Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/8/24

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

Mike looks back at a busy weekend in sports, plus he chats Canada going to the Semis at Copa America with CBS Sports soccer analyst Ian Joy.  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Cody! He sends Canada into the semiifinals of Copa America. High fly ball center. Kiermaier back. Has it. And a baseball game there.

And a little bit of everything comes to an end. It's Krush. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Alfred. It is Bruff. Without Bruff,

we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. I am flying solo this morning, but I'm only alone on the desk in spirit and behind the glass. I've got the dogs with me.

Hey, dog. Good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halvern Breve of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for.

Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour One of the program. Hour One is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

I mentioned we are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. If you have sore feet, what are you waiting for? Go to Kintec right now. How you doing, dogs? I was going to say Kintec. You get to do it tomorrow. Adog gets to do it Wednesday.

Kintec. I called shotgun. We got a big show ahead on a Monday. Because I am flying solo and because there are so many things to get into today, we have five guests. Count them, one, two, three, four, five on the show. Beginning at 630, Zach Worden, MLB Network for Sportsnet. Sorry, MLB writer for Sportsnet is going to join us.

We'll talk to Zach about the Blue Jays' big series win in Seattle over the weekend. All the traveling fans went home happy yesterday. After a 10-inning victory over the M's to capture the series. We'll talk to Zach about that. You know, leave it to the J's to beat the M's when it really matters. You know, this is the time of the year where teams that are eight and a half back of the playoffs really start to clutch up. Didn't need those wins in the playoffs or anything against the Mariners. It's the wins like this past week that really, really matter.

Those early July wins. Zach Worden is going to join us at 6.30, 7 o'clock. Esfandiar Baraheni is going to join the program. He is a basketball writer for Forbes and for Raptors Republic. Canada's group at the Olympics is set. And folks, let me tell you, it is the group of death. You have Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Greeks. You have the Australians.

You have the Spaniards. Australia and Spain ranked fifth and second in the world, respectively. And, of course, Canada's in there as well. We'll talk to Esfandiar about that. We'll talk to him about what happened over Canada's camp over the weekend. They're making cuts slowly. Zagidi left, took himself out of consideration. So a little hoop stock at 7 o'clock with Esfandiar. 7.30, Ian

Joy is going to join the program. CBS Sports Soccer Analyst, we will talk to him about an amazing performance from the Canadians at Copa America on Friday and their penalty shootout victory over Venezuela. We'll also talk to Ian about everything that happened at Euros over the weekend. Speaking of dramatic

shootout victories, England exercising some demons, although they have actually been pretty good in the shootout victories, England exercising some demons, although they have actually been pretty good in the shootout under Gareth Southgate. They get past the Swiss. They move on. So the semifinals of the Euro are set. It is Spain versus France.

It is England versus the Dutch for a spot in Sunday's final. Ian Joy is going to join us at 7.30 to talk about that. On the footy tip, the footy talk continues at 8. The all-time leading scorer for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Leading scorer in MLS-era history, Brian White is going to join the program. The Caps got a 1-1 draw away

at Montreal on Saturday, so we'll talk to Brian about that and about him rising to the top, surpassing Camilo as the all-time leading scorer for your Vancouver Whitecaps. 8-15, Shang Peng from NBC Sports, California. San Jose Sharks writer. Big hockey news over the weekend.

Macklin Celebrini decides not to go back to Boston University. He will, in fact, go pro. He signs his entry-level deal on Saturday, so he will be a night one opening night starter for the San Jose Sharks at center along with Will Smith. Not the guy that smacked Chris Rock. The other Will Smith. There's too many Will Smiths.

There are a lot of Will Smiths. Does he still play for the Dodgers? I think there's two in the MLB. There's too many Will Smiths. There's a pitcher Will Smith. That's my hot take for the morning. We need new names. No more Will Smiths.

So working in reverse. On the guest list. 8.15, it's Shang Pang. 8 o'clock, Brian White. 7.30, Ian Joy. 7 o'clock, Esfandiar Baraheni. And 6.15, it's Shangpang. 8 o'clock, Brian White. 7.30, Ian Joy. 7 o'clock, Esfandiar Baraheni. And 6.30, Zach Worden. Big show ahead.

A lot to get into. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happ that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

We are not just a footy nation now, Canada. We are not just a footy nation. We Canada. We are not just a footy nation. We're a footy show. Several people have already texted in to the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. By the way, get your What We Learns in now. We'll be doing them all day. Hashtag it WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports?

Text into the Dunbar Lumber text line at 650-650. Canada claimed a 4-3 shootout victory over Venezuela on Friday night to reach the Copa America semifinals in their first time ever participating in the tournament. Canada soccer, baby. We show up, we advance, we go to the semifinals. Canada has advanced further than Brazil at a Copa America. Just let that sink in for a sec there. Was this expected?

