Halford & Brough in the Morning - It Was A Whitecaps Season For The Ages

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat a busy Week 14 and yet another win for the 10 and 3 Seahawks with NFL insider Mike Tanier (1:19), plus the boys chat with Whitecaps radio commentator Asa Rehman (25:08), as the Caps fall short in the MLS Cup Final to Inter Miami CF. 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.

702 on a Monday. everybody, Halford Brubbs, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are now in hour two of the program. Mike Tanny or our NFL insider from the two-deep zone is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour two. Hour two is brats by Jason hominock at jason.orgage.

If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason. We're coming to you live from the Kintech studio. Now is the time to maximize the benefits of custom orthotics before the year runs out. Visit kintech.net. Our next guest is a presentation of the Clayton Public House. He's our Monday morning quarterback. He's from the two deep zone.

He is Mike Tanier here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Michael. How are you? I'm better than the Kansas City Chiefs this morning. Oh, man. Sometimes the symmetry and the chemistry between us is too good to be true. Jason like a minute ago. I'm like, what do you want to start with Tannier? And he's like, let's start with

the Chiefs. And then you brought it up. And it's apropos because this is an unbelievable story, although it's unfolded slowly in front of our eyes. Another loss for the Kansas City Chiefs last night. Ugly, ugly loss on Sunday night football, putting up a grand total of 10 points at home

to admittedly a good Houston team and a very good Texans defense. But this is very dire times for the Chiefs. Is there 10 years streak of making the playoffs over. It is in serious jeopardy. I believe it is over. The only thing that is keeping it alive right now, really, and I'm sure we'll talk

about this in a moment, is the Daniel Jones injury, because the Colts are likely to fade now. It's likely to make the seventh playoffs feed wide open, and that could be the opportunity for the Chiefs. And there's one other thing that keep in mind, and that's tonight. The Chiefs really need the Eagles to beat the Chargers, to knock the chargers down and closer to elimination and out of the playoffs. Of course, the Eagles also needed an Eagles victory tonight, so there's a lot going on, but the Chiefs are really counting on other teams and take care of their business for them now. Assume that they miss, and I think statistically it's looking more and more that way. What does the future have in store? Obviously, everything goes around the Mahomes and read combo,

but it is a team that got older and I think eventually all good things do have to come to an end in a certain degree but are they going to be able to pivot quickly and get right back into contention and just consider this year an aberration? I get the impression

they're going to need like a sideways step and if they take that sideways step just right they can turn things around it. It's time for Travis Kelsey to embark on his podcasting and celebrity of your husband's career. I have a feeling Chris Jones who's getting older

and has always been been sort of like, I just want more ring and more money. It's probably time for him to move on. He clears those salaries out. Then the Chiefs can do some other things. They can maybe spend a little money in free agency, something they've not really been able to do in like three or four years. You know, add somebody younger at a key position.

They moved down on the draft order. That gives them an opportunity to maybe get an impact player or two. They've had a hard time. They've had to really move mountains to get impact players. So the Chiefs can turn things around with Mahomes. Quarterbacks of Mahomes caliber make it possible. to just rebuild around them. The Patriots did it three or four times.

You know, the Packers were able to do it once or twice with Rogers. It's possible they have to start the process, though, and I think that process would start with elimination from the playoffs. The other biggest story from yesterday, aside from the Chiefs getting whipped at home by the Texans, was Daniel Jones's torn Achilles for the Indianapolis Colts. How does Jones's injury impact the Colts in both the short and then the long term? Oh, it's such an existential threat.

So in the short term, they're going to struggle. They still have a chance of making the playoffs. They need to find a win someplace, but they're probably going to have to find that win with Riley Leonard. From the long term, like this suddenly casts doubt on everything that seemed like it was secure, like, you know, three weeks ago. It seemed like Shane Stuyken, coach of the year candidate, he's secure. Chris Ballard, his situation is GM is secure. Daniel Jones, so he's probably going to get like a Sam Darnold extension in an office. opportunity to be a starter, possibly in Indianapolis.

Now you look at things. Obviously, you have a new owner, and Carly Ercie Gordon was stalking the sidelines on a Carmen San Diego hat yesterday. You have a new owner who doesn't seem to necessarily have a lot of patience. Jones's future as a franchise quarterback is now in serious jeopardy. Anthony Richardson is on super secret probation somewhere. He has an eye injury, but we really don't understand the extent of that. Colts find themselves without a quarterback of the future.

they're a veteran roster there's a real fear that that team peaked at like 8 and 3 they peaked in November and now they need to possibly go into crisis management mode if they want to move forward in the future what did you think of Sam Darnold's second half performance against the

Atlanta Falcons because I mean this is what we're holding on to here in the Pacific Northwest because we know the Seahawks defense is good. Although, I think it's hilarious. So their last three games, they played Tennessee,

so that's not a huge challenge to face the Titans offense. Then they got Max Brosmer for the Vikings. Brosmer. Whatever. And then, we won't say his name much anymore. And then because

Pennix was hurt for the Falcons, it was Kirk Cousins, and now they're going to get Riley Leonard. And that's four straight weeks where you're like the defense was good but like really what were there

but I think we're all just trying to get a handle still on like how good the Seahawks are and whether or not they're a legitimate Super Bowl contender so the microscope

is very much out for Sam Darnold right now as it should be. Yeah congratulations on going 63 and 9 in the last in the last two games scoring your opponents and being miserable about it.

