Halford & Brough in the Morning - Hronek Isn't Going Anywhere

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason discuss the latest Canucks trade rumours with Victory+ NHL insider Frank Seravalli (2:16), plus the boys preview today's Canada v. Switzerland World Cup matchup today at BC Place with Sportsnet soccer analyst James Sharman (25:38). 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.

Sarah Valley. Sarah Valley. Syra Valley. Frank. Sarah Valley. Frank. Sarah Valley. Frank.

Frank. 703 on a Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Halford and Braff, Sportsnet, 650. Frank. Halford and Brad for the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. They're open seven days a weekend. They're open late to help you get debt-free with no judgment or upfront fees.

Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in hour two of the program. Frank Sarvalley is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to by Jason Homanoch at Jason. Dot Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio. Steps strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. Guests on Sportsnet 650. Call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at ABLEe auctions.ca. your business assets sold and your building cleared. Okay, we're going to talk to Frank now. No, actually, I have to do one thing really quickly before we talk to Frank.

But when we do, I want to start with the Canucks. Sounds good. Before we get to Frank, I need to do the one to watch brought to you by Limitless A.V. This is a no-brainer. At noon today from BC Place, Canada, Switzerland, topping of the group, the one to watch. Alfonso Davies, Canada's best player, finally ready and available for selection. and Jesse Marsh says he expects to bring his captain off the bench at some point during today's match against Switzerland. So you're one to watch, Alfonso Davies, making his World Cup debut for Canada, presumably today at noon when they kick off against the Swiss.

That is your one to watch. Brought to you by Limitless A.V., Vancouver's most trusted audio-visual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces. Book your personalized tour of their Experience Center today at Limitless AV. to the able auctions hotline. We go. Frank Saravaleigh from Victory Plus. Joins us now on the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Frank. How are you?

I am surviving. How are you guys? What was yesterday like for you? Unrelenting. And at one point, the funny part is I was like, obviously sitting at my desk for a long time. And so I got up.

I was like, oh, maybe I'll go outside and just, you know, clean up. And I dropped my phone in the pool. Oh. Which was while I was on it, which was electric, I had to go in with my clothes on to get it out. And then it got to the bottom and I picked it up. I'm like, you're still there? And he's like, yep. Wow.

Sweet. So did you dive head first into the pool and all your clothes? No, I just like casually waited in to pick it up off the bottom. But it was, yeah, it was great. It was a great day. Well, I'm glad your phone is okay because you're going to need it over the next little while. As it was floating to the bottom, you should have seen me. I was like, no, draft week.

Frank, we spent the first hour of the show going over everything that happened yesterday. Canucks fans are getting a little bit antsy. They want in on the action. Are you hearing anything about the Vancouver Canucks? I am, yeah, I think they're interested in continuing to pare down this roster. I think they're trying to deliberate the best pass on how to manage the Elias Pedersen situation. And I fully expect that over the course of these next three days or so, that we will see some activity on the Canucks front to whether it's Jake DeBrusk or whether it's

Pedersen or maybe even Brock Besser, the plan is very clear in place that they are going to take this thing to the studs. Will the Canucks be willing to retain on an Elias Pedersen contract? I think to a certain extent they will. It's limited, but I do think for the first time that they're open to it, simply by way of like let's be real with the math. Like if we're looking at the course of the next five years, for instance, and you're saying that it's going to take almost that long for the Canucks to be competitive again,

think about how many years they're going to have to hit the salary cap floor in that stretch. And whether you're paying Pedersen, 2 million of that, or give or take three, whatever the number ends up being. Or whether you're acquiring a dummy contract from someone or somewhere else, at some point you're going to need, and let's add in the brusk factor. If you're taking additional salary off of this team, which is likely, you're going to have to spend at some point either way to get to the floor. So whether you do it by keeping some from Pedersen,

whether you take on a bad deal from someone else, whether you acquire the next Ryan Ellis contract or you know what I mean? Go through the list. Sure. Any which way you slice it, you're going to have to use your calculator to get to the floor. And so I think they're open to that possibility for that reason.