The win over Venezuela was certainly in the cards. It was a team, and I spoke about this last week at length that it's a Venezuelan team that had played well in the tournament and well in the lead up to the tournament, but historically and traditionally one of the weakest South

American countries. Of the 10 countries that make up CONMEBOL. That's the Federation of the South American countries. They were the only one not to have qualified for a World Cup and they hadn't had a ton of success at COPA previously. This was, I don't want to call it a golden generation, but the best run of form that they'd had in a long time. So it was in the cards. And then when the match started, it became pretty apparent that they were going to attack it differently than how Chile and Peru had gone up against Canada. There was an incessant fouling right from the opening whistle. There were no red cards like there were against Chile and Peru. Venezuela seemed intent on pushing forward and trying to create chances.

And what they found early in the match was that Canada was more than happy to attack in turn. And I think Canada probably in the first 25 minutes might have had more quality chances than they had had in the Peru match or the Chile match. They really got on the front foot as it was. And the Maritime Messi, the new hero of Canadian soccer, Jacob Schaffelberg. And the Maritime thing comes the new hero of Canadian soccer, Jacob Schaffelberg.

And the Maritime thing comes in because there was a pretty prominent guest in the Canadian dressing room afterwards. Ooh. I'll tell you later. From the Maritimes? That's true. Jacob Schaffelberg scored the lone Canadian goal in the shootout. It was Ismail Kone bearing a stone-cold penalty on the final kick

to win it. Two tremendous saves from Max Crapo after a pretty serious gaffe during the match where on a throw-in for the Canadians deep in the Venezuelan end, there was a quick change of possession. Venezuela played it long. Max was caught napping a little bit, was caught way too

high up the pitch, got lobbed from a good 40 yards out. Jesse Marsh, everyone's favorite gaffer and the manager of the Canadian team, fell on the sword for Max. As a member of the goalies union, I really respected it. He said, that was on me

for telling Max to push show high. He was under instruction to play that high up the field. I have a soccer goalie question. Oh my God, Greg has a soccer question. I saw a photo that was going around Twitter or X the other day. The England goalkeeper during the shoot or the penalty kicks

had every player on the roster of the team that they were playing and what he was going to do for their penalty kick. Dive right, dive left. It's a pretty standard practice now. Yep, it happened. The first time I remember seeing it was at, I want to say it was the 2014 World Cup. It was Tim Krul, a keeper for the Netherlands who was really good at stopping penalties.

He got subbed in for penalties against Costa Rica and then very crudely on his water bottle had gigantic pieces of tape with all the shooters' tendencies on it. So the Pickford one was a little bit more refined. It was like refined. It was typed out. It was very clear to see. But yeah, it's a pretty standard trade. So basically what a lot of the managers will do is defer to the goalie coach of the team.

And then they'll have, they go through, like I've seen guys do it before. They go through pretty painstaking hours of research on just individual shooters. And all it is is tendencies. Likes to go here. Well, my answer to that would be, wouldn't the answer for the shooter be to just ensure that every time you take a penalty kick, you're doing something different?

Right. Okay, so the thing is, it's a pretty simple fix, is it not? Shooting history goes to their club team as well. So I think, honestly, a lot of shooters probably don't keep a mental track of where they go consistently because the guys that shoot

probably take a fair amount of penalties. It's a broad sample size. Right. And a lot of them in very pressure-packed moments will just go what they know. Like, I have scored on this before. I feel comfortable doing it here. Interesting either way. Yeah.

I mean, honestly, all it is, it's like moneyball stuff. It's just like a numbers game where they're saying, well, percentages say he's gone left 61% of the time, which means 39% of the time he doesn't, right? Who is this Maritime Messi? Like, what's his... Obviously, I'm not a soccer guy, but I've never heard of him. My soccer knowledge is Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David. Wow, Jonathan David, good for you. Sort of ends there after those two in terms of the international play.

Jacob Schaffelberg. Yeah, who is this guy? There's two players in the history of the Canadian men's team. Great name. From the Maritimes to have played for the Canadian men's national team. It is not like a hotbed of talent that's coming forth to play for Canada and to represent them at all these competitions. He's from Nova Scotia.

He played at Toronto FC. And I don't know if you guys remember this or not, but Toronto FC has made a bunch of big prize signings, including the Italians, often at the expense of these younger, homegrown players. Schaffelberg got loaned out to Nashville, and he kind of burst onto the scene down there.

People love him because he's very, he's got all the Canadian attributes. He runs all match. He's just grit and speed and tenacity, and he's kind of scattered when he plays. He's taking all these bumps and bruises. He's getting knocked constantly,

just gets back on his feet and goes. I think that that's part of the reason why everyone loves him so much. He's also very talented. He was just making things happen throughout the tournament, and then throughout the 60-plus minutes he played against Venezuela.

He'll be very interesting to watch moving forward because he's young and he's a pretty unique player. There's not a lot of guys that play like him. Where was this guy at the World Cup? He wasn't on the team. I know, that's what I'm asking. Why? Because two years ago, he was basically playing like loan matches, short-term loan matches. He was floating between

playing for TFC's regular team and then like their feeder team, like Whitecaps 2. He was playing for Toronto's version of Whitecaps 2. So who gets the credit for propping him up? Is it Jesse Marsh already doing stuff, or is this more of an organizational? To be fair, Herdman started playing him a bit at the Gold Cup, and he scored a big goal for Canada at the Gold Cup

against the U.S. to send it to a shootout. So they kind of understood that they had something on his hands. It was the move to Nashville where he got to play more and started becoming, they're like, whoa, wait a minute. He's not just this sort of like little energy burst guy. He's really changing matches for us. And his confidence grew and he started to grow with more profile. He's very popular in Nashville, right?