Seahawks fans, you have now graduated to Eagles fandom. Congratulations, it's not wonderful up here. But, yeah, I get what you're saying because you were very diplomatic. Sam Darnold and the offense looked pretty terrible in the first half of a 37-9 beating of the Falcons, which required a kick-off, yes, a kick-off return touchdown, which required like a interception near the goal line to set up a touchdown to ease things out. And I don't have a good answer for you, except that great team. blow out weak opponents. If we were having this conversation,

it was like, oh, we beat Kirk Cousins, you know, 26 to 24, and we beat Max Brousmer, you know, 26 to 23, and we needed a late field goal, I would be able to turn to you and say, oh, these worries are legitimate.

Donald and the offense isn't getting it done. There's a lot of smoke and mirrors against bad opponents in place here. These are blowout victories. The blowout victories are signs that the defense, special teams, and everything is clicking the way it's supposed to click and that

the offense is just as likely to come around or manufacture what it needs to manufacture when it gets the ball at the 25-yard line against that touchdown for you. So every metric says the Seahawks are Super Bowl contenders and if you're worried about the offense you can come to Philly and worry

about the offense here. You can go to Green Bay most of the time and worry about the offense there. It's a persistent worry around the league. Seahawks and Rams right now are the two best teams in the NFL and it's tough that the Rams happen to be in the same division as you guys and could take that division away from you. So the Seahawks, assuming they take care of business against the Colts this weekend,

and the Rams host the Lions, which will be a tough one for them, but assuming both teams win, we got that Thursday nighter to look forward to Seahawks, Rams. And that, you know, obviously it's a big one because those two teams, but the Seahawks could have this unbelievable. season, not win the division and not host a playoff game. That seems pretty important. It seems important. It seems brutal. One of the things you have going for you is that you could wind up going to Tampa Bay.

This also wind up going to Carolina. They could go into Philadelphia where, again, if you're worried about Sam Donald, we need to show you the entire Eagles offense right now. So there are opportunities there. But, like, there are things you can control and things you can't control right now. Again, you're beating all these opponents. You're probably going to beat the Colts next week. You hope the Rams, lose the Lions.

Maybe you get some help there. That's all you can do. And, like, those of us not in Seattle. We're all looking at that Thursday night or December 18th and saying, that's a circlet game. That's must-see TV. Let's get the guys together for Thursday night football because that's a big deal. And it's a privilege to be able to play football at that level.

A lot of teams would be begging to be where the Seahawks are right now. It's been a pretty charm season for those of us, who aren't sweating out every single win. What did you think of the Steelers win over the Ravens? Talk about sweating out every single win. And like the glass being half full, half empty. You know, Rogers literally wanted to go out there and shut us all up. He kind of sort of shut us all up.

He added a couple of those big completions up the sidelines. The more you look at Steelers wins, the less you impressed you are by them. Because it just seems like they manage. They sort of survive these victories. The more you look at Ravens losses, you're like, what in the heck is happening? You know, how did that touchdown disappear? How did that turn into a non-touchdown? How did that turnover and turn out to not be a turnover?

What was that penalty and why did it give the opponent a free set of downs? There are all these plays where it's like, they're all bang, bang plays, and none of them are like terrible calls. Like, oh, my goodness, the Ravens got hosed by that call. but anything that could be 50, 50 or 60, 40, it's all going against the Ravens right now. The Steelers went out there, they got a couple early plays, and then they held on for dear life while the Ravens sabotaged themselves and, like, breaks never went there away. It's a weird split, and I'm wondering whether it's going to be doing the same thing in week 18, because the Steelers are vulnerable.