I keep thinking about the Kings as a potential destination for Pedersen. Yep. Is that one of them? And are there any others that immediately come to mind for you? It is one of them. for sure. Look, the Kings are focused on, and they're one of many teams that are trying to land the center. They're looking for their Angey Kopitar replacement. They're thinking that getting Pedersen potentially out of Vancouver and out of the spotlight into a place where, obviously, it

doesn't really burn that bright in Southern California. Maybe have him be a little bit more relaxed and he can get back to being the player that we all saw at one point in time. So I think the Kings are on that list. I've seen people mention the Toronto Maple Leafs. It does not compute for me, like, from both a team-build perspective and just like taking a Pedersen from Vancouver and dropping him into Toronto with the speculation and everything else. I just feel like you'd be setting him up for failure.

So I think the possibilities are, it's not an incredibly long list, but I think there has been real interest. Is Jake DeBrus going to be relatively easy to trade? Yes. First off, it's a seller's market. Second, it's a player who is like kind of set it and forget it. He's like an easy bake oven for 25 goals. Right. Like he just does it and his cap hit is very reasonable.

If you're looking for, you know, top six, middle six scoring winger, like he's on the list and he's definitely being talked about. Let's go back to the center market because we all know that Dylan Larkin has requested a trade out of Detroit. And when Jordan Kairu was finally traded out of St. Louis after years of rumors. I immediately wondered, okay, what about Robert Thomas? Is he available? Has he ever really been available? I've always felt that St. Louis would definitely trade Kairu, but I wasn't so sure about Thomas. Yeah, so Thomas is not available. The St. Louis Blues have told teams, and including teams that they had engaged with previously that they're not moving Robert Thomas. That one never really

made sense to me either because when you take a player at a premium position like that who can be or had gotten close to touching a point per game at that age with that contract if you delete him from your group the next thing you're doing

is trying to find that exact player and we all know that the draft is an inexact science so good luck trying to replicate that through futures so not really a shock but Thomas off the market. So you mentioned Larkin.

There's Mason McAvish. There's Vincent Trocheck. We talked about Pedersen. There's Tomas Hurtle. There's a couple younger guys that if teams are really trying to get excited and make something happen to improve their team, I could see Minnesota and Seattle moving on from Danili You're Off and Shane Wright. If you're looking for a depth center, you've got Morgan Frost. If you're looking for a fourth liner, you've got Sean Corralli. That's how I see the center

market at this exact moment in time. We're speaking to Frank Saravale, our NHL Insider from Victory Plus here in the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Are you hearing anything anything Frank on Philiparonic? Yeah, I am actually. That he's not going anywhere. That the Vancouver

Canucks plan to make Philipronic part of the leadership core of this team wouldn't be surprised to see him named captain and he's someone that they're going to depend on and rely on here moving forward he's the one guy that's staying all right I'm going to stop asking about Heronic then

I know that collectively in the room the studio here we're all kind of hoping that in light of the price is paid for some other defensemen Heroic might be a guy move but we'll table that but it does bring me to Bowen Byram so can you give me a sense of two things. The league-wide response or take

on the price paid by Chicago for Byron, and then what your take was on it? So the league-wide take is not going to surprise you internally. From talking to other teams, they felt that it wasn't as high a price as social media thought. Okay.

And I know someone listening to that says, well, look, this is the first top five pick that's been traded in the salary cap era since 2008. What do you mean? This isn't a high price. You have to understand how the board changed in a pretty significant way yesterday. Okay. Once San Jose got that number nine overall pick, they're not using that to try and go package it for something else.

as the Blackhawks and everyone else watching understood it, this now frees them up to take the forward at two. So you've got, let's say, McKenna won, Stenberg 2 to San Jose. The consensus still talking to teams is that Malhotra will go three to the Canucks. So then you need to, just one of, or I'm just doing my math on the fly here. Sure. York or Colin to go four through eight for one of those defensemen to land with the

sharp. Right. Okay. And so with that, once Chicago got a sense that Denver wasn't going to make it to them at four, I think that's who they had eyes on, they pivoted and well, look, we're at this spot in our rebuild where we've got Levshinov and we've got Renzel, and we need one of those guys to pop. So we can draft one of these five defensemen at number four and take a flyer on them,

or we can get the sure thing that we believe really upgrades our team and get Bowen Byram at four, who coincidentally was picked at number four in his draft year. He's 25. He's younger than Alex Vlasic, which Hawks fans, interestingly enough, still think of as a young defenseman. And now Bowen Byram, this guy who's wanted to be the guy, he can step into the Hawks lineup

and actually get that opportunity to be a first power play guy for the first time in his career. Okay. the Oilers, I think there's been a lot of discussion about Mike Babcock, probably enough on this show. So my next question is Stan Bowman, what, if anything, is he going to do about the roster? Does he plan to make significant changes? Does he plan to address the goaltending? I think the answer to all those questions is has to.