He's got the floppy hair and the howdy doody boyish grin and all that. And then he goes out there and he's making things happen constantly. So, the reason we're talking so much about Jacob Schaffelberg is that there's a lot of people paying attention to footy right now. The dogs, countless texters. Yeah, my dad

watched. He hates soccer. Right. Really? He's like, I watched a soccer game. He won Adog's dad over. I'm like, really, you did? I got a lot of those messages sent to me. They're like, Halford, I'm watching this only because I listen to the show. And then they were like, I still hate it. And I'm like, okay, well, we're making progress like you watch. But a lot of prominent people were watching that match.

One of them was in attendance for the Copa America semifinal. Sidney Crosby, also from Nova Scotia. And when he walked into the Canadian room afterwards, Jacob Schaffelberg's face lit up and all the guys, everyone to a man, like whether they knew anything about hockey or not, seemed to understand the significance of who Sidney Crosby was. Plot twist, Crosby's playing next match, which is interesting. He's going to start out, right?

Apparently he's really good. He's probably not too bad, honestly. He's going to start up front. For more on this, let's go now to the Canadian gaffer, Jesse Marsh, talking about how cool it was for Sidney Crosby to be in the room with the Canadian men's national team after their win over Venezuela. It was really cool. I had him speak to the team.

He was amazing. He said he loved being here, and the penalty shootout was amazing. I mean, incredible, right? What a legend to have on our side. So this is important for us in 2026. We want to feel the power of the entire nation, right? So I was asking if Wayne Gretzky was around or anyone else, but for now, that was pretty amazing to have Sidney Crosby there.

So two jumping off points here. One, was this the most important win in Canadian men's soccer history? I think it is. And I'm talking specifically about the victory itself. To this point. Well, qualifying for 2022 in Qatar was maybe in terms of an accomplishment was as big,

but I couldn't point to a single individual victory that meant as much as this one. Like the win over Mexico in Edmonton at Ice Teca was probably on par. That was huge. But this got you to a semifinal of a major tournament where that match was like, win and you move on, lose and you go home. That Mexico match, all due respect to it,

it wasn't the decider. The one that Canada clinched, the win over Jamaica, it was pretty much fait accompli at that point. Canada was advancing at some point. Fait accompli. Fait accompli. Fait accompli. I want to play audio from Alistair Johnson, another guy that's really kind of warmed the hearts of Canadians

for the way that he approaches the game and how well he played. He's fired up. Just listen to the excitement in his voice and listen to him talk about what this means for the program and what this means for the country. Alistair Johnson, the Celtic fullback, speaking after the big win over Venezuela on Friday. We came in over a month ago, new manager, new system.

No one really knew what was going to happen. Everyone just thought you got a lot of really difficult games coming up. Let's see what we can get out of it. But, man, again, just so proud of this group. What a special, special team. And we're going to a semifinals, man, against Argentina. Copa America semifinals. If that doesn't get you going, I don't know what will.

Oh, it got me going. I was fired up on Friday. Now, the tail end of that quote leads us into the next big talking point. Do they have a shot against Argentina? So you'll remember, those of you that followed the tournament, for those of you that don't, a quick history lesson. Canada opened this tournament playing against Lionel Messi and Argentina in the first match

of Copa America. It was in Atlanta. Canada lost 2-0. It was a very frenetic, very energetic game. The Canadians did create some chances, but they also gave up a lot of chances. Were it not for some goalie Max Crapo heroics and some

poor finishing on the half of the Argentinians, it could have gone in a very different way. Do they have a shot? Yes. How big of an underdog are they? Well, according to most sportsbooks, they are a pretty massive underdog. Plus 850 to win at most books.

Some have it lower, some have it higher, but it's an in and around that plus 850. Argentina is minus 310, so the odds are stacked heavily against Canada. Love a good dog. Love a good dog. That being said,

Jesse Marsh did lay out some pretty interesting keys to victory here. Ways that Canada can be successful. One of them had to do with the fact that maybe they will be a little bit more comfortable against Messi and company having seen them once already.

Here's the guy for Jesse Marsh on what to expect from Argentina. Yeah, right now it's not about motivation. It's about clarity, right? So it's about making sure they understand what's going to be important, what to learn from the last game, what's going to be important for this game, and how to clearly put a plan together and, and honor our development to, to understand what this game, what we want to, what we want to be and what we want to look like in this match. Right. So I think they're, I think they're clear. It's helpful that we've played against Argentina already. So there's less of an unknown,

but you know, if you know good teams, the closer they get to titles, the more they're able to kick it into another gear. So I expect Argentina to deliver their best performance yet on Tuesday. Okay, other news and notes from the weekend. The BC Lions got a massive victory against the lowly Hamilton Tiger Cats. Noted Hamilton resident Greg Ballot could barely come into work today. Former Hamilton resident. Vernon Adams threw four first-half touchdown passes,

44-28 over the Ticats. The Lions jumped all over Hamilton resident. Vernon Adams threw four first half touchdown passes, 44-28 over the Ticats. The Lions jumped all over Hamilton early. They had a 34-11 halftime lead. Vernon Adams, who is having a MOP caliber season, pretty much put this one to bed in the first half, and the Lions sort of coasted from there. The Lions have won four straight. Over those four straight wins.