They can lose to anybody. They do have the lions coming up. The Dolphins are still in the playoff race. And if the Ravens can just get a little bit more luck, they'll be back there, and they'll still be fighting for that division in week 18. I mean, the biggest issue for the Ravens right now is that they're on seven losses, so there's no assurances that even if they win out,

they'll be able to make the postseason. So we're staring very realistically at a world where the Chiefs and the Ravens are outside the AFC playoff picture when it begins, which probably turns our attention back to Buffalo. You know, it was funny, I was watching the Netflix Dallas Cowboys documentary over the weekend. And there was these constant. references about how hard it is to get to a

Super Bowl. No one really understands it because the road often, you play these great teams in the NFC or AFC championship game and you look at a team like Buffalo and you say maybe this is the year, maybe this is the year where you got that luck that every team needs that goes along with playing good football

in the sense that, again, we could have an AFC playoff field without Kansas City or Baltimore. Right, right. And the bills avoided that. They were trailing. I was sitting there, you know, about half time when the Bengals had a big lead and it's like, well, what happens if we really are no Ravens, no Chiefs, no Bills? And we're spending the IFC playoffs talking about, you know,

the Broncos and the Patriots and all these unlikely teams and then the Bengals sneak in, a very weird situation. Give the bills credit. They have avoided that. They've turned it on against some tougher opponents and got those wins. They have not had phenomenal luck. If you look at their injury report, there have been guys missing all over the place. Every week, it seems like there's two or three guys who are critical players who are out, and they've been battling through that. So, you know, it speaks well for the bills that said, no rest for the wicked.

They're in second place. They face the Patriots next week. They need to get that win. They need to demonstrate. Yeah, no, we're the championship calendar team getting right at the right time. We're that team this year, and they can do that by getting some revenge on the Patriots next week. We're speaking to Mike Tanier, our Monday morning quarterback from the two deep zone here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650.

Mike is a presentation of the Clayton Public House pregame to post game. The Clayton Public House is your home of football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors and visit them online at the Clayton Pub.com. Jordan Love probably won't win the most valuable player award in the NFL, but should he at least

be in the conversation over what he's done over the last couple of weeks? He had the four touchdowns on Thanksgiving and the win at Detroit. Three more yesterday in that big win over the Bears. So the Packers moved back in first place in the division. His number The yardage isn't astronomical. He is over 3,000, but 22 touchdowns to just four interceptions.

It's been a little bit of an up and down year, but he's really playing some good football late here down the stretch. He's playing some good football. It's funny, the conversation about Love, because you guys are talking about the MVP conversation, and I've seen Packers bloggers putting things out like, Jordan Love deserves your respect at a Pro Bowl berth. Like, that's in a different, absolute different place.

but that's the nature of both the way people talk about Jordan Lovin specifically. But everything in the NFL this year where it's like, oh, no, Patrick Mahomes off year, you know, Josh Allen kind of hot and cold this year, who's the MVP? When you talk about the conversation, I had to remind myself that, like, the voters vote for five guys now. You know, you know, first place, second place, third place, fourth place, fifth place. So there have to be five people in the conversation. Because if you're an AP voter and you sit down the vote, you have to list five names. So under the circumstances, love, yeah, love would be named three, name four, whatever.

I seem as plus 1,000 odds. The issue right now is, I'm looking at the odds. Matthew Stafford minus 180, Drake May plus 200. Those seem like the, it seems like a real two-person race. And Josh Allen is hanging around plus 1,500, where you know he can take over games. They started taking over the game yesterday. So love doesn't deserve respect. I think he deserves a Pro Bowl birth, a vote, et cetera.

He would be on most people's ballot. I think he would be the fourth or fifth guy on most people's ballot. Okay, speaking of respect, who is, this is a weird way to put it, who is the most disrespected of the team's people call disrespected? Is it Denver? Is it New England? Jacksonville? Is it San Francisco?

The Chicago Bears, does that sentence even make sense of that question? Who's the most, the most disrespected of the many, many teams that people are calling Disrespected? I get it, and I love it. So it kind of makes you look through these things. And for both the Patriots and the Bears, most people who are watching them, like, yeah, their schedule is really soft. Yeah, we're excited about the first year coach and how the team is developing, and it's cool. But we know we all guess there's some helium, looks like the Bears kind of, you know, pop

a little helium yesterday. So it's not so much disrespect. It's like, okay, house money teams, we get it. You look at the Jaguars, it's like the Jaguars, like every three weeks are outright terrible. Like, we get what they're doing, but like, you know, there's a four interception, 15 penalty game coming right around the corner. They've earned that. They've earned that reputation.

It's the Broncos that get me because their offense is boring, granted. Bo Nix is not exciting. He is not Drake May. He is not Jordan Love. He kind of goes out there and throws two-yard screen passes and then, you know, runs for a third down conversion and that's how they get their offense. Defense is very good, but it doesn't get the sizzle

that when we talk about like the Texans defense, you know, they've got sizzled, the Broncos don't get it. They win, they win, they beat good opponents, they beat tough opponents, they take care of their business. And we all just look at them, and I did it even earlier in this conversation. It's like, yeah, the Broncos, that's how we look at them. I think we have to take this team seriously. if for no other reasons, then A, their defense is great.

And B, if they keep this up, they'll get home field advantage in Denver, in altitude, in weather for the playoffs. And that could cause some real problems for the rest of the AFC. Shador Sanders, let's see, put up some numbers and the Brown's lost to the Titans. It's tough being a Browns fan. Tough being a Browns fan. It's tough living in the Shadur narrative. We talked about the Shadur narrative here in the United States.

it's a little goofy right now. He played pretty well. If you said, this was your rookie, third-string quarterback, fourth-round pick. You put the numbers and you put the tape on. You say, that was pretty good effort. You know, he made a couple of good throws. He made a really good run.