He has to address a lot of those things. He needs to find secondary scoring. He has to figure out what's, are you moving on from Darnell Nurse? Can you actually bring back Tristan Jari to this team after pretty much everyone lost trust in him last season? As key and critical as the coaching part of this equation is, to me, it's always been about roster construction. I don't think the Edmonton Oilers lost in the Stanley Cup final two years in a row because they didn't have the right. coach behind the bench. The coach matters, but only to a certain extent. It's the group, it's the players, and the truth is why the Oilers were an average team, according to Connor

McDavid, is because of the erosion of talent that they've had on their roster from 24 to 25 to 26. And now as we enter 27, they have to make significant upgrades. And one way to start by doing that is to remove Darnel Nurses' $9 plus million from your cap table and use that flexibility to go make your team better. Are there any names out there that have been linked to Edmonton because if they do trade Darnel Nurse, you're right, they've got to replace those minutes. Who could replace them?

From a defense perspective, that part has been less clear. That's the tough part. Yeah, I'd say that at least from a secondary school, boring perspective, look, Jake DeBrusk has been connected to Edmonton for a long time. And so I wouldn't be shocked if he's one of the players on their list that they're looking at, saying, how do we add 25 goals to our team? That's one way to do it at a cost-effective price point. Did you wonder like I did...

The tougher part for the Edmonton conversation is there is the assets that they can move to do it. Yeah. No, for sure. We've talked about that a lot, too. did you wonder like I did what was going on in the Oilers room particularly last season like for the for the core group to want Mike Babcock

in there what does that say because there's a lot of teams out there that the players would be like I don't want that actually well I think and not saying that the narrative is BS because they were clearly brought into it but like you have to take some part of the narrative with a slight grain of salt.

Because in my view, the players were used as cover here. You have the owner making decisions to do this. What's the easiest way to sell it is say that Connor McDavid wants it. Right. Okay. Look, to me, like, I've spent a lot of time around Connor McDavid. Connor McDavid had nothing to do with Chris Knoblock being hired. Connor McDavid had nothing to do with his form. agent in Jeff Jackson being named president of hockey ops.

Connor McDavid isn't out here choosing the next coach of the Edmonton Oilers. He just isn't. So if you're going to suggest that this is what was the driving force, no, the conversation first started with the owner and then at some point, given what happened in Columbus, the question became, if we're going to get this through, we at least need to bring our players into the mix. And then once they meet, then you can tell everyone, oh, no, the players were driving the bus on this. And that's how you sell it. Okay. Before we let you go, I do want to look ahead to today. I'm just itching for more trades.

It's Wednesdays is a thing of the past. What is on the docket today? What are you expecting? Do you anticipate that a Morgan Riley trade is going to get done in the not too distant future? They're trying. I've been trying to nail down this morning who those 14, teams are. Any ideas? I believe one of them to be San Jose. That's the only one I can really connect a dot on. San Jose, by the way, was very interested in Byron, and they had the same sort of, just in case anyone thinks that I'm crazy in the analysis, they had the same sort of calculus in terms of the number nine pick once they acquired it in the Eklund deal. Instead of getting one of those five defensemen in the draft, they were willing to trade nine for Bowen Byron as well.

So San Jose still looking for defense, that checks. I've seen Utah reported. I don't know if that's accurate. So yeah, working on the Morgan Riley situation, what else the Leafs might be getting up to from a goalie perspective has certainly been on the radar. Brandon Carlo is absolutely in the mix today. So there's a lot happening from a Leafs perspective, but I'm also keeping a really close eye on the Mason McTavish front in Anaheim. The number of teams that are talking about and asking about Mason McTavish is pretty spectacular. One more before we let you go.

Connor Hellebuck, what are you hearing on that front? well um there's only so many teams that can pull this off and that would have authentic interest in connor hellabuck and that part um in terms of working through that list and what they might be interested in i think everyone's attention was was captured by buffalo now having that number four pick i was just going to if you're going to if you're going to entertain winnipeg or get them to jump what way has Winnipeg had the most success building their team, given how hard it is to acquire players who want to go there or sign there, it's through the draft.