Vernon Adams has nine touchdown passes. And no interceptions. Lions defense also helped bury this one early. They didn't allow Hamilton to get a first down. Until their fourth drive of the game. So it was over early in Hamilton. Now the question here. Is how good are the Lions? Because

right now the record says, hey, we're 4-1. We got the third best record in the CFL. The only teams that we're trailing are Montreal, who's a perfect 5-0 and look very good and look like they're going to be the class of the East. And then Saskatchewan, who's 4-0. And I'll remind you, the 4-1 BC Lions

will host the undefeated Saskatchewan Rough Riders this weekend at BC Place. That's going to be on Saturday. It's an early kickoff. It's at 4 o'clock. The Lions' victories since losing that opener against Toronto have come against a Calgary team that is basically 500,

two winless teams in the Edmonton Elks and the now 0-5 Hamilton Tiger Cats, and a Winnipeg team that got off to an awful start. They were 0-4. They were winless at the time that the Lions beat them. They've since recorded a victory. So my thoughts here that the jury's out on the Lions really until Saturday. That's when they're going to get their first significant opportunity and test of the season. Look, I know you can only beat the teams that are scheduled,

and you can only beat the teams that are in front of you. We all know the cliches. I get it. And aside from a sort of sketchy win over the Elks at home, where they had to win it on the last second field goal by Sean White. By the way, brief aside, how about our guy, Sean White? He did it. He really did it.

He did it. Yeah, rough dodge to bowl it there. So for those of you that don't know, last week we had Sean White on the program. He had a consecutive field goal streak of 28, dating back to last season. So we had him on our regular Tuesday hit with a Lions guest

and the first three questions that Brough asked Sean White all were about his consecutive field goal streak. I don't think he loved it. I don't think he cared for it. Each time he asked it, you could tell Sean was getting more and more perplexed and annoyed at the same time. Why are you doing this to me?

Hey, you know what? Only the best kickers clutch up when questioned by Jason Brough. Not once, not twice, but thrice. Speaking of threes, Sean White hit three field goals on the weekend, so he's at 31 straight. He is now the BC Lions all-time leader for consecutive

field goals passing paul mckellum who i think set the record back in 2011 anyway back to the lions how good are they it's fair to say that they've got the cfl's most outstanding player in vernon adams and best quarterback in vernon adams and that goes a long way when deciding who's going to be the best team in the cfl this is all due respect to Cody Fajardo and what the, what the owls are doing in Montreal right now. But this test on Saturday, it is going to be exactly that. It's going to be a real test to see where the lions are at. It's going to be a pecking order game. It's going to be for first place in the West. It's going to be against a very good opponent that does not have a loss on

their resume yet. So we'll be very interested to see how the Lions do. Speaking of the Lions, Rick Campbell, head coach of the Lions is going to join us tomorrow to look back on the win in Hamilton on Sunday and also look ahead to that Riders game on Saturday. I'm very depressed by that loss. Are you? They did drop them to 0-5 on the year. I'm very depressed, by the way, about that loss. Are you?

They did drop them to 0-5 on the year. Bo Levi Mitchell's doing well at quarterback. Does that brighten your spirits? While you were talking about the games, I was just looking over the year-over-year Hamilton Tiger Cat records. Were you now? Man, it's sad. Five winning seasons in 22 years in the CFL.

Yeah. Are they one of the worst franchises? 22 years in the CFL. Yeah. Like that is, are they the, one of the worst franchises? Like it's, it's been, it's been a real, I'm talking all sports here. Like,

well, in terms of success, the Elks have the record currently, right? Because the Elks are a disaster of a football club. It's hard when you're put up against that. A couple of things that we can get to before we go to break a real quick. I did want to mention that we're going to have Sheng Peng on the

show from San Jose at 815. Big news from the NHL over the weekend is that Macklin Celebrini has decided to go professional. It took him a grand total of eight days since he was taken first overall at the 2024 NHL entry draft. Shortly after participating in Sharks prospect

camp, he said he came to the realization that it was time to go pro. So he'll be- The school is not for me. No, he's like, you know what? Boston University was nice, but I no longer need to go there because I'm a professional hockey player.