There were mistakes. There was silliness. But he was let down by his coach, who called an insane two-point conversion. He was let down by his special teams who gave up a block punt. He's out there with a bunch of other rookies on this sort of rebuilding, rebuilding team.

So under the normal circumstances, you'd be like, yeah, that was fine. Third string quarterback went out there, almost got to win. It's the Shudor narrative that has us, even me, like going throw by,

throw by throw, and having to explain, no, this wasn't some superhero performance. No, this wasn't some goofy meltdown. This wasn't some terrible game where everything was just, you know,

a screen and a 60-yard catch, and that was the touchdown. It was neither of those things. It's fine. Maybe he's got a future in the NFL. But he's not that much different from any other third stringer who goes out there. So, yeah, that was okay. We probably really need to look for the real long-term solution at quarterback elsewhere.

Before we let you go, Monday night football tonight, it is a good one. It's the Eagles and it's the Chargers. Set it up for us and the listeners. The Eagles will be without Jalen Carter on the interior line. They're all pro-defensive tackle. That's a big deal against a team that likes to run the ball up the middle. Chargers have some problems of their own there. Justin Herbert himself has banged up.

He's certainly going to play. He's been playing through injuries a lot over the last two years. But that's a tricky one. Again, this is sort of a must win in Philly because they have a two-game losing streak and a win pretty much clinches the playoffs for them. Chiefs fans in particular will have their eye on this game because if the Chiefs pull out the mild upset here,

it makes it even harder for Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to crawl their way back into the playoffs. Mike, you're the best, buddy. Thanks for doing this as always. We appreciate it. Enjoy the game tonight. It should be a good one. We'll do this again next Monday.

Absolutely. Take care and enjoy your week. You too, buddy. Thanks. That's Mike Tan here, our NFL Insider from the 2 Deep Zone here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports 9-650. How much of that Seahawks game did you catch yesterday?

I can't imagine much given you were in Cam Loops. I listened on the radio. Yeah. It was a... By the way, I respect Steve Rable for how he gets enthusiastic for touchdowns even in a massive blowout. Yeah. It's great.

So we played the Rashid Shihid kick return for a touchdown. Do we have the TV call, actually? I know broadcasting and play-by-play is difficult. And I know, especially when you're coming back from half, sometimes you get caught, you know, talking about what to look forward to for the second half, adjustments you need to make. I'm just going to play the TV call of this

because these guys didn't really pick up this. It's a hundred-yard kick return for a touchdown. I don't think they really picked it up until about the 25-yard line. So here's what it sounded like on the broadcast yesterday. Rashid Shaheed's, this is the television call. Kick return for a touchdown to start the second half. And start to eliminate the reasons why there's concern over this offense, but we're seeing a lot of the same things we've seen in the last few weeks.

And here's Rashid Shahid, big special teams play. Breaking Free and Shaheed all the way to the house, no flags. The uh-oh came in right around. He was at half, like at the halfway point of the field. I think they were still asleep from the first half. Yeah, because it was six, six. Can we have the... Raibes is great.

Can we have Rabel's call? Yeah, get Rabel up. He was ready to go. He knew what was happening from the moment that Shaheed got the kickoff. Here's Steve Rabel on the Seahawks call. Gonzalez is going to tee it up at the 35. The usual cast of characters deep, Vailas Jones and Rashid Shaheed. Sheed, the deeper of the two, back on the goal line.

Here comes the kick. End over end. Sheed from the goal line. Near right side numbers, up the field, 10, 20, looking for a gap. He's got one. He's off to the races, look out. This could be it, 50, 40, 30. They're not going to touch him.

10, 5, he looks back. Touchdown! Seahawks! What a way to start the second half! Now that's how you call a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. He had the kick going end-over-end. He had it right from the get-go. Raybal had some great calls and some great enthusiasm.

not only for the Seahawks offense which kind of kicked into gear in the second half but also for all the plays they made on defense but again you're looking at some of these teams they've been playing and I know they're NFL teams you know

they're fully registered and licensed and bonded in the what's the line for the game next week is like 10 points now that Daniel Jones is out I don't know maybe Riley Leonard will have a big game for all the aggrieved Notre Dame fans.

But if you want to talk about the Seahawks season right now. The Thursday nighter is the one that everyone is looking forward to. I know you've mentioned, you mentioned it with tenure, but I'll bring it up to like the amount, not just the last four weeks, the amount of kind of mid to low mid to awful quarterbacks they face this year. You got to remember that blowout win against New Orleans in week three.