That's their currency. And picking at four and eight, if that were to come to fruition, plus obviously Buffalo has a number of goalies that they could send back to give them some modicum of a chance to compete, including a UPL or if you wanted to go Devon Levi or whatever gets you excited, I mean, there's definitely a pathway to a deal there and Hello Buck joining a team that has a chance,

an authentic chance to compete. It'd be interesting. Frank, this was great, buddy. Thanks for taking the time to do this. Keep your phone out of the pool. Stay dry, buddy. We'll do this again next week. You have one job.

See you, dude. Thanks. See you, pal. Frank Sarah Valley from Victory Plus here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. So my only hope is that Frank was using some old notes. about the Vancouver Connuchin that they want to keep Heronic and possibly make him captain. If the Connucks announced Philip Peronick as captain, can you imagine the response in this market?

Yeah. Yeah, I can. That would be kind of like, that would honestly be unfair to Heronic. Why would he want it? Like, he doesn't like doing interviews. And that seems to be kind of important. Okay, never mind the captaincy part. I would understand why he wouldn't want to leave.

from a purely traditional hockey perspective of I'm here I'm playing hockey I like playing hockey I have spoken with people that are around the team that I'm Philip Ronek likes

playing hockey and getting paid to play hockey and having a couple beers afterwards and he's good with it like he's good does it can he only do that in Vancouver no but are they not playing hockey

in the other 31 other markets What if you could do all that and also win a cup though Yeah but I mean what are you going to hockey for him? What are you going to do? What are he going to do if he's armed with no move?

Like he can, he can decide what he wants. There's only so much you can. There's ways to pressure. There are ways to pressure. There are ways to pressure. Yeah. But at a certain point, you do have to ask yourself in an organization like how willing

are you to disrupt the player that you traded for, you signed to a deal. This management didn't. I know they didn't. But you have player relationships and player relationships matter. Yeah. I'm playing devil's advocate. I know you are. Major way.

Because you don't believe this. Not into the slightest. So, but you've got to look at the full scope of it. Because otherwise, you're going to go mental, bang your head against the glass, being like,

why is this not happening without understanding that there are reasons? And if you bang that head against anything, honestly, I'm worried about that object. It's a big dome. Yeah, it's a bit. What size hat do you wear?

Seven and five, eights is the best fit. Is that considered large? Is that a large? It's in the large tax. A large category. Yeah. He's got his own hatmaker.

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And tickets started four for only $85. As I mentioned, that's only $21 and $25 a ticket. Don't wait, buy yours now, as Jason mentioned, at heroeslottery.com. Going a break on the other side, James Sharman, Canada, Switzerland, kicking off at noon. James will preview it with us next on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Grants. 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.

Wednesday, happy Wednesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. They're ready to give you the financial fresh start you deserve with no judgment or upfront fees. Visit them today at sands dash trustee.com. We are in our two of the program with the midway point of the show. James Sharman's going to join us for our weekly every Wednesday World Cup hit in just a moment here. Our two of this program is brought to by Jason hominock at Jason. dot mortgage.

If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason. Dot mortgage to the able auctions hotline. we go, our next guest, soccer analyst, World Cup analyst for the Footy Prime podcast and Sportsnet. James Sharman joins us now on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, James. How are you? I'm doing great, fellas. It's really good. Looking forward to another amazing day here at the World Cup. So I drove in bright and early this morning, got to the studio at about 5.30, and the road closures were already being put up.

There was about a million different traffic attendants and cops getting everything all lined up. So the, the atmosphere is building. The fever is building. We're getting ready for kickoff today. I'm really nervous. This is just such a huge opportunity for Canada. I'm more excited than I am nervous, which is weird, because usually I'm nervous in these moments.

I'm just excited to experience this. And I like a lot of what happened yesterday, both the training and media availability, where Jesse Marsh met with the media ahead of today's match. You were there, James. Let's start with some of the takeaways from that. Alfonso Davies, when are you expecting to see him today?

Because Marsh made it pretty apparent that his World Cup debut is very much on the docket for this morning this afternoon. Yeah, I'm not sure yet. I mean, I don't think much has changed really from last week when he said he was available.

Now, listen, he said a full week of training, we think. We've seen him out there for the first 50 minutes. We don't see more than that, obviously, but we assume he's involved beyond those 50 minutes. And in those 50 minutes, looks pretty good, looks more explosive than he had prior.