He did kind of wait and have some conversations, which I believe were token conversations with Mike Greer and the rest of the brass. You're going to give me the money? Yeah. Okay. And then he went. So the Sharks kind of become an interesting team to watch now

because they're going to have the first and fourth overall picks from the last two drafts in Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, two of the top collegiate players in the country, might enter the year as the Sharks' top two centers. That to go along with the guys that they've acquired in free agency, including names like Tyler Toffoli. I don't think that they will be good free agency, including names like Tyler Toffoli. I don't think that they will be good,

like traditionally good per se, but this was one of the worst teams, I'd say in the last 20 years in the National Hockey League. It'd be worse. Right? It would be hard to be worse. They're still projected to be the worst team in the league this coming season. See, I got a feeling that they might actually

climb out of the basement and be better than Anaheim as we look towards what the Canucks will be facing at the bottom half of the Pacific Division. At the very least, I think he might be more relevant, and that's why I wanted to get Shang on the show later, because there's been some reports out of San Jose that Jersey sales are way up, and people have really

glommed on to this Celebrini thing and his connections to the Bay Area, because his dad is so prominent with the Golden State Warriors. So we'll ask about Celebrini going pro, but I also want to know about what kind of energy this has brought to a team that, let's be honest, must have been an incredibly difficult watch last year for season ticket holders.

And you saw some of those attendances in San Jose. It got pretty grim last year. Barracuda-type crowds. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 7.32 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. Halford Bruffs, Sportsnet 650.

Just Halford today, though. Many people in the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket loving when I glitched out last segment. Your controller just connected. One guy likened it to Garth when he had to host the show by himself when Wayne left the set. I am having a good time.

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

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

I thought they pay you to do this. Yeah, I know. That's true. Yeah, yeah. All right. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you, or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are now officially a footy show.

I am heartened, heartened by the fact that precious few of you are hurling insults at me at the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. So we press on. I'm very excited to have our next guest on the program, CBS soccer analyst Ian Joy here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Ian.

How are you? Good morning, everybody. Hope you're doing well. Thank you for having me. Thanks for coming on. We appreciate you taking the time. We are doing well.

Most of us up here in the Great White North basking in the glow of what Canada was able to do at Copa America on Friday night defeating Venezuela in the shootout. Canada was able to do at Copa America on Friday night,

defeating Venezuela in the shootout, moving on to face Lionel Messi in Argentina for the second time in this tournament, and this time for his birth in the finals. I just wanted to get your thoughts on what you've seen, your thoughts on this Canadian team on the whole from the start of this tournament to what you've seen now, how much you knew about them going into this tournament and what you think about them now as they are improbably one win away from a Copa America Finals appearance? Yeah, well said.

I mean, first and foremost, obviously with an American in charge of the team, there's a lot more attention in the United States of America towards Team Canada than I think I've ever seen before. And we've heard a lot more from Jesse Marsh talking about Team Canada, Canadian soccer, and the U.S. national team as well. A lot more.

Now he's got this job and doing so well. I mean, I think I'm really impressed. First and foremost, getting out of the group after losing your opening game is impressive. Regardless of the fact that you get defeated by the world champions, and then all of a sudden you've got to try and pick yourself up. And a lot of people will talk about the fact that you get defeated by the world champions and then all of a sudden you've got to try and pick yourself up. And a lot of people will talk about the fact that you've played against Peru

and you've played against Chile with only 10 players as opposition. But as a former player, I can tell you it's very, very difficult to play against a team that's sitting back with 10 players behind the ball. It's almost impossible at times to break that down. So I'm really impressed with the way Jesse and the team has handled both of those occasions. It is really interesting to me that they did only score that one goal getting through.

Obviously, David got the goal against Peru, which was really impressive. You've also come through some controversy with Tejan Buchanan having his freakish injury. But there's some really outstanding players stepped up Sheffield Burg being one of them who's

really impressed me but I think the team in general has this unity, this chemistry and Jesse Marsh seems to be the right guy to lead them forward

and when you've got a goalkeeper like Kripo who's performing like he is doing you always have an opportunity of springing a surprise or two

I didn't expect them to get to the semi-f, but the fact that they've got to the semifinal is a real credit to all Canadian fans out there who are craving and deserving some success with this national team, because this is a real good group of players. I want to circle back on what you mentioned at the beginning of your answer there about the Canadian-U.S. dynamic. So for the listeners that don't know, the U.S. is hosting this tournament. The U.S. crashed out in the group stage. They had to watch their neighbors to the north get through the group stage with an American in charge, but not just any American.

Jesse Marsh is a guy that has very openly campaigned and tried to get that U.S. men's national gig. And, of course, the U.S. men's national current coach, Greg Berhalter, is under fire for the performance or lack thereof that the U.S. had at this tournament. As someone that's covering the sport in the U.S., Ian, can you describe to our listeners what that dynamic has been like and how angry and irate supporters are at what's gone on over the last couple weeks at Copa America? Yeah, I think you put it perfectly. I don't think I've ever seen the supporters of U.S. soccer,

male or female, ever so irate towards the national team, towards the federation. Greg Berhalter, decision-making. I don't think Jesse helped when he came out and said that he interviewed for the job and was clearly not treated as well as he thought he was deserved of being treated and he was open about that which was really interesting to me but I think that the fact that the US national team's just not playing well right now they're not getting results and regardless of the fact that they can maybe turn up for 15-20 minutes of a game they're not playing well for 90 minutes and and now US soccer fans and I'm sure it's the same in Canada they're more knowledgeable about the sport than

ever before there's so many more eyeballs on soccer there's so many more people who know every single player whether they're in the roster or not in the roster so there's much more opinions out there than there's ever been towards Greg Berhalterter and u.s soccer and the way u.s soccer is run right now it's absolutely insane social media is blown up we're talking about it every single day on cbs sports galato network and of course you can't escape the fact that team canada has gone further than than the u.s men's national team which nobody expected. But at the same time, it is humbling right now to try and figure out a way forward for U.S. soccer.