That was against Spencer Rattler, who's not a starter in the NFL anymore. He's been replaced. He got to remember against Washington. Jane Daniels went down with that grotesque injury in that game. They got, if I'm not mistake and it was they didn't face Kyler Murray in the Arizona game that was Jacoby Brissette then they had Cam Ward who while he's the first overall pick he's had a very difficult rookie year he played pretty well in that game for Cam Ward and then he's

gone back to sort of being Cam Ward after that yeah yeah Max Brosmer Kirk Cousins you're talking about Riley Leonard like they have had some very fortunate matchups at the quarterback position where they've been able to take advantage and this is another game this one was a little bit different because it was the second half but this is another game where they've really found the ability of this year. When they turn it on, they turn it on and they smash a team, right? Yeah. Okay. We'll talk about the Whitecaps game and Aces coming up. We do. We also have to tell you and remind you that it is the Canucks game day and that is

brought to you by Panago. Game Day the Panago way, get any large pizza plus cheesy bread for only 2499 use code Canucks at Panago.com. Panago for it. Restrictions may apply. You're listening to the Halford Inbrough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. 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 Brough for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start.

Visit them online at Sands.com. We are an hour two of the first. program with the midway point of the show, Asa Ramon, the radio play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Whitecaps. It's going to join us in just a moment here. Our two of this program is bratched by Jason hominock at Jason.orgia. 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.orgia. Our next guest, we were hanging out yesterday on the flight back from Miami. Radio play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Asa Raymond joins us now on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Or Naysa, how are you? Yeah, doing well. Looking forward to this chat. Good weekend, difficult, disappointing result for White Caps fans. But, yeah, overall, great season for the White Caps. A lot of fun. It was memorable and, you know, it was a great experience for a lot of different people that were down there.

I do want to start with what Thomas Mueller said post-match. And while he was quick to give congrats to Messi and Inter-Miamy for what they were able to accomplish, he wanted to point out and specifically pointed out that he felt like, the white caps gave it away to a certain degree. Do you agree or disagree with that assessment? Yes, I agree to a certain degree because the white caps did have their chances. Now, look, at the same time, they struggled in certain areas and maybe struggled in the first little bit to really get settled into the game.

And I think you probably expect that because of the magnitude of the match, being away from home, playing earlier than you used to, playing that heat and the humidity as well. so it took him a little bit to settle into the game and then they dealt with that sucker bunch early in the game as well so you're playing so much of the match down a goal so you have to give into Miami some credit as well here

and then in those moments where the white caps did make these little mistakes particularly on the second goal and the turnover messy punishes and they did the same thing on the third goal so you got to give them credit because that's what they've been doing throughout these playoffs

yeah you see all the goals but it's not like they dictate control play the entire game with the playoffs. They're looking to hit on the counter. They were looking at it and looking for those opportunities throughout the entire match. So they were comfortable allowing the white caps to have the ball and were looking to really hit and capitalize on their opportunities.

And they did that to some degree of success obviously. But for the white caps they do what they wanted to do in this game as well and we're so close. I mean, everyone's going to remember the moment that Emmanuel Savvy hit both posts and then came back, followed up his own remount, hit the post again because that's the game changer. I do think

that if he hits now one, the white caps may be out another and another, because the momentum had swung hugely in the favor of the Vancouver white caps when Ali Ahmed scored that equalizer in the second half. I know you called them little mistakes, but for me, the kubas turnover to Messi was

massive, you know, and I'm still wondering you know, how it happened and how he could be so careless with the ball around arguably the greatest football who was ever lived I mean that was

I mean did he disagree I mean that was a shocking mistake I mean even if it wasn't messy that's that's a bad mistake in that area of the field with the game tied at one in the MLS Cup playing

well I was to ask Asa because I want to know what you saw from your vantage point how it got to there because it seemed like a very innocuous point of the magic it didn't seem like there was a ton of pressure it seemed very enforced but in messy fashion

I guess there's no such thing as an innocuous error because he can really take advantage of anything you give them. Yeah, it's a moment of maybe switching off. And things happen a lot quicker on the fields, on the ice, like in the game, than it does for us outside. And in that moment, it looks like maybe he gets caught between two minds about passing it back to you to the pupa or just kind of spinning around to the outside. And at that stage of the game, I mean, he is the fittest player out there. but I still think that, you know, fatigue, the legs, and the mind can start to happen at these stages. And that's why you have mistakes. That's why you have goals scored towards the end of the first half, towards the end of games,

because it may look so easy, and they all are incredible athletes, obviously, but it just takes that little moment because you're right. He's got a couple options right next to him to his right, and then he kind of opens up to the left to the other far side of the pitch as we're looking at it. And I think either poop is the only kind of option there behind him, and maybe he was thinking of a chop pass and then gets caught between two minds and it's just this heavy touch

and Messi is the quickest of pouncing on this I don't know if there are many other players that would have taken advantage the way that he did as well he had a couple other moments where he's just kind of lurking behind Matthias Laborta in the first half and then picks his pocket and just kind of sneaks him behind he looks for these, he looks to pounce maybe he kind of he bates people into it

but yeah that was a massive mistake by Andres Kubas in the middle of the pitch and then just deflating as well for the entire team. After the goal, Yohei Tako is trying to build everybody up, you know, realizing there's still a lot of time left to get it back, but they never really, you know, threatened after that. It was such a major blow, I think, because of where they were. And then maybe the fatigue was a factor at that stage.