So there's a chance we will see him today for maybe 15, 20 minutes, I would think. But at the same time, it's not for sure. Majy said that the situation of the match would dictate whether we see him and when we see him, right? Obviously, in a perfect world, he probably wants another week or a few days anyway to get back to full health. But, you know, bringing on an Alfonso Davis with, you know, 15 minutes left, with that pace, against a tiring Swiss back line could be very important. And even yesterday, speaking to the Swiss manager and Manuel, Kanji, the defender back

there, he said, listen, yeah, that would be a challenge because we know how quick Fonzie is. We know how important he is to this team. We see him at Bayern Munich all the time, so they're well aware of who he is and what he can do, but will we see him today? We'll have to wait and see, let's hope so. Let's hope so that it's healthy enough, because I think we forget

just how important he is to this team and how they've done what they've done, which is incredible the last year or so, pretty much without him. So you add that player in the mix and suddenly it's a different beast because the guys, you know this. There's no one else in that team, right? That strikes that kind of fear into the opponents. No one who has that presence on the pitch. So we'll wait and see, but if we do see him, second

half, 15 minutes, 20 minutes. What is the game plan for Canada today knowing that they only need a draw? Well, you know, that's dangerous, right? I remember thinking the same thing back in 2012 against Honduras. Remember that? A draw is enough to get to the hex and what cup qualifying. And we know what happened. They lost 8-1 for those that don't know. I hope they're a better team now than they were then. I think they might be. I'm not concerned of an 8-1 loss today.

Listen, Jesse Marsh says the worst way to get a draw is to play for a draw. This team can't do that. They're a team that plays in the front foot. They're aggressive. They'll be going for the win. There's no doubt about it. But it's a very different match to what we've seen so far at the World Cup, where both those previous opponents, Qatar and Bosnia sat very deep with that deep block

and Canada had to be patient and try and break them down. This match, more likely, you're going to see the Swiss with more of the ball. They're a very patient team themselves. They build from the back, and they will have much of the possession. And against European teams, generally speaking, the last couple of years, Canada's operate on about 40% possession. And they're fine doing that. The job there is to attack, help the pitch,

try and win the ball back in dangerous areas, transition quickly and find your goals that way. So a very different match today, but I think a fascinating match, and one that actually in a strange way, despite the Swiss being a far better team than the previous opponents, I think Canada does match up pretty well against them tactically. So it should be a fascinating tilt. And listen, Canada's not favourites,

and they shouldn't be the favourites. The Swiss are the 19th best team in the world. They are a team that's got out of the group phase, the last three World Cups, very good defensively as well. But, you know, there's a hidden resolve and confidence in this Canada camp right now. They seem pretty loose.

So a draw, despite going for the winner, a draw is very much possible. Yeah, it's just such an interesting dynamic for a country that is used to watching ice hockey. When you're down a goal in hockey, you need to score two to win. But in this case, you're down a goal to Switzerland. You need to score one to essentially win,

to essentially get what you want. And I'm just wondering if we're in for a roller coaster at BC Place. I wonder if that's the case or whether a Swiss team would be satisfied with the draw themselves and finish in that second spot. You look at the way, I mean, it's hard to say regarding the bracket, right? Yeah. The permutations are crazy. But there's a chance that the second place team plays Belgium.

Sorry, first place team plays Belgium. Second place team plays career or Czechia, right? Right, yeah. But you just can't really think ahead that way. I think you have to play a certain way and you have to play to win. So I can see a cagey affair, but Canada likes chaos, right? This Canadian team, we've seen it from Cope America throughout the JC Marsh, even under John Herbman, there are a team that doesn't mind a bit of chaos out there as well.

So it could go either way, but the Swiss are a composed team, a veteran team, experience in tournaments. So they don't generally let games get out of control. That being said, they did lose 6-0 to Portugal in the last World Cup in the round of 16, right? So anything can happen. There's quality on both sides of the bull. think it should be actually a really, really great match, regardless of how it turns out. Who are the players to watch on Switzerland?

Yeah, listen, it's not to say they're stacked. They're not stacked. They've got quality team, their players playing throughout the top four or five leagues in European football. Most of their players do, where it was Canada have, what, four or five players, that do that. But a player that stands out to me in the midfield, because often, you know, these matches are won and lost in the midfield, as the old cliche goes. But Granite Jacques, is a guy that, that some people may have heard of. Played at Sundel in this past year in the Premier League was absolutely outstanding. He played at Arsenal for years.