And I can't even begin to imagine what's going through Jesse's mind. And I'd like to see him focus on what he's got at hand. It's a big game coming up against Argentina. I think maybe the focus should be about the players he's got at his disposal, trying to get some sort of a result, it's even possible against Argentina and maybe the less chat about US soccer and show a little bit more respect towards what Canadian fans have done and to support him and even the federation who's taken a lot of criticism they've really managed to come up with the money somehow some way to get Jesse there and look at the results.

I mean, this is an incredible achievement. But as you pointed out, it's laughingstock time for U.S. Soccer Federation right now. And what we're hearing is that there will be a big discussion within the next three days, and we should know one way or another if Greg Berhalter will lead this team going forward, which is crazy, less than two years away from a World Cup. We are speaking to Ian Joy here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650, CBS soccer analyst here on the program. Okay, so let's focus on the task at hand for Jesse Marsh in Canada.

It's a tall order on Tuesday. There is a little bit of confidence from the Canadian team that they've already seen Argentina once, so a little bit, as Marsh said, the fear of the unknown is less going into this, but you've also got an Argentina team that is now going to, quite frankly, going to be way more motivated than they were in the group stage because

this is a chance to get to the final. What does Canada need to do to find success in this match on Tuesday? They need to really study what happened in the game against Ecuador. And albeit Ecuador are a very good side and such a dangerous team, they should have beaten Argentina within the 90 minutes. They shouldn't have had that gone to penalty kicks.

And missing a penalty kick in regulation time, missing two massive opportunities before 90 minutes, they really should have knocked Argentina out. So if you can learn anything from that game, it is to play your own game, to play the offensive game, to defend with your life and try to create whatever opportunities you can against obviously the world champions. Ecuador had more shots than Argentina had in the 90 minutes of that game, which is incredible.

And I think what was noticed from Jesse's team so far and the Canadian team, how dangerous they are, they're not taking their opportunities, certainly not taking as much of the opportunities that they're creating. They're a very good team. We know how offensive-minded they are and they want to be and how dangerous they can be.

And I think it's more now turning down to the fact that you've got to get those shots to shots on target, and then those shots on target, and try to turn them into goal. I mean, the stats don't lie for Canada either. I mean, 16 shots against Venezuela, who won every single game in their group. That's impressive right there.

Seven shots on target from 16, that's okay. But then you've got the one goal to show for it and that's what the problem I'm seeing with the Canadian team right now is they've got to take their opportunities. Against Argentina, you simply don't get many opportunities. So you have to beat your best defensively, no mistakes.

Take your opportunities when they arise and maybe you get lucky that Argentina are not on their day. Because I think we can safely say that if Argentina turn up and Argentina are at their best, there's not many teams in world football, including Canada, will be able to compete with them. So you've got to hope that everything falls in your favor.

We're speaking to Ian Joy from CBS Sports here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Euros, Ian. And I almost had to pinch myself on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Let's turn our attention to the Euros, Ian, and I almost had to pinch myself on the weekend. We now live in a world where England is not just competent, but dare I say clinical at penalties, advancing in a shootout over the Swiss. After, I'll say it, it was a pretty dour affair

through the 90 minutes and then the added 30, but England gets the job done under Southgate yet again. They advance to the semifinal of a major tournament, which is a feather in his cap. I think Everett's been well established that they haven't been stylistically great. It hasn't been an oil painting from the English, but there they are

in the semifinals on a strength of a penalty shootout. This is not the England that I'm used to seeing here, Ian. No, it's not. I don't think anybody expected this. I mean, these were the favourites going into it, and rightfully so with the group of players that England have. They should be turning up.

They should be performing better than they are doing. I mean, they had to go to a tactical switch, a three-man backline against Switzerland. They played much better football. Clearly, we could all see they were playing well, but yet still went a goal down in that game, which was absolutely crazy. Listen, I think

that the performance last time out in the tactical formation change going to Walker Stones in concert was a back three, allowing Saka to have more freedom to advance against Abisher, who was the left back at Switzerland. He abused Abisher for 40 minutes of that game, and England should

have just kept going to him. But then somehow, some way, the opposition managed to get back into the game and score the first goal, and I think that's what's disappointed us with England. They've let themselves down by clearly not creating enough chances in games for Harry Kane or even a Phil Foden to be as effective as we know that they can do.

But at the end of the day, when it comes to major tournaments, I mean, you can say the same about Canada in this major competition as well. Sometimes all that really matters is just getting through to the next game and then hoping that your team really turns up on the day, performs to the best of their abilities and can actually knock out a top opponent. But England now, going up against the Netherlands, they know that they're coming up against a team who have performed great football, who have a great record against England,

especially when it comes to head-to-head. But I just, I can't take it past my mind that we're all sitting waiting for England to perform. I can't get it past my mind that this might be the game that they actually turn up, that they're going to leave it late and play their best football in the semifinal and the final and go on and win it.