They just couldn't get their legs and really push forward the way we've seen them do throughout the season. Can they keep this team together? Yeah, and the team is huge, right? And we saw that throughout this season. Like, this is this team that started with Ronkovess Alinovich and Sam Atacubi and Ryan Gould. And they did so much without them.

So the team will look different, but similar. And I think yes, for Sorensen is the key here, right? He's talked about Kenji Cabrera being a very special player. I think that he'll have a bigger role going forward. So there's going to be some tough decisions, obviously, with this team. But they'll still be great because of what we've seen from a lot of the players are kind of stepped up throughout this year. Ralph Pryso looks awesome as well as the

centerback. He's one of these stories this year. Tate Johnson obviously as well. So you'll have young players kind of stepping up, getting these opportunities, and then why not? I mean, you have to hope as well if you're a white cap's fan, it's a healthier 2026.

Whoever the, whatever the starting 11 kind of looks like, or first 13 or 14 players, you hope that they're healthier than they were this season because they were dealt some serious injuries. throughout the campaign. And even after the match, arriving in Vancouver saw Tristan Blackman at the

airport and, you know, he looked like he was like limping a little bit as well. So you could tell that these guys, you know, just put in a tough season, 53 games, right? Like, it takes its toll. So, yeah, you're hoping it's just a healthier season, but you're also hoping I guess you play as many games

as you did this year. We're speaking to Aisa Ramon, Whitecaps Radio, play-by-playman here on the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. I do want to go back to another flashpoint moment in the match. So it's 1-1. Ali Ahmed, after a pretty average first half, comes on, plays lights out for the first 15 minutes of the second half, scores in the 60th minute. He subbed off in the 68th minute. When he gets subbed off, you're thinking what? I wasn't as concerns in the moment looking back. Yeah, you wonder if he was just gassed. And there were players that were gassed.

and he was coming to life in that second half in particular. Still felt that the White Cubs had enough going forward. But Paul Dolan and I, at halftime, we're talking about the potential substitutions in the second half. And it was actually, it was Ryan Gull that we thought was going to come in. Everyone was anticipating the first up, probably up the bench for the Vancouver White Cets. But we were actually thinking that it might be Thomas Miller.

Yeah. Just because, you know, he's older. He's been dealing with some things physically. and this sort of game, as the White Cups were growing into it, it seemed like just wanted more pace on the pitch, more movement, more fluidity, and that's the sub that we thought. So that was maybe a little bit surprising, but, yeah, the first reaction was like, yeah, he just run his race.

And Ali goes and goes and goes, and it's never shot to take people on, obviously. But he was growing into the game as well. And it was a moment where he was just kind of getting pushed around a little bit in the second half, and it seemed like that really got him going as well. So it was fun to watch him in the second half So glad he got his goal

Wasn't sure it was getting over the line initially And then sure enough it does Yeah, it was great to see him get that MLS goal at the end Okay, so I want to turn our attention to the atmosphere And everything's surrounding this match Because there was a lot of pomp and circumstance And Brough kind of accurately pointed it out That at times it did feel like

Even before the match had started It was the Inter-Miamy Cornation With Beckham and his family there with everyone waiting for Messi to, you know, win this trophy that they had talked a lot about. So there was a lot of eyeballs on this thing. It was nationally televised in the States. There was a bunch of, you know, different trucks from all over the place outside. From your vantage point on meter on, I know we talked about it.

And you said it was very crowded up there in the press boxes. There was a lot of people there. What was the White Cap story going into this? And how big a story was the uncertain future at home in the stadium situation? Because I know that was a big talking point. and the commissioner, Don Garber, made it a big talking point going into this MLS Cup final. Yeah, that was an interesting talking point going into this game.

I think that for Whitecaps fans who follow this team, he wanted to focus on the positives, right, not the uncertainty of the future, but you can't ignore it, obviously. And then when it was brought up just before the final on Saturday by MLS Commissioner Don Garber, it got everyone talking once again throughout the hotels, throughout

Fort Lauderdale really all the fans were kind of wondering what's going on with these Vancouver white camps going forward I think we're kind of trying to ignore it

leading up to the game and just focus on it but you know Garbert loves saying untenable stadium situation that's his favorite phrase so he dropped it once again and yeah

there's no secret that this isn't a good setup right now with BC place with the way the deal is currently set up you hope it's a better deal and a bridge deal going forward

as they look to build a stadium. And Patrick Johnson dropped an article over the weekend for post-media and kind of summed up and pointed out the fact that that racing's race court situation is still alive. And there's a window now to potentially get a deal done there to build a stadium. So that's what the ownership, I think, is continuing to look toward. And you love it if you're a Whitecaps fan because I think the one thing that we've seen throughout this season is that there is a soccer city and there is a growing interest in this team. And yeah, Alford, you talked about, you know, seeing some old friends and stuff in Fort Laudillo.

