have a great record against the Netherlands. I just think that England can turn up on the day and really be a problem. But they've only beaten Netherlands once in the last nine meetings, and that was in Euro 96. So it doesn't bode well statistically. It's just the feeling I have that England can turn up. And then if I go to the final, I don't think that England can beat Spain, even if they're close to their

best. I just think Spain with two youngsters, Nico Williams and Ramin Yamal, not really caring what the occasion is and just playing their football, they might be too strong for England. However, if England play their best football, like I just said, if they've left it late, England should be favourites going into that game. So I'm going to go for Spain to win it right now on current form and certainly the current stats that are sticking out to me. Ian, this was fantastic. Thank you very much for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it.

We'd love to do this again later in the summer. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me, and big kisses and hugs to everybody out there in Vancouver. I miss it. What a great, great city it is. Thanks, Ian. Appreciate it.

That's Ian Joy, CBS sports soccer analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. Well, isn't he just a joy to have on the program? There it is. Atta boy, laddie. How hard were you resisting the urge to say that at the end? I was. You know what?

There was a point in there where I was saying, how will England find joy? Oh, I missed that. On the weekend. Okay. You guys want to do a little bit of hockey talk? We have a smidgen of hockey news, which could be some big news by the end of the week,

according to Rob Rossi of The Athletic. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are closing in on a new contract. That's according to multiple team and league sources who are familiar with negotiations. What took him so long? The team and player are confident that a deal will be agreed upon and formalized soon. Although everything is quiet

on the Crosby front, the agent, Pat Brisson, the general manager, Kyle Dubas, the player, Sidney Crosby, who's busy watching footy. He's a footy guy now, by the way. We all are, apparently, according to the show. So the deal sounds like it might have more term than was first thought. Rossi previously reported that they might have been doing something in the neighborhood of a three-year deal with an AAV of 10 million. The deal is now being phrased as quote, a commitment to Pittsburgh and it would ensure that the 35 year old Crosby would finish his career as a Pittsburgh penguin.

Crosby turns 37 next month. I think I understand why with a three-year deal would take him to age 40, at which point they could maybe go on one of those plans where they go year upon year upon year, but maybe it'll be a longer-term deal. Now, the interesting part in all of this is that it comes at a time where Kyle Dubas has been kind of raked over the coals in Pittsburgh for having a very underwhelming offseason and not necessarily adding the pieces

that some would suggest that would get Crosby back to Stanley Cup contention. But he also doesn't want to be that guy that got Crosby out of Pittsburgh. And he won't be. No. This is the way that I think everyone figured the negotiation was going to go.

It would ultimately result in Crosby re-upping with Pittsburgh. I know we were throwing out there a bunch of harebrained ideas in the previous week. We did the hypothetical, dare I say mythological, Sidney Crosby for elias petterson trade just conceptually i want to reiterate that for those that think i'm actually considering oh they were close that deal almost happened i was just saying conceptually would you consider bringing aboard a 37 year old top five player of all time future hall Hall of Famer, et cetera, et cetera, for basically your future 1C

for the next 10 years. I'm being a rough estimate on that. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. That's in the past. We had the conversation. You all scoffed, whatever. This is going to be pivotal so that the Penguins can start,

I presume, start to make some next moves and figure out what they're going to be and how they can get back into the playoffs. Nevermind Stanley Cup contention. This team needs to get into the postseason. That is a problem right now that for the past two years with the talent that they've had available to them. And if you want to look the relative health that they've had with some of their older guys, they haven't been able to get over the hump just to get in and participate. They haven't been able to figure out how to have an effective power play with Crosby and Malkin and Letang and Carlson all manning it with regularity.

It is a problem. And Crosby's going to sign. I imagine that at 10 mil, it'll end up being, by the time the contract is done, more than full value and more than a great deal for the Penguins. It'll probably allow them to go out and make some moves if they need to.

But at this stage of the game, you look at their roster and you're saying you're bringing a lot of the older guys back. You're kind of running with the same thing in net. What are they doing in net? I was going to say like, what are they trying to offload? What are they doing in net?

And then Dubas responded with, there's no interest in Jari. At least at that ticket. So what, what is your plan in net? Do you give the ball to Nedeljkovic and run? Honestly, they're like the same goalie.

If you look at their numbers, they're essentially the same goalie. They you look at their numbers the they're essentially the same goalie they have a bit of future coming up in the pipeline but not enough to just give them the reins and say go for it like it's just it's a weird weird spot they're in right now and i'm just curious to find out how crosby works 8.7 into his new contract somewhere i don't know if that's at the end he's gonna throw it in it in there. 10.87? Yeah, $10,008,000..7. He's going to do it somewhere. Now, Dubas did address this

at the draft when speaking with reporters. He said, our on-ice direction is simply we're not looking just to squeak into the playoffs. It's to return the team to become a contender as soon as possible. And this is the offseason he has? This is what I'm saying.

The follow-up quote was that he asked the question. He said, quote, can we do that this season? Can we do it next season? It's hard to put a time frame on it, but obviously this isn't a strip it down to the studs situation here. The people in the room are too good for that. All of this leads me to believe that if they're going to give it a window of one year to turn

things back up to where they're a cup contender then this year they have to be playoffs or bust you can't go three years on the trot without making the playoffs and then just magically expect to turn into a cup contender even if you have sydney crosby in the in the fold it's a great quote though i think it throws every team that's ever stripped it down to the studs under the bus because i guess they're not good enough people, according to Dubas. Sorry, Chicago. Sorry, Nick Foligno. You're not a good enough person.

We're going to strip this down to the studs so they like it or not. Well, I mean, part of the reason that he said that is because I think he was the one that – He's referring to Crosby. Yeah, I know, but he engineered one of those studs, and that's Eric Carlson, right? That was sort of the one that put them in the stratosphere of we're a win-now team. You don't go out and acquire Carlson. We're a win-now or a bust

team. Well, that's true. I think they were closer on the bust side. Okay, quick reset here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. 8 o'clock hour, we're going to be joined by Brian White. Yeah, that's right. Vancouver Whitecaps striker, the all-time leading scorer in Whitecaps history. He's going to join us

on the heels of a 1-1 draw in Montreal over the weekend. Whitecaps got some pretty good points out of their two-game swing on the road. So we'll talk to Brian White about that, how he feels about being the Whitecaps

all-time leading scorer. Then at 8.15, we're going to go down to San Jose. Shang Peng is going to join the program. NBC Sports California, Sharks writer. We're going to talk about Mack San Jose. Shang Pang is going to join the program. NBC Sports California Sharks writer. We're going to talk about Macklin Celebrini,

who over the weekend made the decision to leave Boston University, sign his entry-level deal, and turn pro with the San Jose Sharks, meaning he'll be in the lineup for opening night this coming fall. That's all coming up in the final hour. Also, if you want to get him in, text him in. What we learned. We don't have a lot. We need more.

What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? The last 72 hours in sports. All weekend. What did you learn? Let us know. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. Text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. Bridge Street, Dunbar Lumber, and Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park.

More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Text them in. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Brian White and Shang Pang will join us next. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.