They can do that. They've got the players to do that. But do they have the mentality and do they have also the physicality as well? Because a lot of the players out there in an England jersey are starting to look really tired. So it's Spain and France in one semifinal. It is England and the Netherlands in the other.

Ian, who do you like to advance from both of the semifinals and who do you like to win it all on Sunday? Well, Spain have been the best team as far as I'm concerned when it comes to the tournament so far, the way they've played football. 11 goals in the process and five games has been impressive. They conceded their second goal against Germany and still managed to react and knock Germany out in the

119th minute. And what that does is boost confidence to you. For me, Spain should be too much for France. But again, similar to England, France have not really turned up in this tournament. Not scoring goals from open play is a big concern. They could still turn it on and beat Spain. So that one's very up there.

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

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

We really appreciate it. We'd love to do this again later in the summer. My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me and big kisses and hugs to everybody out there in Vancouver. I miss it.

What a great, great city it is. Thanks, Ian. Appreciate it. That's Ian Joy, CBS Sports Soccer Analyst here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. Well, isn't he just a joy

to have on the program? There it is. Atta boy, laddie. How hard were you resisting the urge to say that at the end? I was. You know what? There was a point in there where I was saying, how will England find joy? Oh! I missed that. Against the Netherlands on the weekend. Okay. You guys want to do a little

bit of hockey talk? We have a smidgen of hockey news, which could be some big news by the end of the week, according to Rob Rossi of The Athletic. Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins are closing in on a new contract. That's according to multiple team and league sources who are familiar with negotiations.

What took them so long? The team and player are confident that a deal will be agreed upon and formalized soon. Although everything is quiet on the Crosby front, the agent, Pat Brisson, the general manager, Kyle Dubas, the player, Sidney Crosby, who's busy watching footy. He's a footy guy now, by the way.

We all are, apparently, according to the show. So, the deal sounds like it might have more term than was first thought. Rossi previously reported that they might have been doing something in the neighborhood of a three-year deal with an AAV of $10 million. The deal is now being phrased as, quote, a commitment to Pittsburgh, and it would ensure that the 35-year-old Crosby would finish his career as a Pittsburgh Penguin. Crosby turns 37 next month.

I think I understand why the three-year deal would take him to age 40, at which point they could maybe go on one of those plans where they go year upon year upon year, but maybe it'll be a longer-term deal. Now, the interesting part in all of this is that it comes at a time where Kyle Dubas has been kind of raked over the coals in Pittsburgh for having a very underwhelming offseason and not necessarily adding the pieces that somewhat suggest that would get Crosby back to Stanley Cup contention. But he also doesn't want to be that guy that got Crosby out of Pittsburgh.

And he won't be. No. This is the way that I think everyone figured the negotiation was going to go. It would ultimately result in Crosby re-upping with Pittsburgh. I know we were throwing out there a bunch of harebrained ideas in the previous week. We did the hypothetical, dare I say mythological, Sidney Crosby for Elias Patterson trade. Just conceptually. I want to reiterate that for those that think I'm actually considering.

No, they were close. That deal almost happened. I was just saying conceptually, would you consider bringing aboard a 37-year-old top five player of all time, future Hall of Famer, et cetera, et cetera, for basically your future 1C for the next 10 years? I'm being a rough estimate on that. Anyway, it doesn't matter now. That's in the past. We had

the conversation. You all scoffed. Whatever. This is going to be pivotal so that the Penguins can, I presume, start to make some next moves and figure out what they're going to be and how they can get back into

the playoffs. Never mind Stanley Cup cont be and how they can get back into the playoffs. Never mind Stanley Cup contention. This team needs to get into the postseason. That is a problem right now that for the past two years with the talent that they've had available to them and if you want to look, the relative health that they've had with some of their older guys, they haven't been able to get over the hump just to get in and participate.

They haven't been able to figure out how to have an effective power play with Crosby and Malkin and Letang and Carlson all manning it with regularity. It is a problem. And Crosby's going to sign. I imagine that at 10 mil, it'll end up being, you know, by the time the contract's done, more than full value and more than a great deal for the Penguins. It'll probably allow them to go out and make some moves if they need to. But at this stage of the game, you look at their roster, you're saying you're bringing a lot of the older guys back.

You're kind of running with the same thing in net. What are they doing in net? I was going to say, like, what are they doing? They tried to offload. What are they doing in net, Greg? And then Dubas responded with, there's no interest in jari but at least at that ticket so what what is your plan in that do you give the ball to nadelkovic and run honestly they're like the same goalie yeah if you look at their numbers the they're essentially the same

goalie they have a bit of future coming up in the pipeline, but not enough to just give them the reins and say, go for it. Like it's just, it's a weird, weird spot they're in right now. And I'm just curious to find out how Crosby works 8.7 and do his new contract somewhere. I don't know if that's at the end.