That was awesome. Like, we've both grown up playing soccer in this city and making friends along the way of various teams. And they were there. And that's awesome because I don't think that was the case four or five years ago. There were a lot of casual soccer friends in the city that were following these Vancouver Whitecaps. Now everyone is all in. and you can see just how supportive this team is when you have everyone buying into it.

Yeah, despite the loss, like the opportunity to sit, we call it Gen Pop, but just be in that end zone section with like 1,500, 2,000 whitecaps fans, and they were so excited to be there. And it was, they could understand the significance of the moment. And the team fell short and everyone would have loved to have seen them hoi stem a last cup, but it was a great experience nonetheless

and hopefully they can build off it. Asa, I know you got a busy morning ahead with that we'll let you go Thanks a lot for doing this. It was a great weekend hanging out with you. We'll catch up soon, bud. Appreciate it. Let's do it again next year. Hopefully at home.

Okay, sounds good, man. That's great. Aisa Raymond, the White Ceps Radio Play-by-Playman here on the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. So the stadium talk. Let's just go right to it. Yeah. Because it was a pretty significant talking point down in Miami. I'm just going to call it Miami, by the way.

I know we were in Fort Lauderdale. Just called Miami. It was a big talking point. For the reasons I pointed out earlier in the show, if you weren't listening to the intro segment, Garber put it front and center with his remarks prior to MLS Cup, like in the days leading up, the media tour on Thursday and Friday.

He didn't walk it back when he had his on-field interview just prior to kick off on Saturday. He was more muted because you pointed out when we were going back and forth via text, like he wasn't trying to paint a rosy picture on Thursday and Friday. It was very stark. it wasn't super optimistic he expressed some pessimism about the speed

and the rate in which talks were going here's I think a relevant question who is going to be the face of this stadium push who's going to be the guy that gets it done now I am old so I remember a bunch of stuff about the city but even as a kid

and I would have been eight nine or ten years old when Vancouver was preparing to host Expo 86. Jimmy Patterson was the guy. Right. Right. Yeah, there were some politicians involved too.

Sure. But if you look back on Expo 86 and you ask people that were involved like, who's kind of the main guy there? Mm-hmm. It would be like Jimmy Patterson. Sure. Jimmy Patterson was the guy and he wasn't shy. Yeah. Yep.

And he's done quite well in his business career. Done quite well. So I've heard. Yeah. Yep. Who's going to be that guy now? Like, Ken Sim was down in Miami, but we've tried to book Ken Sim on the show, and he doesn't want to come on the show yet. Like, it's a mayor. He's a mayor. He has his role. I'm not sure it's that role that you're talking about. I don't think that's, yeah, yeah, but who's going to be the one that's saying, like, this is what we want to do. This is what we need to get done. Because there are so many things that will all need to be assembled, essentially, if this is.

going to happen like hastings race course shutting down it's relevant right but it might have shut down anyway right horse racing sure i i really do feel bad for the horse racing hard course but even there even them i hope they can admit like horse racing isn't exactly like the most relevant sport these days right and it's not like it's not like the the race course was packed every weekend and a great great business you know it's time might have just come sure but even if they say like, okay, we're going to try and get something done at the race course. Think of all the things that you have to get figured out there. Okay, well, what specifically are you building?

How, what else are you going to build? Sure. I know there are some people that were like, what about the lions? And then some people will also be like, what about the Canucks? If they're going to do this thing at the P&E, you know, why not put a Canucks practice facility there? This city is in desk. desperate, desperate need of more hockey rinks. I was just up in Camloops. They got

rinks everywhere. Right? And I'm like, yeah, man, we got a bunch of associations in Vancouver that can't find ice time. Yep. Right? So, you know, can you add that to the whole thing? But then you don't want to make it too big to the point where you're like, oh, this is too complicated, let's not do it. Okay. So there's that.

Yep. There's also the, you know, the hundreds of millions of dollars in private investment that are going to be required to do this. So, I just keep coming back to this. Who's going to be the leader? Who's going to be the guy or girl who goes up there and just like this, this is what we

need to get done. These people are dragging their feet. Put pressure on them if you want to get it done. Like this is what needs to happen because there's going to need, in my opinion, to be a face of this push. Yeah. The unfortunate thing is that I've thought about this is that nobody jumps to mine is the immediate leading candidate.