Was a polarising figure, very physical, had lots of red cards earlier in his career, which kind of represented who he was. But he's grown up, he's matured, he controls the midfield, but he's still very physical, a great leader. He can really control the tempo of a match. And beside him, Froiler, a player that's done it for the last number of years in German football, an outstanding midfielder. So there's two, they're kind of the spine of the team there.

Up top is Brea Lombolo. He plays in France. And he's one of those players that has a good club career, but every European championship or a World Cup, he comes through with really good performances. And the thought is he could be a superstar. He's never reached a superstar status, but he's a force up there, a physical force.

So there's some quality in the attack, in the midfield. And then at the back, Manuel Ocangi, who Man City fans remember, he's been on loan the last year in Italy. But very good player, thoughtful play. smart, intelligent defender, can play physically as well. So there are teams that have quality throughout, strong midfield, pacing the wings, good finisher up top, tough team to beat.

Why did Shakiri call it quits on the international stage? That guy was a beast. I know he's 32, but there are some older players doing some stuff. Yeah, but he's a player, though, that, you know, he relied on his pace and explosiveness, right? And as we all know, that's the first thing that goes when you get a little bit older. and we saw him in MLS later in his career. He wasn't the same player.

I remember watching him at Stoke and at Liverpool. He was brilliant, right? And he scored some worldies at big international tournament. So it's a shame he's not there, but at 32, when the legs go, and that's happening with him, you know, it's time to say thank you for the memories, and it's time to move on, which happened, unfortunately. But I guess we should be fortunate that he's not facing Canada today.

We're speaking to James Sharman, Sportsnet Soccer Analyst, also from the Footy Prime podcast here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Okay, if we're to assume, and I think it's safe to assume, that it's going to be a straight one-for-one swap in the midfield with Natanzibah coming in for the injured Ismail Kone. What's the biggest challenge

that Salibe would have trying to replicate what Kone brought to the table? Well, I think the challenge would be if he tried to replicate what Kone brings, right? Sure. Different players. And even Jesse Marge said yesterday that in some ways, as dangerous and the ex-factor that Ishma Kenei was,

Sleber might be more of a well-balanced midfielder on both sides of the ball. He can play perhaps a bit better defensively. So let's not kid ourselves. You're missing out, you're losing out on this player in Konae, who is arguably the team's best midfielder. The most dynamic midfielder for sure, a guy that can pick a pass, can beat a player one-on-one, operates no spaces,

and we saw it in the first two one-and-a-half games, how good he had been in this World Cup. So it's a huge loss, but the Tanzer Libra is a player that's done very well, in his first year, and elect in European football, a good league and a good club. He never lets his country down.

He's a young player with a ton of potential. And I guess if there's any area in the pitch where there is some pretty good depth, it is the center of midfield. So, you know, I'm not going to pretend that losing kind of isn't a huge gut punch, and it really is. But Slebe can step in.

And we saw that composure when he came on in that second half, scored that goal, played really well. And beyond him, he had a John Fennierreux, he had a Matthew Schwineerier, These are good players who can play at this level. So it's a loss, of course, but Slebe is a very different type of a player,

but has got a ability. He's got a rocket on him, a great shot from distance. So you might see that more often. Yeah, I had a couple of people reach out and ask the loss of Conan, and I kind of phrased it to them, like, you might be able to compensate for his loss at the end of the group stage, maybe in the round of 32, but when you go up against someone of real quality,

if you get that far, that's where you might notice the difference because the difference between Kone and Sleba might not be massive but Kone is the superior player I think he's just got a higher ceiling than Siliba and we might see it play itself out today which could be good because of course Canada needs the result

I do have one more health related one we haven't mentioned Moist Bombito yet now obviously he's further along in his return on the back line than Davies is because he got to feature for about 30 minutes against Qatar again I can't imagine he gets into the 11 because of the work in part that DeFusorol and Cornelius have done at the back,

but what are you expecting to see from Bombito today should he feature in this match? You know, I wouldn't be massively surprised if he's a shock starter, to be honest with you. Okay, I'll cut you off then. Who would he start ahead of? Well, that's the good question, right? So both DeFourgerol and Cornelius have yellow cards at the moment, which is a factor, obviously. They don't get worked until after the group phase. Now, DeFusiole has played fantastically well.