He's going to throw it in there. 10.87. Yeah. 10 million and $8.7. Like he's going to, he's going to do it somewhere. Now Dubas did address this at the draft. When speaking with reporters, he said,

our on-ice direction is simply we're not looking just to squeak into the playoffs. It's to return the team to become a contender as soon as possible. And this is the offseason he has? This is what I'm saying. The follow-up quote was that he asked the question. He said, quote, can we do that this season? Can we do it next season? It's hard to put a time frame on it,

but obviously this isn't a strip it down to the studs situation here. The people in the room are too good for that. All of this leads me to believe that if they're going to give it a window of one year to turn things back up to where they're a cup contender, then this year they have to be playoffs or bust. You can't go three years on the trot without making the playoffs and then just magically expect to turn into a cup contender. Even if you have Sidney Crosby in the fold.

That's a great quote, though. It throws every team that's ever stripped it down to the studs under the bus because I guess they're not good enough people, according to Dubas. Sorry, Chicago. Sorry, Nick Foligno. You're not a good enough person. We're going to strip this down to the studs so that you like it or not. Well, I mean, part of the reason that he said that

is because I think he was the one that... He's referring to Crosby. Yeah, I know, but he engineered one of those studs, and that's Eric Carlson, right? That was sort of the one that put them in the stratosphere of we're a win-now team. You don't go out and acquire Carlson. We're a win-now or a bust team. Well, that's true. They were closer

on the bust side. I did want to circle back on a couple things with the Canadian men's national team because it was really interesting to watch it play out on Friday night. Not just from the perspective of oh my god, Canada won, but the

amount of people that were paying attention and this is the type of moment that this program and the sport i think kind of needed after the world cup i think what happened is when the team qualified for the 2022 world cup in qatar it got a lot of people's attention the fact that they qualified and I'm not sure a ton of people were locked into the qualification but when they went to Qatar there were a lot of eyeballs on this program and what happened was

Canada went to Qatar and lost all three matches managed to only score the one goal yes it was a famous goal and a historic goal but there was a sentiment of same old Canada and same old Canadian soccer when they got there because they were unable to get a result. They were unable to turn that very good performance against Belgium into

something tangible in terms of points. They got picked apart by Croatia in the second match after getting out to that dream one nil start. And then they kind of finished with a whimper against morocco and they went home without a victory and a lot of people saying well where are we now is this just a team that is going to be a flash in the pan and qualified and now we're going to go back to sort of soccer irrelevance in terms of the canadian men's national team or is this the start of something new? Then they followed up all the good that they might have had from qualifying for the World Cup with a sort of meh performance at the World Cup

and then a series of bad results internationally, sort of flamed out in Champions League, didn't do especially well, didn't qualify very far at the Gold Cup, uneven results left and right. There was the sort of infamous loss to Jamaica that forced them to get into that backdoor qualification against Trinidad just to get to Copa America. But ever since they brought aboard Jesse Marsh as the manager, and ever since he instilled certain things into this team, they've been very compelling. And a lot of people, because of the time of year, because of the fact that this was a nationally televised game, because of the stakes,

because of the realization that a win against Venezuela would set up a massive match, Copa America semifinal against a South American powerhouse in Argentina in Lionel Messi. People realized that Friday's match meant something. And that's where you start to get the Sidney Crosby showing up, wearing a Team Canada jersey and going into the room to celebrate the guys afterwards. And you see on your social media timelines, references and tweets from people

that would normally never watch a match. And I was getting a lot of responses on Twitter as well. People saying like, this is the first time I've checked out Canada soccer. I don't know. I'm not a soccer guy. I never watched this. The other part of it is rooting for your country, which I think is sort of inherent in all of us wanting to see them do well.

A nice appetizer for the Olympics as well, because there's going to be a sort of a lot of nationalistic pride on the menu, which is why we just did the Canada basketball talk with us, just talking about what we're doing in terms of rooting for Canada, cheering for Canada, wanting to see the national teams do well. For a large time, the men's hockey team was the goal standard, and we are going to get that back beginning with the Four Nations face-off next year.

But to have this sort of summer where eyeballs are on a highly successful Canadian men's national team and soon to be a highly successful men's basketball team, it extends that national pride. It lets you get interested and get involved with a lot of sports that you probably otherwise wouldn't. And I think it's an interesting thing. How many people texted you going,

oh my God, why are they going right to penalty kicks? Yeah, so that, I'm surprised that they've done this. There are some reasons logistically, and a lot of it has to do with burnout and the condensed schedule that all of these players are going under, that instead of playing the extra time, they'll go straight to penalties after the 90.

That being said, traditionally, big tournaments of importance, significant tournament major tournaments wouldn't do this it just would be dare i say like beneath them because it's understood historically um the major tournaments have the 30 minutes of added time to try and decide a winner before you go to penalties like making sure the penalties were a last ditch thing i can't claim that i washed a lot of the euros but a lot of people saying that the extra time, the added time in those games have been a slog,

and they actually kind of preferred the going straight to penalty kicks that they saw in the Canada game. The extra time in the Euros largely has been, okay, let's just hold our own here, and we'll play for penalties. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.