Nobody. There's not one that you could point to. You're like, that's the ideal candidate. I don't know. Now, I'm too young to remember the lead-up to Patterson sort of emerging as the voice in the face and the driving figure behind Expo 86, but it seemed like at a certain point he was the obvious guy or he was maybe self-propelled into that role. Whatever the case, it was him, right?

No one jumps to mind right now. Why does anyone have any guts anymore? I don't know if it's that. You know, just go out there and just be like, we want to get this done. Sure. Well, maybe it can be you and I. We should have doers in this province. What's your political, like, cachet look like?

Do you have a good rolodex of politicians and everything else? Oh, yeah, we talk all the time. Could Halford and Brock? There's nothing more than I like than, you know, there's nothing more I enjoy than talking to politicians. Are we the guys? Are we the drivers? I think we should make this a focal point of, quite frankly, the show, moving forward. This whole idea of getting this done and having this build.

And I mean, as sports enthusiasts, I think it's right in our wheelhouse. I'm not sure that we've got the cloud to be the driving force. I'm okay with talking about it a lot. And I'm okay with trying to chase people to try and get them on the show to talk about it. Talking about it is huge, right? You need people that will go on the record and say. The number of stakeholders in all this. Well, that's the, that to me is the business issue.

I don't even like that phrase, but there are a lot of stakeholders in that. Right. You know, the city runs. the P&E. I think the province actually technically owns the land. The First Nations are going to be a part of this process. So you have to get them on board as well. And I just keep coming back to the private investment as well.

This ownership group has essentially said, well, I mean, they put them up for sale originally. I think that might have kind of changed. They might just be willing to be like, okay, well, if we can bring an investor on. But that investor might be like, well, I don't want to be a minority investor. And if we're going to put in hundreds of millions of dollars, I want to control this thing. I want to, this whole thing is about control. Yeah. Right?

Who controls? They can't control BC Place. So they want to go somewhere where they control the revenue streams and where they can add the revenue streams. This is just pro sports today. I might even throw out like, who can they deliver a premium experience somewhere? You know, like it's, it's just these are the buzzwords that you're going to. have to get used to if you're talking about this stadium situation. I mean, you know, it was funny.

Not that this is going to be a candidate, but I will throw it out there because of what happened over the weekend at MLS Cup. David Beckham, who's one of the owners of Inter Miami, was very front-facing during this thing, right? During the MLS Cup. And he's been a drive. He's been front-facing about the stadium issue, too. He's the face.

And you know who was there bringing the MLS Cup out pre-match, right? Steve Nash Yeah I mean He's not gonna be the guy though I know he's not gonna be the guy And it's unfortunate that he can't be the guy Because he has the type of

Platform Celebrity Notariety Cache To be a front facing Person for this But he's it's not It's not him But you get what I'm saying right I get what you're saying

Yeah and like Well you saw the Beckham effect With Inter Miami Yeah right He got I mean he was a driving force Behind the Stadium deal and Freedom Park in Miami

where they're going to be in next year. That was the last game they're ever going to play at Chase Stadium in Fort Lauda. Freedom! Like, it's a, by all accounts,

I didn't get to go see it this weekend, but it is like magisterial. Like it's going to be one of those signature buildings for MLS to say this is a marquee club in a brand new building, soccer specific stadiums, which is what we want across the league.

Don't you think if you were a politician or a business person looking to make their mark and looking to make a legacy? Wouldn't this be a great project? Now, the problem. The problem is, huge legacy project. Some of the politicians would see this as an opportunity to be like,

I'm going to stare down these billionaires and say, no, we will not contribute to your pro sports racket. Yeah. And this is where the current love affair with the Whitecaps does come into play, because they are a very popular entity right now. This is their time to strike. Yeah, 100,000. This is their time to strike.

They've got, I'm not saying that Thomas Mueller is going to be the face of this at all, but they do have a good advocate on that side who can get out there but I really do think that it's going to need someone to lead this. Okay, we are going to lead you into the final hour of the program. Kevin Woodley from NHL.com

and Engold Magazine is going to join us on the other side for some Canucks talk. Before we go, though, a little housekeeping to take care of. I need to remind you that this show and the Halbro car, which you see driving around town every day, it's all brought to you by

the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online at duikautogroop.com. Our three of the program is coming up. Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingole magazine is going to join us. Then we will do what we learns.

Humanoid submission and your submissions. They will all be read in the final half hour of the program. And one more thing before we go to break. Coming up in just six minutes time, you can call in. to be the latest winner of Halford and Brough's 12 days of Christmas. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. is going to win today's prize. We've already given away some very cool stuff. Tickets to sporting events, restaurant gift cards.

On Friday, we weren't even here. Yeah, you missed the heated seats. We gave away a pair of outdoor gear, Logan, heated chairs, outdoor lawn chairs with heat. The seated heats. The seated heats, and you were here for it. So we're giving away another gift today, be caller number five at 8 a.m. 604-280-0-650. That number again, 604-280-0-6-50.

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