I say he's played better than Derek Cornelius, who's played fine. But I have a suspicion. There's a chance you might see Bambido in for Canelius in this one, which would be a bit of a surprise. But it's possible. If I was a betting man, I'd still say it'll be Cornelius in DeFourgeron, and then you'll see Bambido come in in in the second half

to protect those yellow cards. You know, we saw him play last week for 45 minutes, which was a big moment for him. And it wasn't that busy, obviously, against Qatar. But prior to that, Jesse Marshall said he said, They had a great week training, is effusive, and how good his week was training. Another week after that match of solid training,

he looked really good from what we saw. He was racing at one point, one-on-one with Promise David, and he looked just fine. He looked at the wheels were back. So it's an interesting one. You know, when he's healthy enough to start, he will start. He is the best defender Canada has by some stretch. Is this going to be a little bit too soon for a start possibly?

But, you know, Jesse's keeping his cars close to his chest, We don't know where he'll play, when he'll play. We don't know about Alfonso Davis. There's a lot of, you know, at this point in World Cups and tournaments, there's so much gamesmanship. No one really knows. We can speculate all we want, but you might be in for a slight surprise

when the starting 11th's mentioned today. I don't think it's any surprise that Jesse Marsh has become a talking point at this tournament. We, having followed him for the last little bit, during his tenure as the Canadian manager, know how demonstrative and boisterous and energetic he is. the rest of the world maybe now is getting caught up to speed a little bit. And some of them don't like it.

I know that the comments from the Irish media made the rounds on social media talking about how he was reacting to the goals that were being piled on against guitar. And, you know, there were some earlier critics, especially in the American media for some of the remarks that he made. How much attention are you paying to how much attention the rest of the world is paying to Jesse Marsh right now? Well, I think it's great personally. I mean, I'd rather they pay attention to our players and what they're doing on the pitch,

but everyone loves a good story, and Jesse Marsh knows what he's doing. I think, you know, we've been too apologetic in Canada for so many years. We are in general as people, I think, but suddenly with soccer, now we've got a little bit of arrogance, and that's okay.

You know, we're playing and coaching with a chip on our shoulder. There's something to prove, and we don't care. You know, this is our World Cup. We're hosting a World Cup. People don't understand what a big deal is this is for Canada. You know, that Irish commentator, whoever he was, doesn't have a clue about Canadian soccer. A bacon and then a player, right?

We need this. We need to get his exposure. People don't care about the sport in this country for too long. And now finally they're paying attention. And we've got this American who's proud to be our coach, not caring what people think or say. And he's just being, listen, he's a smart guy. He's strategic in many ways, as Jesse. But he can also be a little bit, you know, volatile as well,

which I like. And I think any attention we get, any eyeballs or voices we get on our program here in Canada, It's a good thing right now. It will come with the players. But right now, if it's our manager leading the way and becoming the face of this team, that's fine. People are talking about us. I mean, you are some of the great players who have played in this team.

And over the years, you know, they would always complain that no one was ever talking about Canada. Well, they are now one way or the other. And that's a really positive thing. We shouldn't be apologizing for it. Did you want to ask James about England? I was actually going to ask him if Scotland has a chance against Brazil today. The answer is no. Move along.

Yeah, I would like to see them advance. But okay, I'll ask you about England. What did you think about their performance? Were you able to stay awake for the entire match? Oh, I know. You know, I was actually a training in Canada most of that time. So I got, I was spared. Yeah, you were.

Yeah, you were. But I had it my phone. And yeah, and I wasn't great. Gone, I knew what they were doing. They were playing for a draw. Now, listen, two posts. Harry Kane should have scored, so it could have been a different story.

But I find it interesting that here in Canada, we always talk about how Canada cannot break down deep blocks. Well, it's not just Canada, right? It's other good teams can't do it. And England have difficulty as well when teams sit that deep. So good for Ghana. I'm not at least bit concerned about it, right?

They have four points. They're going to get out of the group. They're paying Panama next, probably going to win the group. So they have their moments, but yeah, a little wake-up call perhaps. I think perhaps everyone was too happy after the Croatia match and the four goals they scored there. So now and again, as an England fan, and as, you guys will know that sometimes the fans need to be sat down and give the head.

head to shake and you need these results. So I'm not worried about it. It's the World Cup. You've got to grow into a tournament. You don't have peaked too soon. And it's always difficult beating a team like Ghana, who good for them, knew that to get a draw and they got their draw. It's hard. My immediate reaction was, well, Spain drew too.

Spain had to draw. Spain did they look good. Portugal how to draw. When you're dealing with individuals who maybe don't understand the nuances of the game, not like I'm a great expert at this, but you try and explain what Ghana did in the amount of discipline and how organized they were in that low block. And it's actually really impressive the way they were able to do it. But aesthetically, it was awful.

I mean, England had, the number was they had 79% possession in the match. The highest by any team that failed to score in the last 60 years of the World Cup. Three shots on target. 19 attempts. So it's a real slog to watch. There's 90 minutes where a team has the ball the entire time, but can't generate. any sort of never mind goals but opportunities on target it's a tough watch but to be able to defend in that nature you have to give a lot of credit to carous and of course to the ganes for

being that discipline being that organized and being that structured for the entire time well not to mention the fact that I mean okay it's probably the worst game of the world cup so far sure but that's partly because there's been most teams are going for it right or if you are defending they still they didn't transition and on the counter they're going for it so It was really kind of a return to the past, wasn't it? Other European championships, we've seen some very defensive football over the years, other World Cups at times. But this World Cup's been so invigorating, so much fun,

so many great games, great goals, great performances, that the group phase has really delivered. Now, will that change? Will we see more garners in the knockout rounds in the early mean? Around the 32, right? There's going to be some very average teams in around 32, playing some very good teams. So maybe if you're an opponent, opponent of England,

If you're Panama, for example, next match or whoever England plays in the round of 32, you've got to watch that Ghana match and say, you know what, it's not a bad idea. England had difficulty doing that. So we might be in for more of that, unfortunately. But like I said, you know, an inch either way, and suddenly it's 2-0 or 3-0 for England, and we're having a very different conversation. But that's football, right? If you want to kill off the game, park the bus, as they say, and you can get a result.

Well, I hope Panama doesn't do that. I hope they go drinking every night before the England game because they've been eliminated anyway. So they might as well go for it against England. James, man, there's so much to talk about. But hopefully when we talk to you next week, we're talking about a knockout stage game for Canada at BC Place. How amazing would that be?

Incredible. Who cares who it was against, could be against Belgium. You never know. Yeah. Wow. Prepare yourselves. All right. Thanks for this, buddy.

Enjoy the day. We'll talk again soon. Thanks, guys, Jesse. James Sharman, Sportsnet Soccer analyst from the footy podcast. Footy Prime podcast. On the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Oh, boy.

Yep. I hope Canada plays better than that today. Better than what? You just spoke. I went downtown yesterday. It was a fun atmosphere. Lots of England jerseys and a lot of like pre-match excitement.

I'm not sure about post-match excitement. I watched the game at Dublin Calling where it was all England supporters. and which is weird, right? Like, where'd you go to watch the England game? An Irish bar called Dublin Calling. I think in North America we're just like, they're all the same, right? Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales, they all get along, right? No, no, there are some subtle differences, but, you know, it was a great atmosphere at the bar, but nothing happened.

Nothing happened. And I don't even know if the supporters got that frustrated because, they're like well whatever like this isn't the end of the world but it was definitely the worst match of the world cup i hope we i mean i would i would take a nill-nill draw for canada and switzerland and i'd be perfectly okay with that but i think you're going to see a very different match i don't think canada's going to take anything out of gana's playbook and sit back and defend i think the way that jesse marsh coaches this canadian team he's going to go after them and the thing is If he goes after them and maybe Switzerland has some scoring opportunities,

let's say they score. You're not like, okay, we've got to win this game now or two. Again, like it is such a different dynamic and you only really get it in soccer where a draw is a win. Sure. Like a draw is a win. Well, tournament football. Yeah.

Tournament. Yeah. But a lot of people in Canada aren't used to that. Where the game can turn from like a loss to essentially a win on one goal. Yep. And that's exactly what could happen today. Yeah. Okay. It's time now for the smart decision brought to you by Crow. The NHL may be on the verge of making one. They are exploring. We've mentioned this in passing. I'll dive into it a little bit here. Potential expansion in Texas.

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Did you see Bill Foley, the Golden Knights owner, is going to try and get that NBA team? He made the official announcement yesterday. I got the email from the Vegas group saying they're getting in. It makes sense. Otherwise, they got to build a new arena down there. Right. Because no one's going to say, I've got this NBA expansion team. And now I'm going to be a tenant of Bill Foley's.

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